Slimming World

[ShitStorm2017]

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Does slimming world work? I want to lose 3 stone in a year. I'm very shy and struggle to exercise.

What is it? How does it work? Do you find the support helpful or would I struggle with my anxiety?

My trainer doesn't like slimming world as she says it causes loss of too much muscle mass which in turn slows your metabolism

Can you ask your trainer how?

I'm also wondering if you can ask this 'trainer' how?

We all use SW differently. I'm a runner, I've got all the muscle I need but SW is a way of eating, not a diet

Btw, I don't bother with mugshots/muller light yogurts.... you take what you need from SW

I have a few friends doing SW and they post their meals on Instagram. I cringe at every one they post. Bizarre combinations of food. Mostly processed crap with salad. Definitely borders on disordered eating imo.

I lost eight stone following the plan and using Jiliian Michaels dvds; absolutely loved it, have never felt so fit in my life. Made no food in a mug and avoided artificial sweeteners. I think you need to make it suit you - easier to adapt food you do like than eat the weird and wonderful. I really like the group support too (it's not for everyone!)

Family bereavement and a few months of comfort eating/laziness and I have gained but I'm back there now, 6 pound lost in the first week and the group is still welcoming.

The key with any diet/lifestyle is finding one that suits you and sticking to it. Nothing to lose by trying it.

I think the good thing with SW is it can be what you want. There is such a wide variety of foods that you can work the plan now fits you. If you want convieience you can, if you want processed you can, if you want to adapt things you can but if you just want to eat proper home cooked meals that is just as easy.

I've done SW three times and it has always 'worked' BUT I've never managed to keep the weight off. Recently discovered rebelfit (as mentioned by a PP) and I'm now focusing on fitness instead of slimming - I feel and look much healthier and I'm eating properly (my fridge has no quark or muller lights in it, and mug shots and low fat super noodles no longer fill my cupboards). I think the biggest difference is that my self esteem isn't regulated by numbers on a scale any more, I feel great because my stamina and energy are higher and it's irrelevant what the scales say as long as my clothes fit.

I've been obese all my life and have tried every diet there is pretty much, including SLimming World and I've seen and heard success stories on all of them.

For me, Slimming world didn't work because it was too easy to over eat on carbs which were my main downfall in the first place. I never felt full despite mountains of food and it was too easy to "save" all of my syns up until one night when I'd have an almighty binge (binge eating is also an issue for me).

I also found the amount of fruit/ sugar I could consume consequence free was alarming. 2 muller light yogs in a day plus a couple of pieces of fruit and you're knocking on for 8 teaspoons of sugar. That's a massive amount of sugar that pushes up your blood sugar, only then to crash and make you hungry again a couple of hours later.

I found I was eating breakfast (overnight oats) at 9, then needed to snack on fruit at 11, have lunch (usually soup and a sandwich with my b option and ham/ tuna) at 1, need a snack of a yoghurt or fruit at 3, then have dinner when I got home at 6:30pm. That was all perfectly reasonable on slimming world, no cause for alarm that I was getting hungry every 2 hours!

I lost 4lbs in my first week, then steadily gained those 4 back in the next few weeks despite sticking to the plan. I was told at group that I was lying and MUST be "cheating"

The group I was in perpetuated the idea of cheating and "falling off the wagon" which I hated because I really wanted to believe it was a change for life and sustainable, not just a temporary diet. "I've been good this week" or "I've been bad this week" was a common theme...

That's not just SW by the way, I also went to WW meetings and it was the same there.

ANyway long story short, a life time of high carb, low low fat diets left me at 19st 1lb at 5ft 5 and 26 years old ... that was on new years day this year.

Thankfully, a month and a bit later I found LCHF on here over on the bootcamp threads and I haven't looked back. I've lost 3st 5lbs on LCHF and a further 10lbs before that just by giving up low fat products and introducing fat back into my diet.

