How do slimming world and ww work?

[WhyamIdoingthis99]

Just interested in the concepts, thanks.

Not much advice but I don't agree with slimming world.
I think their concept is all wrong and don't like the fact they label food as 'syns' but you can eat as much pasta as you want 🤔.

The same way all weight loss methods work... a calorie deficit.

Slimming world essentially a really low fat diet.

Weight watchers was (unsure on now as its been years) calorie counting converted into 'points'

They like to pump you full of sweeteners and other artificial crap and make sure you have enough calories leftover for more junk food so you don’t feel like you’re depriving yourself of the fake food that got you fat in the first place.

even better that they can peddle their microwave meals, nonsense ‘healthy b bars’ and make even more billions, wait for you to fail and then re join so they make more money.

Yeah. WW make more profit on their branded ready meals and other products. They cross subsidise the slimming groups business to keep the sales up.

100% this. Convince you to quit healthy fats and proteins and swap them for ultra processed shite. You might lose a bit initially but ultimately you will fail and keep paying the weekly fee

Cult’s basically, and a calorie deficit.

Steer clear. I did SW and has given me such a bad relationship with food. Recently signed up to Personal Trainer group and so much better - eating what I like but within a calorie deficit and being explained why things happen. There are plenty out there. Being weighed once a week, sitting in a circle and given a clap for losing is crazy. Seeing foods as "bad" so synning them instead of "it's a bar of chocolate for 200 cals"

This is the best description. I can’t even try to improve on it. Except to say, that statistically most people will fail to lose weight and keep it off, and many will end up heavier than when they started.

Badly in all honesty. They make their money by keeping people on a continual cycle, works for a while but people tend to put it back on as habits aren't changed.
They have a whole range of processed shite that they market like chocolate bars and microwave meals and high carb foods when in reality high protein and high (good) fat foods are much better at eating hunger and keeping you full.
In my view it's an old fashioned approach to a problem that they are in fact contributing to by marketing ultra processed foods.

*sating hunger

I’ve tried both, SW didn’t work for me as I kept mentally counting calories then would be told by the group leader that I wasn’t eating enough! I didn’t like the way both pushed ready meals, however that may suit some people, it wasn’t for me.

My fitness pal works best for me, I record everything that goes in my mouth as well as my exercise which helped massively with keeping my weight steady during menopause.

They don’t in the long term. Yes you join and lose weight but as soon as you stop it all goes back on and more. I’ve a few friends who have been and restarted about 3-4 times. They lose the weight, leave, put it back on and go back again and again.

my MIL lost six stone with slimming world and she still goes to the groups but follows it to the letter and won’t eat a tiny piece of cake as it’s too many ‘syns’ she’s obsessed.

Slimming World gets temporary results sometimes quickly because initially they get caught up in the buzz of weigh in. What I’ve always said is how those who are ‘maintaining’ always look like skinny fat people, you rarely see them with a glow and often they regain the weight because the syns start to add up quickly once they stop being strict. It’s not a particularly healthy diet plan nor do I think it sustainable long term from what I have seen with family and friends.

Want to lose weight? The reality is you need to Cut out the shit food, don’t have takeout, replace bad snacking with healthy choices, drink plenty of water, cut the fizzy drinks and alcohol and get some exercise. Everything else is just skirting around the elephant in the room which is your relationship with food.

Problem with SW is the leaders aren't always the brightest buttons, so don't understand about actual calories and metabolism and BMR etc so struggle when people get to the point where they aren't losing.

They also don't keep people properly "on plan". So, people think they can "eat as much pasta as they like". Which isn't actually the plan, but that's what people take from it

Also the crap inside the SW bars 😱

Slimming world is create a calorie deficit by eating the sort of stuff you’d eat if you were calorie counting and trying not to be hungry , but because it’s that stuff you don’t bother weighing and measuring it and only do that with more calorie dense stuff.

Weight watchers was basically calorie counting but made complicated when I did it and I believe is more a mix between what slimming world do and complicated calorie counting now.

In reality they get you obsessed with the weekly weigh in. So the only thing you care about is the scales each week. So I found myself despite eating real well getting annoyed that I discovered my sil gave me real coke rather than zero at a bbq one bank holiday Monday when shock horror my weigh in morning was the next day . I told myself to cop on and it helped change my outlook. I knew someone who took a laxative tea the day before weigh in. It's all about the scales.

