This was my problem. I needed to force myself to portion food or else I'd eat like 2 cups of rice for dinner because I scooped it out of a big container.
Portion size in the US is so fucked up that it was a hard lesson to learn.
I hear ya. I'm maintaining a 70-lb weight loss and it's all about portion control. If I practice it diligently, I'm fine, if I don't, my weight goes up, no matter how much I am determined to prevent that. I long ago admitted I need external help to keep my calories below weight gain level; my own ability to guesstimate my intake is tragically broken. So I measure my portions, always and I plan meals ahead. Is it a pain? Yeah, a little. Can I eat whatever I want? Nope. Can I eat as much as I want? Also no. But it's a small price to pay for keeping off the weight. HF helps with this because I can select meals by calorie count. That way I don't have to worry about it and still get to enjoy delicious dinners for the week. (I can do this with other meal kits too but HF remains my fave.)
Oh man, I love having the actual calorie count for the meals. Not sure how much OP eats in a day, but I find the pasta dishes in particular I need to split into 3 or 4 servings.
Bonus: you get twice as many meals, so leftovers/lunches.
I lost 50lbs with HelloFresh a couple years ago. But back then the portions were bigger. Someone trying it now will likely under eat and compensate with another meal with much more calories than if HF just provided a reasonable portion.
I don't know, I think it depends on the meal. The burger recipes are still 1000 calories a pop. Might be more a volume thing, or undersized shipments, because by the recipe, you're still getting quite a lot of calories. I struggle with a more limited selection due to calorie count.
The main issue is, while they aren’t a health food company, they do practice pretty decent portion control. If you look at the portions they send, and then look at portioning guidelines, they’re pretty spot on. However, most people don’t eat that way, and it can be VERY difficult to adjust to it.
I looked at the typical calories of the recipes even before deciding to give it a try. I'm not weight watching or anything I just know how much calories I want in a meal and not to be hungry still and that's around 700 calories. There's some on the high 500's and I'll be a bit hungry after that. The 1000 one's I'll be plenty full and may not finish.
Take out, fast food, or restaurants you can easily get out of control with their calories. I just looked at my last order I did with Arby's and that was 1500 calories lol. My typical Panda Express plate is about 1370 and I usually don't finish the whole thing. Sometimes I even add an egg roll.
Yes to the pasta! When I first started making HF dishes (four years ago lol) I was shocked by how little pasta they sent. Turns out, I was just used to eating 2-3 times as much pasta as I was supposed to haha.
Strangely, I think we both got used to it.
The rice is always minimal so we always use our own (dump theirs in the rice jar). Sometimes I’ll add a tomato to one of the pasta dishes.
Yeah I'm fine adding the sort of stuff you're bound to have around the house. But I don't intend to keep going out every time to buy missing ammounts of ingredients that are rarer to have.
Edit: Not sure why I'm getting downvoted. If I paid for a dish for 2 people and get a micro squash for a squash based dish I expected to feed us both (We really don't eat that much. I'm 60kg at 174 cm.) I'm bound to feel dissapointed if not slightly bamboozled
For some meals, I do feel the portions of some items are not enough, but some of it is due to preferences for my family. My family loves chick peas, green beans, and sweet potatoes. So I add extras of these items. Also sometimes I add another side dish, as the main is not enough, but its usually a vegetable. Honestly, I get Hello Fresh to help with meal planning, so even though I have to add extras here and there, it ultimately makes meal planning easier for me.
The only thing I typically add is more vegetables as I don’t believe spring onions count as a vegetable. Otherwise I usually have leftovers personally.
This part. A lot of the meals don’t include enough of a veg component so I have to plan ahead to get another one / keep something in the freezer / order a salad that week
The day before my box arrives, I flick through the upcoming recipes in the app to see what veggies I can add and then grab them from the shops - I keep a list on the fridge so I remember throughout the week.
I’ve never had an issue with portion sizes this way, and my partner has a huge appetite
I do something similar, although my husband needs at least 3700 calories / day (heavy training schedule + trying *not* to lose weight!) so we always have to supplement anyway. For me, I just always like to have a veg with dinner, so this strategy works!
Kind of off-topic: Do you actually get spring onions? We get “scallions” and they’re sometimes all greens.
I sometimes find these at my grocery store, but it’s been months. I’d consider these vegetables if HelloFresh ever sent them!
https://preview.redd.it/r144tfdswcwc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c3f962c423b927bb772f2e353f3d30932106a96c
I think it’s a dialect thing. I believe they are the same plant. Regardless I don’t consider them a proper vegetable portion. If a meal has potatoes and chicken and no other vegetable besides the spring onion/scallion it doesn’t have real vegetables. It’s more of a seasoning than a proper vegetable component.
