Saturday, October 31, 2015

Exante: Two Week Results & Review


Yesterday was the last day of my Exante diet. If you missed my previous posts explaining all about the trial, you can catch up with my Intro post and week one update in the archives.

I have been following Exante's VLCD diet for two weeks and thought I would share a little about the food and diet itself, as well as my results and thoughts from the diet.

The Food

Having done a similar diet before, I was prepared for the food and how it would arrive. Think space food. This diet comes with all food in sachet form (with a couple in pots) and all the food I was sent required minimal preparation before eating. My food box included (multiples of);

  • Sweet & Sour Noodles
  • Porridge Oats
  • Indian Style Curry With Rice
  • Pasta Ham & Mushroom Soup
  • Vegetable Soup
  • Indian Dahl Pot
  • Vanilla Cereal
  • Maple Syrup Pancakes
  • Gooey Chocolate Pudding
  • Beef & Black Bean Pot
  • Blueberry & Raspberry Pancakes
  • Cheese & Bacon Breakfast Eggs
  • Breakfast Eggs
  • Cheese & Bacon Savoury Scone Mix
  • Burger Mix
  • Sausage Mix
  • Pizza Mix

I was also sent a few milkshakes that I will be reviewing separately, as they were not part of the initial trial, I'll come back to that later.


As you can see from the food list above, there was a great selection of food, many of which you wouldn't expect as diet food, let alone as part of a very low calorie diet. I have not been a huge fan of meal bars in the past, so we decided I wouldn't trial these and also the same for the milkshakes, though after week one I was keen to have some for a quick simple meal - kids not always giving me time to prep my own food can make things difficult some days.

The highs - For me the best foods were  the Indian Dahl pot and curry, as well as both the soups. All of these savoury options tasted like real meals and I could happily eat these regularly, especially as they are good for you and make you shed weight! I did really like the sausage mix, but this, the scone, burger and pizza I felt required something extra to be a 'meal' as they weren't totally appetising on their own. If you have been following my progress on Instagram you will have noticed a lot of roasted kale appearing alongside my meals. I have only recently started making roasted kale and I just love it - it's quick and tasty and I paired it with the food for these reasons and because it is filling and low in calories, so I knew it wouldn't affect my progress too greatly. I did add the odd extra touch here and there and in all honesty did have a few extras I shouldn't have, bad habits are so hard to get out of some days. I did try really hard though and had a pretty decent loss of over 7lbs in week one. I really struggled to drink the adequate volume of water, which I felt, and know-  really held me back, This was no reflection of the diet at all, purely that for some reason I just couldn't get in the habit most days, especially at work, where I know I am unable to nip to the loo when needed - I didn't want to get caught out!


I found the food all really easy to prepare and there was a really good mix of sweet and savoury on offer for any mood I was in. Sweetness wise, I loved the gooey chocolate pudding and vanilla cereal best of all - both super sweet and you wouldn't know they were diet food! I wasn't massive on the pancakes as they do have 'the taste' that protein shakes etc have, but they weren't bad and with a little low calorie syrup they were really good. I notice that Exante have launched their own syrup now, so for me this would be a must buy if you are getting the pancakes! I would also choose the maple syrup variety over the raspberry & blueberry, as they tasted a lot more like the real thing.

The lows for me were the breakfast eggs, as they were a very small portion and I didn't really enjoy the flavour. I enjoyed them most on days where I had missed a meal, meaning I could have them alongside something else. As with everything, it's all down to taste so you may love them - me not so much. Generally though, I was really surprised how much I enjoyed the food, how full I felt and how much I didn't crave 'real' food after a couple of days. It's hard in the first couple of days, particularly when you are preparing children's food all day but very soon it becomes less appealing and I found that particularly on the days I had milkshakes - I would rather have had my milkshake!

The pizza mixes were OK - I added a little Parmesan for flavour and some shredded roast kale for colour. I thought the way they are prepared is pretty genius, but for me I would probably rather have soup or a shake for the effort that goes into preparing them. It was really nice to have this as an option though and visually it made me feel a lot better about sitting next to my husband eating his home made real pizza! Again, these bases have 'the taste', but I love the fact you can have anything vaguely resembling a pizza on a VLCD diet, a lot of work has gone into the products to mix it up for us slimmers which is great.


My advise if you are ordering is to just get the biggest variety you can initially. I think just doing shakes could get dull after a few days, likewise I struggled with just the 'food' for a few days, so a mix of everything is definitely the way forward and it's good to have a 'quick grab' option for busy days or to have at work. I read a lot of the reviews on the Exante site before my food came and I was a little worried about some of the comments, but it just goes to show that sometimes you need to put a little more effort into the preparation and presentation to enjoy your food more and it is definitely down to taste. I loved some items that others had slated so I would say you just don't know until you try, but I would definitely recommend trying! Some people seem to expect the food to taste exactly like the real thing - it doesn't, it's a diet! Shake off that presumption and you won't be disappointed.

The results!

I have been really pleased with my results on Exante. I haven't found the diet hard at all and without going near the scales you can tell you are losing weight after a day or two which feels great! Here are my results after two weeks on Exante. I should add - I haven't followed it to the letter, I have cheated at times (sons birthday did not help matters) and I didn't drink all the water I should have or do as much extra exercise as I would have liked. Phew - confessions/excuses over, now the results.


In total over the two weeks I lost 9 1/4 pounds, 13cm from my waist and 11cm from my hips. I'm pretty blown away by the measurements, especially from my hips! The weight loss is really good too - but I know it would have been better had I managed to stay on track 100% and drink all my water, my fault entirely and no excuses.

Verdict

I am really pleased with the results overall. I found the service provided by the team to be brilliant, my products arrived quickly and safely, well packaged in good condition. The team at Exante have been really supportive and very responsive to questions and I have found their comments and posts really motivating throughout. I would certainly recommend Exante and I would use their products again. The prices are really good, though it makes sense to buy in bulk to save a little more, I would prefer to buy a week at a time so that it made less of an impact on our finances, especially when shopping for a family too. Exante would work out so much cheaper week by week though than normal food, so I can't argue with that!

Exante have a brilliant selection of foods, so many that I am still to try - yet over the two weeks I didn't particularly bored of the food (only a couple of products) so could have easily carried on and lost further weight.

Below you can see my picture showing my weight loss over the two weeks. It's pretty subtle but I definitely lost a bit of wobble and my clothes are noticeably baggier! In fact, my 'slim into' jeans are now far too big, I love this! Overall I have now lost five stone and I am so pleased Exante were able to help me shift the last part. I have just under three stone to go now until my target and I feel really motivated again! Onwards and downwards. Exante are soon to launch some more great products and ranges which I will hopefully be reviewing too, as well as my write up on their new shakes and special festive treats! Watch this space slimmers...

You can view all the Exante foods, read their diet plans, success stories and more on their website.



Thanks for reading,

Wafflemama





Disclosure - I was sent two weeks food samples for the purposes of review. All thoughts and words are my own.