To ask how Weight Watchers and Slimming World differ and which would be my best bet?

[SallyMischievo]

I am ashamed to say that the misery of not being able to conceive has led me into terrible comfort eating ways over the past two years and I now find myself three stone overweight - which I am certain will be hindering my chances of getting pregnant all the more. I need to shift this to get back to a healthy BMI and I have already started eating better and am avoiding keeping any vaguely tempting food in the house, plus have been doing Couch to 5k. However, I am wondering if a diet plan might be an effective solution to help me to stay on the straight and narrow? Rather naively, I am not sure how Weight Watchers and Slimming World differ or if there is a better diet that people would recommend? Any advice would be much appreciated!

Swings and roundabouts, I've now lost 8.5 stone on WW, I don't use any WW products and i follow the no count plan which is cooking from scratch. It does bug me when people say that on SW you can eat unlimited amounts of things like pasta. Surely common sense should tell you that you can't eat unlimited amounts of anything if you're trying to lose weight.

My rule of thumb is I split my plate so half veg, quarter carbs, quarter protein, everything in moderation and no cutting out of food groups.

As an example, this is my food for today:

B: 2 poached eggs and mushrooms on wholemeal toast, butter (butter taken from weekly points). Starbucks skinny latte

L: Warburton's brown sandwich thin x 2, thin scraping of lighter than light mayo, tuna, onions, peppers, lettuce, sliced egg. FF natural Greek yogurt and raspberries

D: Roast pork, roast potatoes cooked in oil, cauli, broc, parsnips, apple sauce, gravy (gravy taken from weekly points). For pudding I'm having apple & blackberry 'pasties' which are homemade with custard taken from weekly points

Sorry, there were paragraphs when I typed it out

I prefer slimming world plan but prefer the WW meetings.
The "happy clapping" drives me insane in Slimming world . The meetings are so boring!

Never tried Weight Watchers, but Slimming World seems to work for me, I don't stay for the happy clapping, prefer to make better use of my time.

I lost a stone and more at SW. It was quite a few years ago but the basic premise was each meal should have 1/3 of the plate full of veg and then a carb and some protein. You could have a daily allowance of milk and a healthy choice of ie one slice brown bread. You were allowed a certain number of syns per week, say 20, and every good has a syn value apart from those foods which were considered 'free such as lean meat, veg etc. You were supposed to measure out some things but I never did. I stuck to the plan and used syns for a wine or choc bar on a Friday night. I found the weekly meetings and weigh ins cringe but also useful for staying on track. People would suggest recipe ideas which I found useful. It succeeded for me because it forced me to plan meals and have snacks available that wouldnt derail the plan. However it isn't sustainable long term and in my opinion they are too fond of sugar free and low fat alternatives that contain more chemical crap than is good for you.
10 years later I now avoid processed stuff, cook alot of food in the slow cooker and eat more veg and protein than anything else.
Good luck

I go to Weight Watchers, it suits me and I've lost nearly 4 stone (more to go, sadly). One of my neighbours is thriving on Slimming World, having tried WW and didn't get on with it. Horses for courses, and good luck to her. Ask around your friends and see if any of them go to either, if you feel you can be that personal!
I think the personality of the group leader can be as important as the system, and the dynamic of the group.
If you want to see how the eating plans work, why not buy the associated magazines and read through them; maybe one will appeal more than the other. Weight Watchers also has an online option, but I think most people find the moral support of the group helpful.

I have done both and tbh I'm not keen on either, I prefer MFP. You can lose weight doing any of them but I have found MFP better long term for understanding nutrition and eating healthily rather than just for weight loss.

I believe they work in the same way but having only done slimming world I can't comment on weight watchers though friends and family have done ww.

Both use a point system for food and give you daily or weekly allowances so it teaches you to realise what's in the food you eat and to eat certain food in moderation. For me, the mot useful part was realising some food I thought was ok was actually high in sugar or fat so even though I now don't do SW, having reached my target weight, I've carried on with better food choices.

They both work, ultimately, by restricting calories as all diets do - whether they call them Points or Syns.

If you don't want to bother with only having to eat certain foods, or search out foods to fit in with either diet plan, you'd be better off joining My Fitness Pal (free) and calorie count.

Having lost lots of weight with SW years ago, now I'm older and wiser I realise that I did it by calorie restriction, not some magic formula or eating plan that these for-profit company's tout.

