I'm not someone who diets...ever. Usually when I want to loose weight I hit the gym a bit more and usually use a fitness app such as my fitness pal to keep an eye on what I'm eating. I never count calories or have ever felt the need to restrict myself. Up until now the the biggest change I have ever made when trying to loose weight was swapping my morning gingerbread lattes for gingerbread soy milk lattes.
However recently before my holiday I tested out the Exante diet plan for a week.The diet promised to be hassle free. No calorie counting, no measuring out and weighing foods and a includes a large selection of meals including pizza and pancakes.
With all the hard work done for me, I thought it would be a breeze; eat pizza for a week,chow down on pancakes, then sit back and watch the muffing top melt.
For lunch I opted for spag bol. It was simple to make just add water to the powder formula and microwave, meaning it was easy to make at work. Despite looking like, well baby food it tasted ok. It wasn't however the most filling. The pictures shown on the Exante website of full bowls, must have used about 5 packets to make that quantity.
For evening I made up one of the pizzas.The pizza tastes a lot like a flat bread with a more cakey like texture than a pizza crust. The tomato sauce to add as a topping seemed to have some kind of quorn like texture in it, I suppose to add a meat like flavour. It didn't look the most appealing again but it tasted ok.
As the days went on, I seemed to have gone through my favourite meals (typically the lunches in the form of shepherds pie and pasta carbonara) and found the plan harder. I notices quite a few of the milkshakes left a weird after taste mostly the honeycomb and really wasn't enjoying the plan. Despite the large food range of foods to choose from I was starting to feel restricted.
I also found I did become increasingly hungry, although I suppose I had to accept this on a very low calorie diet plan. I found I was increasingly "cheating" by sneaking in extras, such as a chunk of bread with the soup and toppings with the pizzas.
Although the meal plans do take into account extras such as snack bars (I really enjoyed the peanut butter bar) so I was able to eat a little more before the gym and maintain my lifestyle.
Overall despite not been able to fully stick to the diet plan for the full week, I did notice I lost a few pounds. In terms of variety compared to other meal plans there's a huge range. I would advise if this is something you want to try to order a variety of all meals to see which ones taste best to you as quite a few left a bitter taste. The pancakes were the most disappointing and completely burn to the pan, although the the pizzas proved more versatile (I'd recommend making them into flat breads for lunch times and on the go) and easy to cook.
Have you tried the Exante diet?
What was your experience?
SAMMIE