Diet Chef Hamper > Reviews (33)

Introduction

Firstly, let me apologise for another lengthy review (for those of you who read my Cambridge Diet review, you’ll know by now that I love a detailed review!). I understand that ‘short and sweet’ reviews are normally preferred but I wanted to ensure that I captured everything necessary in this review for anyone thinking of trying Diet Chef. I have included everything that I would have liked to know before I started out and even if it helps just one person make an informed decision, then the time spent writing will have been worth it! If you make it to the end, congratulations! If not, then thanks for reading as much as you could handle! I appreciate it!

What is Diet Chef?

Diet Chef is an online service which sends you a hamper full of chef-prepared ready meals for dinner, soups or shakes for lunch, granola or porridge for breakfast and healthy snacks. Diet Chef comes in 1200 calorie a day hampers (mainly for women) and 1500 calorie a day hampers (mainly for men) so you will be burning fat at a rate of approx 800 calories a day.

What do you get?

Every hamper contains breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack for each day. The meals are prepared by chefs and then sealed in a pouch and cooked in a pressure cooker. The pouches can then be stored in a cupboard and do not need to be refrigerated. All you need to do is heat them up in a microwave or on a hob. You also get a 24 page guide to the diet covering how the diet works, drinks, fruit & vegetables, exercise, help for eating out, days off, maintenance once you’ve lost the weight and lots of hints and tips.

What don’t you get?

You don’t get milk, fresh fruit or vegetables in the hamper so will need to buy these separate if you wish. Diet Chef recommends that you supplement their meals with some fresh fruit and vegetables and a milk allowance (approx 250mls) each day.

How to Purchase

You visit the website www.dietchef.co.uk to order your hamper. There are a few options to choose from including Weekly and Monthly payment options (please see the cost section below for details). The website is very easy to use and it only takes moments to place an order. You simply complete a short personal profile which will tell you how many calories you need, choose your hamper and payment option, then choose your breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks from an extensive list, enter your credit or debit card details and your hamper will be delivered within two days via City Link next day delivery courier service.

The Cost

There are a number of different options which also vary depending on how many calories you need:

1200 Calorie Hampers

7 day hamper - £47.50 + £4.95 shipping (approx £7.49 per day) - if you choose this option, Diet Chef automatically place you on a recurring weekly service which means they will continue to debit your card and send you another hamper the following week and so on until you log into your Diet Chef account and cancel it.

28 day hamper - £190 + £4.95 shipping (approx £6.96 per day) – this option is on a pay as you go basis and you just order hampers as and when you want them with no commitment.

35 day hamper - £190 + free shipping (approx £5.42 per day) – this option commits you to the Diet Chef plan for a minimum of two months, after which you can then cancel. Each monthly hamper consists of 28 days food plus 7 days free, giving you a total of 35 days food. Over the two months, you will receive a total of 70 days worth of food for a total cost of £380.

1500 Calorie Hampers

7 day hamper - £52.50 + £4.95 shipping (approx £8.20 per day) - if you choose this option, Diet Chef automatically place you on a recurring weekly service which means they will continue to debit your card and send you another hamper the following week and so on until you log into your Diet Chef account and cancel it.

28 day hamper - £210 + £4.95 shipping (approx £7.67 per day) – this option is on a pay as you go basis and you just order hampers as and when you want them with no commitment.

35 day hamper - £210 + free shipping (approx £6 per day) – this option commits you to the Diet Chef plan for a minimum of two months, after which you can then cancel. Each monthly hamper consists of 28 days food plus 7 days free, giving you a total of 35 days food. Over the two months, you will receive a total of 70 days worth of food for a total cost of £420.I only wanted to try Diet Chef for one week to see if it really lived up to all the hype and whether it was worth the money, therefore I purchased the 1200 calorie 7 day hamper which cost £47.50 plus £4.95 shipping (approx £7.49 per day). After placing my order, I then logged straight into my account and cancelled the next delivery which was planned for the following week.

The Food

There are 9 breakfasts, 21 lunches, 33 dinners and 10 snacks to choose from, including a large range of vegetarian and gluten-free options. The photos of the meals on the website look very nice but as with most advertisements for food, the photo can often look nicer than the actual product so I have listed below the different items that I have actually tried and given my opinion on them:

Breakfasts

• Original Porridge (40g sachet - 154 calories) - basically just normal porridge which I made up with water but can be made with milk if desired. It was nice with a sprinkle of artificial sweetener on.
• Cocoa Nib Porridge (40g sachet – 159 calories) – sounded and looked nice on the website but in reality, the Cocoa Nibs weren’t very nice. I thought they would be like chocolate chips but in fact, they are nothing of the sort. They are very hard and when I bit into one, it tasted very strange. I ended up picking the Cocoa Nibs out and eating the porridge plain instead.

