Nutrisystem vs Optavia: Weight Loss, Price & Meals Compared

Nutrisystem vs Optavia

Nutrisystem and Optavia are both great options if you want to lose weight and develop healthy eating habits, but which is the better diet delivery service? We compared each diet program head-on, and in the end, Nutrisystem won out, but we also love many features of Optavia. How did our results pan out? Here’s a breakdown of how they are compared in several important categories.

Nutrisystem

Nutrisystem Logo Background box

Pros

  • The good reputation that spans decades
  • Reasonably priced
  • Several good meal plans to choose from
  • Free shipping
  • Round-the-clock support

Cons

  • No fresh foods
  • Some dishes taste a bit bland
  • Pricey to maintain long term

Optavia

Optavia x

Pros

  • Optavia offers tasty light meals and snacks
  • The system is designed to help you build a healthy relationship with food
  • We love the Optavia app for additional support

Cons

  • Can’t purchase single quantities
  • Wish there were more options for their Lean & Green meals
  • Must subscribe to their premium membership to receive auto shipments.

Dietary Options

Nutrisystem

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  • compost Vegetarian
  • grass Vegan
  • adjust Paleo
  • pie_chart Keto
  • calendar_month Whole30
  • set_meal Mediterranean
  • breakfast_dining Gluten-Free
  • local_drink Dairy-Free
  • medical_information Diabetic-Friendly
  • monitor_weight Weight Loss

Medifast/Optavia

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Normally, when reviewing a meal delivery service, we like to discuss whether they fit into some of the most popular dietary lifestyles and if they’re good options for people with special dietary considerations. Nutrisystem and Optavia are a bit different in that they are each a weight loss program on their own.

Neither Nutrisystem nor Optavia are low carb, at least in terms of what you’d need for the keto diet or carb cycling. They’re also not paleo-friendly, considering the dairy and grains used in some of the prepared meals from both companies. Neither companies offer Whole30-compliant meals, and it would be a stretch to say that any of them fit within the Mediterranean diet guidelines.

Nutrisystem Meatball Parmesan Melt
Optavia Menu

You’ll find gluten, dairy, and other common allergens in many meal options from Optavia and Nutrisystem. The best you can do is look at the ingredients in each dish or snack before ordering to see if it contains any ingredients you want to avoid.

Optavia makes this the easiest of the two by offering filters that allow you to choose meals and Fuelings based on your special diet needs. To Optavia’s credit, they do offer a decent number of Fuelings for select dietary needs, but those with allergies still need to be careful.

With the nature of these diet programs, they do naturally fall in line with heart-healthy and diabetic-friendly diets, at least for the most part. You’ll find plenty of lean protein in dishes like turkey meatball marinara or grilled chicken sandwiches. 

Optavia Logo

Dietary Options Winner


We choose Optavia as the winner here because the health and diet coach that will work with you is better equipped to offer advice beyond just being your personal coach for weight loss. Plus, they have more special dietary options and make it easy for you to filter your preferences.

Weight Loss Success

Nutrisystem was founded in the early 1970s, and they currently have fifty years of success under its belt. Although their weight loss programs have changed over the years, there’s no way that they would still be around if they weren’t producing some serious success in helping their clients reach weight loss goals. 

Nutrisystem True Story

We like how Optavia shares weight loss success stories right on their website. These little snippets of stories also let you know that the Optavia diet isn’t just about losing weight but really making the changes that will lead to a healthier lifestyle. Some weight loss success stories mention the positive emotional health benefits beyond seeing a smaller number on the scale.

Optavia’s diet program is designed to get you into a fat-burning state, and the light meals and Fueling they offer to make it more of an easy-to-follow plan that doesn’t solely rely on relentlessly counting calories. How much weight you lose is up to you. 

Optavia True Story
Nutrisyste logo

Weight Loss Success Winner


Both Nutrisystem and Optavia have helped people achieve their health goals, including losing weight through meal planning, coaching, and dietary strategies, especially in the initial stages of losing weight. Still, Nutrisystem takes the win. They have a history that spans fifty years and millions of customers. There are a lot of success stories buried there.

