The 5:2 diet really took off last year and is still huge. If you have been living under a rock and don’t know what it is: you eat normally for 5 days a week and then the other two days you fast, having 500 calories if you are female, or 600 if you are male. It sounds better than most diets and you get to eat what you want (within reason) the other five days. What makes it hard though is finding something low-calorie to eat on the fasting days. Enter LighterLife Fast, which we got sent to review recently. It is a new product from Superdrug that makes the 5:2 diet easier. On your fasting days you just have four packets of the LighterLife Fast foodpacks.

They are not only convenient but they also make sure you get all of your nutrients while you fast. They are very handy and you can pop them into the microwave, or on a hob, which I prefer. We got sent two different bars, two shakes (chocolate and strawberry), porridge, vegetable soup, pasta carbonara and spaghetti bolognese flavoured meals. Note that I said ‘flavoured’ these are mostly dehydrated meals that you add water too.

LighterLife Fasting has a number of things going for it: no cooking, no counting calories and you get 100% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamins and minerals, along with good amounts of protein and fibre. The taste lets it down a little but it is what you would expect, ranging from okay to edible depending on personal preference.

More importantly, do they work? Well, yes. Our reviewer lost about a pound a week. They are a good diet aid, and good for people who are busy too, making the 5:2 diet manageable and without compromising on getting all of your nutrients. It doesn’t taste nice and you will yearn for real food, but it makes things easier. Available from Superdrug.

What do you think?