Extante Diet

In my youth I tried them all ..... every diet one could think of ......
Now I accept I will never be tall and willowy but try to be the best I can be for my body type. I try also to dress for my body type, which makes all the difference to how one looks.
As far as food is concerned, I try to eat healthy food which I like .... and avoid missing meals so I am not tempted to eat rubbish. Stick to the basics and avoid processed foods.
Walk more and eat less! It’s simple really. X

Part of the reason I felt drawn to Extante is because I have a very poor appetite and struggle to eat. I tend to nibble crisps and Mars Bars and breakfast cereal. I feel that having paid a lot for a box of food will give me the incentive to eat the damn stuff and lose this 14lb that I've not been able to lose for years
I have got the Extante box now, the porridge is good and the apple crumble & custard is awesome. So thank you Fourormore and Lynne59.

I don't think it's just a matter of what we eat, but why. Spot on. This is the biggest, if not the only, factor in weight gain. And it is so very difficult to address.
My daughter is very slim - a little too thin if I'm honest and I do worry about her at times - she loses her appetite if she's worried, if she's in love, if she's very excited about something. In fact, any extremes of emotion will kill her appetite. I'm the complete opposite. I eat when I'm worried, when I'm bored, when I'm excited. I eat to celebrate, and to commiserate. I don't know how to break the connections I have between emotions and food.
It was actually quite amusing when I did lose all that weight some years ago, because at one particular milestone (getting into size 14 jeans), I thought I deserved to celebrate with a favourite chocolate cake a local coffee bar served. Couldn't get it down, ate about a quarter of it and gave up!

Lazigirl is right. I know I eat too much out of sheer habit and habits are hard to break. Sometimes I eat because I'm bored or just because it's in the cupboard. It's me not the food that causes the pounds to pile on!

The reason that the diet industry makes millions is that diets don't work and 1 to 5 years after losing weight 95% people put the weight back on, and start the whole cycle again. I think it's a matter of changing eating patterns and life style and also understanding our individual psychological motivations. I don't think it's just a matter of what we eat, but why.

Some years ago I lost a lot of weight. No, I wasn't on a fad diet, I ate normal food, but ate sensible sized portions and did lots of 'food swaps' - crackers instead of bread, skimmed milk instead of full fat, low fat spread and so on. I also swapped my usual cheddar cheese for low fat varieties or cottage cheese, ate lots of fruit and veg, cut down on unnecessary carbs like biscuits and cakes. After the first stone and a half had gone I joined a gym and exercised three times a week, and more weight loss followed.
In all, I lost 3.5 stones in 3 months, and I kept the weight off for several years. So it can be done sensibly, eating real food. Sadly, though, after about 7 or 8 years I started to get complacent, eating a bit more than I had been, gaining a couple of pounds and thinking, oh well I'll get it off again, then a couple more pounds.... Hmm, I need to do it again now

The 5:2 for me, Jane10, for the same reasons.

I'll be back on the 16:8 after Christmas. It works and there's no special foods.

Ok ladies thank you all. I have ordered the puddings and the porridge, will see how that goes.

BlueBelle... I'm not really interested in what anyone thinks about it. Just stating what I did. I felt and looked well, and I enjoyed the feeling of that.

which proves the point I made in my first post

if you could do the (extante) diet and lose weight, how will you stop yourself regaining all the weight when you return to your usual eating pattern

The answer is you can't, so no point in losing the weight all over again, unless you have plans, and stick with them, to return not to your previous eating pattern but to one that will be nutritious, high in vegetables and fruit and whose energy value will not exceed that necessary to maintain you at a healthy weight.

Four years ago, I used the 5:2 diet, lost 2 stone in 4 months and haven't put it back on. You need a diet, not necessarily the 5;2 that will enable you to do the same. That is clearly not the Extante diet.

3 stone in 3 months is ridiculous Lynn sorry to be so negative but a good weight loss is a couple of pounds a week which would be half of what you lost and as you found out it all goes straight back on and yo yo dieting is not good for our bodies at all

I did this diet last year and lost 3 stone in 12 weeks. I enjoyed all the sweet shakes and bars, not so much the savoury stuff. I wasn't hungry, felt good, as I was getting every nutrient I needed but not the calories.

Unfortunately, after 12 weeks, you have to have a break (a week, I think)from the diet, and that's when I realised how much I'd missed bread, potatoes and other starchy foods - and the weight quickly went back on. I'm on Exante again now but am having 2 products a day instead of 3. So far, so good.

I agree with Monica but I also keep a small supply of the 'ready meals' including Exante for any occasions hubby has horrendously naughty meals like big fry-ups which I obviously don't want!
I would say that these are better than other milkshake type meals especially things like the apple crumble! I have found the pieces of veg in the veg soups seem hard and 'uncooked' as well - the sweets seem nicer. Hope this helps!

It seems to be just another meal replacement diet like the Cambridge diet and others of that ilk.

It all depends on whether you think you can stick to eating and drinking quite revoltingly lurid coloured liquids and bars that look as if they are made from compacted gravel.

I certainly couldn't, and if you could and do the diet and lose weight, how will you stop yourself regaining all the weight when you return to your usual eating pattern.

Much better to develop an eating plan using real food to lose weight and then adjust gently adjust that to a level that keeps the weight off when you have done so.