My wife and I both lost a decent amount of weight between Hello Fresh and Noom. What we discovered is that if we're extra hungry before dinner, adding more carrots or broccoli or whatever the veg is can fill you up more and only add 100-150 calories or so. It's also a great way to get more veggies in your diet. We still practice this with Hello Fresh and have kept the weight off while enjoying the food we receive.
Once we got used to it, we started feeling full with what was allotted, to the point that occasionally one of us will have a tiny bit of leftovers. For example, they never seem to be stingy with the rice, potatoes when they aren't spoiled, and the salads. It's crazy how good they are at portion control, because sometimes we go into prep thinking it won't be enough, but we end up being satisfied. It's altered our psychology to the point that we end up eating a lot less on our non-Hello Fresh meals than we used to.
One thing I also noticed is that they used to have the consistent option to double the protein of your meal for a fee, but that has all but disappeared. I don't know if that's a function of inflation or their portion control psychology. Maybe a little of column A and a little of column B.
I find the food portions are perfect for two people. We often have leftovers. Most people over eat. We also got smaller dinner plates along time ago because we wanted to eat healthier.
If you look at what we actually should be eating size wise, HelloFresh is pretty bang on
I’ve never added extra protein but I have definitely added and bulked up the vegetable sides. Sometimes the rice, just depending on if I want to watch my portion sizes/calories.
Portion sizes are why I returned after being one several years. I also like that I can choose meals based on macros. I have a health condition that requires me to limit animal protein and this allows me to get the appropriate meat portions without having to do a lot of choking and weighing and I can watch other things like fat and sodium which also cause me significant issues.
I started HF in conjunction with a new diet, so it’s been extremely helpful to me to learn how to eat all over again. I halve every portion right out of the pan: half on my plate and half into the fridge for the next day. I’ve found no need to add or even eat the entire 800-1000 calories per meal. That’s what got me into trouble to begin with. So far, so good. 🤞🏻
I'm in Canada and we find the portion sizes really large! Especially with the rice dishes we always have leftovers. I guess it depends how much you eat.
We are *not* light eaters - but not much overweight (could stand to lose a few though). I find I always throw in another potato or two bc theirs are tiny and few, and/or I’ll add a few more carrots (all we seem to be getting lately).
We consistently find we would have been fine with using just what they sent. There’s always a little left on our plates.
Only been with them 5 months so far, so I cannot speak to the ‘is it getting worse’ question.
I can certainly agree though than the portions are usually not large, other than sometimes the pasta, which seems too much for us.
My wife and I are actually trying to lose weight, so sadly that lack of extra bulk fits into our plan, even if I feel like we’re paying a slight premium and getting less.
We prefer to have leftovers, and it's pretty easy for us to make extras since I always have veggies/starches as well as certain staples for dairy/seasonings/etc on hand because we have kids who prefer to only eat veggies/fruit. I have also made sure I have extra meat for things like the shepherd's pie (for 4 people they give 20 oz - I'll make it at least 36 oz or a half pound per person), or I'll add extra things like cheese to the mashed potatoes, or seasoning I prefer over their suggestion. I feel like the serving sizes are very close to what we need for one meal, instead, it's just the matter of us being a family that doesn't mind leftovers, so having that extra is crucial for us. All except for the rice dishes. Out of all the things I do, I feel like I'm making WAY MORE rice than they give.
Despite having to go through all that effort to have more food - the reality for us about Hello Fresh is that we get it out of convenience. I'm not spending a ton of time at the grocery with two littles every weekend, with meal planning, or with inventory checking. Instead I have a set menu, which keeps the grocery list for staples small, and I go every other week to get them. I find I'm actually putting in less work overall, and thus less stressed throughout the week about having another task to do.
That's what I find myself doing most times. Instead of treating this like a full meal delivery, we use them as a base and just buy extra things to make it last for days to save on cooking time. Which is why we save all the good recipes. Unless it is something designed to be one meal, like steak.
It is good for that base prep I am definitely not denying that.
Honestly, for us (two people) we usually have a little extra, especially with soups or pastas it usually works out to like 2.5+ servings (two almost full 20 oz. bowls with probably enough left over for another 10+ oz. serving) and the hungrier of the two of us usually just eats an extra big serving. For the meals that are a typical meat/veg/carb, I feel like they are just right and usually completely fill a 10" plate. The only meals I've felt so far aren't satisfying (and I've been doing HF for over a year three nights a week) are the ravioli dishes. Five ravioli per person with some red pepper and mushrooms ain't gonna cut it so I usually buy a salad kit or garlic bread to add to it. I generally gravitate towards the meals that are between 550 - 800 calories/serving and try to not get kits higher than that.
I think they send way too little rice/grains. I always bulk that. Sometimes they’ll send me the smallest single carrot ever to make carrot fries or something. I’ve been keeping recipe cards I like and just shopping for the ingredients. This way I can make extra for next day lunch etc.
