SW...where am I going wrong??!

[Seasidedolly]

Joined SW two weeks ago tomorrow and only lost 1.5lb in my first week, was pretty gutted as I worked hard to stay on plan, cooked everything from scratch etc.

My weigh in day is tomorrow but I've just jumped on my scales (I know, I'm about to hide them in the shed!) And I've stayed the same!

Am I right in thinking the key to SW is to eat all the super free foods before the free to fill yourself up? I've been having plenty with meals and as snacks.

I've lost 2st since having my son last April through juicing for a few weeks then a few months of WW but thought I'd give SW a go because loads of work colleagues do it and have all lost loads.

To me it seems like a lot more effort than WW with very little in terms of results on the scales. I bought one of the 12 week countdown so can't give up and revert to WW although that is what I feel like doing.

Also, could someone just clarify exactly what an extra easy sp day is? Is it simply cutting out carbs? I didn't find the book explained it very well.

Thanks, sorry for the moan, perhaps I need to rein in my expectations definitely do

[ChubbyPolecat]

I find that a lot of the food you are encouraged to eat on SW is very high in sugar. Also look at your portion sizes

[ChubbyPolecat]

Oops posted too soon, have a look at those things as I know you're cooking from scratch but half a tin of beans has about 10g sugar in but they're a free food. The hi fi bars have 7.4g sugar in a 30g bar for example

[emmaluvseeyore]

Why don't you post a couple of days of your food diary so we can see what you are eating?

[Seasidedolly]

Thanks both... I'm a bit wary of some of the free foods, probably because I know they're often high in WW points so I know you can't just eat as much as you want, so I've been mainly staying away from things such as baked beans etc.

On a working day I'll make overnight oats as my hexb (35g measured) with a free Muller yogurt, and added raspberries & grapes. Lunch is then usually a small portion of pasta (measured) and homemade SW pasta sauce, usually add peppers to the sauce and chuck in some broccoli and green beans for speed, or left overs from the night before.

Dinner is then a recipe from the SW website such as diet coke chicken with rice and usually use my syns (but rarely all of them) on a small chocolate bar or small bag of malteasers after dinner.

If I do snack it'll be on free or super free fruit, rather than other free food such as yogurt.

Last weekend I did go over my syns as we had lunch and dessert at a friends house, but I've cut down my syns the rest of the week to level it out. I know you're not supposed to do this every week but it would be impossible for me to stay on track everywhere otherwise surely?

TIA

[emmaluvseeyore]

Personally I wouldn't bother measuring the pasta. I eat a LOT of pasta and it doesn't prevent me losing weight. It's really filling so I find I don't eat as many snacks.

Might seem silly, but are you making sure you're eating at least 5 syns? When I first started I was trying to avoid them but I actually lose more when I eat them. I don't get it myself, but hey ho.

Are you having your hexa allowance as I don't see it in there?

[ghostoftheMNchicken]

1.5 lb is a good loss, I think and about what people should be aiming for. IME it's quite common to STS or even put on the week after a good loss, as some of that weight lost will have been water. Usually evens out a bit by week 3 so give it time. Just my experience though.

[WheresMyCow]

I only lost 1.5 lb in my first week, then 2.5lb in my second.

I've now been a target member for almost 3 years having lost just under 2 stone.

Did you have a blow out and eat loads the week before you started? You could have lost more, but were catching up from what you ate in the previous week. Don't go by what you see on your own scales as they won't be as accurate...and don't give up!

[Seasidedolly]

Emma if I'm not working I'll have weetabix with skimmed milk and get my HexA in that way, if not I'll try to add cheese to a meal and I do have some of those hideous cheese string things, although I didn't have any HexA now I think about it.

When I've got a 1/3 speed food on my plate, should I eat that first to fill me up, so I eat less of the other food? I saw a post somewhere where someone said that's basically the point of SW

[Katenka]

I do so, most days. Just because I can't eat rice or past and not that fussed about potatoes.

On sp half your plate has to be food with S next to it. All S and P food is free but the free food that is just free is synned.

Can your consultant explain it to you in further detail.

I always eat my 'S' veg first. Because if I am full, I end up leaving it and not having a third of my plate.

I have lost 14 in 4 weeks on it.

Do you give your food diary a to your consultant? Ours contacts you mid week to say of something isn't right.

Also how much do you have to loose? When I started I wanted to loose 2stone 11lb. If you only have a little bit to lose it will come off slower.

[katienana]

On SP you stick to speed and protein foods but get an extra HEB. So you can have your usual breakfast, ham salad with 2 slices 400g brown bread for lunch, and chicken breast, roast veggies for your evening meal. Snack on speed foods (eg apples, carrots) and still have your syns.

[Seasidedolly]

Thanks Katenka and katienana thats cleared up SP days, I didn't realise you had to syn free food. Will give a few SP days a go next week.

I'm currently 11st4.5 and would love to get to 9st. I'm only 5"3 so I really need to shift at least a stone to be comfortable, especially with summer coming up.

Weigh in tomorrow morning, I'll update then!

[ChessieFL]

On sp you don't syn free food, you just don't eat it.

Meals should be half speed foods (s symbol) and half protein foods (p symbol). If a free food doesn't have an s or p symbol then you shouldn't eat it on an sp day. You can't give a syn value to free foods.

The way round it is to find a synned version of what you want e.g if you want yoghurt have a synned one not a mullerlight. Or fresh pasta instead of dried. Just make sure you count it within your 15 syns. Having said that, if your syns on an sp day are all versions of things that would otherwise be free, you're not really doing sp and you won't get the weight loss you may be hoping for.

[tabulahrasa]

You shouldn't have things like synned yoghurts on SP days either, the syn calculation includes a free food element and you're not supposed to be having free foods.

Tbh, I wouldn't advise you to try SP until you've got the hang of the normal extra easy and if you're measuring pasta and confused about speed foods then you haven't got the hang of it yet.

[OrangeSquashTallGlass]

Just have to pop in to say most muller yoghurt have more sugar in them than a Krispy Kreme donut!

[tabulahrasa]

"Just have to pop in to say most muller yoghurt have more sugar in them than a Krispy Kreme donut!"

Different type of sugar...if milk had the nutritional information displayed the same way it would have about 5g of sugar per 100ml.

[OrangeSquashTallGlass]

A muller yoghurt has more sugar than that which comes just from the milk though surely?

[thenewaveragebear1983]

You can syn free foods by using the syn calculator and not selecting a free food option, or by estimating 20 cals =1 syn. So a muller Greek yoghurt would be half a syn on ee but 4.5 on so (90cals). Op, are you drinking enough water? I rarely lose anything unless I drink 2-3 litre a day. Also, are you using your healthy extras (eg an a choice only counts if you use ALL of it, which is quite a lot of milk for some people. If you don't use it all you have to syn it.)

[tabulahrasa]

There's lactose in the yoghurt, fructose in the fruit and yes, most of them have some added sugar which is pretty low down the ingredient list - the nutritional information doesn't differentiate between types of sugar, which is why it looks so high.

But actually if you take away the 5g that plain yoghurt has anyway, you've only 2g left for most flavours and some of that is from the fruit.

So not the same at all as things that are that high because it's all added sugar.