For the last 9 weeks or so I have been on a diet, it wasn't really a choice, my wife discovered DietChef and make the decision for me (I guess she thinks I am too fat), which is probably a good thing as I doubt I would have done it for myself 
, but I have to say that I was actually pleasantly surprised, so I decided to write a review.
I have always fallen into the too busy/lazy category, I like cooking, but I really cannot be bothered with calculating how many calories in everything I eat, weighing out exact portions, yada yada, this always seems like too much hassle when I get home from work and just takes the pleasure out of cooking.
Anyone who knows me well is probably already aghast, Russ eating ready meals, surely not?
This would be a valid reaction being as I am pretty good cook myself and lover of good food, I generally despise ready meals, with the odd exception, I think they are generally hideous foul tasting trays of slop. And (low fat) diet meals are usually even worse, I have tried weight watchers before and their food really is quite unpalatable.
DietChef is different, in that the meals are not really low fat diet meals, but rather they are simply calorie controlled portions so that you do not exceed 1200 or 1500 calories per day. They are normal every day food such as cottage pie, sausages and onion, meatballs, lasagne, chilli, curry and a lot more, the selection is actually quite massive and the majority of the meals are actually pretty good, certainly better than your supermarket ready meals, depending on your taste of course.
What you get
Breakfast
You get a choice of Granola or Porridge in various flavours, as well as diet shakes,
I hated the porridge, it is the chunky old fashioned kind which I have never liked, I only like the smooth ready brek style. I also can't do shakes as they leave me hungry, so I am stuck with Granola every day.
The portions are very small though, literally a handful of breakfast, so if you are used to a big breakfast this may take some getting used to.
Lunch
Soup, soup and more soup, but a lot of flavours to choose from, so if you like soup then lunch is a piece of cake, you get about a mugs worth.
I am not a huge soup fan, I prefer more solid food like sandwiches for lunch, so after 9 weeks it is starting to grate, However I am rather fond of the Spicy beef and tomato which is exceptionally nice.
they have recently introduced a couple of new salads too which I tried and they were absolutely hideous. One is a cous cous salad, which just doesn't work as a long life meal, the cous cous just turns into a soggy pile of slop and doesn't taste nice at all.
Dinner
The dinners are by far the best, with the wide number of choices, you will be having a much more varied weekly menu than you were when you were not on a diet. You then just add a handful of veggies, pasta or rice to go with your meal if you feel so inclines.
Again the hardship is getting used to the small portions, but once you get past that, it doesn't really feel like a diet at all.
Extras
If you are really lazy then they also do pouches of rice. But frankly I think you would need to be uber lazy to do this, measuring out 40g of rice is really no effort at all and would only take you an extra minute, and once you have done it a few times you know how much it is, basically it's a handful of rice.
Snacks
You get popcorn in various flavours (I like the salt and vinegar), oat biscuits, fruit bars and crispy oat bakes.
Most of the snacks are quite pleasant, except the oat bakes which are very dry and not very tasty.
What I have also found is that the snacks are not very low in calories at all, and you can buy better, lower calorie snacks from the super market.
for instance I compared the oat bakes and the fruit bars to a packet of walkers French fries (multi bag) and found that the french fries had less calories, less fat, less carbs and more protein and not to mention they taste better and you get more in a pack.
I also rather like snack-a-jacks (flavoured rice cakes), which are also lower in calories and fat than the DietChef snacks.
Giving up the things you like
My biggest problem has always been snacking, I like to munch on crisps and nuts and things that are not good for you between meals, especially in the evenings while watching TV, and this has been really hard to give up and I do have slips.
So I decided to supplement my diet with some fat binders to help with my slipups and also speed things up in general. I have been using Lipobind, which you can get on amazon considerably cheaper in multi packs. don;t buy it from the supermarket though as it costs a fortune.
Lipobind basically binds up to 25% of the fat in your food so that your body cannot absorb it and instead it just passes right through you. So I have one of these after my main meal and more if I do stuff some crisps or take my kids out for Pizza or something.
In general it has good reviews and seems to work with no side effects. If you have a healthy diet anyway and snacking is your only problem, then maybe LipoBind by itself may be your solution.
Beer
This will be a tough one for the guys, what do you drink when you go out with the guys? drinking Pepsi all night sucks and costs more than beer.