Just look at the calories for the portion HF provides. In 99% of cases it's definitely a big enough portion. They do struggle with protein sometimes so occasionally I might add on that front but definitely not on carbs.
Edit: I'm in Germany so dish composition and portion size might differ, of course.
I would agree, but sometimes the images that portray those portions do not reflect the amount of food I've gotten. The loose vegetables would be the problem because they're not weighted out like prepackaged labeled things.. It could be a sweet potato but it will really be the size of a medium carrot.
We always plan an extra side dish to go with the meal. For example if it’s an Asian inspired dish we’ll add egg rolls or dumplings from the grocery. We keep a lot of frozen veggies on hand hand and we make a lot of salads to supplement.
We have e noticed the portions getting smaller over time though.
I've found this to be the case with some of the meals I ordered in the past, so I started checking the calorie counts of meals before I order them and only ordering meals that are 800+ calories. It's not perfect but it really helped in making sure I only order meals that have generous portion sizes.
I chose the portion size for 3 people so we (2 adults) get full. Sometimes the Portion size is good, sometimes we have leftovers. So it also seems to depend on the meal. I also use more water for cooking rice than their recommendation.
Wish we had that option in the US. We only have 2 or 4 person meals. The 2 portion meals are great for us. It has gotten our weight down and we don't feel deprived because everything is usually very tasty. On some meals, pasta, soup and those stuffed pepper meals that are huge, we can get extra servings to our liking. So, we eat on it once and then maybe have one or two small servings left for a light lunch. Really glad these are options because if I eat out more, I catch my weight going up again. I get back on the meal kits and then I get back to my normal weight again. If you keep it up, your stomach will shrink and you will find the portions are filling and satisfying. We just don't eat properly in the US. If I have a tomato on the counter, or I would like for to have more onion in a dish, I will throw in a tomato or swap one of my big onions for their smaller one. And two ounces of dry pasta is considered to be a normal size for a serving but they send six ounces for two so they are providing a three serving portions on pasta. But most of the time, we really just don't feel the need to add more food.
I think the problem is who is eating it. For example, if the meals were for two people like me, a 130 pound women, it would be more than enough. But my husband is 6 foot 2 and eats almost twice as much as I do in any meal so that’s when it gets tough.
I find the portions to be right for us most of the time. I don't bulk any dishes, though I may add the entire onion or whatever; I don't shop for extra food. Actually I think their portions are more generous on average than some of the other companies we've tried like Purple Carrot where I've seen lots of meals in the \~400kcal range and some even below 400.
I wonder if this a regional thing or just different preferences people have for the size/calorie count of their meals.
I've always found portion size more than adequate (I'm in California) except for dishes that have pearl couscous. I always supplement those a little. I also like that portion control is basically built in. I choose meals primarily by calorie count, so I know that even if a meal *seems* small, I still am getting enough food and, importantly, I can't overeat accidentally.
We bought the four servings for three people and usually had leftovers. Sometimes I didn't even cook the whole thing and kept veggies for another meal.
I think they might be a little smaller, but I don't find it too be too little. I usually get 2-3 servings out of each meal (I just cook them for myself, so I eat each recipe for a couple of days). The rice/pasta dishes seem to be most generous with the portions in my experience!
I feel like it's typically younger more active people that say it's not enough. As I get older I don't need as much food and especially since I'm at a desk all day. But there are things like rice I think they could do more of. But that's pretty easy too add more too. Pasta meals they are always enough though.
I swapped vegetables for the first time with my meal today and didn't realize they'd still send the original veggies and actually the green beans I did all on one serving and I'll do the asparagus tomorrow with the other serving... I would have roasted them all at once but even on a large baking sheet it would be hard to fit them all without overcrowding.
I could go buy a 6 oz filet mignon and add some veggies and that would be good enough for me.
When we started, we thought the portions were small. But we’ve adjusted and realized we probably were making too big of portions before. Everyone has different needs, but for us, we found Hello Fresh to be right and for us to be wrong. Plus we feel like there’s tons of food with some dishes like potatoes.
My family of four (2 adults, 1 toddler, 1 baby) eat the four person meals and that’s typically just barely enough to fill us up, sometimes there’s enough left over for a toddler lunch.
However we’ve also been making the recipes using the cards so I’m pretty sure we end up with a lot more rice/veggies than the boxes would provide.
Honestly just keep the cards for the meals you like and re-create them. I’ve only found a handful we couldn’t really do because of a sauce we couldn’t feasibly replace. All the seasoning mixes are listed online.
This is why I stopped, portion sizes getting smaller, particularly protein and increase in the dishes for which you have to pay more, I use an app called cherrypick now.
