Starting on exante to shift some weight before trying for a baby

Onceuponatime

New Member
I've never really been one to post on forums, might read them on and off, but never really felt the urge to post. I am hoping that starting an online diary will help keep me motivated to keep going. My BMI is currently just over 30, and I want to get it down to less than 27 before I start trying for a baby, ideally I'd like to get my weight into a healthy range in the end, but a BMI of 27 seems a reasonable first goal. I had tried dieting before and lost about a stone, and then for the past year or so I have gained and lost a couple of kilos over and over, so basically just maintaining rather than managing to actually lose weight. So I have decided to have a go at Exante to see if it can give me a kick start to losing some more weight. I'd always been a bit sceptical of such diets, but now I've actually done some reading about VLCD it sounds like they might not be such a bad way to lose some weight whilst ensuring you get all of your nutritional requirements met.

So I got my box from exante through the post yesterday. I got a mix of soups, meals, bars and shakes, with a few porridge packets and some of the slightly odd looking savoury muffin packs. I had expected the muffins to be ready made like the bars but apparently not! I decided not to wait until today to start, because I wanted to try them out.

I had had cereal for breakfast (with a big spoon of sugar!) and a chicken salad for lunch (with lots of creamy salad dressing) and had had a couple of chocolate biscuits with a cup of tea in the morning. The box arrived in the afternoon and I then had one of the weird exante meals for dinner, before feeling a bit too hungry later in the evening and so having one of the exante bars before bed. I'd got into the habit of weighing daily when dieting before so hopped on the scales in the morning and was down 2kg! Now obviously weight can fluctuate quite a bit from day to day and had had a bad couple of days the few days before eating lots of salty stuff (crisps and a macdonalds) so must be almost all water weight but it still feels quite motivating!

Today I had a bar for breakfast which was weird but not totally unpleasant (hot cross bun flavour) and a chocolate shake for lunch which was surprisingly nice. I am working myself up to another of the weird meal type things for dinner now and then I should be done for the day. I had a snack of a slice of ham and a babybel light earlier in the day, I think going straight into just the 3 meal packs might be a pretty hard so am going to allow myself a small amount of low/no carb snacking when I feel I need it because even with 100 calories of snacks a day it will still be a very low calorie diet and as long as I don't get extra carbs it shouldn't interfere with the whole ketosis thing.

I don't feel as hungry as I thought I would, and for some reason I am in less of a bad temper than when I'm dieting on a more normal calorie allowance. Maybe I'm feeling less deprived because I just can't have any of the unhealthy things whereas when you're calorie counting you can have a bit just not as much as you want? Or it's the novelty value of the funny little food packs that is keeping me interested rather than grumpy. Who knows? It's hard drinking as much as you're supposed to and it's a bit annoying needing to pee all the time but I'm hoping my bladder will adjust eventually.

So, any tips for making sure I do stick to the diet for more than a couple of days? Has anyone done exante to lose some weight then carried on with using it to do a 5:2 type diet for maintenance? Will I really be able to keep the weight off afterwards?

Here's hoping this is the diet that will work for me :)
 
I've never really been one to post on forums, might read them on and off, but never really felt the urge to post. I am hoping that starting an online diary will help keep me motivated to keep going. My BMI is currently just over 30, and I want to get it down to less than 27 before I start trying for a baby, ideally I'd like to get my weight into a healthy range in the end, but a BMI of 27 seems a reasonable first goal. I had tried dieting before and lost about a stone, and then for the past year or so I have gained and lost a couple of kilos over and over, so basically just maintaining rather than managing to actually lose weight. So I have decided to have a go at Exante to see if it can give me a kick start to losing some more weight. I'd always been a bit sceptical of such diets, but now I've actually done some reading about VLCD it sounds like they might not be such a bad way to lose some weight whilst ensuring you get all of your nutritional requirements met.

So I got my box from exante through the post yesterday. I got a mix of soups, meals, bars and shakes, with a few porridge packets and some of the slightly odd looking savoury muffin packs. I had expected the muffins to be ready made like the bars but apparently not! I decided not to wait until today to start, because I wanted to try them out.

I had had cereal for breakfast (with a big spoon of sugar!) and a chicken salad for lunch (with lots of creamy salad dressing) and had had a couple of chocolate biscuits with a cup of tea in the morning. The box arrived in the afternoon and I then had one of the weird exante meals for dinner, before feeling a bit too hungry later in the evening and so having one of the exante bars before bed. I'd got into the habit of weighing daily when dieting before so hopped on the scales in the morning and was down 2kg! Now obviously weight can fluctuate quite a bit from day to day and had had a bad couple of days the few days before eating lots of salty stuff (crisps and a macdonalds) so must be almost all water weight but it still feels quite motivating!

Today I had a bar for breakfast which was weird but not totally unpleasant (hot cross bun flavour) and a chocolate shake for lunch which was surprisingly nice. I am working myself up to another of the weird meal type things for dinner now and then I should be done for the day. I had a snack of a slice of ham and a babybel light earlier in the day, I think going straight into just the 3 meal packs might be a pretty hard so am going to allow myself a small amount of low/no carb snacking when I feel I need it because even with 100 calories of snacks a day it will still be a very low calorie diet and as long as I don't get extra carbs it shouldn't interfere with the whole ketosis thing.

I don't feel as hungry as I thought I would, and for some reason I am in less of a bad temper than when I'm dieting on a more normal calorie allowance. Maybe I'm feeling less deprived because I just can't have any of the unhealthy things whereas when you're calorie counting you can have a bit just not as much as you want? Or it's the novelty value of the funny little food packs that is keeping me interested rather than grumpy. Who knows? It's hard drinking as much as you're supposed to and it's a bit annoying needing to pee all the time but I'm hoping my bladder will adjust eventually.

So, any tips for making sure I do stick to the diet for more than a couple of days? Has anyone done exante to lose some weight then carried on with using it to do a 5:2 type diet for maintenance? Will I really be able to keep the weight off afterwards?

Here's hoping this is the diet that will work for me :)

Hey, well done on your start... Like every diet after you stop a diet if your calories in are more than your calories out then yes u will gain weight again... The beauty of a food replacement diet is it gives you a chance to evaluate how you got to where you were..

You will notice food triggers and unnecessary food consumption before etc.

This kind of diet is a mental and well as a physical change.

When you are struggling (week one is hard at times). Write out the reasons.. Focus on the why. If you feel crappy one day.. Realising food is not going to make you feel better etc

Tips

Take before photos
Take before measurements

Because some weeks the scales number Maybe low but you will lose inches

Vanilla is nice made up thrown in the microwave till hot add coffee and ssweetener

Chocolate is nice hot with sweetener

Sparkling water is drinkable adding 3 sweetener tablets to 500ml

Having a 500ml bottle of water by your side all day and refilling it makes it easier to get your rrequirement in xx

Best of luck
 
I just had the lentil meal and it was really nice. Might be just because I am quite hungry, but still, I will be ordering more of those when I run out. I will definitely try the vanilla with coffee some time, sounds like it would be nice for breakfast. Thanks for the tips!
 
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