At the beginning of August just as I moved house I was sent a month’s
supply of Diet Chef products to try out and report on. In late August once I
had settled in our new home I tried out a full week of using the products and I’m
super pleased to report that in a week I lost 4lb. However, I am now sad to say
that I then went on holiday to Dorset and those Dorset cream teas got the
better of me and the weight went back on (it's the story of my life). I'm just
about to embark on the other three weeks of using the products but I thought
I'd let you know a bit about the diet plan and how it went during that first
week. I’ll report back in October about the rest of my time on the diet.
So what is Diet Chef?
It is a diet plan consisting of three
calorie controlled meals and one snack each day. Your products are delivered to
your door every four weeks and you can choose the meals that suit you and your
tastes. The plan can be followed by both meat eaters and vegetarians as there
is good variety.
The daily meals provide about 1200 calories a day, and Diet Chef
estimate this is about 700 calories less than most people need in a day to sustain
heir weight. You should see a loss of about 1-2 lbs per week depending on your
weight when you start, this gradual loss gives you a better chance at keeping the
weight off.
The plan is suitable for those with a BMI above 24.9 and you use
the free online tool to work yours out.
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| An average days food on the plan |
Is it easy to order?
You choose online which meal options you would like (and there are
lots) and place your order, this was really simple to do and not very time
consuming. If you are not sure what you want you can just go with the
pre-selected options so you can try out many of the meals and find out which
ones suit you.
I was placing my order via the PR agency and the wrong meal
options went through so I had to speak to customer service and I can tell you hand
on heart they were excellent, really knowledgeable and very interested in my
issue. I was told I’d be called back and I was and the correct foods arrived
with me.
As well as telephone customer service/ support there is also email
support and an online live chat option, so you can get things sorted out
quickly and with minimal fuss.
What are the meals like?
All lunch and dinner meals are developed
by their chef to be balanced and tasty but importantly low-calorie. They are
prepared and sealed in a pouch or tray and then pressure cooked to give them a
long shelf life. They do not need to be refrigerated and this makes storage
very easy. I have to say that I did not find them very visually appealing in
their packaging but maybe this is a good thing as personally I have far too
much focus on food and my enjoyment of it and what I really need is to be able
to see it is fuel for my body.
The breakfasts were probably my favourite meal of the day, I tried
different granolas, mueslis and porridges and cannot complain about any one of
them. The muesli and granola were smaller than the portion I would normally
have but when you add fruit and/or yoghurt then you have a good start to the
day. These individual packs were very good at helping me to recognise what a portion
should look like, portion control is definitely an issue I have currently.
For lunch mostly I choose soups but also some milkshakes, this is
because these are my preference, there is also a variety of salads but I did
not fancy them. The soups are very good and the chicken mulligatawny stood out
for me.
Snack wise I love the popcorn and there are various flavours so no
need to be bored. The 2 pack biscuits were also good, especially the fruit ones
and for me I was not so keen on the cereal bars, just a bit dry and bland in my
opinion.
There is a massive variety of dinner options and generally I think
they are very good but I was surprised to find I needed to add pasta, rice,
potatoes and vegetables if I wanted them, most of the main dishes are just the
meat aspect of a meal. I love the chicken curry and it is filling but my
problem comes in that I want naan bread with it! Diet Chef suggest you look at
the serving suggestion photos on the website to see what might be a good idea
to add to your meals, this was useful to me as I would probably have given
myself far more than 20g of dry pasta otherwise. I am learning to bulk up with
salad and vegetables and not carbohydrates.
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| Making spaghetti bolognaise for the family and my Diet Chef equivalent. |
What does it cost?
If you wish to try out Diet Chef the minimum term is 28 days. A four week plan will set you back £245 for the four weeks, this works out to £8.75 per
day. When you add to this that you need to also cost in milk, bread, fruit,
vegetables etc then I suspect you are spending about £10 per day for one
person, which is quite steep. However if you need a short term fix and only
have a small amount of weight to lose then this might be a good option for you
as it will kick start your diet and help shrink your stomach and get you aware
of portion sizes.
It can work out cheaper if you are happy to commit to 12 weeks,
this will cost you £180 per month, working out at £6.43 per day.
It is important to say that you need to be aware of automatic
renewal. Diet Chef change you to a four week rolling plan at the end of your
original order term and whilst I think it is good that they are open about it
being an automatic renewal, the last part about the rolling four week plan is
in lighter text and is easy to miss on the webpage, this feels a bit underhand
if I'm honest.
How long should you follow the
plan for?
Diet Chef recommend signing up to the following plans depending on the amount of weight you wish to lose -
4 weeks – less than ½ stone
8 weeks – 1 - 2 stone
12 weeks – more than 2 stone
For someone like me who realistically has about 6 or 7 stone to
lose I would be on the programme for a very long time and this could end up
costing me a small fortune but if it had the desired effect and got me to the
right weight it might be worth it. Then of course comes the battle of eating
healthy for the rest of my life to sustain that loss. I do think Diet Chef is
much better than many of the diets available nowadays, especially the very low
calories ones with meal replacements as at least I am getting used to eating
smaller portions of real food.
Some benefits they state -
- Calorie
counting and portion control all done for you – making life simpler, giving you
the headspace to be able to diet
- No cooking,
measuring, counting or weighing
- Easy to
prepare, heat and serve in 2-3 minutes – great the ready meals are so quick but
you still have to cook the accompaniments like vegetables, rice etc
- No banned
foods – things like chilli and curries are still allowed which is obviously a
plus point, as often when you deny yourself something you just crave it more
- Encourages
frequent eating to prevent cravings – great for establishing an eating pattern
for those prone to skipping meals and then gorging at other times
Overall, would I buy Diet Chef?
To be honest I don’t
think Diet Chef is the right plan for me but this is because I am currently not
working and thus have time on my hands to plan and prepare healthy meals for
myself and my family. With four other people to feed in the house, I still have
to cook and therefore why would I single myself out and make it obvious to my
impressionable children that I need to diet.
Before I undertook this plan I
spoke to a friend who I knew had done Diet Chef for four weeks. She is far, far
slimmer than me and in her four weeks she lost 10lbs and was pleased with that.
I asked her if she would do Diet Chef again and on the one hand she said yes as
she enjoyed the meals and it was simple and convenient for her as a single
woman but on the other the cost made it less attractive as she is a competent
cook and can make her own meals for far less.
Diet Chef have had over 40,000 customers so far, so there are a lot of people who are very happy with the plan and the success stories are very inspiring.
If you want to find out more
about Diet Chef, you can –
Check out their webpages
Follow them on Twitter
Like them on Facebook
Disclosure: I was provided with 4 weeks of food for the purpose of
this review. They have not instructed me what to write and I remain honest.
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