JUST LOOK AT THE FUCKING INGREDIENTS LIST FOR A HIFI BAR 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

Oligofructose syrup, cocoa crisped rice [rice flour, cocoa powder, sugar, raising agent (sodium bicarbonate), salt], milk chocolate (11%) [sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, skimmed milk powder, whey powder (milk), lactose (milk), butter oil (milk), emulsifiers (soya lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate), flavouring], gluten-free oats, glucose syrup, crisped rice [rice flour, sugar, rice bran, rice extract, raising agent (calcium carbonate), salt], sweetener (maltitol syrup), milk chocolate curls (6%) [sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, whole mo;l powder, skimmed milk powder, emulsifier (sunflower lecithin), natural vanilla flavouring], milk chocolate flavoured coating 5% [sugar, vegetable fats (coconut, cocoa butter), whey powder (milk), lactose (milk), low fat cocoa powder, emulsifiers (soya lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate), flavouring], dextrose, sweetened condensed skimmed milk (milk sugar), cocoa powder [cocoa powder, acidity regulator (potassium carbonate)], humectant (glycerol), orange sugar crunch (1%) [sugar, water, glucose syrup, concentrates (radish, safflower, lemon), natural orange flavouring, acidity regulator (citric acid), coconut oil, glazing agent (beeswax), colour (curcumin)] sweetened orange peel (1%) [orange peel, glucose fructose syrup, sugar, acidity regulator (citric acid)], natural flavourings, natural orange flavouring.

www.iceland.co.uk/p/slimming-world-hifi-cherish-me-choc-orange-bars-x-6-pack/81384.html

And these are a "healthy" Extra 🤔

They don't.
The end.
The ONLY effective way long term is to eat less and move more.
My BFF is a SW consultant and having lost over 6st, she is now well on her way to putting it all back on plus some.
Saddens me that so many are taken in by what is nothing more than a HUGE SCAM.
She admits its a scam - unless you're willing to change your eating habits FOREVER, it is not sustainable.
Pays her bills though, so she'll stick with it.

But, tbf, you have to change your eating habits forever if you want to lose weight by "eating less and moving more".

So much utter bollocks on this thread. They both work by reducing calories by focusing on unprocessed low fat meals with lots of fruit and veg, cooked from scratch, but with none of the tedious weighing and calorie counting or be hungry. You only have to limit higher calorie food and the obvious crap like crisps, biscuits etc.

If you follow the plan you lose weight and maintain your loss, because that's what they promote, a lifestyle change. Most of the people who say they eat what they want and don't gain weight are eating what looks like 'being on a diet' does to people who struggle with weight.

The reason people put weight back after SW etc on is because they go back to the bad eating habits that caused weight gain in the first place.

But they aren’t healthy plans really when you look at it. I mean on SW an avocado is a syn. SW also doesn’t teach portion control and do not get me started on processed shite like muller light yoghurts and eating as much pasta as you like.

A lot of the above certainly isn't my experience with SW. I joined in January, and have slowly lost a stone and a half and am now happily maintaining at my target weight.

The plan is about filling up mainly on speed foods- essentially fruit and veg (this should be half your plate). Free food is meat, potatoes, pasta, rice etc. You do have to weigh dairy and fibre foods. Anything else (the crap food) you just had be to be careful around. It's not banned, just don't eat too much.

To me that's a healthy way to look at food and just gives an element of accountability.

And they definitely don't say you can have as much pasta as you like!

But. That. Is. Not. The. Plan.

Avocados are high fat/calorie, so you won't lose weight if you have lots of them. You can have them, but not multiple, every day.

You're supposed to eat until you are just full, so portion control.

You don't have to have Muller Lites or any other 'processed shite'. Food is supposed to be lean meat, fish, fruit, vegs, eggs, pulses, some grains/pasts and controlled amounts of higher calorie foods.

You can't 'have as much pasta as you like'. You can only have pasta in equal amounts of vegetables, so the ideal SW plate would be 1/3 protein, 1/3 (or preferably up to half) non starchy veg and 1/3 pasta. If you don't stick to those proportions you aren't following SW.