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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Mullerlight yogurts and mugshots should come with a health warning

224 replies

Co1onelblimp · 02/07/2017 10:15

I started doing .SW at home with the help of lots of online resources. I've never contemplated going to a class, as years ago I went to a WW one and couldn't bear it.

I hear a SW class is even more cringyBlush
Anyhow, 'syning' (what an awful word) things like houmous and avocado, and demonising olive oil , while pushing shite like mullerlighs and mugshots seems to be the order of the day. (Friend lasted six weeks but has now left)

Looking at the ingredients of both yesterday while shopping, i couldn't help thinking they looked like they were made in a laboratory,- lots of awful additives and chemicals.

AIBU to think Sw shouldn't be allowed to promote these 'foods' when they are anything but healthy.
Also, does anyone know if Mullerlight sponsor Slimming World?

OP posts:
Cagliostro · 02/07/2017 10:48

I agree

Tiredstressed · 02/07/2017 10:49

I have lost over 2 stone with slimming world and have not had a mug shot or muller light in that time. Cook from scratch and eats lots of fruit and veg. Seems fine to me. It's not like my diet was impeccable before, hence the need to dit.

Tiredstressed · 02/07/2017 10:50

*diet, not dit!

Troubleshootingforever · 02/07/2017 10:51

Lot of misconceptions on this thread!
SW don't push mugshots or mullerlights!
At all.
SW really is about cooking from scratch with fresh wholesome ingredients. Of course you'll get people looking for short cuts and just grabbing mugshots for convenience... but this is not what SW is all about.
Fruit vegetables pasta rice potatoes and non processed meats are what is pushed by SW not mugshots!!!
Also NO food is not allowed! Crisps nuts ice cream ... all allowed out of the syn allowance ... and therefore automatically portion controlled

MessyBun247 · 02/07/2017 10:51

I know a lot of people who do SW. They have all lost weight, to varying degrees. But not a single one has been able to keep it off for more than a year. They all put it back on.

Its a money making business. They want you to keep coming back. The groups in my area charge £5 to attend a weekly meeting. They must make an absolute fortune.

Their advice just sounds quite confusing to me. With syns, hex, unlimited carbs and unhealthy snacks are encouraged. If you put weight on its because you ARENT eating enough? The solution is to eat more. Its crazy.

Xmasbaby11 · 02/07/2017 10:51

What's a mug shot?

TequilaSunshine · 02/07/2017 10:53

They were allowed to eat crisps but a handful of nuts was forbidden

Eh? No they're not. Confused I've done SW before, and I'm pretty sure you can have nuts as one of your healthy extra portions.
Or have them as your "syns" instead of a chocolate bar or whatever.
The SW is a great healthy way to lose weight - nothing's banned, encourages lots of fresh fruit, veg, pasta, fish, cooking from scratch.
It's also not the law that you have to stuff your face with Muller Lights. Get a different yoghurt.

Slimthistime · 02/07/2017 10:53

I don't get this
I tried it for a bit and I didn't use any of the chemical stuff like Muller Lights. It can be done without. My friend lost loads and she didn't touch that kind of stuff either.

MessyBun247 · 02/07/2017 10:53

They do push mullerlights! Of course they do. They are sponsored by them, so they have to.

tabulahrasa · 02/07/2017 10:53

"I'm constantly astonished about the number of people quoting 'facts' about Slimming World when they have no idea what the plan involves"

Yep, every couple of weeks there's a thread like this, someone who hasn't joined slimming world and is criticising it for something that isn't anything to do with slimming world.

I never understand why anyway, if someone likes what they're doing and it's working for them, why does it matter what other people do?

TequilaSunshine · 02/07/2017 10:53

What's a mug shot?

I think it's a brand of Cup of Soup. Smile

Gwenhwyfar · 02/07/2017 10:54

"not a single one has been able to keep it off for more than a year. "

Is that because they went back to their old eating habits though? Why would that be SW's fault?

Troubleshootingforever · 02/07/2017 10:55

"I started doing .SW at home with the help of lots of online resources. I've never contemplated going to a class"

OP if you had actually been to a SW class you would know that what you have written is untrue. The online resources etc ate probably FB pages? These are not official Slimming World resources... what you are getting is unsolicited advice and thus urban legend type advice aka it's ok to eat 32 Mullers a day!

TequilaSunshine · 02/07/2017 10:56

They do push mullerlights!

Do they heck! What a load of crap. Been to loads of SW classes over the years, and I can tell you not once has there been a yoghurt pusher there Confused Grin
Yes, they say you can eat many muller lights as the syn value is free, but you don't HAVE to eat them, you know!
I know I never eat them and have always done perfectly fine at SW.

