On test: Le Bootcamp online weight-loss coach

What is it?

It's an online program designed to give you tools and inspiration, including daily tips, to help you lose weight.

How does it work?

Once you sign up, you receive a daily email package of tips on diet, exercise, motivation and nutrition, from your personal coach, and you can also ask her questions online. You log in to the Le Bootcamp website to access your 'private space' where all your weight-loss resources are stored.

What are the best things about it?

Each day a new selection of tips arrives in your inbox, starting with a preparatory 'day zero', so you are reminded of your involvement, which is motivating. The website offers a range of useful tools including videos to watch, a forum where you can chat about your progress with other dieters, your 'interactive weight loss curve' which is a graph display of your (hopefully reducing!) weight, taken from your blog entries. The daily diet and fitness blog allows you to keep track of what you eat and the exercise you take. And on the exercise side, you can print out handy PDFs of weekly exercise 'menus' to suit your fitness level.

The daily tips are very varied, although each follows the same format of an introduction which summarises that day's tips, a fitness tip, nutrition tip, recipe of the day and bonus of the day. As an example, on day five,  the introduction dealt with the power of imagery, the fitness tip gave exercises to firm the glutes, the nutrition tip was about eating carbohydrates, cereals and legumes, the recipe of the day was a hummus and tomato sandwich, and the bonus was an explanation of the glycaemic index. All the tips are stored so that you can re-read them easily. And there's so much on the site to read! I found browsing around the site was a useful distraction from snacking in the office.

What's the worst thing about it?
The coach, Valérie Orsoni, uses American English in her communications with you (although the website is set up in UK English).

How much does it cost?

The Open Plan level costs £23 for one month, the three-month Smart Plan costs £19 a month for three months; the six-month Saver Plan costs £15 a month for six months. To join, visit www.lebootcamp.co.uk

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