SW is just a weird fucking cult

[Dayzedandconfuzed]

I've literally had enough of people talking about Slimming World (or Slimmers' World shudder).

It's bullshit.

It has the odd decent recipe but generally advocates for really unhealthy food habits and weird restrictions and replacements.

My main issues with it are -

Emphasis on classifying foods as 'free' or 'speed' and don't even get me STARTED on syns.

It makes members act like fucking zombies who talk in halfspeak jargon. HexBEasySp what the actual fucking fuck?

To make anything you need to use FryLight which is a heinous invention. Rapeseed or olive oil spray is 2 cal per spray and is an actual raw ingredient, not some industrial airport lubricant with added flavourings.

The amount of shit you're encouraged to add to your diet. Diet fanta and coke are staple ingredients in loads of main meals which are touted as family friendly, as are spends and other sweeteners.

It is a fucking RIP OFF. £20+ to join, £5 per week and fines if you miss a sesh. I went to a meeting twice a few years back and the group leader still adds me in group chats when attendance gets low cos he's clearly missing the $$$ now that nobody is buying his fucking HiFi bars.

I just don't see that this works. I don't know anyone who has consistently kept weight off with it - most people tend to become either yo yo dieters or shadow ED sufferers.

Why is this still a popular industry that people keep funding even though we logically know it doesn't work?

@clumsyduck. I am a shake girl. It has helped me lose two stone, and 30 inches of fat off my body. I don't peddle it. I tried all other diets, none worked. If ate normally, I'd be a size 20 by now. There are certain foods I cannot eat and I have proved that over the last couple of days. Anything with high carbs is bad for me. My stomach swells twice its normal size, I feel sluggish and tired. I was tested for coeliac disease and it came back negative to which I do not believe as I have suffered this since I was 13(I am now 45). I feel full after having a shake and I know the content of each shake gives me the nutrition I need. It's about nutrition. The company I buy my shakes from, has 50 scientists working day and night to ensure we get the right balance. This is a company that is 17 years old and has hundreds of thousands of members. And we do not weigh ourselves. Weighing yourself daily is wrong as your body changes every day so you will never get an accurate measurement. Once a week, at 7.30 am does me just fine. 😀

wow working day and night.

@lololove

I really wish there was a calorie counting group meeting that had social sides for say group walks and the like where you got weighed once a week and it was kept a track of like SW/WW.

I bet you could set something up using myfitnesspal - there are message boards and groups on there. Or even a facebook group for managing mailing lists, membership and events, with MFP for tracking calories, weigh ins etc.

That's just it, isn't it @LizzyMac40? You do what works for you.
Just like some can't get on with SW, it works brilliantly for others.
Like you with your shakes, I couldn't ever do that but know it works for some.
I don't get the mindset of saying something's shit just because it hasn't worked for you like some on here.
SW is all about healthy eating, but if some want to read it as eat as much processed crap as you can they won't get much out of it.

The last " consultant" I had was the size of a large house.

@orangecushion....I don't expect you to understand. 🙄🙄

Same lol, I mean if it's all about rabbit food, binge eating chocolate and bottles of Echo Falls for you stands to reason it'll all fall down for you lol as that's not what it's about at all - don't expect to understand either

@glitterstick you do it for you. I have looked at Sw, their plans and what their meals include and they are full of high carbs which makes you feel hungry. I make all my meals myself. It doesn't take hours, and they are all really easy to make once you know how. It's whether you can be bothered or not. Personally, I like to know what my meals include instead of a ready made Frozen Sw dish that costs three times as much as the dish I actually made.

@orangecushion. I don't have a consultant, unless of course that person is me. 😬

How do you know those 50 scientists are working day and night? Could it not be 48 or 54?

Do they get paid extra at night

So grateful for this post.

I tell people this a lot.

SW made me a serial yo-yo dieter and binger! On "weigh day" I would stuff myself silly as a treat, I would fall of the wagon quite quickly because I would still have countless unhealthy items in my cupboard ready for my end of day "syns".

Once, my friend gained 7lbs in one week because she greedily consumed 4 plates of pasta a day because it was promoted as a "free food". Mental, honestly!

It never worked long time for me. It's a really poor way to try and change your eating habits. It still promotes a pretty unhealthy diet and doesn't educate people the way it should.

