A supportive weight loss program can be helpful when you want to create healthier habits. However, deciding which weight loss program to use can be difficult. Everyone is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to choosing a health program. It ultimately depends on what suits your individual needs and lifestyle.
Many people find online weight loss programs more convenient and easier to fit into their daily life. To save you tiresome research and help to answer some important questions, we’ve compared two popular online weight loss programs; Be Fit Food and Second Nature.
Be Fit Food and Second Nature both focus on sustainable weight loss through consuming healthy and nutritious meals. Each program offers support from an accredited practising dietitian or nutritionist, and supports you to make holistic lifestyle changes.
However, the main difference between the programs is that Be Fit Food is primarily centred on providing consumers with ready made meals and their nutrition ethos is focused on a Very Low Calorie Diet of 800-1200 calories per day. Be Fit Food also offer the support of a dietitian however, you must book an appointment before speaking with them. All of their services can be found on their online webpage.
In contrast, Second Nature is an app based program and includes a variety of features and tools including recipes, educational articles, exercise ideas/workouts, meal planners and guides. Support is provided from a dedicated dietitian who is available Monday to Friday via a built in group platform.
In terms of nutrition ethos, Second Nature promotes consumption of a wide variety of whole foods. The Second Nature program also looks into more than just nutrition, encompassing mindset, exercise, sleep and stress into part of their education pillars. These are crucial in building a healthy balanced lifestyle.
Trustpilot score
Trustpilot is a platform where consumers can leave reviews and scores reflect overall customer satisfaction.
| Be Fit Food | Second Nature | |
| Star rating |  |
 |
| Score | – / 5 no reviews |
4.8 / 5 read reviews |
Signing up
| Be Fit Food | Second Nature | |
| Free trial | ✗ | ✓ |
| Clear breakdown of costs | ✓ | ✓ |
| Clear cancellation policy | ✓ | ✓ |
| Length of programme | 7-14 Days Depending on which meal package/program chosen |
12 week minimum, then ongoing |
| Easy to cancel | ✓ | ✓ |
| Refund policy | ✓ | Full refund if cancelled within 14 days. After this point, any charges non-refundable. |
| Refer-a-friend scheme | ✓ | ✓ ($10 credit for referring family or friends.) |
| Easy to include family | ✗ | ✓ |
Nutrition
| Be Fit Food | Second Nature | |
| Dietary approach | Very low calorie diet | Lower-carb |
| Caters to vegetarian | ✓ | ✓ |
| Caters to vegan | ✓ | ✓ |
| Vegetarian/vegan recipe section | ✓ | ✓ |
| Supplements encouraged | ✗ | ✗ (Other than Vitamin D.) |
Support
| Be Fit Food | Second Nature | |
| Tailors the plan around diabetes | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tailors the plan around other health issues | ✓ | ✓ |
| Access to registered dietitian or nutritionist | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dietitians based locally in Australia and New Zealand | ✓ | ✓ |
| Assigned to an in-app local support group (timezone friendly) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Weekend support available | ✗ | ✓ |
| Daily support from coach | ✗ | ✓ |
Program features
| Be Fit Food | Second Nature | |
| Encourages daily weigh-ins | ✗ | ✗ |
| Makes you take numerous body measurements | ✗ | ✗ |
| App | ✗ | ✓ |
| Recipe videos | ✗ | ✓ |
| Exercise videos | ✗ | ✓ |
| Tracks steps | ✗ | ✓ |
| Tracks exercise | ✗ | ✓ |
| Tracks water intake | ✗ | ✓ |
| Tracks custom habits | ✗ | ✓ |
| Education of nutrition science | ✓ | ✓ |
| Requires calorie counting | ✓ | ✗ |
| Food diary feature | ✗ | ✓ |
| Meal planning tool | ✓ | ✓ |
| In-app journalling tool | ✗ | ✓ |
Pricing
When programs provide price plans in different formats, it can be hard to accurately compare prices. To make this easier, we have calculated the price of monthly basic price plans on each program to show you how costs compare over 3, 6, and 12 months (as of June 2021). All admin fees are included in these prices.
When comparing the two programs, Second Nature works out to be significantly cheaper then any of the Be Fit Food programs*, not only secondary to cost but also value for money. As mentioned above, Second Nature provides members with a dedicated dietitian throughout the whole program, who offers daily support to members. Support is also offered through the app via recipes, educational articles, tracking tools and meal planners.
Registration to a professional body requires a nationally recognised nutrition or dietetics degree. Weekly face-to-face sessions with a registered dietitian or nutritionist can be very expensive ($40-$100/hour). We have added a column representing this to compare costs (Weekly Nutritionist – WN)
Monthly (basic) digital subscriptions:
| Be Fit Food | Second Nature | Weekly Nutritionist | |
| Registered dietitian or nutritionist coach | ✓ (calls need to be booked in advance.) |
✓ | ✓ |
| The same, personal coach throughout the programme | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Price | $1,000 / month* | $75 / month | $400 / month |
*Be Fit Food programs are designed for 7-14 days and include ready made meals. Due to the different program options the pricing above is based on the average cost of following these programs for a month.
Example nutrition query response
Nutrition is a major part of any weight loss journey. Therefore, it is important to receive accurate and reliable nutrition advice. We asked each program a common nutrition-related query to see how the information provided as an answer compares.
Q: Are eggs bad for your cholesterol? Should I avoid them?
Be Fit Food’s answer:
“No, eggs are fine. In fact, studies have shown that animal cholesterol is much less likely to increase blood cholesterol in comparison to saturated fat in ultra-processed foods. Our meals are based on mediterranean diet, and through losing weight this will help to decrease visceral fat and cholesterol. A general recommendation is 8 eggs per week however this varies for each individual”
Second Nature’s answer:
“Eggs are a rich source of dietary cholesterol. It was previously thought that cholesterol-containing foods increase blood cholesterol and the risk of heart disease and strokes. However, this has not been shown to be the case as dietary cholesterol is poorly absorbed from the digestive system, and if cholesterol is absorbed, the body will produce less of it to balance out (and prevent blood cholesterol levels rising). Therefore, you do not need to be restricted unless recommended to do so from your GP/Healthcare professional. Eggs are among the most nutritious foods on the planet providing good quality protein as well as being loaded with vitamins and minerals.”
Take home message
- When choosing a weight loss program, it is important to consider what would fit into your lifestyle and help you achieve your goals.
- For those who find face-to-face weight loss meetings uncomfortable or inconvenient, online and digitally led programs are a better option.
- Be Fit Food and Second Nature are both predominantly online.
- Second Nature provides an in-app platform with access to a registered dietitian, available Monday to Friday. Be Fit Food primarily provides ready made meals, with no in-app group support, and the additional task of booking in your own consultations with a dietitian.
- The Second Nature app gives you access to recipes, exercise videos, meal planning tools and allows you to track exercise, sleep, steps, water intake and custom habits
- Second Nature provides you with an education of nutrition science, allowing you to make informed decisions yourself and develop a healthy relationship with food in the long-term.
