My Fit Foods has closed all of its stores, including eight in the Dallas area.

The Austin-based company left a message on its website last night. The meal replacement retailer has been closing stores and left the Chicago market last fall. At one time, it had 80 stores in five states.

Founded in 2006, My Fit Foods was a pioneer with its concept of selling its prepared meals from its own branded stores. It sold individual-size breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks that made calorie counting easy.

Other companies got into the business, including grocery stores, as a growing number of customers preferred fresh to frozen meals. H-E-B's Central Market has expanded its ready-to-go individual meals in the prepared chef area of its stores.

Dallas-based Simply Fit Meals has eight stores in North Texas located in Allen, Dallas, Fort Worth, Frisco and Plano.

Austin-based competitor Snap Kitchen opened more modern stores and has had more aggressive marketing. Snap Kitchen became an approved Whole30 diet program provider and partnered with delivery services such as Instacart. Snap Kitchen has 48 stores in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Chicago and Philadelphia. It's also grown through a partnership with Whole Foods Market in which it added counters in many of the grocer's stores, including in Richardson.

The message that My Fit Foods put up on its website Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017.

Sunday's announcement came after My Fit Foods emailed customers last week with some store closings, including the store at Royal Lane and Preston Road in Dallas. Last Wednesday, it sent out an email saying Preston Royal had closed and it included a coupon for a free meal to one of its other seven stores in the area.

Here's a list of the eight local stores that now have closed:

Dallas, 5706 E. Mockingbird Lane

Dallas, 4015 Lemmon Ave.

Dallas, 5960 Royal Lane

Flower Mound, 2550 Cross Timbers Road

Frisco, 3580 Preston Road

Las Colinas, 7979 N. MacArthur Blvd.

Plano, 2100 Dallas Parkway

Southlake, 2600 E. Southlake Blvd.

The company's official history says My Fit Foods was founded in Houston in the apartment kitchen of founder Mario Mendias, a former Marine and Houston personal trainer. He started cooking meals for his clients who were too busy to shop and cook. In 2007, Mendias opened the first My Fit Foods retail store. The menu evolved with meals and snacks focused on lean protein, low glycemic carbohydrates and heart healthy fats.

In 2013, the company moved to Austin and, according to reports in the Austin American-Statesman, Mendias was battling in court with investors. He had been arrested on drug charges in 2015. Back then the company said that Mendias had not been part of the day-to-day operations and owned a small minority interest in the company.

My Fit Foods hasn't been reached for comment.

Twitter: @MariaHalkias