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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

SW is just a weird fucking cult

395 replies

Dayzedandconfuzed · 28/12/2018 15:42

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?

OP posts:
GodrestyemerrySchadenfreud · 29/12/2018 13:53

The comments about a consultant suggesting that weight gain has been caused because of exercise and to scale back...actually there is a massive amount of truth to this as damaged muscles need and hold onto water to recover. It’s just a way of telling someone new to exercise to take it steady.

Then why not explain this?

People don't lose IQ points as they gain weight. They would be able to understand the theory.

GodrestyemerrySchadenfreud · 29/12/2018 14:15

I eat healthy but have nutritional shakes twice a day so I don't feel run down and lethargic etc.

Do you sell shakes, perchance, Lizzy? You seem very evangelical about them.

As others have said - it is what works for you. If shakes work for you - fine. They wouldn't work for me . (I'm also curious to know how you cn be so sure of the nutrition in your shake, when you would mistrust what is written on the side of a ready meal box.)

Aspergallus · 29/12/2018 14:33

I’ve done it -lost 2.5 stone, gained when I had a baby, and have lost 2 again at 4 months post partum.

All of these comments that SW doesn’t work are nonsense. Essentially, it’s hard to lose weight and it’s hard to keep weight off, but any process that includes accountability like attending a group tends to work best regardless of the details of the diet. That’s what all the evidence suggests. Getting hung up on the details of the diet plan misses the point.

When I joined, I didn’t want anything too fiddly or faddy, I knew I was joining for the accountability; the only evidence based part. I was happy that the diet was pretty sensible, and actually it is. The essence of it is eating fresh food, fruit and vegetables while limiting processed food (anything processed is synned). So generally unprocessed stuff is free. The healthy extras are about eating some fibre and calcium in limited quantities, so bread and cheese are included but restricted to a healthy portion size. All the other weird things people do with sweeteners, muller lights, options sachets etc etc are the usual things people do when trying to sustain any diet, when it’s much healthier just to try to stick with the back to basics approach 90% of the time and have the real treats when you want them. But every diet has versions of this -low carbers eating strange eggy bread and chocolate full of polyols for example. You certainly don’t HAVE to.

I’ll admit I do eat quark though, I have a few family friendly pasta dishes that include it.

Aspergallus · 29/12/2018 14:36

PS I have never used any sweeteners following SW.

orangecushion · 29/12/2018 16:02

We know exactly how miserable being overweight & unhappy about your weight can feel

Please please don't pretend you are my friend or you care about me.

ITS A BUSINESS

HariboLecter · 29/12/2018 16:13
GodrestyemerrySchadenfreud · 30/12/2018 18:51

HariboLecter

Brilliant username.

Grin
ToEarlyForDecorations · 02/01/2019 22:35

.

Drogosnextwife · 02/01/2019 22:46

I went to 1 meeting and never went back. I'm not overweight just wanted to lose a few pounds and my friend wanted to go but not alone. She isn't overweight either. The "leader" treated us as though we were big fatties and all the low fat diet shite is just not healthy. The leader text me after I left and insisted on knowing my reasons for not coming back. When I told her I didn't believe it was a healthy way to lose weight she wasn't impressed and desperately tried to tell me how wrong I was, she did insist on knowing 😂

Drogosnextwife · 02/01/2019 22:50

Brilliant, Haribo

Darkestnight · 02/01/2019 23:58

The amount of junk mail I get from sw to go back is ridiculous. Its like there begging for people to return

BitOutOfPractice · 03/01/2019 10:10

It's people failing and returning that makes their profit. It's their business model.

NoIAmSpartacus · 03/01/2019 10:32

Everyone has their own opinions on this but it really is nasty to laugh at someone and compare them to the size of a house.

Fashionista101 · 03/01/2019 10:39

This made me LOL!

I went once to support my mum and I kid you not, they were having a "party"! It wasn't a fucking party and we all had to listen to how Susan had struggled all week but will be back on track next week - she won't.

Tbf my mum looses quite a lot when following but she's on and off so it's not sustainable.

I have a friend who goes also, she's had a gastric band and loving if because she's not told them so looses loads every week and wins some prize.

I'm not been awful but I think they all have low key eating disorders. It's not normal!

Holidayshopping · 03/01/2019 10:43

I went a few times and the women who ran it/volunteered were hilarious, they were all extremely overweight (not a great advert perhaps) and once they were weighed in each Thursday, would spend the evening eating packets and packets of those hi fi bars!!?

I didn’t go back!

