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?

Everything you said OP. It’s crap. Unhealthy, expensive crap.

I don't recognise your description of slimming world to be honest. I lost 3 1/2 stone and have now kept it off for 2 years. I go to group every week, it's free if you are at target. The plan is relatively straight forward and aims to encourage healthy eating but with an allocated portion of calories to spend on not so healthy food so that you don't feel deprived.

Principles:

1/3 - 1/2 of your plate should be lower calorie veg or fruit
Eat lean meat and pulses
Eat to satisfy hunger not to feel stuffed
Healthy A = Have a measured portion of food or drink with calcium per day
Healthy B = Have a measured portion of fibre containing food per day
5-15 syns per day = 100 to 300 calories on food that is more calorie dense such as oil, fat, sweet things

Personally I also don't eat many carbs as they don't suit me but for younger more physical people they also seem to lose ok and eat carbs

I don't eat mullerlites, frilight or any other strange food. I do cook from scratch for almost every meal and I eat loads of veg and enjoy my food

In our group we've got several people who've lost more that 5 stone and sustained for the period I've been going. Clearly some groups work better than others.

Come back in three years time GoldenBlue, you may be one of the eh rare 5% who do keep it off for five years and more.
Around 95% regain and some of those will go higher and end up in a cycle of yo-yo dieting.

@clowdyweewee that's what got to me !

The one in charge of the the one I attended was obese. Her supervisor came to watch her in action and was unable to sit on 1 chair (needed 2 pushed together) and ate a box of slimming bar things, an apple, a banana, orange and punnet of strwaberries in the one hour session.

I think it might work for those needed to lose stones. I did nothing in trying to shift just under a stone.

Our 'leader' was jaw dropping amazing to watch. Total hero worship by her tribe who bring in alcoholic treats weekly.

Shed be outside smoking whilst her team.of helpers took the money, did the weigh-is and handed out stickers. Thenshe'd walk in and scream about those who came, paid, weighed and ran off before she did her weekly speech.

Every week shed be bitching about something or telling us her family woes. A live soap opera.
I made a wonderful friend but decided to use my time to go running instead. My thighs appreciate it.
I would go again for the entertainment.

Some of the food people make is truly revolting especially where it involves quark and quiches made out of pasta n sauce.

A colleague was telling me the other day how she had a ‘healthy version of KFC’ the other day. It was chicken dipped in egg covered in crushed up Doritos and baked in the oven with FryLight. I had to restrain my boaking througout her gleeful retelling. Apparently it was just like the real thing..... I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the coating on real fried chicken (flour and herbs) probably had a better nutritional and calorie value that a shit load of crushed up Doritos. She has in fairness lost a lot of weight and quickly but her skin and hair isn’t looking so great (she complains about them!) and she’s been unwell a lot since following ‘the plan’ rigedly.

Then she has a ‘cheat day’ every week, eating everything she’s missed all week so can easily eat 2000 cals extra as treats that day.

This is what my MIL does whilst telling everybody that will listen about how she really shouldn’t be eating this - yawn! and it’s beyond frustrating. There’s no amount of medically backed science that will get through to her.

The negative language and shaming that is engrained in these diet plan’s culture are a real problem. The word ‘guilt’ should never be attributed to food. I’m sick of hearing people telling me ‘they shouldn’t have...’ they ‘can’t have...’, the comparisons of weight and dress size (like they even correlate!!!). The focus is so so wrong and damaging. In my view, these exploitative companies are responsible for another generation of eating disorder dressed up as a ‘diet’.

The consultant at ww told everyone that orange juice was high in points because squeezing the orange released more sugar. That's wrong because my Dad's diabetic nurse told him that one glass of orange juice contains about five oranges. So you'd have to point for five oranges not the one orange with the magic sugar release from squeezing it!
Also I agree that the group leaders are all fat.
But the main problem is they are to sell their products. Otherwise they'd offer counselling for comfort eaters and exercise sessions.

