Can you please help me with Slimming World?

[ferriswheel]

I am fat and skint. I'm also a single mum and desperate to finally get some confidence back by quite literally not being weighed down by looking and feeling crap.

I'm committed to make the change and know roughly how to do Slimming World but I can't afford a group membership and am want to keep the price of my weekly shop as low as possible.

I'm able to go to Aldi tomorrow. What are the best things to buy?
Any easy overnight oat recipes you can recommend?
How do I manage to use as few syns as possible?
Any other tips? Anything? I really am fat and desperate to make this change.

tia

There's always vouchers for free joining in the magazines. Even join and go to first meeting to get it all explained correctly and get the books.

Its quite a while since I've looked a Slimming World but from memory most veg is free.

I would build your meals around veg if you can (frozen is fine). Pulses like lentils are a good cheap source of protein as well.
Fat free greek yogurt with chopped fruit
If you have freezer space then batch cook especially anything that goes in the oven (it takes the same time to bake one portion or 4 so it saves energy to do more)

If you are Facebook, there are lots of Pages for slimming world at home. They have syn values, recipes, the outline of plan and shopping lists for different shops.

Good luck!

Try and get to one meeting. There's often discount vouchers in magazines ( think 'best' had one recently) if you go to the first meeting you will get everything explained and get the books. You don't have to go back.
Also look at "2chubbycubs" & "pinchofnom" websites online.
Good luck ⚘

Would you consider another way of losing weight? Ive just started LCHF (low carb high fat) following the advice & tips from the diet doctor website & bootcamp thread in the low carb area of this forum. 5 days in and my skin is sparkling & I'm feeling good! No class fees and lots of yummy butter, cream, full fat yoghurt, mayonnaise etc

I sometimes do slimming world without using the groups. You coukd really benefit from getting hold of the books that tell you all the syn values. Maybe join group when they are doing discounted joining fee to get the books but don't go to the groups? I would suggest that when you start you use your maximum syns so that over time you can reduce that down of you are not getting enough of a loss. Eat lots of fruit, veg and lean protein. Jacket potatoes are my staple when doing slimming world as they are cheap and easy. Eggs and beans are free so omelette and beans work well. One thing to remember is a good percentage of your meal should be made up with veg/ salad to get maximum results. It's the only diet that has 100% worked for me. Good luck!

I lost weight using 'my fitness pal' which is a free app (also promoted by NHS). You set your target & record everything you eat to count cals. A bit time consuming at first but soon becomes easy as you repeat foods/meals.

What worked for me (mostly from ALDI) was:
porridge & fruit (soaked overnight) having weaned myself off golden syrup!
Big crunchy salad with eg courgettes & mushrooms so lots to chew
Meat/fish/chicken + stirfry veg is no potatoes/rice/pasta (maybe 1-2 times per week for those)

At first it was hard to walk past the chocolate but that soon stopped. Myfitnesspal was good for helping me to choose a meat+veg meal for 350 cals rather than a scone@350 cals

lily that's an expensive way of eating. Lots of meat and dairy.... I couldn't sustain that due to cost

There's a site called minimins which has loads of information on different diets and help.

ferris I no longer follow sw it just didn't work for me (although I know it does for others) but I have a few recipes leaflets from magazines and a syns guide I'd be happy to send on? It's the most up to date guide but would be a decent starting point.

Two chubby cubs is a great blog. They explain SW well but don't take it or themselves too seriously. And they're very much in favour of real food rather than sweetener, mullerlight a and mug shots that are so often associated with SW. They have hundreds of recipes which are all available free online.

