Factor Review: Healthy PreMade Meals

Eating healthy can be hard, especially if you’re busy. There’s meal planning and grocery shopping to be done, plus you have to cook the meals.

Thankfully, prepared meal services offer a convenient solution.

Factor is one popular company that offers fresh, microwaveable meals for people on keto, low-calorie, and clean diets.

This Factor review can help you decide if the meal delivery service is a good fit for your needs.

What Is Factor?

Factor, formerly known as Factor75, is a service that offers premade meals featuring fresh ingredients. 

It caters to specific dietary needs like keto, low-calorie, vegan, and vegetarian.

The company is known for its great-tasting single-serving meals as well as its variety of add-ons and menu options.

HelloFresh, a popular meal kit company, owns Factor in addition to Green Chef and EveryPlate.

How Does the Service Work?

Factor delivers fresh, nutritionally-balanced meals to your home every week.

To sign up, click the green “Sign Up” button on the website. Then, you’ll need to choose your meal preferences from the following weekly meal options:

• Chef’s Choice: chef-curated menu
• Keto: low-carb, high-fat meals
• Calorie Smart: low-calorie meals for weight loss
• Vegan & Veggie: plant-based meals
• Protein Plus: high-protein meal choices

Next, you pick how many meals you’d like in each delivery. You can select four, six, eight, ten, 12, or 18 meals per week.

After you enter your checkout and payment details, you’ll be able to choose your meals. 

You can also view the full menu before signing up by clicking the “Weekly Menu” button at the top of the website. 

No matter which plan you choose, you’ll have access to the full Factor menu each week so that you can mix and match options as desired.

Factor offers many add-on meals and snacks as well. These include shakes, snacks, desserts, extra servings of protein, quick breakfasts, easy lunches, and side dishes.

Since Factor is a subscription-based service, you’ll receive weekly shipments until you cancel. You can also skip weeks or pause your subscription whenever you want. 

Make a note of the last day each week that you’re able to skip or make your meal selections so that you don’t get stuck with meals you didn’t pick yourself or a box you don’t want. 

You can cancel your subscription online without contacting customer service.

How Much Does Factor Cost Per Month?

Factor meals range in price from $11 to $15 per serving. A larger order will unlock a lower price. Shipping costs $9.99 per box. 

Here’s a breakdown of Factor’s pricing structure:

*For a limited time only, Frugal Rules readers can get up to $276 off your first five boxes!

My Experience Using the Service

Overall, Factor is one of the top ready-to-eat meal subscriptions I’ve tried. Its meals are some of the best I’ve tasted, and it has the most interesting flavors. 

The meals even have a good texture, which is something that many other heat-and-eat meals are missing.

My box arrived with plenty of ice packs to keep it cool. However, the meals are shipped fresh instead of frozen, so it’s important to move them into the fridge or freezer quickly. 

The materials seem fairly eco-friendly. Each box comes with reusable ice packs. In addition, the cardboard liners and trays are recyclable.

The meals I tested included:

• Creamy Tomato Pork Chop with Wilted Spinach and Roasted Zucchini
• Blackened Salmon with Smoked Gouda Cauliflower “Grits” and Broccoli
• Shrimp Alfredo with Zucchini Noodles and Broccoli

I enjoyed all of these meals. Plus, I thought the portion size for each meal was perfect, especially for lunch.

The cauliflower “grits” with the Blackened Salmon meal were delicious.

Even though I reheated the Shrimp Alfredo in the microwave straight from the freezer, the shrimp had a nice texture.

The tomato sauce in the Creamy Tomato Pork Chop meal was amazing. However, I wasn’t a huge fan of the texture of the finely diced roasted zucchini.

I also tried their keto-friendly chocolate chip cookies. These were individually packaged and shelf-stable. They were pretty good for sugar-free cookies.

The only thing that would prevent me from ordering from Factor regularly is the price point. $11+ per serving is expensive.

Nevertheless, the service could be worth it if you need a quick, convenient, tasty, and health-conscious option.

How Easy Are Factor Meal Kits to Prepare?

Factor’s meals are easy to prepare and require almost no prep time. You can microwave them for just two minutes when they are fresh, and they’ll be hot and ready to eat. 

When I was microwaving them frozen, it took about four and a half minutes for the meals to fully reheat.

For an improved texture, you can also reheat them in the oven. This will take a little more time than microwaving them. 

Fortunately, the supporting materials (the cardboard liner on the outside of each tray) provide instructions for this method.

Who Should Use Factor?