I’ve joined about a dozen different SWs over the years and every single one of them had a leader who was seriously overweight.

Just eat less, no need for diets and clubs, or weird concoctions.
Look at your saturated fat and sugar, portion size and eat healthy.

My sister lost 4 stone a few years ago, she has kept it off. Her main issue was coke and she replaced it with coke zero. I do not think she is healthier but she is lots slimmer and is more careful with takeaways, she has 1 instead of 4 a week but otherwiseit didn't take much of lifestyle changes.

I've lost weight with Slimming World and kept it off. I think it doesn't work for some people because they don't follow it properly. You can't expect to eat huge bowls of pasta everyday and eat 10 muller lights and lose weight. People like that don't need a diet plan they need their jaw wired shut.

I find it amazing that people find calorie counting easier. I would find it a massive pain trying to calculate calories all the time, and I would definitely get a bit obsessed. I find SW easier that ww as I was constantly counting points.

SW is just healthy eating really if you do it properly. I've lost just over 3 stone and kept it off.

Totally agree - was referred to WW by my GP - I had been many years before however it had changed (and not for the better).

Found it excruciating to sit after and discuss Beryl's low fat quark and how to approach going to a tea party. I felt it was pretty dysfunctional tbh.

Didn't go near the table heaving with sweet and savory WW snacks which are basically full of shit.

Leader was also slightly odd.

I told my practice nurse that I thought it was dysfunctional. And I don't think it addresses reasons for overeating and doesn't address listening to your body to see what you really want to eat.

Gaaahhh swimming world. I did it several years ago, lost the stone, lost the will to live.

Put offs: overweight consultants, at the time made me uneasy, but really, you sit there listening to the supposed guru who apparently it’s not working for?

The bizarre change of properties between a raw, un-mashed fruit to one microwavedfor a min: didn’t that Einstein bloke say something about energy can’t be created or destroyed? I remember posting similar things to this thread on a post of a FB SW group and some of the ‘theories’ put forward as justification were ludicrous! And they refused to admit some SW ideas were just shite.

‘you’re not eating enough’ WTF, again I asked how that worked in famines or anorexia. No answer.

Being made to feel odd because you exercise. Literally a room full of moderately to severely overweight self-justifying not moving more because SW. Not only is that nonsense, it’s actually irresponsible.

Huge portions. If you eat too much of pretty much anything you’ll gain weight. I remember being invited to dinner at my SW fan friend’s and she served a huuuuuuge steak and pile of vegetables - it was like a double portion meal! ‘And all free!’ (Apart from the shopping bill). It’s like people use ‘free’ to overeat even more.

I am a member and have lost 3.5 stone so far, but I do agree that a lot of it isn't very healthy and can be confusing. I don't think that the Free Food is a great idea, clearly if you eat a sack of spuds and 16 chickens a day because its "free" you probably aren't gonna lose a lot of weight. There is a lot of sugar and chemicals added to many of the low fat products that SW promote such as the muller lights and Hi Fi bars etc. Its better I think not to just blindly follow the plan without question but to use a bit of common sense. Keep it simple, 3 healthy meals a day cooked from scratch with fresh ingredients, plenty of fruit and veg, avoid processed food and keep snacking to a minumum.

It has been inspiring for me though to see other people losing weight despite phyiscal and mental health problems/relationship issues/bereavements/sick and disabled children etc because its made my excuses sound a bit pathetic! There are members in my group whose health has drastically improved since losing weight, some who no longer have diabetes, one who no longer needs medication for high blood pressure. Its also really nice to spend some time each week with people who are in the same boat as me, unhappy with their weight and determined to change it, its really motivating.

Knowing I'm going to be standing on those scales every week has kept me focused, nobody wants to be the one in group with a gain week after week, we want the certificates and shiny stickers!!

I don't think £4.95 is a rip-off, I used to spend considerably more than that on takeaways, fizzy drinks and chocolate.

