Factor vs Nutrisystem – Comparing Meal Plans In Depth to Choose What’s Better

Investing in a subscription-based meal delivery service like Factor and Nutrisystem can turn out to be the best thing you do for your health and fitness goals.

Apart from saving time and effort, these weight loss-friendly and nutrition-backed services offer you an incredible variety of meals to fit your unique tastes and preferences.

With Factor, you have a wide range of meal plans that suit different dietary needs and preferences. You can customize your weekly meal plan by adding more sides and proteins to your daily meals. Plus, their meals require little to no meal prep, making it a convenient and user-friendly meal delivery service for busy people.

With Nutrisystem, you can not only skip planning your meals and grocery shopping, but it also offers one-on-one coaching with certified dieticians and nutritionists. Their meals are strategically low-fat, low-calorie, and low-carb. Plus, they have an incredible app with bonus features like tracking meals, calories, and other helpful resources to help you lose weight effectively.

The Benefits of Meal Delivery Services for Busy People

It’s hard to beat the convenience and sensibility of subscribing to meal delivery services like Factor and Nutrisystem. They are helpful for a variety of important reasons, especially for busy professionals who want healthy home-cooked meals as a long-term solution.

1. Convenience At Your Doorstep

By ordering meals instead of shopping and planning for the meals yourself, you save time and effort by a huge degree. Meal delivery services take away the hassle of planning, shopping for, and preparing meals. It can be specifically helpful for those of you who simply don’t have the time or the right cooking skills and resources to make a delicious meal at home.

Meal delivery services provide you with tons of great meal recipes, ranging from low-calorie, high protein, low carb, vegetarian, to pescatarian. Select the meals that look delicious to you, and they arrive at your doorstep once a week or month. All that is required from you is to put the meal in the microwave and heat it for several minutes.

2. Maintaining Good Portion Control

One of the common problems faced in the kitchen is food wastage and leftovers. Especially when you’re cooking for more than one person, food wastage is bound to happen.

With meal delivery services, however, this is more than taken care of. All the meals are preportioned and packaged to avoid leftovers or food wastage.

It’s also a good strategy for people on a weight loss program because it stops them from overeating and manages their calorie intake.

While placing an order, you can select the serving size of every meal. Usually, they are served in 2 or 4 servings per recipe.

3. Focusing On Dietary Needs and Taste Preferences 

If you’re picky about your meals, whether out of habit or any specific dietary restrictions, you will have plenty of meal options to pick from with a meal delivery service.

Nutritional support is one of the pros of subscribing to a meal delivery service. It encourages you to follow a healthier diet by including meals that are nutritionally balanced and good for specific dietary needs like low calorie, low carb, high protein, gluten-free, vegetarian, and so on.

If you have specific ingredients that you like and want to have more of, each of the meal recipes come with proper recipe information, nutritional facts, and an ingredients list. You can select any meal you want based on what ingredient it has or avoid the same meals for health and allergy purposes.

4. Monitoring Health and Fitness Goals

Some meal delivery services, like Nutrisystem, have been custom-tailored to improve your weight loss and weight management goals. You can select your monthly meal plan based on your gender, age, and weight loss goals.

With the help of a mobile app, you can track your calories, get reminders for staying hydrated and working out, and lots more.

Tracking your progress involves making small changes to your daily routine. Keeping a check on your calories, finding healthy meals to eat, and picking the right type of snacks – all these things set you up for success, and with the help of personalized recommendations, meal delivery services make it easier to make smart health choices.

The Science of Meal Delivery Services

The meals you order with the help of a meal delivery service are designed by nutritionists and experts. Their nutrition is foolproof and effective.

Nutrition Analysis Is a Top Priority

Nutritionists work with meal delivery services by coming up with a list of ingredients that are healthy and nutrient-dense. Chefs take it from there to create meal recipes centered around those ingredients. Not only are such recipes full of essential nutrients, but they also taste great.

Once the meal recipe is created, nutritionists evaluate the nutritional content and efficacy of the recipes and mention all the health benefits of the meal. Based on the number of calories a meal has, and its macronutrients like carbs, proteins, and fat, the meals are divided into dietary categories.

Diet-specific meal delivery services like Nutrisystem use ingredients that help you lose weight more naturally and manage diabetes. The meals recommended on such diets are backed by nutritionists who evaluate the percentage of macronutrients in every recipe, such as lean proteins, healthy carbohydrates, and fats.

You will also find that several times, conventional recipes are modified to suit nutrition goals, allowing you to swap ingredients to make every meal healthier. This is especially great for people on a restrictive diet plan, as you can swap proteins and add extras to existing meals to make them perfectly suited for your taste.

