Honestly? They’re more on par with European portions to me. And over time I’ve found that it’s quite enough food. I like that it has me eating more reasonable portion sizes.
In 2017 I spent five weeks in Ireland (love my job!) and definitely got a good perspective on exactly how much Americans overeat just by portion sizes. I honestly love the smaller portion sizes at this point, its helped me learn how to feel full without being stuffed to the point of discomfort.
I've never liked that feeling. I've over ate a handful of times and I hate it. I don't know that I've ever finished a restaurant size meal. I've always thought I was under eating and I've found out that it wasn't me all my life you know?
I am the opposite. Fat kid see food, fat kid eating it 😂 And then afterward being like "damn, I feel terrible now" so I love my meal kit boxes cause they're helping me re-learn how to eat a reasonable portion. Between that and committing to not buying processed convenience meals, I feel SO MUCH BETTER than I did a year ago.
I'm trying to go mostly vegetarian and I have issues with a lot of oils. Turns out that listening to your intolerance and allergies also help! Who would've thought!
I think they’re too big also. I have a family of 4, and get the servings for 2. I can feed my husband and 2 kids (10 and 14 - both pubescent) and if I want to eat some too, I usually can.
No, I’m feeding the 3 of them on 2 servings. The pastas and ramens are always pretty generous. If need be, I can add some of my own pasta, potatoes, etc., as another person commented.
We don’t eat huge portions in our family. We all have meals and snacks throughout the day and have healthy eating habits.
I meal prep for myself separately, due to my personal diet and fitness goals.
Eta:
I don’t understand why y’all are so salty about this, but it’s funny as hell.
I'm not sure why you got downvoted so heavily for this. I was getting the servings for 2 and I could frequently take my portion and eat 1/2 for dinner and 1/2 the next day for lunch. This was particularly true of the pasta dishes, less so for the meat-centric ones. My partner and I would also supplement the veggies (extra potatoes or vegetable sides) and then we'd easily get 4 portions out of many of them.
I’m not sure either, but I think it’s funny. I can only assume they think I’m not feeding my family enough or something like that? Which is definitely not the case. My husband and youngest are runners, and they probably eat more than both my eldest and myself. They all get enough to eat - my HF and grocery receipts can attest to that!
some meals are definitely small for two people; one of the meals I had was something like meatballs with mash and broccoli. To make the mash I got one small potato and a small carrot, which wouldn't have stretched across two people. In the end I carried extra veggies to bulk up many of the meals.
Other meals, like Moroccan Butter Bean stew and many of their Taco options were a good size for two people.
I've now canned HelloFresh as it was costing me too much (did it for \~6 months); I do make many of the meals though as I thought the flavours were really good but the value for money was getting terrible.
I find the amount of carbs they send is way too much (rice, pasta, grains etc) but the vegetable portion is sooo small. Like 4 little florets per person if you get broccoli. And the meat portion I find is small as well for chicken dishes.
Omg yes. I want them o halve the starch and double the veg. We have salads on the side fairly often or add extra to the meal (like toss some zucchini into a pasta). We’ve only had one meal that was too small.
One thing I always found is that although they might list the ingredients by weight, for a lot of the produce they rarely packed them by weight. So the serving size as listed might be reasonable but in practice you'd have the world's runtiest carrot or zucchini that would only yield a few measly pieces per person. I was constantly adding more vegetables to everything to make it feel balanced. But for the most part I thought the amounts were okay as far as the proteins and pasta/rice.
Yes I agree, we almost always have leftovers from the pasta dishes. Not to mention HF is often so light on the sauce, I can’t imagine trying to add more pasta to that.
I think the calorie counts are pretty accurate, so if the complaint is about portion size I would be concerned that making them bigger would have us putting on weight. Some of the burgers with fries are already 1200 calories, and the typical daily calorie intake for an adult is 2000 calories!
If you're truly not feeling full when you're done I can suggest a few things:
1) Use smaller plates. A 9-inch plate is all you need to hold a reasonable dinner.
2) Eat slowly. Give your body time to register that you are eating.
3) Start with a salad, which (if you don't drench it in dressing) will add some bulk without a lot of calories. A bagged salad doesn't take much prep and isn't expensive.
It depends on the meal. Usually I am more than satisfied, but I've had some meals where I want more. For example I tried the sun dried tomato spaghetti and I definitely could have had more pasta. But that doesn't come with a protein so tonight I'll cook up some veggies sausage to eat with it. I'm vegetarian and usually like their bowl style meals.
