I've been using growfit.fi for a month now. Unlike with review of similar services, which I did back in Russia, I did not feel like I have enough mental capacity to review every dish every day (since I am still adapting to new job), but I thought giving a summary review after a month is still warranted.
Competitors
Firstly, as far as I know this is the only meal plan service like this in Finland. Yes, there is FuelMe, but FuelMe is not a meal plan, even though they do have a subscription. Depending on what you buy in FuelMe you will either cover your caloric needs for 3-4 days you will need to buy something extra for a each day of the subscription. Anton&Anton is somewhat similar, too, but there is no "cycling" of the meals. Yes, there is Feelia ruokakauppa, but again this is not a meal plan, you select meals, and get several portions of those, which probably work better for families.
From what I know, Viikox Food are probably the closest competitor, since they also limit the meals based on daily calories, but you get only 3 days worth of meals, and even within those 3 days you get some of the meals twice.
With Growfit's Balance menu I am getting 5 meals per day for 20 days (4 weeks without weekends) for 500 euros. There are no repeats within 2 weeks. That is you get 50 unique (kind of) meals.
The food is good. I would say that the melas may not be as "hearty" as what FuelMe has, but properly spacing the meals through-out the day does keep me properly sated with only minimal sense of hunger, and in most cases I feel satisfied after eating.
Food
The uniqueness of the melas is not that unique, though, because they use rice a lot. I mean a lot. There are definitely days where you have 2 meals with rice, and I think there are 2 days where you have 3 meals with rice. And only 2 of the meals have the rice cooked with uniqueness (one is with tomatoes, the other is with some herbs), but it is still classic jasmine rice.
I understand why (it's the cheapest option), but I would not mind seeing other cereals (bulgur, couscous (which is used in 1 meal), barley, buckwheat, millet) or lentils more often. I'd say that in most of the meals rice can be safely replaced with something else, and meal will not lose anything, and may even become better. At the lest, I'd welcome more diversity in terms of what rice is used, since there are quite a few options there, too.
I also feel like there may not be enough vegetables. I am comparing to my own cooked meals and to FuelMe, where portion of the vegetables was roughly the same as portion of whatever cereal or pasta. You do get diverse vegies (cauliflower and broccoli included), and I do understand why there is more rice (it fills you up better), but I think there could be more. In fact, if rice for some of the meals was cooked in like 75/25 mix with vegies - that could both diversify and increase vegies' intake. Pirkka and Findus have some frozen vegetable mixes, which are relatively cheap (especially Pirkka) and can work with rice quite nicely.
And we are definitely missing out on fish. There is only 1 meal with tuna (tuna burrito or something), while it is recommended to have at least 2 meals with seafood per week. This is a bit funny, actually, since the picture for balanced menu shows us a hearty piece of salmon. On the other hand, there are soups and there are meals, that can be considered desserts.
Benefits
These are more like personal preferences, though, rather than outright critique. One of the reasons that I prefer similar services, because I want to get as diverse food as possible, because it dramatically decreases the mental load, compared to when you need to cook for yourself. I know some people enjoy that, but me - not so much. I can cook, and and I can cook good, but I prefer to do that on special occasion, rather than on regular basis. It is also difficult for me to sustain proper caloric balance, too.
Speaking of... Within the month I lost maybe a kilo. Or rather I lost almost 2 kilos, but then gained one back. Not necessarily because of the food, though. Due to being unemployed and being tight in terms of money I have been undereating for a long time (1400-1600 calories at best out of 1800 minimum for healthy diet at my body size), so I would account this to my body still adapting itself to new flow.
Service
The service, that is ability to order stuff and delivery and communication with the company's representatives is good. They even allow you to turn in the plastic containers, which is an eco-friendly approach, since the more you can reuse - the better.
I think it would definitely benefit from personal cabinet, though, even if it's limited to similar scope as FuelMe. At the least, that would help track and manage your subscription in a more centralized way. It could also allow a digital menu. I mean, yes, the team can just publish it on website, but from what I understand there is possibility for customization in case of allergies, and then viewing menu from the cabinet would be a bit more convenient. That could also allow to print only minimum stickers for the meals (like day and meal numbers only), while all the details (ideally including a barcode for registering in calory tracking apps) could be fully digital.
Having support for Edenred and other lunch benefits like FuelMe does would be awesome as well, and if personal cabinet is being developed, it would be possible to turn money from lunch benefits into "points" visible in cabinet and used as sort of "discount" for purchases. FuelMe is doing similar thing, but manually.
Having meal plans for 7 days per week would be an even better thing. I think with the amount of food you get right now something like 600-700 euros would be quite reasonable. If there is more diversity as per comments above, especially if somehow there are no repetitions for a month, the higher price would be justifiable. It will still be expensive compared to when you cook for yourself, of course, but considering how much time and mental strength you will save.
In the end, I do recommend them, if you do have the money and if you have difficulties maintaining a well-balanced diet like me.
