Like most women I always seem to be watching what I eat. I had tried various diets in the past and had varying levels of success. One of my friends had recommended this diet so I thought I would give it a go.

Slim fast now have a variety of meal replacement products available ranging from shakes to snacks and meal bars. The basis of the diet is the 3-2-1 system, this means that each day you can have 3 snacks which are 95 calories each, 2 shakes or meal bars which are designed to help you replace two of your three meals a day it gives you the flexability to choose which meals you replace. Each day you then have to have a nutritionally balance 600 calorie meal, there are recipies and suggestions on the Slim Fast website.

The diet is said to be nutritionally balanced offering all the vitamins and minerals you need.

There are a variety of flavours of shakes available such as banana, strawberry, vanilla and latte. You can buy the shakes pre made which I think can work out quite expensive they cost around £1.57 in the supermarkets. You can also buy shakes in a powder form, a tin of powder will give you 12 meals and costs £5, you simply add skimmed milk. You can also get meal replacement bars which look like cereal bars and cost about £4 for 4.

The snacks which include pretzels, tortillas and chocolate snack bars range from 39p to 56p.

When I started this diet I decided to buy the powdered milkshakes to save money I also picked up a few meal replacement bars as well as a basketful of snacks.

The first day was pure hell! I decided to start the day with a meal replacement bar which I thought would be convenient for me to eat in work. I start work at 8am so I ate it about 7am. The bar was pleasant it was a cereal type bar with a thin layer of chocolate on the bottom. It was no bigger than a normal cereal bar. I felt like I had hardly eaten anything. I had two snacks in between breakfast and lunch, I had one packet of pretzels which were sour cream and chive. The pretzels were bland and didn't taste anything like sour cream! I also had a caramel chocolate snack bar which was two mouthfuls and tasted like it was full of artificial sweetners. For lunch I made myself a banana milkshake which was simple enough it involved mixing the powder with skimmed milk. The milkshake was ok, it tasted like the banana foam sweets, the one thing I noticed was that there was a powder residue despite me shaking and stirring the powder vigourously. I had another snack in the afternoon which was another sickly caramel bar before cooking dinner at 6pm.

I have to say as dramatic as this sounds I felt like I was starving I had the shakes and I felt really faint. Even though the diet is meant to keep your metabolism running I felt a lack of energy. For dinner I had grilled salmon and a load of green veg with a few potatoes.

After the main meal I felt fine again. I thought it may be because I wasn't used to eating so little so I decided to stick to it. In the first week I was still feeling hungry anf grouchy. I stuck to the diet and didn't cheat once. At the end of two weeks I hadn't lost any weight. I read the online support groups to try and help beat the cravings

I then decided to give up this diet and do Slimming World instead, on which I successfully lost 2 stone.

I wouldn't recommend this diet I don't think it is sustainable, I would much rather eat a balanced healthy meal that releases energy slowly than have a processed bar or shake. I am convinced the reason I didn't lose weight is because I wasn't eating enough, after joining Slimming World I have realised the key to losing weight is not just reducing calories it is about eating the right foods.

I would never do this one again! to all of you considering it try Weight Watchers or Slimming World where you can eat everything in moderation and you get a nutritionally balanced diet.