Diet Plate November 2008
The Diet Plate weight management system
It can be difficult to know how much we eat each day, but could £35 worth of crockery really help with weight loss? Which? takes a look at the Diet Plate, which claims to cut your calorie intake by encouraging smaller portion sizes, while still allowing you to indulge in the foods you love.
The Diet Plate
The Diet Plate weight management system costs £20.59 for a plate and £14.46 for a breakfast bowl (plus postage and packaging), and is designed for people who want to lose less than five stone (30kg).
We think the Diet Plate is easy to use, and takes the stress out of calorie counting. It’s worth trying if you’ve struggled with diets, as it doesn’t restrict what you can eat so you can have the same meal as the rest of your family.
Eating smaller portions than normal might take a little getting used to, however. And once you’re down to your target weight, it would be worth reintroducing healthy snacks to ensure adequate calorie intake.
About the Diet Plate
The marked plate, used with the guidance booklet, provides for a low-calorie diet, showing you maximum portions you can eat of proteins such as meat, carbohydrates such as pasta as well as how these can be served in combination (in a lasagne, for example). The breakfast bowl provides similar help with cereal portions.
The female plate provides around 1,350 calories a day and the male version around 1,500 calories a day, with no calorie counting or weighing of food involved.
Which? testers rate the Diet Plate
We gave plates to a couple of Which? staff members to try out.
Sarah-Jane and her partner used the female and male plates. They both found the portions sizes too small, and Sarah-Jane ended up snacking in between meals.
However, Sarah-Jane says the plate could help to get a diet going: ‘This encourages people to practice portion control, rather than focusing on a low-fat diet, so you can still eat your favourite foods’.
Our other tester, Donna, said: ‘The breakfast bowl is good because you don't have to weigh the cereal out. I think if you were to try to guess what a portion is we would all probably over-estimate.’
Both said that the system made them think more about how much food they ate and what they put on their plates.
Pros: Simple to use, teaches you about portion control, doesn’t restrict what foods you can and can’t eat
Cons: Relatively pricey, small portion sizes can leave you feeling hungry
Want to know more about the claims of diet and weight loss products? See our guide to slimming pills and diet foods.