This is an ongoing process between certified nutritionists and a meal delivery service. Nutrition analysis ensures that every meal is healthy and meets specific dietary needs. Based on customer feedback and sales, the recipes are modified and made even better, flavor-wise and nutrition-wise.

Factor vs Nutrisystem – Main Differences

Factor and Nutrisystem serve ready-to-heat meals, but they do not function as the same type of premade meal delivery service. Both meal delivery services have their unique features and meal plans for people with varying specialized diets and restrictions.

1. Meal Plans

Factor

Factor offers a variety of meals belonging to different diet categories such as keto, low calorie, vegan, vegetarian, and high protein. Once you sign up, you have access to all the meals on their weekly menu, but if you have specific preferences, Factor’s menu favors them over everything else.

This is great news for vegetarians and people following a weight loss diet by consuming fewer calories per meal and more proteins. The Keto meal plan includes meals that have fewer carbs per serving and other healthy nutrients without compromising on flavor.

You can pick anywhere between 6 and 18 meals per week. Selecting the meals is easy and fun to do. Factor also allows some meal customization where you can replace specific ingredients from a recipe or increase the portion size of the protein per serving.

Nutrisystem

With Nutrisystem, things are a lot more fixed and pre-set than with Factor. Nutrisystem’s meals plan for more weight loss-focused ones with an emphasis on specialized diet plans for people with diabetes.

All the meals are nutritionally evaluated to do an effective job of increasing protein content, lowering your glycemic index, managing blood sugar levels, and boosting weight loss. The meal plans are divided into several categories for men, women, couples, diabetes, and menopausal women.

Nutrisystem customizes each plan based on your body’s physiological needs, regulating better metabolism, burning fat, managing hormonal changes, and lots more.

This also means that Nutrisystem’s meals are dietician-approved. So, it narrows down more effectively at an individual’s weight loss strategies depending on their weight, height, age, and other health markers like heart health and sugar levels.

If you have a health problem like diabetes, hormonal imbalance, heart disease, etc., you can rely on the expertly designed meal plans of Nutrisystem featuring one-on-one coaching for people who want to lose weight more naturally and for heart-healthy meals and snacks. They are, in comparison to Factor, more scientifically fortified for men, women, diabetes, and menopause.

The last thing to note about Nutrisystem’s meal plans is that they have a pre-set menu for each diet category. You cannot make any substitutions or changes to their meals like you can with Factor. You can either choose to pick your meals from the menu or let Nutrisystem’s chefs do that for you.

2. Type of Meals

Factor

On Factor’s weekly menu, you can select as many single-serve ready-made meals as you want. They offer over 35 different kinds of recipes and a variety of vegetarian and vegan meals. Meat-based recipes include chicken, beef, steak, pork, shrimp, salmon, and turkey.

And don’t worry, there are plenty of meat-free meal options for vegetarians as well. And they’ll keep you satisfied for the entire week so you won’t run out of options to choose from.

The next item on Factor’s menu is the Add-Ons menu, which includes snacks, desserts, smoothies, breakfasts, and small bites. Cookies, smoothies, juices, oats, breakfast skillet, egg bites, pancakes, cheesecake, energy bites, and a la carte proteins are included.

These items don’t cost as much as the meals, and they’re great for a boost of protein and other essential nutrients. If you like to have something to eat between meals, you can pick from any of these add-ons to satisfy your cravings.

The majority of the selections are vegan or vegetarian and keto, so they’re lower in carbs and high in proteins and other essential nutrients that are good for the body. They won’t spike your blood sugar levels nor will they make you feel bloated after.

The a la carte protein section boasts extra servings of different types of protein: roasted chicken breast, chicken wings, pork tenderloin, salmon, steak filet, and smoked sausage. You can also add extra portions of protein-rich veggies like broccoli and green beans.

Nutrisystem

Nutrisystem offers the whole packaging starting from breakfast, lunch, dinner, to snacks. The menu is pre-set based on the diet category you choose. So, there are different menus for men and women but also for couples, diabetes, and menopause.

If you’re new to Nutrisystem and don’t know what to choose, you can opt for their Chef’s Choice program that automatically selects the best recipes for you. Additional items like weight loss smoothies and shakes can be added with the press of a button.

Unlike Factor, Nutrisystem is a month-long subscription, which means you select meals for the entire month, and they will be delivered to you several times per month.

All the meals are single-serve and ready-made, so you won’t take longer than 5 minutes to heat the meals. Some of the breakfast and snack items come in packages and don’t need to be heated. The labels on each food item will show you exactly how to store and heat the food properly.