Diet Coach

Both Nutrisystem and Optavia diet programs offer support via a personal health coach. With the Nutrisystem program, you don’t have just one personal coach, but an entire team of specially trained weight loss coaches at your disposal, along with community support. 

Optavia coach

Optavia also offers a dietary and nutritional coach who is there to help guide you through diet plans in the beginning and then offer encouragement, advice, and accountability throughout your journey. 

What we really like about Optavia coaching is the level of knowledge and expertise that their coaches offer, along with the accountability and regular check-ins that they require. 

Optavia Logo

Diet Coaching Winner


We like Optavia’s comprehensive support and how their coaches are so committed to keeping you on track right from the beginning. We also really like their level of knowledge and experience, along with their focus on accountability. The fact that Optavia has such a large and growing support community is just an added bonus.

Pricing

Nutrisystem

NUTRISYSTEM PLAN

PRICE PER DAY

Basic

Starting at $9.99

Uniquely Yours

Starting at $12.14

Uniquely Yours Max +

Starting at $13.57

Partner Plans

Starting at $9.99

Optavia

OPTAVIA ESSENTIAL KITS

SERVING PER BOX

PRICE PER MEAL

Essential Optimal Kit

(5 & 1 Plan®)

119

$5.99

Essential On-The-Go Kit

(5 & 1 Plan®)

119

$5.99

Nutrisystem’s pricing is determined by the plan you choose. Plans are priced per day, and most are calculated based on five days worth of meals. Personal coaching, your diet plan, and meals are all included in Nutrisystem’s pricing.

Optavia’s pricing structure is set up so that the options within their meals and Fueling have their own pricing structure. Rather than spending a certain amount of money and then choosing X number of meals, you choose and pay for just what you want. The coaching and app support is also factored into Optavia’s price.

When you purchase from Optavia, your meals or Feelings come in packs with multiple servings. Most items come packed in boxes of six meals. For instance, if you order one of their Lean & Green meals, you get six servings of that single meal.

Honestly, this pricing structure is reasonable for any weight loss plan. The downside is that if you end up not liking something, you actually lose money unless you decide to just suck it up and consume the remaining portions.

Nutrisystem Logo

Pricing Winner


There are a few reasons we chose Nutrisystem as the price winner here in our price comparison. First, when you consider that you’re getting an entire day’s worth of meals for the price, Nutrisystem comes out to be a bit cheaper than Optavia in our price comparison.

Customer Service

Nutrisystem

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  • pause_circle Pause
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Optavia

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Optavia offers a premier membership for auto-shipments, which is super convenient if you plan on staying with their diet for any amount of time. If at any point you decide you no longer want the premier membership, it’s easy to cancel. Otherwise, without the premier membership, you just order when you want. There’s no pausing or skipping deliveries to worry about.

From a customer service standpoint, Nutrisystem does a pretty good job. You can pause or skip deliveries by making changes online in your account, or you can talk to a representative directly. If you want to completely cancel your subscription to their meal plans, you do have to make contact with an actual member of their customer service team.

Nutrisystem Logo

Customer Service Winner


In addition to Nutristyem’s responsive customer service department, they also offer a 14-day money-back guarantee, which isn’t something you see too often with diet delivery services. We’ve found Nutrisystem to be willing to go above and beyond in many cases to satisfy their customers.

Winner

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Nutrisystem

Nutrisystem Logo

In the battle of Nutrisystem Vs. Optavia, we crown Nutrisystem as the winner. We like that they have such a long-standing reputation in the diet delivery service industry, plus they offer a range of programs, health coaches, great success, and wonderful variety, and frozen or non-frozen foods. 

Still, this doesn’t mean that Nutrisystem is the better diet delivery service for you. Still, either Nutrisystem or Optavia could have won with their different diets. They each offer healthy meals, coaching support, and so much more. What’s important is that the service you choose works for you to help you achieve your weight loss goals.

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