The allure of the Diet Chef diet is that it does all the hard work for you – counts calories, cooks and delivers your ready meals for dinner, soups for lunch, granola for breakfast and healthy snacks to your door. The meals add up to a total of 1200 calories a day and are low GI to keep you feeling full for longer – and the unique selling point is that unlike typical celebrity endorsed products, Diet Chef is not ridiculously expensive. It costs £47.50 for a weekly hamper or £190 for a month’s supply – probably not too much more than you’re spending on food now.

In theory, all you need to do is microwave your meals and watch the weight melt away. But is it really that easy? 

Diet Chef: First Impressions

I was excited to have all my meals prepared and not have to think about what to eat or cook, and I couldn’t wait to see if it could help me lose the stone I’d put on over the last year and hadn’t been able to budge.

But I did have doubts about how the diet would work, and if I’d be able to stick to it: I was worried about the breakfasts as I usually eat a big breakfast and find cereal boring, so I didn’t know how I’d do with the Granola Crunch. I was also worried about how the food would taste, since it’s vacuum packed and doesn’t need to be refrigerated – and for the same reason I was sceptical that the meals would give me my five a day and all the nutrients I needed. And I was interested to see how easy it would be to fit into daily life, as you’d have to break the diet if you ate out with friends or wanted to drink alcohol.

When the food arrived, it looked much nicer than I expected. The packaging looks great and the food looks very healthy but still tasty. I was pleased to see the likes of sausage casserole and pork meatballs, both with potato, which apparently is low-GI so allowed. It also came with an instruction page explaining some of my concerns – turns out you’re allowed to add fruit and vegetables to your meals, and you can also swap meals for eating out as long as you stick to low-calorie options. Alcohol is banned though, and since my birthday was coming up right in the middle of the month that presented a problem!

Before I began, I used a machine in Boots to find my exact weight. For 70p you can find out your weight, BMI and body fat percentage simply by standing on the screen and holding the sensor handles. My BMI was “overweight” and my fat percentage was “poor” – the worst level you can get!

Diet Chef: The Diet  

The Granola breakfast was better than I expected, and within three days I was completely addicted – I’ll definitely continue buying it in the future. On the other hand, the Nakd Raw Wholefoods Bars took a while to get used to. You can tell they’re healthy and they’re a sweet kick without the sugar slump, but at first they didn’t seem like a “treat”. Now though, I’ve changed my mind, and I’d recommend trying them if you’re looking for a low calorie snack that keeps you feeling full – although they don’t really dispel serious chocolate cravings.

The microwave soups were quick and tasty, although I was a bit sick of them by the end of the month. The ready meals were really good and so easy to heat, and there were so many options to choose from I didn’t get bored. And strangely I didn’t often find myself craving bread or chocolate, which I definitely would have if I’d cut them out but continued with my normal diet – I think it’s because I always felt full, and I knew that if I had wanted to I could have had them instead of a ready meal. Plus, I found that for the first time I was actually getting my full 5 fruits and vegetables a day, which I wasn’t when I was too busy eating chocolate and junk food.

Diet Chef: The Verdict

I’ve lost 6 pounds on this diet and am just back in the healthy BMI range and “average” fat percentage range, but more importantly I feel so much healthier and I’m getting my 5 fruits and vegetables a day. I also think I’ve probably lost a bit more weight than the scales say, as I’ve stepped up the exercise and probably gained a fair bit of muscle, which is heavier. Our Diet Chef competition winner, who also tried out the diet, did far better than I did and lost a massive 1.5 stone!

The one downfall of this diet is that it’s flexible, but only to a point. It’s tricky only being able to eat exactly what you’re given, as work dos, lunches, spontaneous ice cream cravings and especially nights out with friends can throw it all seriously out of whack, and although you are allowed to substitute ready meals for low-calorie meals from restaurants, that’s not enough when you have occasions like birthdays and holidays. I also found it extremely difficult to attempt to give up alcohol, especially over my birthday weekend and at the races – and nights out are banned unless you stay away from all alcoholic drinks, full-sugar sodas, juices and sneaky midnight snacks.

However, if you are able to set aside a month and cancel all social commitments except the occasional alcohol-free low-fat meal, it’s the perfect diet for quick and effortless weightloss and an ideal kick-start to help you lose your excess baggage and give you the motivation you need to keep it off.   

Diet Chef costs £47.50 for a weekly hamper or £190 for a month’s supply. Visit www.dietchef.co.uk or call 020 8242 6273.