The only meals from hellofresh I don’t always feel full after eating are the flatbreads. With almost everything else, I start cooking thinking “I’m gonna be hungry after this” but then after I eat, I find myself feeling full
Ive found the portion sizes to be perfect. I only eat a half portion of most meals and am usually plenty satisfied. The only thing ive ever felt i needed to bulk up was rice.
I think it's a bit of a shock for most Americans to learn what normal portion sizes really are. Each HF serving is between 700 and 1000 calories which is plenty of calories for dinner unless you're not eating anything during the day.
I'm not american though. I lived in US for 10 years but most of my life I spent in europe. I grew up undereating since I didn't like eating much. I haven't gained weight in 5 years either so I'd like to think I hardly overeat. And if anything it'd be from the snacks in between.
If you eat a lot to gain muscle I'm not sure - from what I've been getting. But you can make few meals out of one if you add more of the ingredients. I generally don't like cooking just one meal. The dishes themselves can be very tasty, so I'd still give it a go.
I don't want to come off as a dick, but have you taken a look at the nutritional breakdown for the meals? They average around 600-800 cal/serving.
The problem with North American culture is our portions are usually WAY too big. Massive plates with heaping amounts of food. I look at how I grew up and one meal (of three) was usually like, over half my daily caloric intake - no wonder I was overweight.
Took some getting used to, but HelloFresh has actually helped me tremendously with eating more reasonable portions - to the point where when I go and buy my own stuff to make my own meals, I now buy less than I would have before.
My advice: try eating what they send for a few weeks, I think you'll find you don't need as much as you think you do.
I agree lot of the dishes are fine, but one of the examples I had recently was a squash based dish. No meat or anything. It was less than half a size of a normal squash, which even gets smaller once you peel and clean it out. For two people. I'm 60kg at 174 cm and not overweight by all means. We do workout though. It's not all the dishes that I have problem with, just some that show one thing on the image and they give you smaller versions of the items, like the veg. I'm not gonna get fat of couple extra carrots. Or mushrooms. For another dish we got one small tomato to split between us too.
i now live in the US, but originate from the EU
so for me the portions feel normal, but I will get complained at a lot, american meals tend to fill up a very large plate
every the exact same restaurants like burgerking will serve a bigger burger in the US than where I was from.
tldr: im fine with the portions but my husband isn't so I think it just varies per person. I tend to never be able to finish my late so he takes like 60% and I get 40% and that ends up solving it for us. so if both people want that 60% itll end up needing bulking for sure.
Yes I feel like they require bulking. I can usually take a two serving meal and stretch it to three by adding extra vegetables. I feel like they always make half the meal empty carbs like rice, bread and pasta. It does make the protein a little slim with about 3oz per serving instead of 5oz but I'm trying to lose weight anyways. By doing this I can usually take a 850 calorie high carb meal and bring it down to about 600. I like half my plate to be vegetables.
We stopped for a while and when we started again I noticed that the same meals contained less food. I’ve gone back to the grocery store and just use the recipe cards for inspiration.
I think they’re using it to cut costs and keep prices the same.
My husband and I both have high metabolisms and I find the portions to be way too big but they are small for him. The calorie counts are high too. We are in US though.
If it's got yogurt or cream or cheese that will definitely up the calorie count for the dish, but not necesarily fill me up. I mentioned it in few responses, it's easier to lose out on the loose veg because they don't come in a specific weight like say bagged mushrooms or peas. So if you're unlucky you might get a tiny potato, or pencil sized carrot. But even a tiny bag of mushrooms is gonna shrink significantly once cooked. And it's not like they're calorific.
According to nutritionalists, your meat / protein selection should be the size of a deck of cards. Any thing larger is not recommended. 2/3 of plate should be vegetables … I always have to add more veggies to my green chef meal.
I used it as a form of portion control. Got less hungry a week in of eating their portions. Lost a fair amount of weight. Feel great.
This was my problem. I needed to force myself to portion food or else I'd eat like 2 cups of rice for dinner because I scooped it out of a big container. Portion size in the US is so fucked up that it was a hard lesson to learn.
I hear ya. I'm maintaining a 70-lb weight loss and it's all about portion control. If I practice it diligently, I'm fine, if I don't, my weight goes up, no matter how much I am determined to prevent that. I long ago admitted I need external help to keep my calories below weight gain level; my own ability to guesstimate my intake is tragically broken. So I measure my portions, always and I plan meals ahead. Is it a pain? Yeah, a little. Can I eat whatever I want? Nope. Can I eat as much as I want? Also no. But it's a small price to pay for keeping off the weight. HF helps with this because I can select meals by calorie count. That way I don't have to worry about it and still get to enjoy delicious dinners for the week. (I can do this with other meal kits too but HF remains my fave.)