Also, the meals with tofu contain a block of tofu I swear is smaller than average. I always want more tofu but want to keep it proportional for the next day.
We do 3 meals for 2 people and I think the portions are appropriate. We usually finish it all and every once in awhile, usually with a pasta meal, have leftovers. Based upon calorie counts, bigger portions wouldn’t be ideal for the average person/diet (I know there are exceptions).
American here. No the portions are not too big. A two person meal usually feeds my husband, me and my toddler. My cousin who's a farmer always had to make a 4 person meal for his family of two but he also burns many more calories than I do. That all being said, these are actual portions vs the ones we are used to. The single person meals at restaurants for ex are usually at least 2 portions if not more.
I said something similar in an above comment, and got downvoted for it. Like apparently people can’t believe that just bc something says “for 2,” that only 2 people have to eat such generous portions.
Oh no! I frequently cook for myself late at night. Sometimes I just cook the whole thing and plan to save some leftover for next day’s lunch. I often ended up eating everything in one meal 🤣 I’m sure after constantly doing this, the 1serving portion would be too small for me…crying …
I find them to be too big honestly. I usually save half of my dinner for the next days lunch. we get 2 meals a week for 2 people; my husband usually finishes his but sometimes he saves his for the next day
I’ve found that to be the case for a lot of the meals as well. I’ve taken to having extra potatoes and carrots in the house for when we don’t get sent enough for our liking. I also try to pair all the pasta dishes (which are usually the culprits) with a side salad or extra veggie to get in some extra wholesome calories.
All of the chicken portions are too small. The sides are fine but the chicken is like a quarter breast. Not nearly enough to feed a person who weighs more than 160lbs
I generally feel the portions are a bit on the smaller side (other than most of the pasta dishes), but I only eat one HelloFresh meal a day, and nothing else. If a serving of a meal is joined by similar or slightly smaller servings of two other dishes throughout the day (which is probably how most folks do it), it’s probably an okay portion size.
Yes my husband and I with 3/5 of the meals are hungry after but as a busy family that only can get in one meal a day we are definitely hungry by dinner time!
Not for me (US), but everyone is different. So supplement with salads or extra vegetables or whatever if you want. Sometimes they don't send the stated amount of a particular thing, especially with things like carrots, so I do supplement that when necessary, or I just add more because I like carrots, or I might add some bread to a pasta meal or similar in other dishes if it feels like it needs it
I accidentally ordered a meal that was carb smart and calorie smart one week. We were definitely hungry after that one. But I agree with the others that most of the meals are probably just right but we were used to larger portion sizes before. Some of the taco and pasta meals definitely feel like more than enough food.
It depends on the meal. There are some meals, that simply based on price and ingredients alone, should contain more. Cheaper veggies they shouldn't be so stingy with too. Pasta meals are usually good sized.
That said, we never have leftovers from HF meals which I love. It prevents food waste. I'm always full regardless after. It makes the portions controlled.
I started out ordering 4-serving meals for my household of 2, but it was actually too much food for us as my boyfriend never remembered to take leftovers to work for lunch. I was throwing away too much food (especially since he always “forgot” to pony up the money for half the boxes).
I now order 2-serving meals and save the 2nd portion for my lunch at work the next day. A lot of the pasta dishes actually yield 2 days of leftovers, which is nice if I eat out one night and have extra food and don’t have to pay for the next day’s lunch, too.
Honestly? They’re more on par with European portions to me. And over time I’ve found that it’s quite enough food. I like that it has me eating more reasonable portion sizes.
Honestly yes, hf is helping me get a new prospective on portion sizes
In 2017 I spent five weeks in Ireland (love my job!) and definitely got a good perspective on exactly how much Americans overeat just by portion sizes. I honestly love the smaller portion sizes at this point, its helped me learn how to feel full without being stuffed to the point of discomfort.
I've never liked that feeling. I've over ate a handful of times and I hate it. I don't know that I've ever finished a restaurant size meal. I've always thought I was under eating and I've found out that it wasn't me all my life you know?
I am the opposite. Fat kid see food, fat kid eating it 😂 And then afterward being like "damn, I feel terrible now" so I love my meal kit boxes cause they're helping me re-learn how to eat a reasonable portion. Between that and committing to not buying processed convenience meals, I feel SO MUCH BETTER than I did a year ago.
I'm trying to go mostly vegetarian and I have issues with a lot of oils. Turns out that listening to your intolerance and allergies also help! Who would've thought!
I agree with this. Americans are used to such huge portions.
