to be on the verge of tears because I don't understand the Slimming World rules?

[Mintyy]

Ffs! I am reasonable intelligent but come on!.

Am I ever going to understand it?

Yanbu because I felt the exact same way when I first started, I'm pretty sure I actually did cry. What are you having trouble with?

Mintyy, calm down, it is not that hard. I have lost 15 lbs in the last 5 weeks on it.

What don't you understand?

YANBU. I didn't much like slimming world. Far too restrictive. Though some people do well on it. I thought basically on the extra easy you could eat as much lean meat and rice and potatoes as you wanted. But bread, cheese, and other dairy are on an allowance. And other things like sweets and cakes and so on are on a strict points system called syns. Dire!!!!

Is there something in particular you're struggling with?

Every day you are allowed as much food as you like from the list of free foods. Then you can choose one food from the Healthy Extra A list, and one food from the Healthy Extra B list. Anything not on those lists you need to look up in the syns section and count them. You are allowed between 5 and 15 syns per day.

It's complicated when you first look at it, but you'll get used to it.

It's really really really straightforward when you get the hang of it. Everything is daunting at first. I lost 6 stone on this plan - it's amazing.

You should have a SW consultant that you can contact - it's part of joining. You'll have an e-mail address or phone number? It's their job to make sure you understand, and don't be afraid to keep asking and asking till you get it (it really won't take long).

It took me ages to get the hang of but it's apart of everyday life for me now, lost 8 stone so far :) once you get it, you get it and its easy.

1 Healthy A (dairy) every day
1 Healthy b (carbs) every day
Fruit & veg are super foods - should fill 1/3 of your plate
No fatty meat
Eat as much rice, pasta & potatoes as you can fit on 2/3 plate

Sauces, White bread, booze, ready meals, Greggs & anything naice have syn value.

Try to eat no more than 10 sins per day

Where sw really works is when you religiously fill 1/3 plate with fruit / veg. Even if your meal is say veg based

I tried it...and failed (or rather, it failed me- I'm trying to be more positive ).

It's all very well having the 'rules', but they don't actually translate into any actual real life recipes, so you come home and think 'Oh, I fancy making a shepherds pie tonight', and then find out that 40% of the ingredients are not allowed. Very frustrating.

Hi. It really works. Come and find the SW 3 thread (sorry, useless at links). I've lost 2.5 stone since last autumn. I have 2 to go and will do it by the new year. 1lb a week but its very good once you get your head round it. talk to your consultant, buy the magazine and go online (aargh, I sound like an advert, I'm not!!).

I've got this food diary thing in front of me. It says Free Foods 2/3, Superfree 1/3, Healthy Extras and Syns.

Today I had:

B: A regular cappuccino from a coffee bar with 1 tsp sugar.

Semi skimmed milk in 3 mugs of tea.

L: Mixed green salad, raw red pepper, coriander, rare lean roast beef, noodles, asian dressing (about a tbsp) - which was a salad from Pret A Manger.

Lots of strawberries and grapes (about 10 of each).

Snack: 2 ryvita with 1 tsp butter and marmite.

D: An Innocent Indian Dahl veg pot with a tbsp of tzatziki.

So what I don't understand is ~

Have I had my Healthy A and B (I assume so in the milk and the ryvita)?

What is the difference beween Free and Superfree?

I know the sugar, butter and salad dressing are syns, but also I guess the cappuccino is too? I imagine it exceeds the amount of milk allowed as a Healthy extra.

Any help very gratefully received!

Im on sw too. Joined 2 weeks ago.

What you struggling with mintyy?

Mintyy come over to the Bootcamp threads and low carb - it's much nicer and much less hassle!

Chipping - I really can't low carb. I'd love to, but its not for me.

Superfree foods I was told make you lose weight quicker. Why that should be so I wasn't told.

Mintyy - if you'd love to, why isn't it for you?

Yes your milk and ryvita would be your healthy A and B choices.

The Indian Dahl may well have had some syns in it because it may well have had some oil in it, but doubt it would have been many.

The Cappuccino probably had syns in it too.

Free foods are things like meat, pasta and rice.

Super free are fruit and vegetables, the more you eat of them the better.

The thing to remember is anything with fat, sugar or oil in will have a syn value.

Your innocent pot will probably have syns too.

Mpst things do if not made at home.

I work out my favourite a and b choices and work out the syn value of things i love as treats. I tend to binge syn at the weekend and then have to stick to free food all week.

Lost 7lb in my first week. Weigh in again tomorrow.

Super free is the same as free it's just food that's actually helps you lose weight, if I remember rightly.

It's worth sticking with it if you can manage. I lost a stone and my DH lost six stones on it.

Mintyy. You need to check what youre eating. The cappuccino will have had a number of syns - more than you think. Americano, no milk has none. The innocent veg pot probably has some too. There's a SW app which gives you all the syn values of ready made stuff. It's useful when shopping.

This woe does work, irritatingly DH now has to eat more to keep his weight up. Grr.

You can have 375ml of skimmed milk and around 250ml of semi skimmed as free, all the rest is sins.

I may be wrong as its been years since I did SW

Chipping - I meant I'd love to have some of that amazing success you all have, but I just don't enjoy eating tons of meat, fish and dairy products. I like butter and cream, but only a little, I like olive oil, but only a little. I couldn't add fat to every meal, I just wouldn't enjoy it.

Mintyy
Hang on in there.
Have you got somebody at your SW group you can chat with in a daily basis who know YOU and can therefore be really constructive for you.
as we are just talking to the little bit of you thats on here ...

PS I know that Mintyy has tried low carb and 5:2 - shes got more stamina on this than most of us.

Yes but these are fundamentals that someone with a degree should be able to understand! Also, I can ask Mumsnet at 11.20 at night and know that someone will be here .

I have decided to try this as I clearly need to be more restrictive with myself, I must just be plain greedy and drink eat too much.

It is very restrictive though. I can't work out how you can ever go out for a modest pizza like from Pizza Express?

If I can get a couple of stone off I'll probably go back to 5:2-ing to maintain.

I don't find it particularly restrictive tbh. I don't get to eat all the chocolate I would like to but then again I wouldn't get to do that on any diet/weight loss plan.

You can think of your syns as 70 syns a week (that's 10 per day, you can go up to 105 per week), then a pizza from Pizza Express would be roughly 40 syns according to the website. That leaves you with 30 syns to play with for the rest of the week, which is doable seeing as there's so much free food you can eat.