The eating patterns of Nutrisystem’s meals are different because with their meals, you are not eating something for too long. Meaning, Nutrisystem ensures that you eat every few hours, though the portion size is small per serving. Nutrisystem encourages a proper eating routine throughout the day so you don’t feel hungry and fall back on binge eating to satisfy your cravings.

There are different meal plans consisting of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for men, women, couples, diabetes, and menopause. Each category boasts varied pre-set menus that help you meet your weight loss goals faster and more effectively, as a long-term solution.

3. Portion Size

Factor

I found that Factor’s meals are more satisfying, portion-wise, than Nutrisystem’s. They contain a higher number of calories per serving than Nutrisystem as well. If your daily calorie requirement is higher, especially when you lead an active lifestyle, the portion size of Factor’s meals will be more to your liking.

A hearty meal provided by Factor, such as the Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken, contains 640 calories per serving and 42 grams of protein and only 12 grams of carbohydrates.

The average caloric value of Factor’s meals is somewhere around 600 calories per serving, which is enough to keep you full for many hours.

You have the option to pick more calorie-conscious meals from their menu as well. The menu offers dietary labels like Calorie Smart, Keto, Protein Plus, Vegetarian, and Vegan to help you select meals faster.

Nutrisystem

On Nutrisystem’s menus, you count how many calories you consume per day, not per serving.

Nutrisystem’s goal is to keep your calories in check for weight loss, so all their meals are centered around the same caloric value, not more than 400 calories per serving. Some of their meal contains 200–250 calories per serving to boost weight loss.

For example, the Chicken Burrito Bowl recipe consists of 360 calories per serving, 49g carbohydrates, and 25g proteins.

Per day, Nutrisystem’s meals help meet your calorie needs centered around a weight loss diet plan, so the meals contribute to no more than 1,500 calories per day including what you eat for breakfast and as snacks.

As a result, some people may find the portion size of Nutrisystem’s meals a bit less and unsatisfying. Nutrisystem wants you to lose weight more efficiently by including smaller portions of meals that you can eat throughout the day.

When it comes to weight loss, different people have varying needs and appetites. Depending on how much you want to eat daily, you can choose Nutrisystem to give you a boost of healthy nutrients and a calorie-deficit diet that is beneficial for weight loss.

4. Meal Quality

Factor

I’m sure some of you are wondering how prepared meals are packed and kept fresh for a long time. Factor, with the help of ice packs and cold insulation, packs their meals more efficiently during transit so that when the parcel arrives at your doorstep, you have to store them in the fridge.

When it’s time to eat, take out the meals you want to eat right away and heat them in the microwave for a couple of minutes.

Some people prefer storing premade meals in the freezer to prolong their shelf life – this is not a bad idea at all. Factor’s meals can be kept in the fridge or freezer depending on your personal dietary needs. Factor does not flash freeze the premade meals. They are stored at a cold temperature, just like the temperature inside a fridge.

The meals contain zero preservatives, artificial sugars, excess sodium, and other filler ingredients. Trans fats, saturated fats, and sodium content are kept to a minimum, which is ideal for boosting health and aiding weight loss.

The nutritional value of Factor’s meals boasts more natural fiber, healthy carbs, sufficient calories, and more proteins.

Nutrisystem

Nutrisystem’s way of cooking meals is the same as Factor’s as they are cooked without preservatives, artificial sugars, and excess sodium. The meals are low in calories and high in proteins and healthy carbs, which helps with weight loss.

However, majority of the meals served by Nutrisystem come frozen, which means they are flash-frozen to preserve the freshness and flavor of the meals. Once the meals arrive at your doorstep, based on what the label says, you have to either store the meals in the fridge or freezer.

Nutrisystem lets you know on the menu itself which meal is frozen or not. They also let you know the nutritional information about each recipe. Their meals contain more lean proteins, healthy fats, fiber, and smart carbohydrates. The meals have fewer calories to ensure a proper weight-loss diet regimen for men and women.

5. Cost

Factor

The higher number of meals you add to your weekly cart, the lesser you pay per serving. This is one way in which you can make the most of Factor’s meals without paying too significant a cost per serving.

But if you’re new and want to try a couple of meals before you fully commit to Factor, their price per serving is considered to be on the expensive side.

Here’s the cost breakdown of all their meals. All the meal preferences come with the same price tag:

• 6 meals per week – $12.99 per serving
• 8 meals per week – $12.49 per serving
• 10 meals per week – $11.99 per serving
• 12 meals per week – $11.49 per serving
• 14 meals per week – $11.19 per serving
• 18 meals per week – $10.99 per serving

Add-ons cost less than a meal and the prices differ from item to item. Factor does offer various bundles for smoothies, juices, and food pairings that you can opt for maximum savings.