I'm 15st 10lbs now and losing about 2lbs a week by eating proper food, no low fat products at all and plent of good fats and low carb veggies :) Never enjoyed food more to be honest and I can now eat 2 or 3 meals a day and not be hungry at all.

So yeah, you have to find something that works for you and not be afraid to try different things. My issue was metabolic syndrome - I was struggling to keep my blood sugar stable and therefore felt hungry and craved sugar constantly. As soon as I broke that cycle LCHF became the easiest way to eat I've ever found

However, if your problem is something different then something else will probably work for you in the same way :)

Good luck :)

I like slimming world. I find that it has helped me cook from scratch. I dont buy their ready meals.

For me its all about changing bad habits. I used to eat nothing but processed frozen rubbish and a tonne and a half of junk food every day.

Oh and as an aside, my PT also hates slimming world and advocates a high fat, carb controlled but not calorie restricted diet. I weight train though so for cardio she says she'd advise more carbs than I currently eat, although still no where near the levels of slimming world.

She works exclusively with obese clients and advocates weight training, 1 cardio session a week and LCHF diet. Some of the changes in the clients she's worked on are phenomenal and I trust her experiences completely. She's brilliant :)

I started SW 25 weeks ago and last night got my 3st award. I don't eat tonnes of Muller lights, in fact I rarely eat the 175g ones but I like the Greek style. I eat freshly cooked meals and have a good variety of meals. I occasionally like a mug shot when I'm feeling poorly. For me it's a way of eating and cooking instead of how I was. My crisp habit has severely changed and I eat sugarsnap peas instead lol.

Come join us on the support thread #5 for any help or advice.

I'm going on holiday this weekend then having surgery when I get back. Should everything go ok, I hope to go for another 2st by December.

I agree with the poster who mentioned looking up Richie Howie, or Team RH on Facebook to get their insight on slimming world. Basically while it encourages 'healthy' eating it is guesswork as it doesn't take into account your calorie burn as an individual. So someone with a lot to lose might lose weight because they are suddenly eating 1400 calories and burning 3000, but this is too much of a deficit long-term and will cause the metabolism to slow down. Someone else might not lose weight because they burn fewer calories and slimming world doesn't take that into account. Team RH explains it better than I can and their whole explaination about nutrition and fat loss has been a game changer for me! He completely changed the way I view fat loss.

Found a link to the video-warning he does swear! But it's worth a watch

www.facebook.com/richie.howey/posts/10154511110454295

MumIsRunningAMarathon I would ask my trainer for you, but considering you've put trainer in inverted commas, which comes across as extremely rude, I won't bother. Incidentally Jiminnycricket has said the same as me a few posts down so unless you're a qualified personal trainer yourself I'm not sure why you feel justified in being so dismissive

poorpearls trainer sounds like the don't know the plan.

It's a good plan and works of you follow it properly. If it's easy to overeat like jiminy says, but.... That isn't flame the plan.

Whilst it says you can have unlimited pasta. That is alongside the 1/3 speed rule, not just "unlimited" pasta and nothing else.

It essentially is the "Eastwell" plate.

How does a plan that encourages a balance of foods (cards, fruit, veg, protein, dairy etc) whilst limiting fats and sugars contribute to a loss of muscle mass?

26 weeks and 4 stone 6lbs

It works simply because it makes you review your eating habits. It's trite to say, but if you don't scoff crap you don't get fat. So in with the fruit and veg, and out with the snacking on breadsticks and dips every evening. It's not rocket science, it's a common sense approach.

BTW, I've never had a pot noodle, a muller lite or laughing cow triangle either . Neither do I, as seen on here, "eat your own weight in pasta daily".

have a few friends doing SW and they post their meals on Instagram. I cringe at every one they post. Bizarre combinations of food. Mostly processed crap with salad. Definitely borders on disordered eating imo.

