To Thelma Kirlew, the dinner delivered to her door was akin to a meal at a top restaurant: Grilled bison, sweet potato soup and peach cobbler.

''I thought I was eating a prized piece of beef,'' Kirlew said of the Pritikin meal.

Kirlew was one of five groups of South Florida dieters who taste-tested diet meals for The Miami Herald that were delivered to their homes. (We paid the expense; we've been tracking the dieters' quest to lose weight in Tropical Life since January.)

The diet meal delivery market has grown exponentially over the past five years, topping $1 billion in sales last year, a 33.5 percent jump over 2006, according to Marketdata, a Tampa firm that tracks the weight-loss industry. Big names like NutriSystem and Jenny Craig are flanked by EDiets Express, Dine Wise and others. (We ordered from Chef's Diet, Fresh Diet, NutriSystem, Pritikin and Shape Lovers.)

''The industry has grown rapidly and attracted new companies,'' says John LaRosa of Marketdata, who cites time-stressed parents and executives -- in addition to dieters -- as the target market.

While NutriSystem is driving much of the momentum -- sales at the company jumped 35 percent to $776 million last year -- others have grown too.

The 5-year-old Chef's Diet ''quadrupled its sales'' in 2007 after going to a nationwide operation in 2004, said Daniel Taugher, director of public relations. The company, a private firm that doesn't report its revenues publicly, employs more than 300.

''The diet delivery industry as a whole goes back to the last three to four years,'' Taugher says, citing pop culture's obsession with looks and celebrities hawking diets. ``We've never been more focused on celebrities than in the last five years . . . and that extends to Middle America.''

PRICE OF CONVENIENCE

Convenience costs, however. For the industry as a whole, prices range from $300 to $1,500 per month, depending on the meal plan, according to Marketdata.

''It's starting out slow this year because of the economy,'' LaRosa acknowledges.

And in this era of organics and in buying foods from local purveyors, packaged meals do not appeal to everyone.

Two of our testers -- Janet Carabelli and Glenn Terry -- had reservations.

Carabelli, 48, liked the food from Fresh Diet but the El Portal woman prefers to cook her own meals. To Terry, 60, the Chef's Diet meals shipped from New York in frozen containers was not geared toward his organic lifestyle.

Nearly two-thirds of the clients of these firms are women, according to Marketdata. Their core customer: A 44-year-old woman weighing 210 pounds who wants to lose about 60 pounds. She stays on a plan for two or three months, returning once or twice during the year, according to Marketdata.

The programs work by limiting portion size, calories and building a meal around protein, complex carbs and good fats. Chef's Diet, for example, aims for a daily total of 1,200 to 1,400 calories for women and 1,400 to 1,600 for men, says Philip Andriano, Chef's Diet corporate executive chef. (The average daily recommended calories are 1,800-2,000 for women and 2,400 for men.)

The complex carbs, protein and ''good'' fats ratio is akin to the Zone Diet's 40-30-30 percent rule.

''We want people to get healthy. We want to teach them so that they can wean themselves from the program and do it on their own. That's the goal,'' Andriano says.

EXTRA SERVINGS

Most nutrition experts say the meals are well-balanced; the problems occur when people eat more than their daily allotment.

''What these companies offer would work if that's all the patients ate,'' said Dr. Atul Madan, chief of the Division of Laparoendoscopic and Bariatric surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. ``Each one is different, but most have a three-meal with a snack plan. If you have [that] and go out and have six beers it doesn't work.''

The plans' smaller portions may leave some wanting more, though a balanced diet should minimize hunger pangs. ''If in every meal you eat there is some protein, some good carb and some good fat, you're going to keep your blood sugar level balanced,'' says Dr. Carol Forman Helerstein, a clinical nutritionist with Chef's Diet.

''It was good,'' Kirlew, 50, said of her Pritikin experience. ``Something I would actually eat if I could afford it.''

Desonta Holder and Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.

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