I'm doing slimming world on a tight budget at moment.
Be prepared to make everything you eat, and eat a lot of red food.
Dried pasta is free with that I have tinned toms blitzed with garlic dried basil and oregano.
Carrots with everything I have hard boiled eggs as a snack usually with carrots. Pork mince is cheaper than beef or turkey make sure its 5%fat and then still drain it add tinned toms herbs and spices for spag bol or chilli slimming world chips I pre boil mine then fry light for the oven but you can syn regular oil.
Breakfasts I do the overnight oats which is just oats usually a banana and then a fat and sugar free yoghurt over the top left till morning.
Lunch you can use 2 slices out of a 400g wholemeal loaf toast half a clove of garlic rub over toast top with 30g of cheese healthy extra a and melt in oven for cheese on toast

I'm doing SW at the moment but avoiding all the shit processed foods that keep you addicted to junk and bump the costs up

I eat lots of veg and fruit with some lean meat/poultry/fish, pasta, eggs, etc. Skyr type yoghurt is great, it's free on SW but is thick and creamy

Forgot to say, the key thing for me is that roughly half of each meal is non-starchy veg, salad or fruit

If you look online there is info from Slimming World US that tells you which fruit and veg is freely allowed

Use the syns. My best losses are when I actually use 15 a day, I think because otherwise my diet is too low calorie.

Get giant couscous - gives the same fullness and texture/flavour of pasta, but is only 100cals per 100g.

At the end of the day, slimming world works by putting you in a caloric deficit. It does this because you're filling up on high density, low calorie food.

My typical every day (I eat the same most days as I'm a lazy shite):

2 slice 400g wholemeal hovis
2 skinny Macauley square sausage

Bolognese made with 5% beef and pork mince, giant couscous

Steak, salad, baked potato.

Snacking on fruit, usually, and always have a bag of crispy m&ms.

I track my cals on MFP as well and ensure I stay under 1800.

This is very helpful. Thank you everyone. I'm especially inspired by the idea of having sparkling skin. Off to look at the website recommendations.

Any other tips? Knowledge? Anything? I'm trying not to feel desperate but I saw a photo of myself the other day and am really disgusted that things have got this bad.

I find trying not to eat anything at all after evening meal is helpful when trying to lose weight. And move it forward if you can till 6 pm.

Bunty I wouldn't/don't lose anything on 1800pd - has to be 1200 and stopping allowing myself to eat the 'exercise' calories!

Agree re couscous. And I try to limit rice, potatoes, pasta to 1-2 times per week - just eat more veg instead.

Don't quote me on this but I believe that you can get referred by your GP for 12 free meetings if your bmi is over 40 I think.

I would also strongly recommend that you go to one meeting, to hear the introductory talk and get all the books. You don't ever have to go again if you don't want to!

This week's WOMAN magazine has a voucher so you only pay the £4.95 weekly fee, not the joining fee as well.

I have not read the whole thread, but do have a set of books I no longer need if you want them? PM me your address and I will happily post. No need to go along to a meeting unless you want to feel irritated and patronised for an hour. 😵

Can recommend these two FB pages for recipes:
www.facebook.com/SW.Encyclopedia/
and
www.facebook.com/SlimmingEatsRecipes/

columbine what calories people can lose fat on will all be dependant on their activity levels and body composition. I'm 5'8, and fairly active. My daily calorie burn is between 2800-3300 calories as a rough guide, so I'm eating at a fairly large deficit even having 1800 cals.

Saying that, 1200 calories is around what a toddler is expected to intake, and has been debunked as the best number of calories to lose weight on - I totally understand you saying you can only lose on that, but maybe have a look at a BMR calculator and see what your expected calorie burn is, and potentially see if you could raise your calories (slowly!) and still lose weight?

Apologies if I'm repeating stuff you already know or aren't interested in, but I've spent the last wee while researching weight loss and came across some great info which make sense (and seems to work/is backed by science) and thought I'd pass it on.

My favourites at the moment are James smith on Facebook, empowered by eating, trinity transformation, macro lean.

There are loads of Facebook groups that give detailed info, definitely worth searching and joining a few of those!

Buy yourself a joe wicks fitness DVD. I think they're about a tenner now. But seriously the best workout DVD I've done. It helps that he's also breaking a sweat and really knackered which just makes you feel better. He really explains the exercises and in order to burn tummy fat diet as well as exercise are essential. Good luck