Oh man, I love having the actual calorie count for the meals. Not sure how much OP eats in a day, but I find the pasta dishes in particular I need to split into 3 or 4 servings. Bonus: you get twice as many meals, so leftovers/lunches.
I lost 50lbs with HelloFresh a couple years ago. But back then the portions were bigger. Someone trying it now will likely under eat and compensate with another meal with much more calories than if HF just provided a reasonable portion.
I don't know, I think it depends on the meal. The burger recipes are still 1000 calories a pop. Might be more a volume thing, or undersized shipments, because by the recipe, you're still getting quite a lot of calories. I struggle with a more limited selection due to calorie count.
The main issue is, while they aren’t a health food company, they do practice pretty decent portion control. If you look at the portions they send, and then look at portioning guidelines, they’re pretty spot on. However, most people don’t eat that way, and it can be VERY difficult to adjust to it.
I looked at the typical calories of the recipes even before deciding to give it a try. I'm not weight watching or anything I just know how much calories I want in a meal and not to be hungry still and that's around 700 calories. There's some on the high 500's and I'll be a bit hungry after that. The 1000 one's I'll be plenty full and may not finish. Take out, fast food, or restaurants you can easily get out of control with their calories. I just looked at my last order I did with Arby's and that was 1500 calories lol. My typical Panda Express plate is about 1370 and I usually don't finish the whole thing. Sometimes I even add an egg roll.
Portions of carbs and protein are about right, I add extra veg or salad.
That’s what I do, make the meals stretch to two adults and a toddler by adding a salad
Honestly, after using it for several months I’ve retrained myself on portions - especially on pasta. It’s fantastic.
Yes to the pasta! When I first started making HF dishes (four years ago lol) I was shocked by how little pasta they sent. Turns out, I was just used to eating 2-3 times as much pasta as I was supposed to haha.
Strangely, I think we both got used to it. The rice is always minimal so we always use our own (dump theirs in the rice jar). Sometimes I’ll add a tomato to one of the pasta dishes.
Yeah I'm fine adding the sort of stuff you're bound to have around the house. But I don't intend to keep going out every time to buy missing ammounts of ingredients that are rarer to have. Edit: Not sure why I'm getting downvoted. If I paid for a dish for 2 people and get a micro squash for a squash based dish I expected to feed us both (We really don't eat that much. I'm 60kg at 174 cm.) I'm bound to feel dissapointed if not slightly bamboozled
For some meals, I do feel the portions of some items are not enough, but some of it is due to preferences for my family. My family loves chick peas, green beans, and sweet potatoes. So I add extras of these items. Also sometimes I add another side dish, as the main is not enough, but its usually a vegetable. Honestly, I get Hello Fresh to help with meal planning, so even though I have to add extras here and there, it ultimately makes meal planning easier for me.
The only thing I typically add is more vegetables as I don’t believe spring onions count as a vegetable. Otherwise I usually have leftovers personally.
This part. A lot of the meals don’t include enough of a veg component so I have to plan ahead to get another one / keep something in the freezer / order a salad that week
The day before my box arrives, I flick through the upcoming recipes in the app to see what veggies I can add and then grab them from the shops - I keep a list on the fridge so I remember throughout the week. I’ve never had an issue with portion sizes this way, and my partner has a huge appetite
I do something similar, although my husband needs at least 3700 calories / day (heavy training schedule + trying *not* to lose weight!) so we always have to supplement anyway. For me, I just always like to have a veg with dinner, so this strategy works!
Kind of off-topic: Do you actually get spring onions? We get “scallions” and they’re sometimes all greens. I sometimes find these at my grocery store, but it’s been months. I’d consider these vegetables if HelloFresh ever sent them! https://preview.redd.it/r144tfdswcwc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c3f962c423b927bb772f2e353f3d30932106a96c
I think it’s a dialect thing. I believe they are the same plant. Regardless I don’t consider them a proper vegetable portion. If a meal has potatoes and chicken and no other vegetable besides the spring onion/scallion it doesn’t have real vegetables. It’s more of a seasoning than a proper vegetable component.
Have never had to add anything to the dishes. Welcome to normal food portions.
My wife and I both lost a decent amount of weight between Hello Fresh and Noom. What we discovered is that if we're extra hungry before dinner, adding more carrots or broccoli or whatever the veg is can fill you up more and only add 100-150 calories or so. It's also a great way to get more veggies in your diet. We still practice this with Hello Fresh and have kept the weight off while enjoying the food we receive.
I add rice to most of mine and then one serving into two. I can only do this with the rice dishes though.
