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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think slimming world is a mugs game?

176 replies

TheWorldIsMine · 21/11/2016 09:44

Been doing sw for around 3 months. Yes I lost weight which is great but after a few weeks you start to realise how unsustainable the whole thing is. Constant pushing of "fat free" yogurts - full of god knows what sugars and crap to make up the taste? A breakfast of two sugar caked cereal bars which wouldn't fill a toddler up?
At one class a girl was asked what she saves her syns for. She replied "chocolate and alcohol" which was applauded - sorry but it what world is it seen as a good thing to substitute proper good with chocolate and alcohol???

Then there is the constant "ooo how many syns does each of these biscuits have in them? Ooo I could eat three Nice biscuits but only two ginger biscuits ... decisions!

I once took a fat Fred yogurt into work and a colleague looked sxpetrenrly concerned and told me I'd bought the wrong yogurts. I said "it's fat free" to which she replied "yeah but you're supposed to get muller lights ... " what a load of 'endorsed' bollocks!!!

It comes to something when a nutritious homemade fruit smoothie is classed as 20+ syns yet a chocolate cereal bar is encouraged as "healthy extra".

I can't understand the massive following they have! You may lose weight in the short term but I've never known anyone keep it off for more than a year unless they sack it off and switch to eating healthy instead.

OP posts:
Msqueen33 · 21/11/2016 17:44

My mum has convinced me to join. I'm not sure. I have issues with moderation and I'm not sure unlimited will help. But I'm going to mainly be weighed as at the moment I lack a lot of motivation. I also lose weight slowly.

Allthewaves · 21/11/2016 17:52

We are encourage to eat free food until you are full by group leader. Very much listening to your body, amazing how you quickly control own portions by doing this.

Plus I tend to stick to their plan where you limit carbs which has led to great weight loss

Msqueen33 · 21/11/2016 18:06

Allthewaves what if your body is seriously greedy?!

StickyProblem · 21/11/2016 18:12

trinitybleu you've lost me, sorry. Are you saying it should be brown rice/brown pasta, not "white"? Because you're also saying you're having half a plate of salad. That's what's filling you up compared to what you ate before.

Musicinthe00ssucks · 21/11/2016 18:15

I quickly realised that I'd be pretty fucked on SW because I dispise Muller Light and I've got PCOS so I couldn't do the "green" days.

CaptainMarvelDanvers · 21/11/2016 18:23

YANBU.

I did Slimming World and I did lose weight but I just hated the whole atmosphere and they way they talked about rice and pasta being 'free'. I hated the words they used for things like syns and also 'star' week, why not just say period? I think a few people will have common sense but I sense a lot more people with food addictions will be trying to find a way to cheat and combat their cravings, these people will not learn portion control and healthy eating with SW and count myself amongst them.

I stopped going and bought myself a portion plate instead. I think that's where a lot of issues come from, people don't know what portion sizes they should have, that and not knowing how to cook.

PrincessConsuelaTheSecond · 21/11/2016 18:29

FGS.

I am on SW. Today I've had weetabix fruit and nut with chopped banana for breakfast, pasta with chicken, mushrooms and sweetcorn and a side salad for lunch, and a slightly adapted Jamie Oliver sausage cassoulet recipe for dinner. Where's the processed crap in that?

Plus - it's not rocket science. Eat when you're hungry. Stop when you're full. Don't pile your plate high for the sake of it or you won't lose weight.

It's the simplest diet I've ever been on by far. My dinner recipes are pretty much what I ate before but with the odd substitution and using up to 3 syns.

The only difference is I'm having no takeaways and far less wine, which surely isn't a bad thing Hmm

Sirzy · 21/11/2016 18:31

Slimming would is what you make it. I very rarely have anything processed, have lost 7stone and been at target nearly a year

It is an easy to follow lifestyle change

IneedAdinosaurNickname · 21/11/2016 18:40

trinitybleu

I say again - white pasta and white rice are not free!

Are they not? I thought they were? Confused

interstellarcloudofdust · 21/11/2016 18:45

White rice and white pasta are free foods on SW. Personally I eat wholegrain brown rice and wholewheat pasta, but the white versions are still classed as free.

PrincessConsuelaTheSecond · 21/11/2016 18:45

I was told that white pasta and rice were free now too.

BarbaraofSeville · 21/11/2016 18:49

White rice and pasta were free when I went, a couple of years ago. I don't know if it has changed since.

