Exante Diet Review And Pictures- Simple Solution
Today I am reviewing these food products from the Exante diet. Just as I decided to go back to the gym again after almost a year long break I saw on Twitter that Exante were looking for bloggers to review their products, and I just thought the timing was perfect!
How does it work? So I received quite a few products to try out. Once you have your products, you can decide whether to follow either of these three diet plans: the
Simple Solution,
Working solution or
Total Solution. For each of them, you'd use the same products and only how many additional meals you have will vary.
Here is a little info about their products "All of our soups, shakes, bars and food packs (porridge, pasta carbonara, shepherds pie etc) are Total Meal replacements. By using 3 of our products a day to replace your normal meals you can cut down your daily calories, and you'll still receive 100% of your Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) of vitamins and minerals. This means that you stay fit and healthy whilst you lose weight, because your body has all that it needs to enable safe and effective weight loss." Find a link to their product ingredient lists here.
So this is what the packaging of the products look like, for the Simple Solution, I got a mix of breakfast, lunch and
ready meals. I got the flavoured shakes in:
Strawberry,
Toffee Caramel,
Banana,
Vanilla,
Chocolate and
Chocolate and Mint. For
ready meals I got the
Spagetti Bolognese,
Pasta Cabonara,
Red Bean Chili, Shepherd's Pie and
Curry. The "breakfast food" I got were the
Porridge Oats and the lunch type of food was the
Mushroom &
Tomato and Basil soups.
Below you can find my favourite of each type of meal, and some thoughts on them. In the end I will put my overall thoughts on all of the Exante Diet products I have tried.
Information about the Exante Diet shakes: "Exante's diet shakes are thick, creamy and formulated specifically for weight loss. They are high protein, low carb and we've made sure they contain NO aspartame, NO artificial colours, NO MSG and have NO genetically modified products! 3 packs gives you 100% RDA's for vitamins and minerals."
So I received this Shaker Bottle for my shakes. It came with a stainless steel ball inside of it, to help the shakes mix properly when you are shaking it. I didn't realise so for the first shakes I tried (Chocolate & Vanilla), I tried them without using it and they were thick and not properly mixed. After using it the proper way, with the steel ball inside- they turned out so much nicer. The consistency is pretty thin but they are super tasty! My favourite is this one in the pictures, chocolate and mint, and also the toffee caramel ones. As mentioned in the info, they do not contain aspartame but they use the sweetener Sucralose instead. A little tip, these contain a lot of added vitamins, minerals and best of all- a lot of protein! So bring the Shaker bottles with you and your favourite shake to drink straight after a gym session!
Check out all of the shakes here.
Information about the Exante Diet Porridge Oats: "Exante Diet Porridge Oats - the perfect winter warmer. This generous portion will fill you up whether it's for breakfast, lunch or dinner. We have recently updated the composition of the Porridge Oats pack, so some of you may find the product less sweet than previously. If you like it sweeter then feel free to add a tablet sweetener or how about some cinnamon for a nice change."
I was pretty surprised to discovered that this was one of my favourite food products, as I usually don't actually like porridge. The taste is really, really nice and contrary to what you might think from the info above suggestion that you might want to add some more sweetener- it already taste pretty sweet. Again, it is sweetened with sucralose and as with all of the other products, it contains added vitamin and minerals. The instructions tell you to microwave it for a couple of minutes, however, I'd say add a few minutes to what it says on the pack, or simply microwave it until you get the consistency you prefer. I always eat breakfast, and quite a lot- and I was surprised that this was actually very filling on its own. If you are used to light breakfast, this will be enough, otherwise- have a boiled egg on the side or some fruits.
As this contains rice, I thought this was okay to eat on its own. However some of the other ready meals, like Red Bean Chilli (see below)- I would personally eat with something like rice or pasta. This was really taste and had a lot of flavour. Again, when you microwave this, you might want to leave it in a little longer than the packaging says to get the right consistency. I really enjoyed this meal but as it isn't a really big, I would personally have it as lunch for instance.
Information about the Extante Diet Red Bean Chilli: " Packed with full red kidney beans and sweetcorn, this spicy beef style meal is a real favourite. Suitable for vegetarians."
This was my favourite ready meal, although I did have it with pasta, so if you are following the diet step by step- this is supposed to be eaten on its own as you can see in the product pictures on the website. It was really easy to get to a nice consistency and had a lot of flavour in it, and as they mention in the description- it contains loads of beans. It is a little spicy and very tasty.
So my overall thoughts? To start with, along with the products you can a few sheets of information about the diet which explains, how and why it works. And with calorie and eligibility for the different types of diet programmes they offer which was really helpful. If you try out the programme you don't have to worry about planning your meals as it is all thought through- and the total calories and vitamins/mineral per day have been calculated to match your personal (chosen) diet plan. The products do not contain aspartame (but instead Sucralose), no MSG trans fats or GM ingredients. All of their products are high in protein, fibre and vitamins and minerals and (from what I can see) they are all suitable for vegetarians.The allergens are either mentioned or highlighted in bold on the ingredient lists, and some contain gluten, lactose, both or other allergens. So if you have any allergies- just check each individual ingredient list. I really like the fact that they all come in powder form because they are so easy to bring with you somewhere, to store and probably to sit in your cupboard for a little while if you like to stock up on products. If you don't want to eat sweeteners, these are probably not for you. Also, if you don't have a microwave you will definitely struggle. Unfortunately I am moving soon and won't and I have a couple of products left so I might have to invest in one!
Have you tried any food products like these? Do you have any questions about the products I have tried? I included loads of direct links so it would be easy to check out any products you are interested in reading more about.
xx
Check out my other health and fitness posts
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*These products were sent to me to review, all opinions are my own and no compensation was given to write this post.