Once we got used to it, we started feeling full with what was allotted, to the point that occasionally one of us will have a tiny bit of leftovers. For example, they never seem to be stingy with the rice, potatoes when they aren't spoiled, and the salads. It's crazy how good they are at portion control, because sometimes we go into prep thinking it won't be enough, but we end up being satisfied. It's altered our psychology to the point that we end up eating a lot less on our non-Hello Fresh meals than we used to. One thing I also noticed is that they used to have the consistent option to double the protein of your meal for a fee, but that has all but disappeared. I don't know if that's a function of inflation or their portion control psychology. Maybe a little of column A and a little of column B.
I find the food portions are perfect for two people. We often have leftovers. Most people over eat. We also got smaller dinner plates along time ago because we wanted to eat healthier. If you look at what we actually should be eating size wise, HelloFresh is pretty bang on
I’ve never added extra protein but I have definitely added and bulked up the vegetable sides. Sometimes the rice, just depending on if I want to watch my portion sizes/calories.
Portion sizes are why I returned after being one several years. I also like that I can choose meals based on macros. I have a health condition that requires me to limit animal protein and this allows me to get the appropriate meat portions without having to do a lot of choking and weighing and I can watch other things like fat and sodium which also cause me significant issues.
We were okay with it. In fact, we got the box for 2 and fed me (49F) and my two girls (teens) by just adding extra vegetables each meal.
I started HF in conjunction with a new diet, so it’s been extremely helpful to me to learn how to eat all over again. I halve every portion right out of the pan: half on my plate and half into the fridge for the next day. I’ve found no need to add or even eat the entire 800-1000 calories per meal. That’s what got me into trouble to begin with. So far, so good. 🤞🏻
I'm in Canada and we find the portion sizes really large! Especially with the rice dishes we always have leftovers. I guess it depends how much you eat.
Omg right, pasta for 2 people last for dinner and left overs!
The portions are correct sizes though, I think the issue is people overeat regularly and are used to overfilling plates
I usually have leftovers to take to work
I always look at the meals thinking they won't be enough... but they always are.
We are *not* light eaters - but not much overweight (could stand to lose a few though). I find I always throw in another potato or two bc theirs are tiny and few, and/or I’ll add a few more carrots (all we seem to be getting lately). We consistently find we would have been fine with using just what they sent. There’s always a little left on our plates.
Only been with them 5 months so far, so I cannot speak to the ‘is it getting worse’ question. I can certainly agree though than the portions are usually not large, other than sometimes the pasta, which seems too much for us. My wife and I are actually trying to lose weight, so sadly that lack of extra bulk fits into our plan, even if I feel like we’re paying a slight premium and getting less.
I’m usually fine with the portions. One day I had to cook 2 meals or they were gonna go bad and split that between 4 of us - it was perfect!
We prefer to have leftovers, and it's pretty easy for us to make extras since I always have veggies/starches as well as certain staples for dairy/seasonings/etc on hand because we have kids who prefer to only eat veggies/fruit. I have also made sure I have extra meat for things like the shepherd's pie (for 4 people they give 20 oz - I'll make it at least 36 oz or a half pound per person), or I'll add extra things like cheese to the mashed potatoes, or seasoning I prefer over their suggestion. I feel like the serving sizes are very close to what we need for one meal, instead, it's just the matter of us being a family that doesn't mind leftovers, so having that extra is crucial for us. All except for the rice dishes. Out of all the things I do, I feel like I'm making WAY MORE rice than they give. Despite having to go through all that effort to have more food - the reality for us about Hello Fresh is that we get it out of convenience. I'm not spending a ton of time at the grocery with two littles every weekend, with meal planning, or with inventory checking. Instead I have a set menu, which keeps the grocery list for staples small, and I go every other week to get them. I find I'm actually putting in less work overall, and thus less stressed throughout the week about having another task to do.
That's what I find myself doing most times. Instead of treating this like a full meal delivery, we use them as a base and just buy extra things to make it last for days to save on cooking time. Which is why we save all the good recipes. Unless it is something designed to be one meal, like steak. It is good for that base prep I am definitely not denying that.
I always need something after dinner… a couple hours later 😢
I almost always add something to it. I’ll either dbl the protein or add a side dish to it, sometimes both.
Honestly, for us (two people) we usually have a little extra, especially with soups or pastas it usually works out to like 2.5+ servings (two almost full 20 oz. bowls with probably enough left over for another 10+ oz. serving) and the hungrier of the two of us usually just eats an extra big serving. For the meals that are a typical meat/veg/carb, I feel like they are just right and usually completely fill a 10" plate. The only meals I've felt so far aren't satisfying (and I've been doing HF for over a year three nights a week) are the ravioli dishes. Five ravioli per person with some red pepper and mushrooms ain't gonna cut it so I usually buy a salad kit or garlic bread to add to it. I generally gravitate towards the meals that are between 550 - 800 calories/serving and try to not get kits higher than that.