Around 95% regain and some of those will go higher and end up in a cycle of yo-yo dieting

But that can be said for any diet. If you go back to the habits that made you gain weight in the first place, ie eating too much, you will regain weight, whether you lost it using SW, low carb, or any other diet plan.

Totally baffled how a diet that promotes eating lean meat, fish, salad, veg, fruit, eggs, and controlled amounts of dairy and whole grains, and hardly any crap gains so much completely misdirected hatred on here.

Surely SW consultants should be slim? That's like having an obese dietician or a smoking cessation nurse that stinks of cigarettes. If the plan works, then how come the consultants are all chubsters?

I joined slimming world with a friend in November and lost half a stone before Christmas. I didn’t bother with the fry light and slimming world bars, I just ate more fruit and veg and fewer biscuits. Not rocket science, but going to get weighed with my friend was a good weekly goal. I’ll go back after Christmas to lose it again!

A friend lost lots on it and is still very slim. When I see some of the lovely people in my group, some of the quite old, with health problems, and they say how much better they feel I think it can’t be all bad. Those people couldn’t do it by themselves or they would have already already.

Best thing about SW is 'two chubby cubs' on Facebook, they're members who post recipes and their blogs are hilarious, if they ran a group they'd be packed.

If you're easily offended though don't bother looking them up.

There’s a slimming world consultant in my work place alongside a few disciples. They seem to have lost a fair bit of weight between them, but I don’t see how it’s sustainable over the long term, judging by the perpetual state of denial they function in and what they actually eat.
The consultant woman has a strange obsession with food and ends each evening with a round robin asking everyone what they are having for their tea (whilst practically dribbling). She brings in the most miserable looking food I’ve ever seen and won’t eat on weigh in days- presumably stuffs her face with muller lites and weird sw biscuits after.
Slimming clubs just dont seem to address the underlying reasons that people over eat and encourage their members to view food as shameful and bad, instead of a way to nourish and care for your body. Which imo is probably what lead to the weight gain in the first place.

Agree with the OP.
Bracing myself for the new year spike in office chat about SW & WW.

Find it ludicrous that the NHS endorse it and will fund it (do they still?) for 12 weeks. Because it works apparently -yes but for how long?

Was similarly horrified to hear NHS are going to fund VLCD/Meal replacement diets. again I don’t know anyone who this has worked for long term.

I think all adults know exactly what they should be eating but they want to be eating fried food, biscuits, chocolates, crisps, pastries etc and drinking fizzy pop and alcohol.
Its very hard to stick to eating lots of fruit and veg and lean meat or pulses. You get to the point you cant be arsed anymore and just want a big bag of crisps to yourself.
Its free to get weighed at the Drs as well.

Let's not even go there with 'quark' - the singlemost revolting foodstuff known to humankind!

No - you're thinking of tofu.

Easy mistake to make, as both are repellent

It fails when the person stops trying.
Most regain due to old habits. I think slimming world or any health kick programme, can only guide you, give you the skills, the rest is up to the individual.
Nothing can change your life forever unless the individuals are willing to work with it.

The clapping while all sat in a horseshoe because Brenda lost 1/2 a lb despite her daughters wedding, then the “Doris, what went wrong? Are you disappointed that you gained 7lbs this week... was it because you ARE NOT EATING ENOUGH!!!!” WTF?

Brilliant!! This is exactly my experience... that and have you been exercising this week. It could be muscle

It's like a cult because it is one IMO. That and WW. It doesn't teach you about health eating, or exercise or potion control. I used to work with a a very overweight woman who was doing SW, I remember walking into the staff room one day and watching her polish off an entire punnet of strawberries because it was 'free on SW'. Bare in mind this was on top of her lunch, fruit still has sugar in it ffs! That's not healthy eating, it's just binging. 'Oh, I can eat so much on slimming world I eat until I feel sick', once again that's not eating healthy.

Don't get me started on the fucking recipes. Most of them look like dog food. The chips and roast potatoes are especially rank.

All the money they waste they'd be better off joining a gym, getting a trainer and learning about proper nutrition!