I am not really much of a beer drinker, I only like very specific beers (Desperados, Aimee, pear cider), but I discovered Becks Blue, it is an alcohol free beer but it still tastes like beer and personally I think it tastes pretty good and would be happy to drink it anytime regardless of it I was on a diet as I am not bothered about the existence of Alcohol only the taste. And best of all it is only 19 calories per bottle.
Snacking
As I mentioned before, the DietChef snacks are not very diet, so look for snacks which are under 100 calories with low carbs and fat instead.
Snack-a-jacks, walkers french fries and go ahead bars are some of my favourites. Nuts unfortunately are like the worst thing you can eat, so you have to stay away from them completely.
The bad news
DietChef only supply complete meal hampers, so If like me you don't want the breakfast or lunches then your stuffed. I did enquire about making custom orders and buying only the dinners and was told that I needed to complete a full 3 months hampers subscription first and then I would be able to order whatever I like.
However DietChef do not publicise this and are very secretive about it and do not like anyone else to mention it. I tried to discuss the subject on their forums and my posts were instantly deleted.
I also posted a question on their forums regarding the calorie count on their snacks being higher than regular snacks, and these posts also got instantly deleted along with my account without any explanation, so it seems dietchef have a few secrets they are trying to sweep under the carpet, which is a shame.
So far I have lost just over 10 Llbs, so that's about 1Llb per week, which is pretty good considering I also put some weight back on over xmas and have had a few off days with Pizza, curry and kebabs too
Jan 5, 2012 at 6:01 PM It's all down to will power. If only someone could capture that in a bottle and sell it. Nice to see a diet that doesn't starve you. 1200-1500 cals/day is pretty generous. I found that if I eat more than 1200/day I put on weight. Getting older and sitting on my tush all day in front of a computer doesn't help. Good luck with your goal, Russ.
Jan 6, 2012 at 2:03 AM I have done nothing except sit behind a computer for the last 10 years, so hardly surprising I got so fat and unfit :-)
My kids treat me like a bouncy castle now.
Jan 14, 2012 at 12:55 AM Thanks for this review, I was seriously considering diet chef but I don't think I can stomach those breakfast. I read on the shopping telly forums (qvc sells diet chef) that most of the main meals are made by a company called Look What We Found and you can buy those in the supermarkets or on their website: http://www.lookwhatwefound.co.uk or Amazon seems to be selling in bulk. However some are custom made for diet chef so you won't be able to get those
Jan 29, 2012 at 3:39 AM Well Rae one thing that has become clear since I have been doing this is that it isn't really hard to do this yourself. There are plenty of diet recipe books and websites out there which give you all the nutritional information you need, so it is really just a case of spending a day cooking up a weeks worth of meals and putting them into portions and freezing.
Bread turns out to be the worst thing ever at 100 calories per slice, but you can just about get away with a brown bread sandwich for lunch if you stick to low cal fillings.
My plan if to keep a few diet chef meals around for when i'm lazy and to cook my own meals the rest of the time.
Jul 4, 2012 at 8:42 AM I have tried diet chef myself and found them to be alright. Not quite gourmet but good enough to stop you straying. I found it worked out about the same price as my normal meals anyway. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Sep 4, 2012 at 1:58 PM I have been on diet chef for 5 weeks now and have lost a stone, it was hard at first as I dreamed about food and found it hard to give up the chocolate, puddings and sweets I crave, now I can walk through the supermarket and do not want pork pies, chocolate and cakes. I have found the calorie count diet the best there is, you do not need to excercise like a maniac to lose weight just stop putting food in your mouth. My husband has joined me calorie counting and we are finding it fun so far, he has lost a stone in 5 weeks so we are happy. Looking forward to getting alot thinner, highly recommend diet chef because once you start going to the shops to by your weekly food you will lose your self control and start buying the bad food again.
Sep 19, 2012 at 10:28 AM Diet chef worked for me I was 13stone and with a couple of months following the diet and carrying out regular exercise I went down to 10stone. After a couple of months the meals do become a little boring at times. I am fed up with the way hampers are delivered the courier service always deliveries one item at a time which is annoying if you want to start the diet immediately.
Sep 19, 2012 at 10:36 AM I also got fed up with the meals after a couple of months, and dropped off the diet. If you have the time and will it isn't really too hard to do your own calorie controlled meals.
I also found this http://www.lookwhatwefound.co.uk
Which I think is the place that makes the diet chef meals. I have tried the meatballs and they were amazing, they sell them in ASDA now.