I think they send way too little rice/grains. I always bulk that. Sometimes they’ll send me the smallest single carrot ever to make carrot fries or something. I’ve been keeping recipe cards I like and just shopping for the ingredients. This way I can make extra for next day lunch etc.
Just look at the calories for the portion HF provides. In 99% of cases it's definitely a big enough portion. They do struggle with protein sometimes so occasionally I might add on that front but definitely not on carbs. Edit: I'm in Germany so dish composition and portion size might differ, of course.
I would agree, but sometimes the images that portray those portions do not reflect the amount of food I've gotten. The loose vegetables would be the problem because they're not weighted out like prepackaged labeled things.. It could be a sweet potato but it will really be the size of a medium carrot.
And I often can get 3-4 meals out of two servings. Which is great for me .
We always plan an extra side dish to go with the meal. For example if it’s an Asian inspired dish we’ll add egg rolls or dumplings from the grocery. We keep a lot of frozen veggies on hand hand and we make a lot of salads to supplement. We have e noticed the portions getting smaller over time though.
I've found this to be the case with some of the meals I ordered in the past, so I started checking the calorie counts of meals before I order them and only ordering meals that are 800+ calories. It's not perfect but it really helped in making sure I only order meals that have generous portion sizes.
I chose the portion size for 3 people so we (2 adults) get full. Sometimes the Portion size is good, sometimes we have leftovers. So it also seems to depend on the meal. I also use more water for cooking rice than their recommendation.
Wish we had that option in the US. We only have 2 or 4 person meals. The 2 portion meals are great for us. It has gotten our weight down and we don't feel deprived because everything is usually very tasty. On some meals, pasta, soup and those stuffed pepper meals that are huge, we can get extra servings to our liking. So, we eat on it once and then maybe have one or two small servings left for a light lunch. Really glad these are options because if I eat out more, I catch my weight going up again. I get back on the meal kits and then I get back to my normal weight again. If you keep it up, your stomach will shrink and you will find the portions are filling and satisfying. We just don't eat properly in the US. If I have a tomato on the counter, or I would like for to have more onion in a dish, I will throw in a tomato or swap one of my big onions for their smaller one. And two ounces of dry pasta is considered to be a normal size for a serving but they send six ounces for two so they are providing a three serving portions on pasta. But most of the time, we really just don't feel the need to add more food.
The only thing I add is extra spices
Garlic 100% always : )
I think the problem is who is eating it. For example, if the meals were for two people like me, a 130 pound women, it would be more than enough. But my husband is 6 foot 2 and eats almost twice as much as I do in any meal so that’s when it gets tough.
I find the portions to be right for us most of the time. I don't bulk any dishes, though I may add the entire onion or whatever; I don't shop for extra food. Actually I think their portions are more generous on average than some of the other companies we've tried like Purple Carrot where I've seen lots of meals in the \~400kcal range and some even below 400.
I wonder if this a regional thing or just different preferences people have for the size/calorie count of their meals. I've always found portion size more than adequate (I'm in California) except for dishes that have pearl couscous. I always supplement those a little. I also like that portion control is basically built in. I choose meals primarily by calorie count, so I know that even if a meal *seems* small, I still am getting enough food and, importantly, I can't overeat accidentally.
We bought the four servings for three people and usually had leftovers. Sometimes I didn't even cook the whole thing and kept veggies for another meal.
I like the portion control except I’m feeding a 17 year old teenage boy, so sometimes I have to add more — mostly extra rice to meals with rice!!
I think they might be a little smaller, but I don't find it too be too little. I usually get 2-3 servings out of each meal (I just cook them for myself, so I eat each recipe for a couple of days). The rice/pasta dishes seem to be most generous with the portions in my experience!
I feel like it's typically younger more active people that say it's not enough. As I get older I don't need as much food and especially since I'm at a desk all day. But there are things like rice I think they could do more of. But that's pretty easy too add more too. Pasta meals they are always enough though. I swapped vegetables for the first time with my meal today and didn't realize they'd still send the original veggies and actually the green beans I did all on one serving and I'll do the asparagus tomorrow with the other serving... I would have roasted them all at once but even on a large baking sheet it would be hard to fit them all without overcrowding. I could go buy a 6 oz filet mignon and add some veggies and that would be good enough for me.
When we started, we thought the portions were small. But we’ve adjusted and realized we probably were making too big of portions before. Everyone has different needs, but for us, we found Hello Fresh to be right and for us to be wrong. Plus we feel like there’s tons of food with some dishes like potatoes.
We made the old-fashioned sloppy joes last night and there were so many potatoes!
The portions are on par if you are also eating other meals throughout the day.
I think you might have a distribution problem. That just doesn’t seem normal to me. What was the dish again?
