Mullerlight yogurts and mugshots should come with a health warning

[Co1onelblimp]

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 cringy
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?

I've done SW twice and both groups were absolutely obsessed with muller lights and mug shots! The horror when I said I'd had half an avocado, I was advised to try diet Fanta chicken instead.

I don't bother now, I try to eat healthily with lower carb/refined sugar and good fats. I'm not losing weight quickly but it is coming off very slowly and I generally feel better.

Is "diet fanta chicken" an autocorrect failure or a variant on Nigella's chicken in coca cola?

Another SW thread.

You know, if it was so easy to lose weight not following SW then why did you sign up? Most fat people got fat because they overeat or eat completely the wrong things. SW, like most other diets, tries to steer you towards better choices. If your choices are 3 Mugshots and Muller Lights a day, and some one else has avocado and ten almonds a day - so what?

I did it, lost weight and have put it all back on again. Not because I don't know how to eat well, but because I overeat, good things and bad things. My issue totally. Never eaten a Muller Light because I don't like runny yoghurts, but I did have the odd mugshot as they're good for working lunches.

People go to Slimming World to lose weight.

I've done Slimming World after the birth of each of my three children where I would gain between 3-5 stone and each time on SW I would lose it all within 6mths. I also had very big babies and breast fed each one of them exclusively until 6mths and then on until they were 3yrs old.

I never touched muller lights, or indeed dairy products due to a dairy sensitivity and I never touched mug shots due to a gluten sensitivity.

Slimming world taught me loads of healthy ways to cook meals and I used my syns for the occasional avocado, nuts and hot chocolate id make myself.

It's a fab eating plan and I always felt so healthy, energised and satiated on it.

Yes muller lights are an option, as a low fat alternative to some of the crap people eat and gain weight. Ditto mug shots. They are convenient for slimmers who are hungry and at risk of slipping and eating something they will regret, or that will throw them completely off plan. They are a tool, not a staple.

football Dies anyone recall the sketch on little .Britain. Think it as called fat fighters with Majorie daws.

Only halfway through thread but seems like there is a big variation in the way groups are run. Some leaders massively promoting chemical stuff and others not

Slimming world is working for me (slowly, but steady losses - better I suppose than rapid loss so less baggy skin/more time to tone I hope). Chemical stuffed stuff isn't great. Out of the muller lights the only one I like is the greek lemon one but I've swapped to the new danone light and free ones. Mugshots I tried once and not a fan - not at all filling.

I completely agree that it depends on consultants. My current one is good - doesn't push Iceland meals though does say they're good for after work if you're rushed (which, if the alternative would be pizza, is true) and makes the point that you need to have a 3rd of your plate speed at least. If you're having spaghetti bolognese you need veg on the side too, if you're having a yogurt you should have an apple instead, snack on fruit and veg first. My old one was very 'processed'.

You completely can have nuts and avocado. There are some people who faff with weetabix cake and other tweaks, but they taste like a doormat IMO and I'd rather have the real thing. I usually use my syns on butter, sauces (like ketchup, gravy), microwave rice, a glass or two of wine on the weekend, and the odd pack of sweets. I admit the 'syns' is a bit daft wording - but if there was no limit on the 'treat' stuff it wouldn't work. It helps me make healthier/lighter choices as well. For eg, I can have a small bar of aero mint but that pretty much eats up my 'syn' allowance, so I have it once/twice a week at most. Before, I could eat a big aero mint bar no problem

Exercise is also highlighted a bit, but not enough in my group. There is a 'body magic' table in my group but it's not really explained, or talked about. Agree the portion sizes are something you need to figure out yourself - I've bought smaller plates to limit the amount, but again if you follow the plan properly and have 1/3 veg with your meals, you tend to self regulate. The trouble is when you don't self regulate - a lady in my group has some garlic and herb quark with a packet of ham as a snack, and if I did that I wouldn't lose.

Overall though, it's good. If you take out all the fancy words, it's basically healthy eating. Plenty of fruit and vegetables, some lean meat, fish, potatoes, pasta, eggs, rice, etc. Some bread/fibre products/nuts/some soups, some dairy. Limited amounts of high fat/calorie things. Up to you whether you use them on chocolate or avocado, olive oil or cake.