Oct 10, 2012 at 2:37 AM I ordered a weeks worth as they told me I there wasn't any tasting packs available, why not what are they afraid of? well it was £65 which is a lot!! I have regretted it as the food of course isn't fresh and makes my stomach hurt and me feel unhealthy generally now after 3 days, I am used to eating own cooked healthy meals .. so after 3 days i've gone to Marks and spencer instead and bought some of there low calorie range which is least fresher food. Ill endeavour to try and eat the rest of the packs when i run out of fresh meals. The one thing i would suggest is downloading the free app My fitness pall for Iphone, you can scan in bar codes of anything with a bar code and it adds it to your daily count, its very useful for me. I also found there Forum to feel like I was being watched. The Blog above is quite right in saying the cous cous salad is disgusting as is the soup for me (maybe thats coz im used my own fresh soup) Id suggest buying a high quality fresh supermarket low calorie range instead and use My fitness pall.
Jan 11, 2013 at 5:44 PM I went on diet chef last year and lost 16 pounds in 2 months. I bought the hampers from QVC not directly from diet chef. This was good to try the meals and cheaper however you cannot tailor or pick what you want. This meant there was wastage in my hampers of food I did not like. Many of the meals are really nice but of course there will be a few that are not. Going through QVC I thought there was only porridge for breakfast and soup for lunch which is limiting. However I have now gone to diet chef directly and began the diet again in Jan. It was great as I could tailor exactly what I wanted and there is far more choice! Breakfast includes porridge, granola, milkshake, breakfast cookies and bars. Lunches include soups, pasta, mixed bean salads and couscous. The dinner have great range and all was deliver within 24 hours. I would say if you want the true experience buy direct. There is a deal at the moment where you first hamper is £100 off if you sign up for 4 months. I am just starting week two however in one week I have lost 5 pounds.
Jan 13, 2013 at 9:37 AM i do think a lot of people are missing the point here and picking holes in a diet which has worked wonders for my girlfriend ,if people have the time to go out and buy all the food for a weeks worth of breakfasts lunches and dinners after looking for all the recipes and making sure they have the right ingredients to keep the right calorie content then actually cook the meals for less than £54 a week then good luck .I mean isnt that the point diet chef takes that hassle away ,your never going to like all the food it is diet food after all if all diet meals tasted amazing we would all be slim.
i have to agree with the use of fitness pal though if you use this along with diet chef and your serious about losing weight in time you will definatly see results.
Jun 4, 2013 at 12:41 PM If you like the breakfasts they are made by Lizi's granola - www.lizis.co.uk. They sell the individual portions.
Jun 4, 2013 at 1:23 PM no I didn't really like them, nor did I see any point in them, they are not even that low calorie either. Just buy a box of low calorie cereal such as special k, and measure out a handful each day.
Sep 7, 2013 at 6:46 PM I started diet chef 5 days ago on a 12 week plan and I'm really not happy about some of the food. The breakfast oat muesli bars are all good, snacks i think are really nice - mainly the paprika bites, cheese bites etc and popcorn and cookies. The lunch.. hmmm.. well if you like cat food then you're in. I haven't tried the soups yet as it has been too warm, however the tuna rice salad and couscous salad are revolting. There customer service has been amazing though and are sending out replacement meals for the ones I really couldn't stomach. The dinners are ok but lack taste. I could buy lighter option ready meals that contain a few more calories but this is a diet for lazy/uncontrolled/unmotivated people and I am afraid, I am one of them. I've lost 3 pounds already and do feel better, so diet chef does have positive features, it's all about getting the right meals for you though.
Sep 8, 2013 at 11:27 AM Laura, yes it is for Lazy unmotivated people, which I did say in my review.
I am quite a cook cook and picky about food so I didn't find many meals that I could suffer for too long, but if you are the type of person who eats ready meals anyway then you should be able to find a selection of meals you like.
Those lunches are terrible as you say, pure slop, better to stick with the soup. I had enough of Diet Chef after 2 months, even the meals I liked I could not bear any more.
All diet chef does though is restrict your daily calorie count, which is pretty easy to do yourself in you can be bothered.
My own solution is to simply keep all my meals 300 calories or below, this then leaves me some room for snacking.
I generally just stick with salad and veg stir fry's most of the time as they are simple and easy to keep under 300 cals. For dinner I will just put chicken and salad in a wrap or pitta bread with some dressing.
I just stick with the same thing until I am fed up with it and then change it.
But you could equally just spend time walking round the supermarket looking at meals and writing down the calories and plan a weekly menu.
If you use less than 300 cals then add them to your dinner or snacks instead.