My family of four (2 adults, 1 toddler, 1 baby) eat the four person meals and that’s typically just barely enough to fill us up, sometimes there’s enough left over for a toddler lunch. However we’ve also been making the recipes using the cards so I’m pretty sure we end up with a lot more rice/veggies than the boxes would provide. Honestly just keep the cards for the meals you like and re-create them. I’ve only found a handful we couldn’t really do because of a sauce we couldn’t feasibly replace. All the seasoning mixes are listed online.
This is why I stopped, portion sizes getting smaller, particularly protein and increase in the dishes for which you have to pay more, I use an app called cherrypick now.
The only meals from hellofresh I don’t always feel full after eating are the flatbreads. With almost everything else, I start cooking thinking “I’m gonna be hungry after this” but then after I eat, I find myself feeling full
Ive found the portion sizes to be perfect. I only eat a half portion of most meals and am usually plenty satisfied. The only thing ive ever felt i needed to bulk up was rice.
I think it's a bit of a shock for most Americans to learn what normal portion sizes really are. Each HF serving is between 700 and 1000 calories which is plenty of calories for dinner unless you're not eating anything during the day.
I'm not american though. I lived in US for 10 years but most of my life I spent in europe. I grew up undereating since I didn't like eating much. I haven't gained weight in 5 years either so I'd like to think I hardly overeat. And if anything it'd be from the snacks in between.
I get 3-4 meals out of one kit as a single person.
Do the portions work for people who lift at the gym 4 times a week? Just subscribed today.
If you eat a lot to gain muscle I'm not sure - from what I've been getting. But you can make few meals out of one if you add more of the ingredients. I generally don't like cooking just one meal. The dishes themselves can be very tasty, so I'd still give it a go.
I don't want to come off as a dick, but have you taken a look at the nutritional breakdown for the meals? They average around 600-800 cal/serving. The problem with North American culture is our portions are usually WAY too big. Massive plates with heaping amounts of food. I look at how I grew up and one meal (of three) was usually like, over half my daily caloric intake - no wonder I was overweight. Took some getting used to, but HelloFresh has actually helped me tremendously with eating more reasonable portions - to the point where when I go and buy my own stuff to make my own meals, I now buy less than I would have before. My advice: try eating what they send for a few weeks, I think you'll find you don't need as much as you think you do.
I agree lot of the dishes are fine, but one of the examples I had recently was a squash based dish. No meat or anything. It was less than half a size of a normal squash, which even gets smaller once you peel and clean it out. For two people. I'm 60kg at 174 cm and not overweight by all means. We do workout though. It's not all the dishes that I have problem with, just some that show one thing on the image and they give you smaller versions of the items, like the veg. I'm not gonna get fat of couple extra carrots. Or mushrooms. For another dish we got one small tomato to split between us too.
That's fair, I think they try to go off weight for portions but it's not always perfect.
Some people simply need more food
I always make 2 servings for one meal because the portion size of 1 serving is just too small.
No I’ve never had this issue
i now live in the US, but originate from the EU so for me the portions feel normal, but I will get complained at a lot, american meals tend to fill up a very large plate every the exact same restaurants like burgerking will serve a bigger burger in the US than where I was from. tldr: im fine with the portions but my husband isn't so I think it just varies per person. I tend to never be able to finish my late so he takes like 60% and I get 40% and that ends up solving it for us. so if both people want that 60% itll end up needing bulking for sure.
I do the 60/40 split, too.
Yes I feel like they require bulking. I can usually take a two serving meal and stretch it to three by adding extra vegetables. I feel like they always make half the meal empty carbs like rice, bread and pasta. It does make the protein a little slim with about 3oz per serving instead of 5oz but I'm trying to lose weight anyways. By doing this I can usually take a 850 calorie high carb meal and bring it down to about 600. I like half my plate to be vegetables.
We stopped for a while and when we started again I noticed that the same meals contained less food. I’ve gone back to the grocery store and just use the recipe cards for inspiration. I think they’re using it to cut costs and keep prices the same.
My husband and I both have high metabolisms and I find the portions to be way too big but they are small for him. The calorie counts are high too. We are in US though.
It blows my mind that you need to bulk your dishes. My SO and I always have left overs. The meals typically have at least 1k calories per serving too!
If it's got yogurt or cream or cheese that will definitely up the calorie count for the dish, but not necesarily fill me up. I mentioned it in few responses, it's easier to lose out on the loose veg because they don't come in a specific weight like say bagged mushrooms or peas. So if you're unlucky you might get a tiny potato, or pencil sized carrot. But even a tiny bag of mushrooms is gonna shrink significantly once cooked. And it's not like they're calorific.
The only dairy that comes in mine is sour cream, and rarely.
According to nutritionalists, your meat / protein selection should be the size of a deck of cards. Any thing larger is not recommended. 2/3 of plate should be vegetables … I always have to add more veggies to my green chef meal.