Factor does have a promotion for first-time subscribers, offering up to 50% off on the final bill amount. You have to add your email address to check if you’re eligible for the discount.

The subscription cost is reasonable for a healthy, nutritious, and delicious meal delivery service. Factor, in comparison to other meal delivery services, is a more expensive pick because its fresh ingredients are organic, high quality, and GMO-free.

Nutrisystem

Where Factor charges you an average of $12 for a single meal, Nutrisystem charges you $12.50 for an entire day’s worth of meals, which includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Nutrisystem is an affordable meal delivery service, even more so than Factor.

Plus, they have this amazing money-back guarantee that gives you a full refund within 14 days if you don’t like their meals.

One thing about Nutrisystem that some of you may find inconvenient is that they charge you for an entire month at a time, whereas with Factor, you can order from week to week, costing less per order than Nutrisystem.

Starting from packages that charge $10 per day, you pay $280 at once for 28 days of meals, which includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. This is the basic package that also happens to be the more affordable meal plan on Nutrisystem.

If you want more control and wish to select from a wider variety of meals, you pay between $10 and $13.5 per day for an entire meal. These are packages that give you more food options to choose from plus some premium add-ons like protein shakes, smoothies, juices, and extra.

The pricing differs in a variety of ways. First, the cost per day changes from high to low for men and women. Men have to pay a few dollars extra per day than women on a variety of diet plans.

Add-ons like protein shake cost $2.35 per bottle. There are several other add-ons that you can opt for, which cost between $1 and $3 per serving.

As a first-time customer, you have the option to request a full refund until 14 days after you place an order. This is if you don’t like food or find the portion size or eating pattern unsatisfying and inconvenient. You have to bear just the shipping costs, as the rest of the money will be refunded back to you.

In contrast, you pay more to Nutrisystem even though they are more affordable on a per-serving basis. For an entire month’s diet plan, Nutrisystem is a fine choice. But if you want to start small and subscribe for fewer meals per month, Factor is the right choice for you.

6. Mobile App

Factor

On Factor’s mobile app, you can manage your subscription and all your weekly orders easily. The mobile app’s interface is user-friendly and quick to use. If you want to edit or change your ID information, you can open the app on your phone and click on “Settings” to get to the right tab.

If you want to schedule a call with a nutritionist, you can do that as well via the mobile app. It’ll be a 20-minute talk about nutrition and finding the best meal plan for your personal needs.

You have access to the menu, nutritional information, and ingredients list of all the meals. Simply select the option you want after logging in and you’ll be good to go.

Nutrisystem

Nutrisystem is slightly more advanced with its mobile app. The NuMi app is free to download and can act as your go-to nutrition guide. It helps with meal planning, meal tracking, and staying on top of your weight loss goals with a calorie tracker.

The NuMi app lets you do a bunch of unique and exciting things. All these features are absent in Factor as their mobile app only allows meal customization and order management. With Nutrition’s NuMi app, you can do more such as the following:

• You can track all the meals you order from Nutrisystem and other regular foods.
• You can add your weight to track weight loss progress every week.
• You can configure the app to notify you and set reminders for drinking water, exercising, and logging in all your meals.
• The app has hundreds of informational articles on diets and meals, including recipes.
• You can also take part in challenges, contests, and special offers.

7. Vegan and Vegetarians Meals

Factor

Factor’s meal selection accommodates both vegetarian and vegan meals. So, it is better than Nutrisystem for vegans and plant-based eaters. The vegetarian meal recipes are varied, and you will find at least 2–3 vegetarian and vegan meals on Factor’s weekly menu.

The meals that are both vegetarian and vegan are made with all plant-based alternatives to dairy and meat. The meals do not contain eggs, meat, fish, or any animal by-product.

Quantity-wise, Nutrisystem offers more vegetarian meals including breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks than Factor. But if you want vegan meals for the sake of dietary restrictions and allergy reasons, Factor offers vegan meals, and most of their ingredients are organic.

The meals that are not vegetarian can be made vegetarian if you swap the protein for a plant-based alternative so long as you have them in stock at home.

In Factor’s Add-On section, they do have interesting food choices for vegetarians like salads, plant juices, protein smoothies, cookies, and energy bites.

Nutrisystem

If you want a full vegetarian meal plan, Nutrisystem accommodates a vegetarian diet for all days of the month. They have a nutritious and delicious vegetarian meal plan that is chef-curated and nutritionist-approved.

Nutrisystem allows you to select meals based on your personal preferences, or you can opt for chef’s choices that are Nutrisystem’s most popular and delicious meals on the menu.

