To not be convinced that Slimming World works?

[firstnightwemet]

A woman I work with constantly bangs on about it. I dared to have a protein shake for my lunch and got told to throw it away and that SW is the way forward.

I've known this woman over a year and she's the exact same weight. No judgment at all but surely if you're raving about how great something is then there should be results?

Every woman but one I've known who has done SW or WW has lost and put back on.

You shouldn't feel forced to do any diet, but protein shakes are vile, what's wrong with packing up a decent lunch?

I was a SW consultant many moons ago. It can be a really good thing if done properly. I don't like the fact they use "syns" in the way they do but I don't hold that against them!

However, now that I've done loads of reading since discovering fasting and The 8 Week Blood Sugar diet - I would also really recommend reading The Obesity Code - I truly believe the key to losing weight successfully and keeping it off, whatever diet you follow, is to cut out snacking, do the odd fast day, and forget about low-fat.

To anyone who is type 2 diabetic, pre-diabetics diabetic or insulin resistant (or like me, just addicted to carbs) I'd really recommend looking into the 8WBSD and read The Obesity Code. Good luck.

(I lost 10% in 8 weeks and have kept it off for the last 2 months and am about to do another 8 weeks)

Lol at the rebelfit converts, as if that's better than any other diet
Where are they, because there isn't any on this thread?

My personal opinion is that only people with weight problems diet.

I have lots of slim friends and not one has ever dieted or done a juice cleanse. They may be effective short term but they don't resolve the core issue.

Money would probably be better spent on counselling and re-education.

I go to SW and have been going since oct

Lost 22 pounds so far but I don't really follow the plan as such

It's more the accountability and support

I'm not losing weight for same reasons as everyone else so feel a bit of a fraud

I have lost 7 stone, most of it with SW.

It's pretty basic "healthy" eating really. But as with anything you are the only person who can control what goes in your mouth - sadly just paying each week isn't enough to make the weight come off, something has to change and you have to stick to those changes long term

You shouldn't feel forced to do any diet, but protein shakes are vile, what's wrong with packing up a decent lunch?

But isn't that you judging? I personally don't find them vile.

I carb cycle so it makes it easy on protein days to low carb. I then have a dinner packed with vegetables.

I'm not forcing my diet on you. I'm doing what works for me.

It's mumsnet, of course I'm judging.

Pack up a chicken salad, fresh food is much better for you than protein shakes.

Oh, the penny has dropped, that's what your SW chum actually said isn't it?

My beautifully slim friend doesn't diet. She just eats lots of veg, salad, lean meats and fish...which is the SW diet. She just doesn't call it that, because it's how she has always eaten!

Any diet works when you stick to it. Every diet fails when you don't stick to it. It's not rocket science.

All diets are hard to stick to so most people fail from all of them

Precisely raffle

The concept of free foods confuses me TBH. But I've not looked into it properly.

I don't see me being able to stick to any diet so I'm just trying to make really small, slow changes. At new year I decided to cut right down on coke/pepsi/dr pepper as I was buying some several times a week. Since then I've only bought a glass at restaurants/pubs (once a week max) and just by doing that I lost half a stone, no other changes. It's a tiny drop in the ocean (I'm now 18.5st) but hopefully it'll last because the habit has properly changed. Hopefully!

I had some problems with disordered eating years ago...as a long time WW member!
I joined SW a few months ago, and I've found that it doesn't trigger my binge/restrict behaviour at all. I don't eat the weird tweaked recipes for cakes and all that, and I dislike Muller lights/mugshots/HiFi bars. I don't actually even follow many of the SW recipes, as I got really into cooking from fresh ingredients when I stopped dieting years ago. So, it may work for me because I didn't have to change that much...I joined because I wanted some guidance away from mindless snacking and drinking a bit more than I should. It's been really slow, mainly because I don't demonize food...if I want a slice of cake, I eat It, but I haven't had a binge since I joined, and loss has been fairly steady.
I definitely find that SW is the most sustainable of everything else I've ever tried...I know the stats are against me, but I'm pretty sure I won't start daily takeaways or eating whole cakes at a time when I've reached my target.
It's not for everyone, and because of that, I don't evangelize it.

The only thing that works is willpower. Without that you might as well not bother. Problem is most people who need to diet didn't have any in the first place so it's tough.

My personal opinion is that only people with weight problems diet

Evidentially they would be?

Once you have a weight problem you can't say 'I won't diet, it's only the fatties that do that' can you?

I have lots of slim friends and not one has ever dieted or done a juice cleanse. They may be effective short term but they don't resolve the core issue.

Anecote is not evidence. I have a slim friend obsessed with bloody juices and faddy wraps! I also know slim people who go to SW.

Money would probably be better spent on counselling and re-education.

Yeah but you can't get that for £5 a week...

In other news bears shit in the woods.

