Cheapest 'diet' ?

Crisp_£_note

Hi

I'm not sure this is the correct place but I am wanting to find out what the cheapest diet is from the list of well known ones (SW, WW, RC, Tesco etc).

I eat by myself and often find that keeping up with the shopping list is quite expensive considering I only use most items once a month and the fridge and bread-bin is often full of stuff going off. Theres not enough room in my freezer to stockpile unless its readymeals which isnt ideal.


Thanks for useful suggestions

freyasmum

To be honest, the cheapest way is to buy fresh, unprocessed food and cook it yourself. Don't overload food with butter/cheese/cream/etc (unless following atkins, I guess?) and it's all good.

Bread/milk/most veg can be frozen so that you don't waste any. Beans and pulses are a good alternative to meat and generally cheaper.

I don't know if that's of any help to you?

Crisp_£_note

Hi

Yes thanks it helps. I know the principles of healthy eating but find it easier to be told (or given) what to eat or a menue and shopping list to follow. I can cook and not afraid to 'experiment' with new ways but its theeekly planning thats the boring bit even if I make it routine. Even when I broke it down into daily shops it didnt help.

I have considered ordering deliveries from Farm Foods (or whatever their name is) as its all 'fresh' and straight in the oven. Its not that I am lazy its more the point of knowing its good to eat and healthy to!

Thanks

jenniewb

freyasmum wrote: »

To be honest, the cheapest way is to buy fresh, unprocessed food and cook it yourself. Don't overload food with butter/cheese/cream/etc (unless following atkins, I guess?) and it's all good.

Bread/milk/most veg can be frozen so that you don't waste any. Beans and pulses are a good alternative to meat and generally cheaper.

I don't know if that's of any help to you?

Well said!

Processed foods may be cheaper to start with but as you don't get the right nutrients, plus the added salt and sugars in the food, as a result your body will still be left hungry and you'll end up eating more then you need, spending more then you need to and weighing more then you need to!

All diet plans seem to want you to pay something to do them, even if its for the "guide"/book. Though in a few cases your also buying time and motivation from a leader/teacher of the programme. If you can do without this, there are so many options.

• The best I think, has got to be eating healthily- getting between 5 to 9 portions of fresh fruit and veg a day (just for reference potatos in this case do not count)
• Drink 2L of plain water (no bubbles no sweeteners no sugar no colour) every day.
• Swap man-made meat (eg turkey twizzlers and etc!) for fresh fish, meat or pulses. Eat enough protein: 1 to 2 grams of protein per 1 kg of body weight (look on back of packet for this as its not the same as the weight of the whole portion: 100 grams of tuna has about 20 grams of protein in it)
• Swap refined carbohydrates (like white or brown bread, white pasta, rice or similar) for wholegrain pasta, brown rice or multigrain bread. Don't let carbohydrates go beyond 1/3 of each meal plate in comparison to what else you eat.

upsy-daisy_3

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

Hi

I'm not sure this is the correct place but I am wanting to find out what the cheapest diet is from the list of well known ones (SW, WW, RC, Tesco etc).

I eat by myself and often find that keeping up with the shopping list is quite expensive considering I only use most items once a month and the fridge and bread-bin is often full of stuff going off. Theres not enough room in my freezer to stockpile unless its readymeals which isnt ideal.


Thanks for useful suggestions

Hi, i am on weightwatchers and have been on/and off for nearly a year now. I stopped going to the meetings to save money but have my book still and my points allowance and what foods have what points etc. (You could buy this book off ebay) And i dont find it expensive to eat following this. But i do eat the same things most days. And every evening i eat weightwatchers ready meals. Alot cheaper bought ffrom iceland/farmfoods. Most meals £1 each compared to £1.50 each from tesco/asda. I eat alone too so the ready meals are great for me and theres so many to chose from. Then i just pile my plate with veggies aswell!

Tesco light choices is good as they have the WW points value wrote on the pack, however they all have more points in than WW meals thereselfs.

Another tip if you do decide to go WW route, dont buy there own bread. Its awful! And like cardboard when toasted!! Nimble bread has the same half point value and is much much nicer!

stilernin

A vote for SW here :beer: (well perhaps not two glasses of beer!)

I just love 'Green Days''. Potatoes, pasta, rice, pulses with unlimited fruit and veg.

Huge bake 'tato with baked beans or cottage cheese.

Mountains of pasta with home made veggie sauce.

Veggie or egg curry with loads of rice.

Really thick veg and lentil soup.

I'm not a veggie and a weighed /measured amount of meat/fish is allowed on SW Green Days, I just prefer not to bother.

There are Red Days (loads of meat, limited carbs) but this will work out more expensive.

I did go to meetings a few years back (lost 4st) so had the books. When a friend fancied doing it I put a 'Wanted' on Freecycle and got the books from someone who lived only a few streets away.

Blimey I didn't mean to write such a long post, I don't have shares in SW, I just found it worked for me. Good luck with whatever you choose.

larmy16

If you live on your own I would say Slimming World could work out very cheaply.

Very healthy in the main too. As last poster says green days can be very inexpensive.

Unfortunately my family tend to nick stuff I have put by for my "healthy eating plan".

LizzieS_2

If you stop stockpiling the ready meals there will be enough room in your freezer for the bread! If fridge food is going off, you are buying too much at once.

Healthy balance is a weak excuse for using ready meals - you only have to buy the obvious contents and cook!

Many foods can be frozen, so you could batch cook a load of healthy meals from fresh ingredients and freeze them.

paulwf

SW can be very cheap, in fact as a lot of people probably join up because they have eaten a diet of too much processed food so switching to mainly home cooked food is going to save money whatever you put in it.

The nice thing about SW is they don't have their own food range so aren't trying to get you to buy more processed stuff unlike many other dieting companies. SW magazine does have rather a lot of adverts from diet food manufacturers but if you ignore those the recipes are generally very good.

Some of the so called diet ready meals out there are actually very high in SW "syns" (a syn is a bit like WW points).

Glpark01

ww is cheap, if you cook form scratch you should be fine and if you batch cook and freeze its easy too. I tried sw but easily get bored and seemt o loose more weight on ww. I can also recommend you a good site to do ww for free and how to work out points too so you won't have to pay for meetings.

moonrakerz

When you say "diet"; are you trying to lose weight ?

Why on earth pay good money to take part in these various diet plans ?

To lose weight, is quite simple - you need to burn more calories than you "eat", and that doesn't mean running 10 miles a day and taking up badminton.
Have a look on the web about "calorie counting", there is masses of info there - and it's free !
I have lost 39lbs since March, doing this. After a while you get to know what you can and cannot eat. It isn't a case of living on lettuce and cucumber, although I must confess I do like salads.
Last night I had an Iceland Hotpot ready meal, some fresh carrots and half a cauliflower - a real plateful; cost, under £2 and less than 700 calories ! ( I allow myself 1500 a day)

I still have glasses of wine, doughnuts even go to Burger King occasionally, the secret is "occasionally" !
SOME ready meals are very good, AND I don't mean the "diet/weightwatchers types of things. Iceland's aren't bad and they keep a good Young's Fish Pie for a pound as well.

Best money saving tip - stay away from the big supermarkets ! Only this morning I went to Morrisons (to get something only they keep), out of curiosity I costed my shopping list of fruit and veg there before I went to Lidl to actually buy it.
Morrisons £5.72
Lidl £3.35 !!!!