Can a meal delivery service help you lose weight? It is often a practical and viable option.
If you’re looking to lose weight, meal delivery services can be strategic allies for multiple reasons, such as helping with portion control and improving dietary variety.
Portion sizes are directly linked to energy intake, so reducing them is recommended as a weight loss strategy if you’re looking to reach a calorie deficit. Meal delivery services help you with portion control by providing preportioned meals with a fixed and known total calorie and macronutrient content.
In addition, meal delivery services can help improve your diet quality by prioritizing complex carbs, lean proteins, and adding more veggies — and thus fiber — to your days, which promote weight loss by facilitating an energy deficit.
On the one hand, added fiber from complex carbs and veggies helps reduce your caloric intake by increasing feelings of fullness and reducing the digestibility of fats, leading to an increased fecal energy excretion and reduced energy absorption.
On the other hand, proteins help enhance body composition by reducing fat mass while preserving muscle mass. They also increase feelings of fullness by raising the levels of hunger-reducing hormones, thus reducing your energy intake.
Lastly, research shows that exposure to greater healthful food variety — which is the case with most meal delivery services — can increase the intake of low calorie, energy-dense foods like fruits and vegetables, helping support and sustain weight loss.
Healthy ways to lose weight
Here are 5 healthy and quick tips if you’re looking to manage your weight:
• Maintain a temporary calorie deficit: Maintaining a temporary and controlled calorie deficit leads to you using more energy than you gain via the foods you eat (negative energy balance) that results in weight loss with a lower risk of weight regain due to metabolic adaptations.
• Limit processed foods: High intakes of processed foods — such as sugary drinks, fast food, sweets, and even diet foods — cause excess calorie intake that leads to weight gain while providing little to no nutrients at all.
• Staying physical active: Increasing your physical activity or exercise also helps with losing weight and maintaining weight by creating a negative energy balance.
• Get enough sleep: Sleep deprivation is associated with weight gain due to hormonal changes that may alter the metabolism of sugars and behavioral changes that increase caloric intake. Thus, evidence recommends adults get at least 7 hours of sleep.
Can a meal delivery service help you lose weight?
While you can lose weight without using a meal delivery service, many people find that they can be an easy and convenient way to enjoy more nutritious meals at home.
Additionally, meal delivery services help promote portion control and often offer meals low in calories or high in protein designed to support weight loss.
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