I would suggest these friends ate processed crap in the first place, and have not suddenly started to eat that shit because they joined SW.

I eat fresh chicken, fish and pork. With veg/salad. I eat eggs and I eat fruit. None of it is processed. That's what I take from SW.

I think different things will always work for different people and discussing what works for you is important for everyone, because there will be someone out there it will work for too just like there will be people it doesn't work for. That's important too, because there's nothing worse than feeling like a failure when actually whatever plan you're doing just doesnt suit everyone.

Slimming World is just one of those plans that some people are militantly attached to and that really works for them, but for some people it just isn't the answer.

The next bit I'm posting by the way is true of both Slimming WOrld and Weight Watchers, I had similar experiences on both.

I DID have 1/3 of my plate full of SS foods, but my plates of food were monsterously huge because the plan did nothing to control my apitite, which was my problem in the first place. It taught me what to eat for sure, but didn't teach me how to control the strong cravings to eat all the time.

It also taught me nothing about the science behind weight loss. For someone like me who needs to understand things to commit to them, just saying "trust in the plan" like bloody Yoda every time I questioned the amount of sugar in my diet and the lack of fats wasn't helpful at all. I have a feleing my group leader actually didn't know herself and that was worrying that she was giving out dietary advice with no understanding of the impact macro's and different nutrients generally have on the body.

Also, at my group (I realise this wont be the case for all groups) I was told to snack on fruit and fat free yoghurt which I did, but that made the problem worse because 2 hours later my blood sugar would be crashing from the high and I'd be starving.

Throughout Jan this year while still on weight watchers I started actually researching nutrition studies and weight loss studies from 1971 onwards and actually, when you look at the evidence there's no compelling evidence at all that "my plate" eating is genuinely healthy. The overwhelming evidence is that low carb, moderate to high fat and moderate protien diets out perform low fat, high carb diets in every test. That's why I chose to try LCHF (low carb, high fat). I did, it works and I'm finally shifting weight quickly and without hunger for the first time.

However, try discussing this with my MIL who's been on slimming world for 7 years and shifted various amounts of weight over that time but is currently heavier than when she started. I pointed out she's been paying a subscription fee for 7 years for information she knows backwards, and yet has seen no results. She called my diet a "fad" and said I'd put all the weight back on Glass houses...

So yeah, I say try it, but if it doesnt work for you try something else. You'll find your thing eventually.

But that's not SW!!!! it's not about huge portions it's about eating Free Foods (low calorie, highly filling foods) mindfully. The recommendation is to to snack on any Free Foods you like, Speed for faster weight losses, Protein or Fibre to helpfully you up. The books and website have all the nutrition and science behind the plan even if your leader doesn't understand it.

InfiniteSheldon but it IS Slimming World! This is what I'm saying! I went to groups, I followed the advice and I lost weight. Accept that peoples experiences of SW are different from your own.

It worked as in I lost weight but I'm a bit anti slimming world now. I struggle with diets where avocados are considered syns and you have to account for them but diet fizzy drinks and pepsi maxi are free and unlimited.

It's not the healthiest way. I think the only effective way is eating more clean food as in cook from fresh and exercise to burn off more than you are putting in.

Good luck with your weight loss though

I don't like the terminology "Syns" it makes it sound bad that you're eating a bit of avocado or a bit of cake. I think of it as points /300 calories to use for "extras"

Syns? What's wrong with it?

It stands for synology = balance

It used to be called sins. Bad PR so they changed it and made up the gumph about "synology ".

It stands for synology = balance

That's not a word

If you think you will need the support and encouragement to lose weight then by all means go to slimmers world.

However, if you feel you have the self control to do it alone, then use a food diary app and increase your exercise. Change your eating habits now and they will stay with you for the rest of your life, unlike slimmers world that will stop working the minute you stop doing it.

I lost 5 stone in a year using a combination of walking a minimum of 10000 steps a day and keeping my food intake below 1600 calories.