How I lost 1.5lbs in one week eating French diet delivery meals

Want to know how I lost 1.5lbs in weight and one inch from my waist in just one week?

It doesn’t involve fasting, it doesn’t involve going without chocolate and it doesn’t involve cutting out alcohol either.

I did it by eating like a French lady: crêpes for breakfast, compote for lunch and beef bourguignon for dinner. Intrigued? Then read on!

Dietbon is the latest ready-made diet meals delivery service to launch in the UK after success in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain, claiming dieters can lose up to 2lbs in weight a week. I tried the plan for one week to find out whether it really is possible and the answer is: oui!

How I lost 1.5lbs in one week eating French diet delivery meals

The theory is that by eating a varied but calorie-controlled diet – in my case we’re talking 1,200 calories a day – you can expect to lose up to a healthy kilo a week for every week you’re on the Dietbon plan.

Now two pounds – or one kilo – may not sound like much to some dieters, but do the maths and that equates to half a stone in four weeks and a whole stone in eight weeks.

Your programme is customised to you following a phone consultation with a Dietbon dietician who is based in France, and you can personalise your meals (there are 80 to choose from) so it’s easy to avoid anything you don’t like.

I received all my meals for one week in one delivery – four gourmet meals a day for six days – plus snacks and tea. The seventh day is a ‘free’ day where you can make your own choices, and is designed to help you get to grips with the management of meals.

So what did I eat?

I chose pancakes for breakfast (there’s also muesli and organic bread rolls to choose from) which you eat with one yoghurt and a portion of fresh fruit.

You’re encouraged to consume meals containing the most carbohydrates at lunch time rather than in the evening, so lunch was dishes including meatballs & penne with tomato sauce and pesto & goats’ cheese raviolini followed by a fruit compote (you can choose chocolate mousse as a desert option if you want to).

When it came to dinner the traditional French dishes were my favourite: beef bourguignon, veal with Provencal sauce and Sauté de Poulet rôti (aka roast chicken).

The dishes are already cooked and ready to eat (so you don’t need to keep them in the fridge) – you just put them in the microwave for two minutes and they’re ready to serve. They’re all 100% natural – so no additives, preservatives or artificial colourings – and no GM ingredients, artificial sweeteners or palm oil is used. Snack-wise there’s a variety to choose from, from chocolate chip cookies to linseed & poppy seed shortbread.

I was also allowed one small glass of wine a week (only one though!) which to be honest was the hardest part of the whole diet for me! I decided to use my ‘free’ day half way through my plan in order to break the week up, which helped make it seem more manageable and meant I was only actually ‘dieting’ for three days before having the opportunity to be a little less strict.

What I liked about the plan was that it isn’t a meal replacement diet – you’re eating real food in proper meals with as many vegetables as you like, which makes carrying on afterwards much more achievable. I also liked the fact being on the plan removes the whole ‘what-shall-we-have-for-dinner-I-don’t-know-what-have-we-got?’ conundrum: it’s all decided for you and is ready to eat in two minutes.

How much does it cost?

There are one, two, three and four month plans available from £44 per week and the longer you sign up for, the cheaper it is. To put it in context, that’s from £7 per day for four meals, delivery and dietary consultations (scroll down and you’ll find a 20% off discount code!)

It’s worth bearing in mind though that you do still need to go shopping – there’s yoghurt and fresh fruit to add to breakfast, vegetables to add to your main meals and you can snack on as many raw veggies as you like during the day according to your appetite. I was very hungry so ate a lot – in fact I think I ate more vegetables in my one week on the plan than I did in the last month!

How did I do?

At the start of my week on Dietbon I weighed 73 kilos…

…and had a 34-inch waist (I always reckon it’s worth measuring yourself too because the scales aren’t everything!)

Seven days later I had lost 1.5lbs (0.7 kilos) in weight…

…with the added bonus of losing an inch from my waist too. Très bon!

When I weighed myself during the week I had actually lost a whole kilo, but when it came to the final weigh in it was slightly less than that, a reminder that weight does fluctuate, especially depending on where you are in the month.

I also think I could have lost more than 1.5lbs had I stuck to the plan religiously. I did go ‘off plan’ once or twice – I had more than the allowed one glass of wine a week (oops) and my ‘free’ day included dinner out at the pub – but that’s life, and it’s interesting that even though I did slip up a few times I still lost weight.

So what did I learn?

1. I’ve got my portion sizes all wrong. Meat and fish at each meal should weigh no more than 80-100g – the size of the palm of your hand – according to Dietbon and ditto carbohydrates, with the rest of your plate made up of vegetables.

2. I eat too many crisps. And I didn’t miss them at all.

3. I don’t like ambient fish. I didn’t get on with the fish dishes – they smelt really strongly of fish (and I love fish) and if I’m being brutally honest they reminded me of cat food. I wouldn’t opt for the fish dishes in the future.

4. I’m one of life’s snackers. I found myself watching the clock between meals in a way I didn’t when I wasn’t on the plan. That said, the reason why I wasn’t clock-watching before is the reason I needed to go on the plan!

5. Eating the kids’ left overs has a lot to answer for!

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❤ Ad | Review ❤ *Confession time* And this something I haven’t blogged about or mentioned on social media before at all, but it’s something I can’t ignore any longer. I currently weigh the same as I did when I was nine months pregnant with baby number one And I’m not even pregnant Since becoming a mum my weight has slowly but surely crept up, even though I exercise regularly and lead a healthy (ish) lifestyle, so that I now weigh a stone & a half more than I did pre-pregnancy People might say you still look good or it doesn’t matter, but it DOES matter if you don’t feel like you anymore. So instead of ignoring it & hiding behind big bright jumpers I’m going on a diet in a bid to get the old me back again, kicking off with one week on the #dietbon plan. It’s a French diet meals delivery service where all the meals are – you guessed it – French!For the next week I’m going to be eating crepes for breakfast, compote for lunch & lots of lovely legumes for tea – & the theory is I can expect to lose 2lbs in one week . Can I REALLY lose 2lbs a week, so 8lbs in a month, so a whole stone in 2 months? If you want to know how I’m getting on have a look at my Insta stories where I’ll be charting progress – & watch this space! #diet #dieting #weightloss #weightlossjourney

A post shared by Crummy Mummy (@confessionsofacrummymummy) on Feb 19, 2019 at 5:11am PST

My top tip

If you live with a partner do the plan together – watching (and smelling) Misery Guts cooking bangers and mash was hard.

My verdict

If you’re working towards a specific weight loss goal – a holiday, or a special event – I think Dietbon is a great way to slim down healthily without cutting out whole food groups or going on a meal replacement diet. It opened my eyes to my portion sizes, and also made me realise how many more vegetables I could be consuming. I literally ate all the colours of the rainbow when I was on the plan and it felt good! It’s not the cheapest diet on the market when you take into account the extra dairy, fruit and vegetables you need to buy to go with it, but it’s all high quality food that’s much better for you than cheaper options.

So, if you fancy having a go yourself I’ve got a discount code for 20% off one, two and three-month Dietbon plans.