Aspire Drinks : Two Week Challenge

I've been lucky enough to have been chosen to test out a new and improved drink called Aspire, a lightly carbonated soft drink that claims to increase your metabolism, helping you to burn calories. I've been sent 28 cans of the Cranberry flavoured beverage and for the next two weeks will be consuming two cans a day and keeping a food and exercise diary. I'm in the habit of recording my body fat %, weight and certain key measurements each Monday which I'll also continue to do in an attempt to quantify what difference this drink makes. I currently weigh 60kg, have a BMI of 19% and a body fat rating of 24.7%. This is what I look like on day one of the challenge.

I've never tried anything like this before and am usually quite sceptical of any claims along these lines, generally believing that you can achieve almost any weight loss goal through a diet of largely unprocessed foods but I'm curious. The drink is apparently best served chilled and according to the website the main ingredients are green tea extract, guarana extract, ginger and L-carnitine, whatever that is. I had my first can this morning with breakfast instead of my usual glass of juice. A serving is 250ml and is 12 calories. It's available at Waitrose and Holland & Barrett amongst others. Holland & Barrett currently have this on sale for £1.79 or 2 for £2.68. If you take it as suggested, the cost really adds up. I generally steer away from carbonated drinks, unless it's soda or tonic water, so it felt odd having something fizzy at breakfast. The taste was quite pleasant though although the colour's rather shocking!

I had a bagel with jam for breakfast and did not feel the need to have elevenses but have felt quite light headed and a bit dizzy this morning. The instructions I got for the challenge advised me that this drink wasn't suitable for anyone who is sensitive to caffeine, and although I don't consider myself to be particularly affected by caffeine (I typically drink 2-3 cups of tea or coffee a day) this is the sort of feeling I imagine you might get from taking too much on and I didn't like it at all. I had my second can today after a run but before dinner and haven't yet felt the same thing so time will tell whether that was a one off and also what happens when I stop using the drink! I had lunch at midday which was a sort of home-made ploughmans, a satsuma, nakd bar and graze punnet during the afternoon and a dinner of chickpea curry with rice. I'm around 500 calories under my allowance today and don't feel at all hungry, in fact I could have foregone dinner.

I'll post again in about a week's time with an update and again at the end of the two weeks with my verdict.

Have you ever tried Aspire or another "diet" drink? What were your experiences?

Disclaimer: Although this is not a sponsored post I have been sent the drinks to trial free of charge but am under no obligation to write a review, positive or otherwise.