Hi. I've been doing Diet Chef for 3 weeks and have lost 10lbs. Here are my views of it up to now:
-It's really easy as I don't have to think about food much at all. I found with things like SW and WW that the more I had to think about what I could eat in a day, the more likely I was to give up. With this diet, I've found that if I allow myself one "bad" meal a week, that keeps me on track.
- The food, on the whole, is lovely. A couple of things are a bit dodgy - I'm not particularly keen on the haddock or venison sausages. Meatballs, chilli and the soups are wonderful. I'd advise that you order one week at first to find out what you like - I ordered 4 weeks and am left with lots of venison sausages I won't eat.
- I was hungry for the first couple of days, but that soon passed.
- The diet seems to be a bit "thrown together" - some of the advice isn't well thought out and some is a bit conflicting - eg on one sheet that came with the diet it told me to eat bananas, apples and oranges, but another said to avoid them - simple things I would expect a diet organisation to get right. I'm also not convinced that the stories on the website are genuine, as it strikes me as a very new diet. (I may be wrong, but that's my impression). The food isn't specifically "diet" food - it is more sort of gourmet ready-meals. I think they must have seen that they are relatively low-calorie and got the idea of using them in a diet. That's not a problem in itself, but the website does lead you to believe it's a specifically-designed diet. The only evidence I can see of low GI, (as they claim to have based the diet on), is the granola and possibly the snack bars.
- You are allowed 1200 calories a day, and the food provided has much fewer, so you have some leeway. I tend to have some Smash (100 cals a portion) with dinner to fill it out, plus plenty of fruit - I do eat bananas etc!
- It has shown me what a normal portion is, and maybe eventually I will be able to start thinking for myself again about food without getting wound up about it.
Having said all this, the diet is working well for me at the moment. I'm going to have a couple of weeks' break from it and then order another 4 weeks. I am mostly enjoying it, so whilst it is working and until I get fed up of eating the same things all the time, I'll go for it.
I'd recommend it if you would like to minimise thinking about food, have access to a microwave at lunch and dinner and aren't a vegetarian (only one veg choice for dinner). Sorry I've gone on a bit - but I know there are very few opinions to find on this diet, so I hope it helps.