Today for me has been, yogurt and fruit for breakfast. Leftover chilli and rice for lunch. Pork, carrots, cauli, broccoli, 2 roasties, 2 yorkshire puds, gravy. Mug of coffee and 2x alpen lights. Relatively healthy.
Tomorrow will be fruit and yogurt for breakfast, a chicken salad (home prepped) with small amount ff vinagarette for lunch, homemade (lean) burgers, homemade wedges and salad for tea, plus I'm planning on going to the gym. Very little processed (only the yogurt really I think) and quite healthy. You don't have to exsist on mugshots or mullerlights. Although muller lights are watery as anything!

My diet plan - no SW/WW required:

Breakfast - 2 vegan bacon sandwiches made with Warburton's Danish (60 cals per slice and fluffy as hell) with a light smear of vegan mayo instead of butter, thinly sliced tomato and Cheatin' bacon strips. ~300 cals

Lunch - Soup with loads of veggies, crystal noodles and gyoza. ~328 cals

Dinner - Vegan pasta bolognese made with konjac flour fetuccine (40 cals per serving). Add balsamic, a dash of vegan pesto (lower cal) and capers/chillis plus Engevita yeast flakes with added B12 (adds an amazing cheesy flavour and thickens the sauce too) to tomato passata. Literally a mountain of food that tastes amazing and works a treat.

It does seems like a bit of a swiz when the information is all out there for free, mayeb the community aspect is worth it though?

Not everyone does well on low carb/high protein; too much protein/fats of any kind makes me bloated and my kidneys can't cope. I spent 9 months doing hardcore weights and drinking protein shakes and just put on fat and felt rubbish. Now I stick to walking miles and lost 10lbs in 3 weeks.

And where would I get a spray bottle from?

A pound shop.
Boots.

Or when the empty Fry Light bottle.

Trills diet Fanta chicken is both real and disgusting. We did a taster evening once when everyone brought in food to share. I was the only person to bring in real food (spicy lentils) rather than sweetener laden desserts. Oh, apart from the mini crustless quiches.

Diet Fanta chicken. WTF us that?

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.

Ex sw consultant here. Unless it's changed since I left, those with under 70 paying members per session had to pay a higher % to SWHQ.

If you'd over 70 paying members you still only received 50% of the takings.

So 30 paying members @ £5 per member = £150 for that session. SW takes 70% leaving the consultant with £45.. out of that they are obliged to pay half the room rent (sw pay the other half) so by the time that's paid & the car has diesel put in...that consultant has spent hours out of her home, lugged boxes of hifi bars (we made 5p per box sold) & magazines (iirc we made 10p on them) plus any cook books, "interest table" shite.... God even writing all this out is giving me the cold sweats....

I had two thriving groups, 100+ members. Swhq took 50% of my earnings whilst I had the sleepless nights, the text messages, emails from members etc

Anyway, not sure now where I was going with this, apart from saying the consultants are running a business. They make profit on paying members, therefore not in their interest getting too many members to target...

Co1onelblimp Fanta chicken

recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=2317573

My SW group raved about the Fanta or diet coke chicken, when I said I'd had a few nuts for healthy oils they acted like I'd eaten a baby.

My Mum is on the SW bandwagon....she goes for 2 months, falls off spectacularly and then goes back........been like that for 20 years and she's still the same weight . I've had to lose weight as I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and sky high BP. I'm on medication which has helped with my appetite, and I've bought a fitbit. I've done 13000 steps today thanks to my cocker spaniel who thinks I've got nothing better to do than walk him, and eating better. It's amazing how much less you eat when you're logging calories!!

Yabu. If you don't like it don't do it. There are plenty of people it works for. DF has lost 5 stone and never put it back on. He has learnt portion control and eats lots fruit and veg and small amounts of lean meat. Nobody's forcing you to it. People aren't brain washed.

Well done to your OH Amanduh However you don't have to join a slimming group to learn portion control and eats lots of fruit and veg.
In fact SW certainly don't teach you portion control.

