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)

Meals I'll be eating this week:

Prawn and asparagus risotto
Ginger and beef noodles
Chicken breasts marinaded in soy sauce, with veg and home-made chips (cooked in the oven)

All from the SW website or SW magazines.

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.

Except that the company literally has books full of recipes of meat cooked in diet coke and diet fanta, so it is not bullshit. The company also has guidelines saying that muller light yoghurt is syn-free and that a flump has fewer syns than olive oil and avocado.

Those who stick up for SW always turn out to be adapting it according to their own rules.

I've never ever done slimming world, but know a lot of people who have and I think it's the diet I'd be most likely to try if I wanted to shift some weight. Personally, I always look forward to pudding my kids to bed and settling down with a chocolate bar and a bag of wotsits stolen from my kids so the end of the day snack plate idea would be ideal for me!

That was meant to say putting, as opposed to pudding. You can see where my head is at!

Caloric deficit via eating less and exercising is all you need to lose weight.

You won't gain any substantial muscle eating at a deficit so it doesn't matter, exercise is good for you.

I stopped going to SW after I was disappointed with my weight loss one week and the leader asked if I'd exercised. I said I'd been to the gym three times and she said 'well there's your problem'.
Anyway it doesn't work, I've lost 2-3st on three occasions with SW and put it all back on every time, I don't find it sustainable at all.

Personally, I always look forward to pudding my kids to bed and settling down with a chocolate bar and a bag of wotsits

Freudian slip?

You can do SW healthily, but at the end of the day, the reps are commission based and just want to sell you lots of their processed shit. Those Hi-Fi bars are just horrid, and you may as well eat a bar of chocolate for the sugar content - and you'd be a lot more satisfied for it.
My mum has been going for 20 years on and off - and she's still exactly the same size/weight. She eats a ridiculous amount of processed food, like Ham and toxic swamps of chemicals masquerading as rice/pasta. I just don't get it myself.

TieGrr I don't doubt that SW does have a number of healthy recipes. The point is that I could easily do the plan and consume absolute junk and it would not be against the guidelines. If they truly were serious about improving health, they would have the following guidelines:
-do not drink fizzy drinks full of artificial sweetener (these are unlimited on the SW plan)

• do not eat food full of sugar and artificial sweetener
• include healthy fats in your diet, including avocado, nuts and olive oil
• cook from scratch, using fresh ingredients, including carbs, proteins and fats in every meal

The OP reads in the same way as when someone takes any ideas, eg from the Bible, rewords them, misconstrues them, take them out of context and thereby misrepresents their purpose and meaning.

I gave up when I got to the bit about exercise:

Advised against proper exercise as 'muscle weighs more than fat'

I've never been to a slimming club, but I can guarantee this isn't what they are advising.

Ergo, none of it is "logic"

@Trinity66 it was, wasn't it? 🙈 😂

@Susan - It's not a healthy eating plan though, it's a weight loss one. I think I just get a bit defensive when I hear people going on about the unhealthy aspects because that's only one side of it and isn't a fair representation of what a lot of us eat when following it.

I've never been to a slimming club, but I can guarantee this isn't what they are advising

My experience of a slimming club (it was WW to be fair) was an overweight, ruddy-complexioned leader who explained that she saved all her points up for a huge binge-drinking session at the end of each week. She told people to eat ready meals to stay on plan because they have the points on the packaging so avoids confusion. At the meeting, she had a stall selling chocolate, cakes, crisps and sweets (all WW brand). Many members bought these and scoffed them during her talk. No mention of exercise. How on earth is that healthy? I refuse to believe that all SW consultants push good health. You may strike lucky and get one who teaches you the importance of avoiding processed junk, but the company line is that you can drink as much diet coke and eat as many muller lights as you like. If you're sensible enough to realise that this is rubbish, that's great, but not everyone does realise this and SW does not help them do so.

a flump has fewer syns than olive oil

I shall now drizzle flumps over my copious amount of pasta.

Except that the company literally has books full of recipes of meat cooked in diet coke and diet fanta, so it is not bullshit.

Where are these books then because I have quite a lot of them and NONE of them have recipes using diet Fanta or Coke - I've only seen one recipe like that and that was online in a forum. So with respect it IS bullshit.

@Susan - It's not a healthy eating plan though, it's a weight loss one.

That's the problem though isn't it? SW should be running a programme teaching good health and sustainable lifestyle changes to its members. Not luring them into a cycle of yoyo dieting.

The point is that I could easily do the plan and consume absolute junk and it would not be against the guidelines But it would, because you wouldn't be having your 'third of plate of fruit or vegetables'.

They allow artificially sweetened drinks to cater to the very large percentage of the population who claim to not like plain water.

cook from scratch, using fresh ingredients, including carbs, proteins and fats in every meal That is pretty much the SW diet. You can have nuts, as a Healthy B choice, or as syns. You can also have olive oil or avocado as syns, but would have to have these instead of treats like crisps, wine, chocolate etc.

The trade off of being able to eat large portions of food is to have to restrict something somewhere, in SW case, it is energy dense foods like chocolate, avocado or oils.

Low carb diets don't generally allow unlimited foods either, and some people wouldn't like to not be able to have any sugary treats or bread ever. If you ate 10 avocados a day, you probably wouldn't lose weight.

People regain weight after a diet because they go back to eating bad food after they have lost weight. If they followed the SW maintenance plan, they wouldn't, but they will be going back to too many calories/junk and hence regain.

Just like you would if you started eating loads of carbs after a low carb diet. Plenty of people would equally struggle to never be able to have much in the way of cake/bread etc for the rest of their lives.

Susanbunch processed over fresh is not the Slimming World ethos at all, I'm not breaking the rules by not having a mugshot. In the book outlining the plan it does not say 'have a mullerlight daily or you won't lose weight'. I followed the plan 100% and lost weight. I didn't cheat by not eating muller lights just like I didn't cheat by not eating grapefruit. They are both in the list of free food which you have the option to eat if you want without affecting your weight loss. I chose not to because I don't like them. There were plenty of other things to have in place.

Muscle doesn't weigh more than fat - a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat. It's just that a pound of muscle is denser and takes up less space.

BMI is largely bollocks, but if you're significantly heavier than you should be, it isn't about muscle unless you're a member of the All Blacks.

Gah! But it wouldn't

a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat

In which case nothing weighs more than anything. The concept of weight is entirely meaningless.

SusanBunch, that's insanity. My experience of WW (and I've been to a few different ones, hem hem) was always of a leader who was at a healthy weight and explained the different ways you could make the points system work for your lifestyle. So the students who really wanted to go out drinking on a Friday night could save up some points and earn a few with exercise, the tired new mum could learn how to keep track of her points throughout the day as she struggled to find time and energy, and so on.

In which case nothing weighs more than anything. The concept of weight is entirely meaningless.

Another one sticking up for SW
Personally I like it because it isn’t preachy about healthy eating, it’s ultra flexible so you can fit it in to your own cultural food, or if you are not much of a cook, or even if you love cooking.
It’s also affordable. Having a meal of rice/pasta, meat, veg and salad is cheaper than some diets which promote a lot of meat/branded foods!!
It works for me as I have long standing bad eating patterns since childhood and I need a structure to follow and some encouragement.

In which case nothing weighs more than anything. The concept of weight is entirely meaningless.

In the muscle v fat debate, it is. I mean, a rugby player might be overweight on BMI because they're 16 stone of hulking muscle, but I'm just a fat slob.