Music, they haven't had red and green days for years, but obviously the force feeding of muller lights is a bitch. Good thing it's perfectly possible to not eat them at all.

I really don't understand this obsession with rubbishing the diet because of a mythical assumption that it is death by muller lights. If you don't like them you don't eat them, just like other food you don't like. I don't like celery and never eat that or muller lights whether I am trying to lose weight or not.

StStrattersOfMN · 21/11/2016 18:57

White rice and pasta are still free. DD2 and a friend go.

PetalMettle · 21/11/2016 18:57

I did it - never bought the hifi bars, lost 5 stone in 6 months. Mainly ate lean protein with loads of veg. Couldn't keep it up when pregnant though as I craved carbs to stop me feeling sick, and then post baby haven't been able to work out how to get back to it. So weight has piled back on.

StStrattersOfMN · 21/11/2016 18:58

And there's no Muller Lights or Mugshots here. We don't eat processed food, although I'll confess that's mostly because I've a severe dairy allergy and am a control freak cba to read labels constantly.

IneedAdinosaurNickname · 21/11/2016 19:11

I checked the app (whilst eating some yummy white rice). It is free. Phew. Thought id totally misunderstood!

bertsdinner · 21/11/2016 19:14

I did Slimming World about 5 years ago, on my own, not in a group. I lost 6 stone and have kept it off. I think I ate more healthily on SW than any other phase in my life, no processed stuff and I cooked everything from scratch. It was just normal meals, but a bit different.
I did find it a bit slow and restrictive near the end and switched to calorie counting to lose the last bit of weight. By then, I was in "diet mode" and found it was easy to switch.
Its the best and most successful diet I've ever done, I still use some SW recipes today.

HelenaDove · 21/11/2016 19:22

I lost 10 stone the first time really quickly (7 stone in 7 months) and got gallstones. This was doing the plan their way.

Doing it my way the second time when i only had 4 stone to lose i lost that 4 stone in three years. I went low sugar and cut my portion sizes which i didnt have to do the first time.

But ppl dont want slow steady weight loss They want a quick fix. And fast weight loss is pushed and rewarded. Slow weight loss is better The only time i gain weight is at Christmas and that is 2 pounds which is off again a week into New Year. I did not do the mullerlight hifi bar crap second time around and loss is more sustainable.

NotStoppedAllDay · 21/11/2016 20:43

Op you sound so sneery

NotStoppedAllDay · 21/11/2016 20:45

sirzy that's good going! Well done

Clearly SW works for some people then

FeliciaJollygoodfellow · 21/11/2016 20:50

Well your consultant is shit then.

SW has been the only way I have been able to lose more than two stone and not gain it all back. The focus is on healthy eating but the reality is, is that people can gorge on unhealthy stuff that in moderation is fine. People don't get fat by having a little bit of what they fancy.

And again, if your consultant is encouraging you to stuff yourself then they're shit. The whole point is that you learn to fill yourself up with vegetables like lettuce rather than lean chicken, because 100g of each will yield very different calorie amounts.

Yeah, it's a mug's game, sure. So don't go, lose weight on your own. Or are you there because you've tried and failed on your own?

GoofyTheHero · 21/11/2016 21:01

I quickly realised that I'd be pretty fucked on SW because I dispise Muller Light and I've got PCOS so I couldn't do the "green" days

Funny, it's worked for me and I've never eaten a muller light in my life. And they haven't had 'green days' for years.

trinitybleu · 21/11/2016 21:04

sticky yes - the change to wholemeal pasta plus the salad is filling me up, that's what I mean.

Bloody hell ... the change to make normal pasta and white rice ok had passed me by. OH will be delighted!

jenesuisplus · 21/11/2016 21:16

If it's a mugs game I'm a happy mug. I've lost 2 stone since September. I have the odd mullerlight if the mood takes, and the mugshots are handy for keeping me ticking over at work when I don't have time to eat properly. But it's also helped me to reevaluate what I eat, and what exercise I get, I've made some really good friends, and I feel better in myself than I have done in a good few years.

Don't like it? Don't go!

camelfinger · 21/11/2016 21:33

I couldn't really be arsed to track things so basically cut right down on bread and cheese and sugar. I tended to not have any syns but usually had alcohol or some meal out at the weekend.
It does depend on the leader though. I lost the will to live slightly when ours said you might as well have a McDonald's cheeseburger rather than an avocado. And she seemed a bit obsessed with supernoodles and muller lights.