Ime WW and SW get the weight off but you won't keep it off once you go off plan because you eventually revert back to all the bad habits that got you fat in the first place.
I have been losing and gaining the same stone for 10 years I'm currently about 7lbs overweight (by bmi). I know exactly how to lose the weight but the lure of the wine and chocolate is greater than the lure of the veg and water. Until that mindset changes the weight will stay unfortunately.

I lost a lot of weight a few years ago and kept it off for ages...what did for me was having a baby plus being very ill afterwards and existing on cake and sugar for months at a time. Thankfully the craving for cake stopped after a while!

But I'm now a few stone overweight still and find it difficult to lose, because though I eat very healthily I just eat too much of it (don't snack, cook from scratch, eat tons of veg, very healthy stuff - a typical dinner would be tomato, carrot and chickpea casserole with brown rice and sliced runner beans - but then I eat two and a half platefuls of it....whoops.) My DM does SW so I looked into it, but it hardly makes a difference from my usual diet (I couldn't believe that DM was going on about how I could eat as much brown rice, pasta and plain potatoes as I like - no, that's the problem!! Portion control....)

When I lost weight before I found the best combination for me was not getting too hung up about it, but combining low carb with low calorie - so I'd have one meal a day which was calorie counted, and one meal a day which was low-carb but not calorie restricted. Plus as much coffee as I liked, fruit for breakfast and no more than one glass of wine in the evening. If I had a calorie counted lunch (say a sandwich of 400 calories), I'd have a low carb dinner with a salmon fillet or chicken, plus tons of veg and a glass of wine. If I was out for lunch I might have it low carb (meat and loads of salad), then have a calorie counted ready meal in the evening. Unfortunately, I'm small, and my resting metabolism requires pretty low calories (around 1500), so I found I had to go down to approximately 1200-1300 to lose weight at a steady 2lbs a week. That's not a lot, but to be honest I hardly noticed once I'd got into the swing of it - because I wasn't being too obsessive about it and the low-carb meal allowed me not to calorie count but to eat as much veg and salad as I wanted.

Once I'd lost the excess weight, I could go up a bit to a slightly larger calorie intake; but to be honest I could never fall back into eating very big portions or loads of carbs again without putting weight back on. I think that's the problem with SW and other diets generally: there's no getting away from the fact that you have to switch to smaller portions permanently. We live in an age where there's an excess of food available, and even if you eat very healthily, there's no getting away from the fact that we have still got accustomed to far larger portions than is actually needed by most modern lifestyles - or even most high-activity lifestyles! (I mean I could work on an oil rig and I still probably wouldn't need two and a half large plates of brown rice, chickpeas and runner beans....)

Now, this summer I'm hoping to crack on with the proper weight loss plan again...wish me luck.....I might have to buy smaller plates....

(I mean 1200 calories approx. is not a lot - 2 lbs a week weight loss is the recommended sensible level.)

Joined SW four years ago, depressed and overweight. Gradually lost 2stone over 2 years which changed my life and ability to get about. For the next 2 years I've stayed the same, neither regained nor lost more. This is because I'm not careful enough with 'synfull' chocolate, cake, biscuits. I'm certain that if I didn't go to SW my weight would have crept up and I'd be bigger than I was 4 years ago.

YANBU.

Different strokes for different folks.

I found I gained weight with SW because of the lack of portion control. WW worked for me. I would have kept the weight of if it wasn't for pregnancy, an international move, and major life changes.

I'm following it at home now and doing just fine. Oh and I did keep 59lbs off for 2 years before pregnancy. It's a case of still following the new habits developed. This is why it's viewed as a lifestyle change and not a diet, since it's an overhaul on bad habits a lot of people have to start with.

I used to need the support. Now I've found ways to avoid paying stupid amounts of money for it.

Why not just tell the woman at work you've tried it and it didn't work for you but you're glad it's working for her (she may get the passive aggressiveness or not). Would that not make life easier? That what I did with my MIL. She's a SW consultant and raves about it. The only part I hear about it now is how her work is going.

Or you know just accept that people like something different. All diets work if you stick to them. You can maintain them if you try. The hardest part of dieting is keeping the weight off after all. No one will say that while dieting though because losing weight is bloody hard as it is.

I had this same conversation with DH and his friend. Their point was it's a business so they need you to lose weight but very slowly to keep using the services...DH friend is a PT and said he could design a plan for eating and exercise that would work quicker and would be healthier but SW believers don't seem to want that.
I know people who have lost 5 stone, 11 stone and 8 stone...big losses over 6 months to a year...but you have to be strict with it...well, if you are going to do mainly SP days and lower syns and go hard on body magic then you are basically doing what DH's friend suggests anyway...hmmh

BeeThirtyThree but isn't Slimming World much cheaper than paying for a PT? I'm in NW England and they seem to charge £20-£30 per hour, whereas Slimming World is £5 a week. I couldn't afford a PT even if it would be a quicker and healthier way to lose weight!