FlyingElbows · 02/07/2017 10:57

Op if your version of "doing SW" includes a diet rich in mullerlight and mugshots then you need to get yourself to a class because you are "doing SW" wrong! Nowhere, anywhere, in any of the literature is this bullshit about mullerlights and mugshots promoted. Nowhere. They, like any other food choice, can be incorporated in the plan but they are not in any way the foundation. I suggest you stop taking what you read on fb groups as Gospel and actually go and learn how the plan works. These fb groups are full of diet addicts who are desperate to keep eating as much shite as they possibly can. They drown out the sensible people who are making the changes the plan actually encourages. No SW representative is going to tell you that you can eat your own bodyweight in anything and lose weight!

Alternatively you could trip trap back off to Rebelfit because the influx of "omg SW is shite" posts over the last week has been tedious and obvious. Anyone who's looking for actual support can get it from those of us who are genuinely following the SW plan and doing so successfully.

nbee84 · 02/07/2017 10:58

So many people seem to forget or not know the sw principle of a third 'speed' foods at each meal. Speed foods are the vegetables and salad - not the potatoes, rice, pasta and meat. So if someone is eating a mountain of pasta with an enormous chicken breast and only a few mushrooms or no veg at all then it's not a sw meal.

VelvetSpoon · 02/07/2017 10:58

I've been to plenty of classes and I can assure you the class leaders beat the muller/ mugshot/ fry lite drum pretty hard.

And tell you to eat more. Fill your plate. That you must never be hungry, etc!

Monsterpage · 02/07/2017 11:03

It's interesting as I have been to 3 different slimming world clubs and my MIL does it too. They all push the muller lights. My MIL will sit there and eat 4 muller lights with fruit as a snack and say 'it's all free on SW'.
SW does have a healthy eating message and tried to encourage cooking from scratch and a healthy diet but it gives people a way out pushing the free foods like mullerlights and it is not a healthy choice.

AwaywiththePixies27 · 02/07/2017 11:03

Nowhere in their literature is this bullshit about mullerlights and mugshots promoted

Ah. This must be fake then.

Mullerlight yogurts and mugshots should come with a health warning
AwaywiththePixies27 · 02/07/2017 11:06

They must make an absolute fortune.

Indeed. We used to get a minimum of 30 people in our class. Our class was one of the six our leader ran a week. So that's roughly 30x£5.00 x 6. Even once taking the leaders wages away etc you'd still be left with a tidy sum at the end of the week at HQ. Good business if you can get it.

Gwenhwyfar · 02/07/2017 11:07

What's wrong with Fry Light? Makes fried food into a low calorie option.

Sallystyle · 02/07/2017 11:08

I get annoyed with this and I followed SW for about a week.

I am back on WW to lose about a stone which I have put on after a 5 stone weight loss 5 years ago and my friend told me I should go on SW because I can eat as many plates of pasta and Jacket potatoes as I like.

The whole idea of SW is to have a small portion of the free foods and pile on the veg, salad etc. Not to eat a plateful of pasta and as many Jacket potatoes as you like.

My other friend who is on SW has never had a mugshot and I think she has had about two mullerlights in the year she has been on it.

SW doesn't work for me. WW worked well for me, but I'm not loving it now they have switched to SmartPoints and penalise sugars and sat fats so highly. I know sugar is the devil but I would like to be able to have some without such a high point value.

AwaywiththePixies27 · 02/07/2017 11:09

So that's roughly 30x£5.00 x 6. Even once taking the leaders wages away etc you'd still be left with a tidy sum at the end of the week at HQ. Good business if you can get it.

Meant to add to this. That obviously x this bu the 100s of meetings they have up and down the country. Then there's the extra they charge their members for the hifi/ww bars and snacks etc.

WarmestRegards · 02/07/2017 11:10

This reply has been deleted

This has been been removed by MNHQ for privacy reasons.

BarbaraofSeville · 02/07/2017 11:11

^I know a lot of people who do SW. They have all lost weight, to varying degrees. But not a single one has been able to keep it off for more than a year. They all put it back on.

Its a money making business. They want you to keep coming back. The groups in my area charge £5 to attend a weekly meeting. They must make an absolute fortune^

People put weight back on because they go back to the eating habits that made them gain weight in the first place. If you stay close to your target weight, you can attend classes for free for the rest of your life if you want to. They encourage maintenance by slowly increasing the amount of dairy and wholemeal bread/cereal consumed. They know that too much crap is why people generally gain weight, which is why they encourage people to continue to limit it.

I'm not saying that the SW diet is perfect, there are downsides, mainly that it's quite hard to eat out and stay on plan (but you are also encouraged to just have a day off every once is while, so that is how you would do that - if you ate out a lot, you would just need to make the best of it - have a lean meat or fish and salad/ pasta and tomato sauce type meal rather than fried food or creamy sauces) and to get the best from it you do need to cook from scratch all the time, which is tedious and time consuming, but on the whole, it's a fairly easy way to lose weight.