Telling people that they can eat 'free' food unlimited pasta and rice does not encourage portion control. All of those things contain calories.
The whole idea with all slimming groups,- not just slimming world, is to keep you coming back. Like a former leader just said,-it's a business. They are there to make money, not to get their members to s healthy weight and keep it off.

Ginger That's vile. I think I've seen it all now..

Right, my 2p...

I was 19st 1lb at Christmas. The 6 months before that I'd being doing WW, the 12 months before that I'd spent on Slimming World. I started in the first place 18 months ago at 18st 5lbs, so in actual fact ended up gaining 10lbs in 18 months

I'll talk about SW first: I worked out I actually lost 30lbs in the year I was on SW, problem was it was the same 10lbs 3 times . I never ate mug shots but I did have a muller light in my overnight oats every day pretty much. I cooked everything from scratch, ate a ton of veggies and fruit but also ate pasta, rice or potatoes every day and my diet was pretty much entirely fat free. All the dairy I ate was skimmed or fat free and I cooked with fry light or just with water. I regularly lost 5lbs in a week, biggest ever loss was 7lbs in my 3rd week. I went to group every week and stayed for the talk, was slimmer of the week a fair few times too. Problem was I'd then end up gaining any weight I'd lost in the next few weeks without any visible change in my eating habits .. I decided to track my food in MFP to find out where I was going wrong, and it turned out i was eating on average between 150-250g sugar PER DAY. I developed a dark ring around my neck that looked almost like a bruise too, I know now this is a tell tale sign that you're in the early stages of insulin resistance (pre-diabetes). I spoke to my SW leader about this because I was really concerned about my sugar in take, and she told me off for using MFP to track my food as "that's not part of the plan". All the sugar was from yoghurt, fruit and "allowed" foods, as well as some on hot choc I had out of my syns. My in take of fat was also almost nothing and I'd started to read how this could contribute to feeling hungry etc. I was eating every 2 hours every day and this was totally acceptable on SW and treated as a good thing that i was "keeping hunger at bay" by snacking on fruit

My weight loss then gain cycle by the way was because the sugar was sky rocketing my blood sugars, then crashing. The crash would then make me hungry and need to eat 2 hours after my last meal, so I'd eat more sugary food to compensate. I lost weight on the weeks where my sugar intake was lower, gained on the weeks where it was higher even though each week i was using the same number of syns etc etc. Only discovered this after tracking in MFP.

Anyway, I heard WW had swapped to SmartPoints and these tackled sugar so I left SW and joined WW. Same thing happened. Pretty much no fat in my diet although more protein. No yohurts and less sugar generally, but still loads of fruit and veg and carbohydrate. Again, I lost and gained the same 10lbs over and over until just started consistantly gaining them. This was because the "this food is bad, this one is good" mentality really settled in and I developed a seriously unhealthy obsession with tracking my food. If I went over my points, that was it. Full on binge followed by then not eating or drinking the day of weigh in and trying to "empty" myself that whole day so I wouldn't show my binge on the scales at the group.

I had the forethought (thank Goodness!) to recognise this was really really unhealthy and my obsession with food and my binge cycling was going to make things worse. So one day I just stopped.

I started to research sugar, the effects of weight loss clubs and dieting on mental health etc etc and eventually came to the conclusion that it's all complete bollocks. By this point I was 19st 1lb and at my all time lowest in terms of self confidence and body image.

Then I started researching fats, sugar and macros in general. I needed to do something about my weight, so I joined the LCHF (low carb, high fat) bootcamp on here in Feb. I'd already lost my 10lb gain from Jan to mid-feb just by not dieting .. I was eating a moderately fatty, moderate carb an high protein diet and dropped 10lbs in 4 weeks.

Anyway, LCHF has completely changed my life. I don't diet at all anymore and I don't snack or eat outside of meal times at all. I now weigh 15st 10lbs and I'm dropping weight at a rate of about 2lbs a week pretty much although I no longer weigh myself regularly (once a month usually although I haven't weighed for about 5 weeks).