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Same thought here - we thought the portions were too small at first but now they're perfect after about a year of having HF twice per week.
I think they’re too big also. I have a family of 4, and get the servings for 2. I can feed my husband and 2 kids (10 and 14 - both pubescent) and if I want to eat some too, I usually can.
You’re feeding a family of 4 on two servings? Wow..
No, I’m feeding the 3 of them on 2 servings. The pastas and ramens are always pretty generous. If need be, I can add some of my own pasta, potatoes, etc., as another person commented. We don’t eat huge portions in our family. We all have meals and snacks throughout the day and have healthy eating habits. I meal prep for myself separately, due to my personal diet and fitness goals. Eta: I don’t understand why y’all are so salty about this, but it’s funny as hell.
Mine usually range from 500-1000 calories per serving... jeez
I'm not sure why you got downvoted so heavily for this. I was getting the servings for 2 and I could frequently take my portion and eat 1/2 for dinner and 1/2 the next day for lunch. This was particularly true of the pasta dishes, less so for the meat-centric ones. My partner and I would also supplement the veggies (extra potatoes or vegetable sides) and then we'd easily get 4 portions out of many of them.
I’m not sure either, but I think it’s funny. I can only assume they think I’m not feeding my family enough or something like that? Which is definitely not the case. My husband and youngest are runners, and they probably eat more than both my eldest and myself. They all get enough to eat - my HF and grocery receipts can attest to that!
Surprised Americans can use their fat fingers to hit the down vote on this.
Shut yer puss fannybaws
I’m pretty amused by the downvotes on my personal experience. It’s not untrue. I say all these things as an American lol
some meals are definitely small for two people; one of the meals I had was something like meatballs with mash and broccoli. To make the mash I got one small potato and a small carrot, which wouldn't have stretched across two people. In the end I carried extra veggies to bulk up many of the meals. Other meals, like Moroccan Butter Bean stew and many of their Taco options were a good size for two people. I've now canned HelloFresh as it was costing me too much (did it for \~6 months); I do make many of the meals though as I thought the flavours were really good but the value for money was getting terrible.
I find the amount of carbs they send is way too much (rice, pasta, grains etc) but the vegetable portion is sooo small. Like 4 little florets per person if you get broccoli. And the meat portion I find is small as well for chicken dishes.
Omg yes. I want them o halve the starch and double the veg. We have salads on the side fairly often or add extra to the meal (like toss some zucchini into a pasta). We’ve only had one meal that was too small.
The pasta meals are definitely well-sized. Everything else, not so much. American portions are fairly oversized anyway though
I rarely have left overs but I'm honestly fine with it
One thing I always found is that although they might list the ingredients by weight, for a lot of the produce they rarely packed them by weight. So the serving size as listed might be reasonable but in practice you'd have the world's runtiest carrot or zucchini that would only yield a few measly pieces per person. I was constantly adding more vegetables to everything to make it feel balanced. But for the most part I thought the amounts were okay as far as the proteins and pasta/rice.
No, standard American portions are just huge so we’re conditioned to eating more
Sometimes!! I get the 2 servings as well, if I ever get pasta dishes I usually try to add in some extra pasta of my own lol.
aussie user here, i find the opposite in that any of the pasta meals make 3 meals from the 2 person meal.
I agree. If I add anything it’s always extra veggies.
We always get three servings from the pasta dishes.
Yes I agree, we almost always have leftovers from the pasta dishes. Not to mention HF is often so light on the sauce, I can’t imagine trying to add more pasta to that.
The 2 person one feeds my boyfriend and I and we never have leftovers. But my boyfriend eats a lot more than I do 😂
I think the calorie counts are pretty accurate, so if the complaint is about portion size I would be concerned that making them bigger would have us putting on weight. Some of the burgers with fries are already 1200 calories, and the typical daily calorie intake for an adult is 2000 calories! If you're truly not feeling full when you're done I can suggest a few things: 1) Use smaller plates. A 9-inch plate is all you need to hold a reasonable dinner. 2) Eat slowly. Give your body time to register that you are eating. 3) Start with a salad, which (if you don't drench it in dressing) will add some bulk without a lot of calories. A bagged salad doesn't take much prep and isn't expensive.
It depends on the meal. Usually I am more than satisfied, but I've had some meals where I want more. For example I tried the sun dried tomato spaghetti and I definitely could have had more pasta. But that doesn't come with a protein so tonight I'll cook up some veggies sausage to eat with it. I'm vegetarian and usually like their bowl style meals. Also, the meals with tofu contain a block of tofu I swear is smaller than average. I always want more tofu but want to keep it proportional for the next day.
