A Nutritionist’s Review of Dietlicious

Dietlicious is a 100% Australian-owned and operated meal service that offers healthy meals for time-poor individuals. With rave reviews and features in publications including Women’s Health and Marie Claire, I tried Dietlicious to see what the hype is all about!

The Good:	The Not So Good:
Fresh produce and delicious meals	Meals are not labelled well
Good value for money	Small vegan range
Calorie controlled meals	Vegetarian meals are low in protein

How does Dietlicious work?

Dietlicious meals provide the core nutrients your body needs. Free from preservatives, additives and genetically modified ingredients, they source high quality, fresh produce from reputable Australian producers, which is prepared by highly trained chefs and snap frozen, to provide you with healthy and tasty meals. Their meals are designed to help you lose weight due to their smaller portions and limited use of oils, cream and carbohydrates.

Dietlicious offers meals that cater to a wide range of dietary requirements such as vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, diabetic, keto and various allergens including nuts. This is more than what is offered by similar weight loss service Be Fit Food. You can choose from individual meals, snacks and sides or meal plans. Individual sides and snacks start from as little as $4.95, with most main meals averaging $13.95. This is similarly priced to Be Fit Food but more expensive than budget-readymade, weight loss-focused service MACROS. 

Their menu has 80+ options to choose from! This is a more extensive selection than Be Fit Food, providing enough variety for nearly everyone. Their vegan options, however, were limited and offered more sides and snacks compared to main meals. You can customise your order by filtering their menu by meal type (vegetarian, fish, chicken) and dietary requirements as well as from low to high calories. 

Dietlicious has meal plans to suit a wide variety of health goals. You can build your own 7-day plan (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks) which is great for those with specific dietary needs. This plan can also be built to suit your own goals such as weight loss, weight maintenance or increasing muscle mass. Whilst the total cost of this plan is dependent on what meals you choose, the plan allows for maximum flexibility. 

Ditelicious also has rapid weight loss plans (starting from $195 for 7 days), moderate weight loss plans (starting from $199), which have specific options for women and intermittent fasting, and weight maintenance plans, which include 5 lunches and dinners. Additionally, they have meal plans that cater to male customers with their ‘The Healthy Man’ plan, gut health, low carb and keto. This extensive range of plans is one of the better offerings I have seen for a weight loss-focused meal service. However, unlike Be Fit Food, these plans do not appear to be designed by a Dietician or weight loss expert and therefore Be Fit Food may appeal more to those who are looking for more credibility. You can check out our Nutritionist review of Be Fit Food here.

My Dietlicious Experience

I received a range of pescatarian / vegetarian options:

• Pear and apple nut crunch
• Vanilla fudge ball
• Breakfast frittata
• Wilted spinach with lemon oil
• Side salad
• Spinach chana dahl with rice
• Indian vegetable curry with chickpeas
• Salmon chermoula 
• Thai spiced pumpkin soup
• Ocean trout with honey mustard pecan crust
• Roasted kipfler with toasted corn
• Citrus and herb salmon salad
• Vege lasagne
• Vegetable ratatouille

My meals arrived well-packed with ice bricks to keep the food cold. Most of the readymade meals were still frozen upon unboxing. Immediately I was confused over the food items I had received. There were lots of containers and bags of food as well as traditional readymade meals. It was not clear to me what food items were paired together, only some packages such as the fish had printed instructions that indicated the side it was paired with. It would be great if all the items had a colour coding or number system, so you know what is paired with what. 

Each food item had the name and ingredients clearly printed on the label, however, there were no nutritional information panels. The allergens and heating instructions were easily identifiable and the use by dates were also located on the labels, with most food items lasting up until the end of the year. Only a few of the items had QR codes which when scanned took me to the Dietlicious website where I could view the nutritional information. I found this to be a poor user experience. Instead, by including the nutritional information panel on the label, you provide the customer with confidence that their meals are nutritionally balanced. This is particularly important when weight loss is the focus. 

Dietlicious’s packaging is sustainable and eco-friendly. In 2020, they were the first readymade meal company to make the switch to more environmentally friendly packaging options. Their chilled salad trays are made from biodegradable plant sources, the food trays, cardboard delivery boxes and wool packs are all recyclable. It is also worth mentioning that their kitchens create near-zero food waste. Dietlicious’s environmentally conscious efforts make them a standout in the market and are comparable to readymade meal service Dineamic.

Whilst pairing the items was confusing, each final product tasted delicious (as the name ‘Dietlicious’ implies!) The ingredients were fresh, the flavours were excellent, the use of herbs and spices really came through – I could tell they used high-quality ingredients. Out of all the meals and snacks I tried, my favourites were the Ocean trout with honey mustard pecan crust and breakfast frittata. 

Dietlicious Nutritionist Review

As I received a variety of food items, it is worth noting that I have reviewed the meals based on how I paired them, except for the readymade meals which are complete meals. After sorting through the website to find the nutritional information, I was generally pleased with the overall nutritional content. The meals with fish contained the most protein, on average 27g. There was a good variety of vegetables and salad which I was able to pair with each meal and the nuts and seeds for toppings added a good source of fat as well as some textural crunch. Whilst I enjoyed the breakfast frittata, it was a small serving and only had 12g of protein. In my opinion, this is not substantial enough for a breakfast and is more suited as a snack. As their ethos states, Dietlicious meals include less carbohydrates to support weight loss. The one source of carbohydrate I received was roasted, skin on, kipfler potatoes, which is a good quality carbohydrate. 

The ‘individual meals’ option relies on making the right choices. My advice is to build meals based around the macronutrients, with a focus on protein. Ensure you select at least one vegetable as a side if it doesn’t already come with vegetables/salad and opt for brown rice as a source of carbohydrate. It appears the meat-based items are the best options as these are more nutritionally complete. If you are vegetarian or vegan, you may need to supplement the meals with extra tofu or beans to increase the total protein content. 

Each Dietlicious readymade meal had an excellent ingredient profile, including at least three different types of vegetables, with minimal preservatives and additives. Of the readymade meals, the spinach chana dahl had 13g protein, the Indian vegetable curry with chickpeas and vege lasagne contained 11g protein and the Thai spiced pumpkin soup had 7g protein. These options were lower in protein than I would have liked, as protein is crucial for supporting weight loss. The vege lasagne in particular was a very small portion and only 236 calories. This was paired with the wilted spinach and in my opinion, barely made a meal. Be Fit Food’s vegetarian meals are superior when compared as they contain higher amounts of protein.

Use the code AFF-MFGK to recieve $30 OFF your first order today!

Final Thoughts

The quality of ingredients and flavours of Dietlicious meals is excellent, however, their packaging makes for a confusing user experience. The meal plans are the better option and are good value for money compared to a similar service, Be Fit Food. Check out our Nutritionist review of Be Fit Food here.