Chocolatecoffeeaddict · 03/01/2019 10:53

It's always worked for me. I lost 2 stone in 8 weeks the last time I did the diet but came off after having another baby.
I'm back on it now and hoping to lose 5 stone .
I fill up on the free foods but I've noticed if I eat too many potatoes and pasta, which are also free foods, my weight loss stops or slows down, so I mainly eat high protein, fruit and veg, fat free dairy.
I also don't use my syns, apart from one mullerlight a day.

SushiMonster · 03/01/2019 11:05

Pretty much the only people I know who have lost a lot of weight and kept it off have done SW.

The core of it is eating real food, just less of it. Of course some people are going to have a shit relationship with food and try and 'cheat' the system. And of course most people are going to put loads of weight back on... because most people who are fat never manage to maintain a lower weight do they, following any kind of calorie deficit plan!?

DeloresJaneUmbridge · 03/01/2019 12:43

SW is a calorie deficit diet. The reason most people regain is that it isn't sustainable long term. Our bodies are preprogrammed to gain weight following what is in effect a starvation mode diet.
There's nothing wrong in itself with the principles of SW. It's good wholesome food but just not enough.

Then we have their bizarre syn count which they cannot scientifically prove.

Consider this.

HiFi bars from SW are a Healthy Extra. They contain less fibre than an apple.

Special k snack bars however have a syn value despite having less sugar, fat and calories than the HiFi bars.

If that doesn't tel you Syns are shit science then I don't know what will.

Personally I suspect that Syns are calculated based upon the partnership the manufacturers have with SW. I gather Heinz are going to do well put of the latest updates to Syns.

GlitterStick · 03/01/2019 13:06

One thing SW can't be accused of is being a starvation mode diet! Confused
Bizarre statement.
You're seriously doing it wrong if you're starving yourself on it.
It's learning how to eat healthily and have a balanced, healthy diet.

tabulahrasa · 03/01/2019 15:42

“Special k snack bars however have a syn value despite having less sugar, fat and calories than the HiFi bars.”

What’s a special k snack bar, they don’t make anything called that? Their cereal bars?... because some of them are healthy extras and they definitely have more calories than the hifi bar, I can’t be bothered checking labels but the milk chocolate ones are like 30ish higher per bar.

Also healthy extras aren’t free food, so hifi bars also have a syn value...

And I’m hugely confused by the comparison to apples tbh, that seems like a pretty random unit of measurement, if you use grams hifi bars are 17/18g of fibre per 100g, apples are 2.4g... but apples are free foods not healthy extras anyway, so it’s an odd choice to compare.

Most supermarket own brand cereal bars are healthy extras as well btw, so I’m not sure how that fits in with your manufacturer conspiracy theory and Heinz may do well out of the changes, but the change to soup affects all premade soups...

BitOutOfPractice · 03/01/2019 16:26

It's learning how to eat healthily and have a balanced, healthy diet

Yet the amount of people who don't keep the weight off and end up going back (and paying again) would put paid to that wouldn't it?

It teaches you the SW version of healthy eating. A highly stylised version of healthy eating

Groovee · 03/01/2019 17:45

Most people fail at maintaining weight loss because they return to the old habits rather than looking at an overall lifestyle change. I find maintaining my weight loss really hard. But having had 2 family meals this week reminds me how I have changed and I don't need to gorge myself on food just because it's there

Harpingon · 03/01/2019 18:14

I don't know anyone who's followed slimming world and kept weight that they have lost off. I have quite a few friends who have done it for many years and swear by it but have all yo-yo dieted and are all (without exception) much bigger than when they started.
It's a big business and a con. When I went along for a taster meeting with one of my friends the woman in charge asked if I had thought about opening a group of my own as I was quite slim 🙄 I guess she was thinking I could pretend I'd lost loads of weight on SW. I left before the end...

Schmoobarb · 03/01/2019 19:24

I don't know anyone who's followed slimming world and kept weight that they have lost off.

I have a friend who has kept off 10 stone for over 6 years now. But I agree she’s the exception rather than the rule.

GoldenBlue · 03/01/2019 19:54

Of the 100 or so in my group there are about 10 target members although only a few of us who have reached target continue to come every week, despite it being free for us. It is relatively easy to keep the weight off if you stay mindful. About half a dozen come and weigh every few weeks (you only need to weigh in once every 8 weeks and be within 3lb of target to keep your benefits as a target member). But many people hit target then revert to their old eating patterns and end up rejoining a year later. That's not SW's fault, it is people thinking of it as a diet instead of a life change.

The SW approach is to offer support to target members to help but you have to take the advice. This year they published a new set of help just for target members helping them to adapt the programme to maintain weight rather than lose, whilst still food optimising. If people follow that it will help rather than just scoffing everything

I