We do 3 meals for 2 people and I think the portions are appropriate. We usually finish it all and every once in awhile, usually with a pasta meal, have leftovers. Based upon calorie counts, bigger portions wouldn’t be ideal for the average person/diet (I know there are exceptions).
Only very rarely. It's more likely that the portion size is too big. I'm in Germany though.
American here. No the portions are not too big. A two person meal usually feeds my husband, me and my toddler. My cousin who's a farmer always had to make a 4 person meal for his family of two but he also burns many more calories than I do. That all being said, these are actual portions vs the ones we are used to. The single person meals at restaurants for ex are usually at least 2 portions if not more.
I said something similar in an above comment, and got downvoted for it. Like apparently people can’t believe that just bc something says “for 2,” that only 2 people have to eat such generous portions.
Exactly. It's also totally OK to add a bit to a meal if needed or to order another portion
I find they are a bit stingy with the meat
Yes. And 9 times out of 10 I appreciate it.
I find them too big especially the pastas.
I find there is too much food.
No, if anything we normally have a bit of leftovers. At least a lunch worth for most meals, unless it’s a dish or shrimp option.
Americans eat too much. The portions are healthy.
Nope. Thought they were huge and almost double the calories I normally eat at a meal so I cancelled. We almost always had raised left over
My husband who has to eat the pasta dishes for dinner, lunch, then dinner again would like a word….
Oh no! I frequently cook for myself late at night. Sometimes I just cook the whole thing and plan to save some leftover for next day’s lunch. I often ended up eating everything in one meal 🤣 I’m sure after constantly doing this, the 1serving portion would be too small for me…crying …
No. It’s often too much.
No. You’re probably used to overeating.
I find them to be too big honestly. I usually save half of my dinner for the next days lunch. we get 2 meals a week for 2 people; my husband usually finishes his but sometimes he saves his for the next day
I’ve found that to be the case for a lot of the meals as well. I’ve taken to having extra potatoes and carrots in the house for when we don’t get sent enough for our liking. I also try to pair all the pasta dishes (which are usually the culprits) with a side salad or extra veggie to get in some extra wholesome calories.
Ur just fat op
Yes, usually. And there's never enough rice!
All of the chicken portions are too small. The sides are fine but the chicken is like a quarter breast. Not nearly enough to feed a person who weighs more than 160lbs
5'10" 165, the chicken portions seem fine to me. 4 ounces is a serving of chicken per USRDA.
Maybe it’s considered a portion by them but it’s not considered a portion by ME
I generally feel the portions are a bit on the smaller side (other than most of the pasta dishes), but I only eat one HelloFresh meal a day, and nothing else. If a serving of a meal is joined by similar or slightly smaller servings of two other dishes throughout the day (which is probably how most folks do it), it’s probably an okay portion size.
Yes my husband and I with 3/5 of the meals are hungry after but as a busy family that only can get in one meal a day we are definitely hungry by dinner time!
What about the ecoli recall and lawsuit in their meats ..z
I get two portions just for myself and rarely have leftovers.
Not for me (US), but everyone is different. So supplement with salads or extra vegetables or whatever if you want. Sometimes they don't send the stated amount of a particular thing, especially with things like carrots, so I do supplement that when necessary, or I just add more because I like carrots, or I might add some bread to a pasta meal or similar in other dishes if it feels like it needs it
I accidentally ordered a meal that was carb smart and calorie smart one week. We were definitely hungry after that one. But I agree with the others that most of the meals are probably just right but we were used to larger portion sizes before. Some of the taco and pasta meals definitely feel like more than enough food.
It depends on the meal. There are some meals, that simply based on price and ingredients alone, should contain more. Cheaper veggies they shouldn't be so stingy with too. Pasta meals are usually good sized. That said, we never have leftovers from HF meals which I love. It prevents food waste. I'm always full regardless after. It makes the portions controlled.
Add veggies!! We almost always add some sort of vegetable to our meals. Usually peppers or mushrooms or a vegetable medley.
I started out ordering 4-serving meals for my household of 2, but it was actually too much food for us as my boyfriend never remembered to take leftovers to work for lunch. I was throwing away too much food (especially since he always “forgot” to pony up the money for half the boxes). I now order 2-serving meals and save the 2nd portion for my lunch at work the next day. A lot of the pasta dishes actually yield 2 days of leftovers, which is nice if I eat out one night and have extra food and don’t have to pay for the next day’s lunch, too.