Even for a vegetarian meal plan, you have tons of meals to select from. Vegetarian meals have a label on them so you know which meals to choose. You can select meals to add to the Vegetarian meal plan easily with over 75 different meal recipes.

Having said that, none of Nutrisystem’s meals are vegan and 100% plant-based. Their vegetarian meals do contain one or the other dairy product, which means it’s not vegan.

The meal plans that Nutrisystem provides are either gender-driven or vegetarian and nonvegetarian. If your focus is to eat more healthily and holistically, the vegetarian meal plan should suffice as all the ingredients are clean and nutritious to eat.

8. Nutrition Value

What better way to kickstart your weight loss journey than with the help of nutritious and dietician-approved meals for an effective weight loss plan? Factor and Nutrisystem’s diet program is customized to suit individual dietary needs and preferences.

So that you get your first order right, choosing a diet plan that is uniquely yours, here is a side-by-side comparison of the popular menu items that both services have to offer.

Contrary to meal kits, these are freshly prepared meals that have been approved by registered dieticians. Cooked with quality ingredients, no GMOs, and zero preservatives, you can transform the way you eat all your meals, including breakfast, snacks, and desserts!

Breakfast:

Lunch:

Dinner:

Dessert:

Snacks:

Factor Pros and Cons

Nutrisystem Pros and Cons

Factor vs Nutrisystem – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Where Do They Deliver?

Factor delivers to all the continental United States except for Alaska and Hawaii. Factor has partnered with multiple delivery services such as UDS, UPS, FedEx, CMS, etc. to handle deliveries accurately and effectively.

Nutrisystem is different because, unlike Factor, it can deliver to Alaska and Hawaii including the 48 contiguous United States. It’s worth mentioning that Nutrisystem may not deliver to remote areas like Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands, so it’s best to contact customer support if you reside in these areas.

2. Can I Skip or Cancel My Order?

Factor has a weekly cutoff date for orders, which means you can edit your order by adding or removing meals before the deadline. The cutoff date is at 11:59 pm CT on Wednesday.

Say, for example, if you want to make changes to order due next week, make sure you do so before 11:59 pm CT on Wednesday which comes before the next week’s delivery. Every Wednesday, you can make all kinds of edits to your order including pausing your subscription, skipping a delivery, or canceling the order.

Factor has a mobile app that you can download and use to edit your meals. You can change your delivery address, email address, and payment details, skip deliveries, and change the quantity of your meal order fast and effectively.

Nutrisystem offers a similar deal in that you can edit an order before the order is scheduled to be processed. Usually, this is before 6 pm ET the day before processing.

Nutrisystem is not a weekly delivery service. You have to order meals for an entire month at a time. So, make sure you made all edits to your month’s order before the cutoff date. You can also contact customer support to get all the help you need regarding cancellations, skipping, and adjusting the number of meals.

Just like Factor, Nutrisystem comes with a mobile app that you can use to edit and customize your order. The app offers more features that help you stay on track with your health goals such as counting calories, tracking meals, reminders, alerts, and so on.

3. Do People Lose Weight With Such Meals?

The short answer is yes. Weight loss is possible with the help of meal delivery services. Meal delivery services offer preportioned meals that are lower in calories and high in proteins and other nutrients. Such meals also boast healthy carbs and healthy fats for building stamina and encouraging weight loss.

Preportioned meals stop you from overeating and resorting to high-calorie foods. Meal delivery services like Factor and Nutrisystem do not offer unhealthy meal options.

Even though the effectiveness of a weight loss diet depends on many factors such as calorie intake, physical activity, age, weight, and food preferences, meal delivery services make it easier to stick to a healthy diet plan as a long-term strategy.

It’s worth mentioning that a study on effective weight loss strategies concluded that subscribing to a meal delivery service can boost weight loss for adults with obesity more than those who do not.

Another study linked the use of meal delivery services and improved diabetic control in patients with Type 2 Diabetes. It positively impacts weight loss, diabetes, and heart health, combined with regular physical exercise, good sleep, and managing stress.

Final Verdict

The final verdict on Factor and Nutrisystem is that Factor is a weekly meal subscription service, while Nutrisystem is for people who want a month-long supply of freshly prepared meals.

Both services get you into the habit of eating healthy meals daily. They require no meal prep or chopping. You can select meals according to different dietary categories like low calorie, low carb, vegetarian, and high protein.

The main difference between Factor and Nutrisystem is that the latter is more weight loss-driven than the former, while Factor, on the other hand, is a vegan-friendly and organic meal delivery service for healthy eating.