If simply weight loss is your goal, save your money and calorie count with MFP.

If you prefer the accountability of being weighed weekly as part of a group, then I would recommend SW over WW, but go in with the knowledge of how the diet plan works (through calorie restriction).

Meant to add that I am post-menopause, very short, not very active and on drugs which affect my hormones, so not a great candidate for losing weight easily. I've lost 6-stone simply by calorie counting using MFP logging tool and it's not cost me a penny.

I like slimming world as no points.
My 15yr old ds and I have been doing SW since February. He has lost almost 5st and me 2.5st.
Ds loves it as he finds it easy to put things into categories, free food ( meat, fish,rice,pasta,potatoes etc ) super free food ( fruits/vegetables) and then the healthy A which is milk/cheese/yoghurt and the healthy B which is bread/cereal and an allowance for "syns" which is between 5-15 per day. An example of this is a Freddo bar is 5 syns.

He has never eaten so well or so much. I have struggled a bit as I only eat chicken and don't like fish but the concept is brilliant. Fill your plate with a third super free and the rest free, stop eating when full and don't deprive yourself of anything. Syns can be saved and used for treats.
Ds has treat night every Thursday after getting weighed and he really looks forward to that.
A few of his school friends are doing it too so support each other.

Good luck op

Weight watchers is basically calorie counting.

Slimming world is low fat low calorie food and only counting certain things.

Though I do believe weight watchers is more like slimming world nowadays.

I prefer slimming world - Weight watchers made me feel obsessive over food because there was very little you could eat without having to weigh or measure it, whereas with slimming world I can go by how hungry I actually am and not worry about it, I also find it easier to make food everyone can eat.

But, I know weight watchers works better for people who eat out a lot.

I'm not familiar with WW but I'm not a fan of Slimming World. I don't think calling things 'Syns' helps create a healthy relationship with food at all, and a lot of the time that can be at the root of the issue of over-eating. For me this is a big reason why I'd never try SW again, so if I did any it would definitely be WW.

Currently doing SW and have so far lost 2st 6lbs in 14 weeks, I absolutely love it, it feels like a lifestyle change and one I can keep up. I did WW before and lost 1 stone but I used to cheat it e.g. stick to my points but use them all on chocolate. SW is definitely the winner for me xx

I agree with PP who thinks the word Suns is too negative. My experience is that if something is not allowed or viewed like that I want it even more. Weight loss definitely involves psychology as well as counting calories. I maybe biased as I have lost 4 stone with WW and then recently another stone I had put back on . The new programme at WW is more restrictive but ok if you like eating fish and white meat. A lot .Although to be honest, now follows what I learnt works for me when losing my larger weight amount before.
The weekly meetings did help though. Not sure why. I kept to goal weight for ages then my weight started to increase again and I tried using my techniques to lose again . It was more difficult . Psychology again I guess!

Syns not suns !

There are slimming world and weight watchers threads on here, op.

They come under the Big/Slim/whatever topic, if that’s any help.

WW has two plans, pointing and no count, and it's not just fish and chicken which you don't have to point. Look at my menu below, the only things I have to point are butter, gravy and custard

They're basically both the same - the WW day food Agentornika posted is also a perfect SW day.

But to clarify, you can't eat unlimited amounts of pasta and rice on SW. You can eat as much as you need to feel full, but only in proportion with speed foods. A whole plate of pasta lightly coated with bolognaise sauce won't help you loose weight. A serving of pasta with lots of hidden veg bolognaise sauce and a side salad will.

I love WW and have successfully lost a lot of weight on it in the past. Like any diet though, you need to stick at it otherwise it just goes back on. But I really like the new (ish) WW plan which by its formula encourages healthy eating.

Many thanks for all of your kind responses. Buying the magazines for both is a fab idea and I will also look at My Fitness Pal and the threads on each elsewhere on MN.

@Sally, there is also a huge community on MFP boards (called Community). Lots of people with a great deal of knowledge there to help you along the way. Best of luck whatever you choose to do.

I have lost 3 stone on WW since April. I tried SW prior to this but didn't do so well. I prefer that WW seems more structured and I have found it very easy to follow. The meetings are much less patronising too.

I like WW, but can’t be doing with going to the meetings so I do it online. It’s 12.95 per month and you can use the app to track everything you eat and monitor your points. There’s also access to Connect, which is an online community. I’ve lost nearly three stone this year 😊