I love my food again. I eat cheese, cream, olive oil, avocados, oily fish, loads of none-starchy veggies and a few berries now and again. Never have I ever enjoyed food more and I'm a much MUCH better person to be around now that I'm not obsessing over my weight.

I don't pay anyone for the privilage of losing weight and I don't have to put my faith in anyone elses plans, just on my self and my own new found knowledge on how to actually eat a proper, rounded and balanced diet. When I want to maintain my weight when I'm comfortable with my shape, I'll probably increase my in take of carbs until I stop losing weight :) Simples.

Sorry for the epic rant, I just think we're losing sight of the actual issue with weight loss programs: I.E, they focus on weight loss primarily and not effective, perminant change.

I'm glad you found what's worked for you jiminny I'm finding that I need to eat some good fats (in moderation to lose weight and to feel better in general.
I'm post menopausal and eating low fat everything is definitely not good. Throw in all the sugar and seeetners that diets like slimming world promote and you're on your way to ill health.

I love carbs though, and eat them as well. Everything in moderation seems to work for me.

Different things work for different people. Sw works for me, I've lost 3st 2lb and my bmi is around 22, so it does work.

I eat fruit, I eat maybe one Muller a day in the evening for pudding. I mainly eat fresh stuff, my dh cooks and we have found that we can have all the meals he usually cooks with very minimal tweaks.

The portion control comes from the third 'speed' foods you should eat with each meal. You should fill one third of your plate with veg/salad before you serve yourself carbs and meat basically.

Like any 'diet', sw works if you follow it properly. If you are trying to cheat it, it won't work.

I have had 3 sw leaders over the last 9 months and none have pushed Mullerlight or mug shots. One leader said mug shots were no good as you feel hungry again very quickly. Mullers are talked about, but more as having them as a sweet treat rather than filling up on them.

OwlinaTree That's been my experience, as well. No talk of unlimited portions of anything, Muller's as a sweet alternative (I don't personally eat them), lots of fresh, whole food.
I've been doing sw since September, and I don't even need to think about it now, so I know it's sustainable over the long term. I still eat things like cheese, chocolate and butter, I'm just more mindful of how much I'm using. Was really surprised at the pp who said her sugar was through the roof...i was also using MFP for a while to help, and I never even came close to meeting my sugar amount for the day, and I eat 2-3 servings of fruit every day.
My weight loss hasn't been quick by any stretch...but I'm happy with a very steady 1lb loss a week on average, because my habits have changed, so I know I'll be able to eat this way long term.

Oh, and btw...I've never once eaten diet fanta chicken. The only sw recipe I've ever followed is the BBQ sauce, and I decrease the amount of sweetener.
All other recipes are my own that I've tweaked either by adding more veg, or by using really excellent non-stick pans!

I have a friend who is a very successful SW consultant. Popular groups etc & I can see how hard she works. However, her lack of actual knowledge of nutrition is worrying. I joined a SW group because of her evangelising & yes, it really is like a religion to her & was underwhelmed for all of the reasons mentioned on this thread. There was a lot of hi fi bar pushing, muller lights etc were featured in every session, the group leader always had a bottle of Diet Coke on the go. Body magic wasn't particularly mentioned & if someone said that they'd fallen off of the wagon the previous week but were going to exercise to try to combat it they were told that what you eat is more important. The obsession with porky lights sausages was a bit off putting too. I don't do SW anymore but it has really made me look at my sugar intake & cut that down instead of focusing on my fat intake & that has been a turning point in my weight loss. I don't loose 6lbs a week, but I feel a lot healthier.

The leader at my class definitely pushes muller lights - someone recommended a mashed frozen banana instead of ice cream and got told as it was a "tweak" it wasn't free so had to be "synned" so instead she should freeze a muller light as they're free. I also got told to ease up on the exercise as weights as my weight loss had stopped I ignored it and now follow a calorie controlled high fat, low carb, minimal processed food diet and lost 16lbs in 6 weeks. My skin had cleared, I've got loads of energy and because I have to stick to my calories I'm not eating for the sake of it and I'm learning to only eat when I'm properly hungry, not just bored.