Lunches

• Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup (300g pouch – 147 calories) – a nice thick consistency, this soup was quite nice although I couldn’t actually taste any coconut so wasn’t as sweet as I had expected. Very tasty!
• Chorizo & Bean Soup (300g pouch – 162 calories) – mmmm, this was really nice! A thick, hearty soup with lots of beans and some small chunks of Chorizo sausage, it was more like a stew than a soup as it was so filling!

• Spicy Beef & Tomato Soup (300g pouch – 165 calories) – a little bit too spicy for my liking and the tomato was overpowering…plus I only found one tiny bit of beef amongst all the tomato! Not overly impressed with this one although I did eat it (because I was so hungry!)
• Butternut Squash Soup (300g pouch – 135 calories) – this was quite watery and smelt more flavoursome than it actually tasted. That said, it was still a nice filling soup and tasted fresh. Beware, this contains garlic and leaves…erm…garlic breath! Have some mints ready for afterwards!
• Oxtail Soup (300g pouch – 144 calories) – a nice soup, tasted very similar to a can of Heinz Oxtail Soup.

Dinners

• Macaroni Cheese (250g pouch – 247 calories) – consisted of small pasta tubes and a very thick, rich, cheesy sauce which I liked. The flavour reminded me of melted burger cheese which is quite ‘synthetic’ but I liked this!
• Chicken Casserole (300g pouch – 219 calories) – a surprisingly nice meal. It didn’t look very appetising but once heated up and served with some veg, it made for a pleasant filling meal. It didn’t contain much chicken though and was bulked out with potato instead.
• Beef Casserole (300g pouch – 177 calories) – wow, this totally exceeded my expectations! Initially I thought it looked a bit watery but it had a generous helping of potato and the beef was tender, not at all fatty. I served mine with boiled vegetables and it was lovely and filling!
• Salmon & Vegetable Bake (300g pouch – 234 calories) – I really liked this! A creamy consistency and a good amount of salmon. Again, I had it with vegetables.

Snacks

* Nairns Chocolate Chip GI Biscuits (20g pack/2 biscuits – 90 calories) – the only ‘branded’ item in the hamper, these little oat biscuits were really nice and just sweet enough to satisfy a mid-afternoon sugar craving.
Note: The lunches and dinners are provided in pouches that are designed to stand up in the microwave whilst they are being cooked BUT…the pouches are actually taller than the internal dimension in a conventional microwave so I could not actually cook the food in the pouch as directed (they can’t be laid flat either as you have to open the top of the pouch first). I therefore had to transfer the contents to a bowl and cover with a microwavable lid in order to heat them up. Just thought I would mention this as it caught me off guard when I tried to heat up my first lunch at work!

The Results

On day one, I weighed in at 12st 5lb (173lbs). After 7 days of eating just the Diet Chef meals plus 250ml of Skimmed Milk and some additional fruit and vegetables each day, I weighed in at 12st 0lb (168lbs). Needless to say, I was very happy with a 5lb loss in 7 days.

I can’t say I wasn’t hungry on this diet because that would be a lie…but then again, going from eating everything in sight (and I mean everything!) to eating just what is in the hamper, its little wonder I felt hungry. As the week went on, I felt less and less hungry and have no doubt that after another week on this diet, I would have felt fine.

Overall Verdict

I must say that I do feel I was caught up in the hype of the advertising for Diet Chef. It is so easy to fall into the trap of thinking how easy and convenient it is, especially when the cost (for me) initially worked out no more than I would spend in a normal week of shopping and take-aways (pre-diet!). Being useless in the kitchen, this diet really appealed to me mainly for its convenience. However, since following this plan, I have worked out that I could easily replicate this diet for a lot cheaper, without sacrificing all of the convenience (only a little of it). For example, in a supermarket I can buy:

• 12 x Oatso Simple Porridge Sachets - £1.99 (30g sachet – approx 100 calories)
• Heinz Weight Watchers soup – £0.67 (295g can – approx 100 calories)
• Weight Watchers Ready Meals (fresh or frozen – approx 350 calories) – approx £1.50
• 6 x Nairns Chocolate Chip GI Biscuits – £0.99 (20g pack/2 biscuits – 90 calories)

Across one week, just the items above would total approx £2.51 per day and would leave me with enough money remaining to bump up my calories with additional fruit, vegetables, perhaps a wholemeal roll with my soup and additional milk for added calcium.

That said, Diet Chef worked for me and helped me to lose 5lbs in just 7 days so providing it is cost effective for you, it’s worth a try. Personally I wouldn’t commit to the monthly plan until you’ve tried the food first as I don’t think it will be to everyone’s liking. My advice would be to try it for a week and then go from there. Good luck!