If you fall into one of these categories, Factor might be a good fit for you.

Cooking for One or Two People

Factor’s meals are all single-serving, so they’re best for small households of one or two people. 

Since you can order up to 18 meals per week, it would be easy to provide daily lunches or dinners for two. 

It would also be simple to purchase nearly every meal for an individual for a whole week.

Clean Eaters

Factor’s meals are made from simple, whole-food ingredients. They’re free of highly processed additives, and they arrive fresh. 

This makes Factor a perfect fit for people who are trying to eat fewer processed foods or who are looking for healthy food options.

People Who Follow Specialty Diets

Factor is a good fit for certain specialty diets, especially keto. It provides several keto options each week.

Read our guide on other keto meal delivery services to identify other available choices.

The service also has several low-calorie meals, a handful of plant-based meals, and some paleo meals. 

However, it doesn’t have a specific paleo menu category. This means that you’ll need to check the ingredients for each meal to make sure it’s paleo-friendly.

*Related: Read our guide on the best paleo meal delivery services to identify a more suitable fit if you need to follow the caveman diet.

Who Shouldn’t Use the Service?

On the other hand, Factor might not be a good fit for people on plant-based diets or those with large families.

Plant-Based Diets

Although Factor does offer a few plant-based options each week, it may not be enough if you need more than four meals every week.

Also, it doesn’t offer enough vegan options to fill even the smallest box (four meals) without duplicates. 

If you’re plant-based, you may do better with prepared meals from a service like Purple Carrot, which is 100 percent vegan.

Large Families

Factor isn’t a good fit for large families because it only allows you to order up to 18 single-serving meals per week.

Traditional meal kits, like HelloFresh or Green Chef, might be a more family-friendly option.

Read our guide on the best meal delivery services for families to identify a suitable alternative if you have a family to feed.

Can I Lose Weight with Factor?

It is possible to lose weight with Factor, but there are other criteria that may influence your weight loss.

To lose weight, you need to consume fewer calories than you burn. Consequently, it’s a good idea to stick to the Calorie Smart options offered by Factor, which feature 550 calories or less. 

You’ll also need to limit how many calories are in the other foods you eat each day. 

Although Factor’s keto meals can promote weight loss thanks to how filling they are, some of them are high in calories because of their high fat content.

Keep in mind that regular exercise can also help create a caloric deficit to help you lose weight. In addition, factors like stress and sleep can affect your weight.

Factor offers free 20-minute dietitian consultations for their members if you’re interested in professional help with your health goals.

Pros and Cons

Here are the pros and cons of Factor.

Pros:

• Provides several keto and low-calorie meals
• Meals ready to eat in two minutes
• Highly rated for taste
• Interesting flavors and a variety of recipes
• Free 20-minute dietitian consults are available
• Several add-ons available

Cons:

• $9.99 shipping fee
• Meals can be expensive, especially for small orders
• Not a lot of plant-based options

If you need a convenient healthy meal delivery kit service, Factor is a good option.

The Competition

Here’s how Factor Meals compares to other meal delivery subscription services for healthy living.

Trifecta

Trifecta offers prepared, single-serving meals designed for athletes and weight loss. They are loaded with  protein and made with high-quality ingredients, including organic fruits and vegetables. 

This service also offers plans for specialty diets, like Whole30, and is fully gluten-free. It is a good fit for dietary restrictions.

You can read our Factor vs. Trifecta analysis to learn more about how the two services compare.

Trifecta’s meals start at $11.24 per serving, so they are comparable in price to Factor. 

I prefer the taste of Factor’s meals, but Trifecta may be a better fit for you if you want non-GMO, organic ingredients or meat that comes from sustainable farms.

Read our Trifecta Meals review to learn more.

Fresh n’ Lean

Fresh n’ Lean offers fresh meals made from whole, minimally processed, organic ingredients. It offers a variety of meal plans, including Whole30, vegan, low-carb vegan, Mediterranean, and more.

Prices start at $10.32 per serving, and the meals are comparable to Trifecta in taste. 

Fresh n’ Lean is a good pick if you want well-sourced ingredients or meal plans for special diets like Mediterranean or low-carb vegan.

Read our Fresh n’ Lean review to learn more.

Bottom Line

Factor is on the expensive side for ready-to-make meals, but it might be worth it because of its convenience and excellent taste. 

The service offers a variety of meals for weight loss and keto diets. Better yet, the meals reheat well.

If you’re interested in healthy eating and spending less time grocery shopping, Factor is worth considering.

What’s most important to you in a meal delivery kit?