@glitterstick maybe just as well I don't live off rabbit food, echo falls(yuck) or chocolate. I eat healthy but have nutritional shakes twice a day so I don't feel run down and lethargic etc. 😀😀

Spfairydust because I'm afraid "trying to get a discussion going" and critiquing my post makes you come across as someone who thinks they're the thread queen. And as far as I know, swearing is allowed on MN what with is all being adults with our own opinions and stuff. I think I last got told off for sweating 35 years ago when I was a teenager.

Look, SW is a controversial subject. Some people, like me, don't rate it and will say so. On a thread about SW. I'm not really waiting for you to police or censure what I say before I post just because you personally don't find it constructive or agree with it. I really do hope that helps.

@lizzymac40 full of high carbs? Depends on what plans and menus you are looking at.
It really isn't. Unless you want it to be.
I know you don't do SW, and that's fine, you do your shakes.
Just wanted to put that straight though.
You can do Red Days which is protein and veg. You don't have to be high carb at all.

I don't think it's whether it works temporarily for some people or not that's the issue here because clearly it does for some. I think it's partly the way that SW (and other diet companies in fairness) base their business model on the long term "failure" of most of their customers to make a profit. And the fake "science" that it is based on that Siri, perversely leads those customers to fail long term.

As an example "eat however much xyz until you're full". Well, if most overweight people knew how to do that, they wouldn't be overweight.

@glitterstick exactly. Not one person will adhere to one diet exactly as its written because they are all different. Every individual will react differently. Last time I researched SW diet, it was full of high carbs(pasta, bread, potatoes,noodles) The microwave meals are full of rubbish mainly to enhance the life of the shelf product. It's full of holes.

Why do people get fat? SW doesn't address that. It's harmful. People have difficult relationships with food that are more than calories in/calories out. It sometimes needs more therapy. At my heaviest, I was never tempted. My thyroid had been removed and it was clearl getting decent thyroid levels would resolve the metabolism issue but I realise it's not easy when all that's offered is Levothyroshite.

Thanks for the replies re. the pasta and sauce. I was imagining pasta and some Dolmio tomato sauce. Is it the sachets of carbonara/macaroni ones instead? (Sorry - bit confused).
Maybe it doesn't matter which. Those Lean Cuisines are largely pasta or rice, come to think of it.

Once, my friend gained 7lbs in one week because she greedily consumed 4 plates of pasta a day because it was promoted as a "free food". Mental, honestly!

This is absolutely not true - you need an additional 3500 calories over the week to gain one pound. Your friend would have had to have eaten an additional 24500 calories to gain 7 pounds.

Cooked pasta is around 150 calories per hundred grams, so she'd have had to have eaten 16 kilos of pasta to put on this much weight just from eating pasta. Either she was taking on calories elsewhere, or (more likely) she was retaining water as she wasn't drinking enough.

I did slimming world for just over a year. Got to my target weight in 10 months (lost 2st 10lb) - so its free to go after this and am still the same weight nearly 2 years later so it works for some. Also if you have free food 1/3 must be speed (normally lpw cal filling veg) thats how it works - people just eating pasta cos its free aren't actually following the plan

I had a friend who did badly on SW because she didn't learn portion control and maintained her need for a massive plate of food, whether that was pasta or salad. It didn't work. She needed self esteem and to not find solace in food and drink. It's not rocket science.

@GlitterStick Red/Green days are no more... it's extra easy now where you can have pasta and meat or fish and chips on one plate. No more using your healthy extras on the thing you want to share on the plate.

I went to one meeting and never went back.

The leader advised me not to go to the gym as muscle weighs more so I wouldn't see the weight loss at my next session.

I went before my wedding and lost about 2 and a half stone. I looked hideous for it, but I was younger and caught up in what my BMI should be. I got to the top end of the "ideal" weight but because I'm a) short and b) predisposed to have chunky thighs, big boobs and a big bum, the weight never fell from any of those areas. So I had lollipop head syndrome where the bones in my neck were sticking out.
I ended up leaving after a short illness meant I was so far under my "target weight" that I was paying them for the privilege of putting on weight again.
I did keep weight off for a few months but slowly put it on again after a few years (I'm blaming pregnancy for that one though)

I think it very much depends on your group - I thought my group leader was great because she didn’t patronise. And yes, the advice from SW is just bloody common sense - cook more from scratch, eat more veg, don’t go mental with the biscuits - but sometimes you need the social aspect to galvanise yourself into action. It’s certainly not for everyone but when I was actually able to attend each week (can’t now because of work) I lost weight and was much healthier.