Understanding 'Fat logic'

[Bluetree]

To help me understand fat logic-y 'lifestyle changes' like Slimming World?

Aspartame full muller light yogurt is 'free'. Yet, a natural full fat yogurt is synned.

An avacado is highly synned yet you can have two of their Hifi bars as an extra which have a high % of fat in!

Mashing a banana doesn't go without it's syns either!

Advised against proper exercise as 'muscle weighs more than fat' - Ha.

I followed for a while and did lose weight. I'm not saying it doesn't work. Just that a lot of it is fat logic-y rubbish!

(I'm not talking about the ones who 'eat clean' while doing it and don't touch a muller light or hifi bar)

My consultant encourages us to exercise and you get awards for doing it.

Yes they do emphasise diet over exercise but diet goes much further towards weight loss than exercise.

My consultant is great. She never really mentions miller lights/mug shots etc and encourages us to talk about the recipes we've cooked that week.

Although pasta and rice are free so you don't have to weigh them if your consultant is doing the job properly they will be telling you to have 1/3 to half your plate as veg each meal so you don't overeat them.

Well, abs are made in the kitchen. You don't really need to exercise if your only goal is to get lighter and thinner. You can't run off a bad diet, it's just too quick and easy to consume calories and takes too long to burn them off.

You do, though, need to exercise to get stronger, fitter and more toned (and because it's good for your mental health too). So no plan that claims to be a basis for a healthy lifestyle should be excluding it. It should just make it clear that exercise alone won't make you thin. Just strong and fit and healthy, which as we all know are much lesser concerns.

Muscle does not weight more than fat! A pound of muscle and a pound of fat both weigh the same, namely 1lb.
Muscle is, however, more dense than fat, which is why, if you are exercising, you may well go down a dress size but not actually weigh any less.
Eating highly process foods, even if under a "slimming" label, is just not what the human body was designed to do. I never see anyone mention that fat, in addition to being a store for excess energy, is also used to isolate "toxins". So eating food that is unprocessed and as close to its natural form as possible, will result in weight loss (unless you are overeating).
Combine that with calorie counting and measuring helpings, eating properly as in chewing your food to start the digestive processes, plus sufficient water, and you will lose.
Increasing movement will help as well. Remembering that there are no quick fixes.

I don't understand why SW is the big cheese right now anyway. WW is so much better and won't (generally) make you constipated.

I've lost 9lbs in a month on SW, and haven't once made one of their recipes.

Me neither

I don't know about Weight Watchers - I've never been gullible enough to try it. The only thing I ever lose when on a diet is my will to live.

I actually don't get how you can have unlimited pasta when it's so high in calories!

WOW! I can't believe how many misconceptions and misdirects I'm reading in this post. I've just lost over 5stone on Slimming World and I haven't had to eat artificial sweeteners at all. If, OP, you've been discouraged by an SW Leader to do exercise then I would strongly recommend that you report this to SW as that contradicts completely what the "diet" is about. I've never once been hungry.

I also exercise a lot, I couldn't trust a weight loss programme that said 'don't exercise' - do they actually say that???

No they do not! I lost 4st on SW fairly easily and exercising was never discouraged. Many people were starting challenges, for example, losing weight and getting fit for a charity challenge such as a run or something - it was all encouraged!

I hate being in the kitchen, i'm so incredibly busy i am rarely home so my issues come from eating on the go and/or needing something fast. So knowing the 'value' of certain foods helped me make educated decisions rather than just shoving the nearest burger in my face as i go on my way.

"WW is so much better"

For you maybe, I hated it, I was basically paying a company to make calorie counting more complicated...

Nothing is 'better' different things suit different people.

It's not really unlimited pasta though. The idea is that a third of your plate is veg, so with some meat on your plate as well, you should be full long before you can eat too much pasta.

I have never done it but a fat free diet full of artificial sweeteners (Muller light etc) can't be good for you. I also don't understand all the free/syn stuff and how that can contribute to healthy eating overall. But that's probably just me! It's obviously a low fat and overall low calorie diet plan.

If someone currently does no exercise, being told to do a HIT class five times a week or train for a marathon is going to put them off exercise.

Similarly, if they currently live on takeaways and ready meals, they are going to struggle to embrace cooking every damn meal from scratch.

SW do encourage exercise and everyone has to start somewhere, which might be a few minutes walking each day, if they are currently very sedentary.

If someone does a lot of exercise they can become denser, which is why people are also encouraged to look how their clothes fit and measure their bodies, in case they have gained muscle.

It seems that a lot of people on here can't see past the small bad element of SW (avocado is restricted, some people eat mug shots and muller lights) to the fact that it's an easy way to lose weight and learn about healthy eating as in you don't need to weigh or measure most foods and you can cook normal meals that the whole family can eat, as long as the fat and junk is severely restricted.

I am losing weight since embracing fat :o I’m not doing it in an ‘extreme’ way but cutting back on carbs and increasing fat got me through gestational diabetes unmedicated and I continued losing weight through the pregnancy. I don’t have low fat versions of anything and food is so much nicer too

WOW! I can't believe how many misconceptions and misdirects I'm reading in this post

This. People on MN love to have an opinion even if they don't know anything about the subject

I have never heard of any SW leader telling a class not to exercise. They have always promoted healthy eating. Recipes are optional

People slag SW off but it bloody well works. I lost 3.5 stone in 4 months. I was exercising 3 x a week (I’m pregnant now and have stopped). It’s not unlimited pasta and rice, you can only fill your plate with a 3rd of it. Syn bags helped me regulate my evening snacking which previously would have been a share bag of sweets and crisps. I could still enjoy treats in front of the tv but they were regulated. We don’t all have the will power to just ‘eat healthily’ some of us thrive off a ‘plan’. I’m straight back on it once I’ve given birth, the only reason why I haven’t followed it while pregnant is I was told to eat higher calorie foods due to HG and a high chance of a prem.

The idea is that if you eat lots of fruit, vegetables, eggs and pulses, with some plain carbs, lean meat and fish and a limited amount of bread and cheese, and a very limited amount of fat and junk, that the average energy density of what you eat naturally restricts calorie intake so people lose weight.

Why do people seem to miss 'eat lots of fruit, vegs, eggs, pulses, lean meat and fish' message and bang on about muller lights and mug shots .

Neither of these items are compulsory, its just examples of lower calorie snacks that can be eaten without any preparation.

I'm a target SW member and have been under a few different consultants. Not once have I been discouraged from exercising . Being active is absolutely encouraged. Yes the first body magic award is pretty easy to get for most of us but for someone with a large amount to lose who isn't used to much exercise then it's a small step to get them motivated.

As for how healthy the diet is, that's down to the individual. Personally I have barely touched a muller light or Hi-fI bar and I've never made Diet Coke chicken. The basic principles are to eat as much fruit and veg as you can, carbs and lean meat in reasonable portions (by making sure a third of your plate is taken up by veg), limited portions of bread and dairy, and high fat / sugar / calorie foods in small amounts as a treat. Sounds like a pretty healthy diet to me.

Yes there are some aspects that are not perfect e.g. Processed and low fat foods but they aren't promising 100% optimum nutrition, they are promising to help you lose weight. To someone who is very overweight used to a diet of takeaways and processed food it's unlikely they will be able to switch to and maintain a perfect healthy diet but with slimming world they can be encouraged in the right direction. You can still eat an avocado if you want to, just using syns. Yes they are good for you but they are high fat so won't help weight loss if you're guzzling three a day because 'they are good for you'. Personally I can't stand them and I'm still alive.

Slimming world isn't for everyone. If it doesn't work for you don't go. But don't imply that it doesn't work at all. I'm over two stone down and staying there after years of trying lots of other methods, and I know plenty of other people who've had success with it

different things suit different people yes, this. What might work for one person might not work for others. I soon got fed up with SW, I was lucky if I lost half a pound a week, I then joined he gym, chucked away my scales and just ate healthier, I lost 2 stone and gained muscle, I feel healthy, I can walk miles, cycle, swim and rarely get out of breath. I would ideally still like to loose a bit more weight (I’m a size 10/12) but it’s not the end of the world, feeling healthier is much more important to me. I just couldn’t loose any weight without exercising too and I can’t maintain my weight without going to the gym and keeping active.

Ha, cross post Barbara. Are you me?

I'm sure half the people who slate SW have never been. I lost 2st on it years ago. I now prefer WW, although not their Flex plan, I'm following the old Pro Points plan.

I have no idea how it's supposed to be healthy. Everything is meat cooked in Coke or Fanta, light versions of dairy and a plate full of crap at the end of the day.

Well that's just bullshit. Are you forming this opinion on what you see from your friends on news feeds? Time to trot out the phrase, the plural of anecdote is not data.

There is the potential to exploit loop holes in the diet, there is the potential to misunderstand especially if you are uneducated about nutrition, there is the potential to over eat because a lot of over weight people are addicted to food and use it as a comfort mechanism. Slimming World is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and yes I think it is too heavy on the sugars really but it is what YOU make it and it advocates cooking from scratch using a lot of fresh veg and fruit. You can choose to avoid the processed foods yourself and stick to that. Also for the record I cook a lot and have some of their recipe books and there are some brilliant recipes - they are just normal recipes. No fanta in sight.

Not a perfect diet but it helps a lot of people and puts emphasis on cooking fresh food (this is a good thing) and in my experience they strongly encourage exercise although I guess this can alter from group to group.

Personally I struggle with my weight and find all of it hard and it isn't because I don't know what I should do but it is partly symptomatic of a previous eating disorder and ongoing depression. Oh and FTR because I know how some people on here think (or don't think) - fully diagnosed from my teens and quite severe not a self diagnosis.

I've lost 9lbs in a month on SW, and haven't once made one of their recipes

The OP did say that she was not talking about people who do SW but 'eat clean'. That's not following the advice of SW which is that their recipes are healthy and that processed junk is better than avocados and full fat dairy products. If you go to the meetings but follow your own rules (all fresh, no processed), that's not really following the SW ethos of unlimited muller lights.

Most people who lose weight on SW will regain it because it does not encourage healthy habits. As for the exercise point, exercise is essential to losing weight and becoming healthy.

It seems to work really well for lots of people which I guess is all that matters. Though, I know a lot of people who have regained the weight and had to go back to meetings after, to lose it all over again.

A suspicious person might note that it’s not in the diet industry’s interest for people to lose weight and keep it off.

I wasn't replying to her Susan - I quoted the person that said they had no idea how it was healthy