To think that Slimming World is a nasty organisation?

[Ohnotanothernamechange]

I'm not sure if anyone else is aware but Pinch of Nom, the hugely popular healthy eating and 'diet friendly' cookbook, have released a statement saying that they have been told to remove all mention of SW from their books and websites. This follows on from SW threatening to sue Aldi for launching a new healthy eating range that they thought was too similar to their own (they failed at this, obviously it's much harder to bully and intimidate a large international company...).

They've also made threats towards butchers and cafes for launching SW friendly produce. It's ridiculous. What are they so scared of? Funny that Weight Watchers don't have a problem with POM, also funny that SW haven't gone after WW for alterning their plan to make it similar to SW. See above about bullying large companies.

Ive long had issues with SW and believe it to be a money grabbing cult that doesn't really promote a healthier lifestyle, and this for me just proves it. Targeting small business trying to make a living just makes them seem really petty and nasty.

Don't get me started on all the wanky termonolgy they use like 'body magic' and 'image therapy either. How people sit through the meeting and don't piss themselves laughing at all that rubbish is a mystery?

I did lose weight with SW, but I did it myself and didn’t bother with the meetings cause they’re too ruddy expensive. The weight did go back on, but it did take some time. They say they’re diabetic friendly, but the green days, which I love, absolutely fuck my blood sugars so it is no longer sustainable for me. And as for Muller Lights - they are my diabetic nemesis. However, it’s so hot at the mo that I’m living on salads and I’ve given up booze - the weight is now coming off much faster than any SW diet. But I agree, they’re just a money making conglomerate.

Atthebottomofthegarden I need a weigh in to keep me on track too. After a lot of research, I've decided to do Our Path (not started yet though). There's no meeting but they send you smart scales and your weight is uploaded to their system.

I remember when some food manufacturers got into a squabble with WW because they put the WW point value on their food.

I work part time in a sole trader butchers doing all his paperwork and health and safety stuff and can definitely verify that we had a very harsh letter from SW stating that to continue advertising our hand made sausages as "suitable for SW" we had to pay up £6k per year. We now just state they are extra low fat.

I'm on sw and don't find it nasty at all! It's also not a cult! SW is anplace for me to get out the house for 2 hours a week in my own and I have to say i love staying to class my husband joined 3 weeks ago and lost 7lb in his first 2 weeks. The class is not just about losing weight it's like a little family we discuss everything from our families, work and so on. We help each other through the good and the bad times.

You know the worst thing about that DNo, is that someone must have reported you to SW. How sad their life must be to do that to a small business trying to make a living!

The only people I know who have lost weight with SW are now bordering on eating disorder obsession. One cuts back her syns to lose even more weight.

It’s a business at the end of the day ....

Exactly ohno!

No matter which organisation if a trademark/principle is involved all will try to protect that. It is standard commercial practice and all organisation offering diet/slimming solutions are businesses all out to make money. Ever heard of "living off the fat of the land".

They are a business with a brand to protect, not a charity. If people are piggybacking off their diet plan, why should they let them?

I lost almost 3 stone on SW but it drove me mad, not the diet itself but all the terminology was a real bore. I put on all the weight again after stopping. It's annoying that you can have unlimited Muller lights which are full of artificial sweeteners. Also there's more 'syns' in things like Avacado, nuts or coconut than a chocolate bar or bag of crisps which seems bizarre to me.

It's a like a cult imo.

Well it worked for me.
I did hate the meetings and always tried to nip out when I could but the diet plan worked and I’ve kept the weight off.
I think, like any business, they are entitled to protection from people pinching their product. After all that is why copyright laws exist.

Slimming World is a business. Part of the plan seems to be that you lose weight for a while, keep it off for a while, then go back because the lbs are creeping on. Given that people who go have pretty unhealthy eating habits that's just how it is. Some people though, have lost quite a lot of weight and I, for one, remain much lighter than I was. The eating plan is really just low fat, low sugar and by comparison to diets like Keto, seems pretty sensible to me.

I went off SW many years ago. I'd been a member and lost weight (and kept it off) but moved to a different city before I reached target. I eventually found a local group and rejoined but was surprised to find that the tinned steak I'd used as pretty much a staple had gone up from Free ot about 10 syns with no change in recipe. (I lived alone and worked shits so tinned stuff was convenient for me)

I contacted SW and asked why the change and they said they'd done it with all tinned and most frozen products, not because the recipe was any different 'but we want to encourage people to cook from scratch'. So their calculation for 'syns' is purely arbitrary and depends on what they're pushing at the time, not nutritional content. Mullerlite yoghurts all contain a lot of sugar but used to be 'free' so I can only assume the makers were paying SW a lot.

ACtually I worked shifts not shits. But some of my colleagues were shits

I work part time in a sole trader butchers doing all his paperwork and health and safety stuff and can definitely verify that we had a very harsh letter from SW stating that to continue advertising our hand made sausages as "suitable for SW" we had to pay up £6k per year. We now just state they are extra low fat.

Seems totally fair and reasonable to me
They don’t know this business from Jack, and yet this marketing aligns itself with SW

I’m with SW

I've been going to SW for 4yrs, still not got to target, to £5 a week for the privilege! Although I haven't been for 3months! I must admit to sitting at the back and pissing myself laughing at some of the same old comments! The leader always says the same thing every week (yawn) and the same few people who tell the group their woes of the week and everyone goes awe bless, hope you're ok blah blah! It's more like a bloody counselling session, I I've often left feeling quite pissed off, the fact I paid £4.95 to listen to someone's sob story, bloody narcissists!!
It's not healthy eating either, nor portion control and they advocate eating as much as you like of 'free' food, free!!! all food has calories 😉, processed ham, chicken etc full of salt and the ham as more than its fair share of fat! I could go on......lol

And yet you have carried on going for 4 years. 4 years!! The mind boggles

My Mum has been a WW member for years, she has also tried SW a few times as well as weird diets like Atkins, cabbage soup, special K et al.

She’s permanently on a fucking diet, it’s so depressing. I dread to think how much money she’s given to WW and SW over the years... She buys all the products and literally worships it. She’s a very healthy size 12 for reference and at 5 ft 7 this is not fat, she’s never been fat.

Aldi have copied small business enterprises product and sold it dirt cheap under the Aldi brand. That's poor.
Whatever you feel about WW and SW people lose weight which is far better than bariatric surgery as tackling bad eating practices and our relationships with food. That it may slide back on over the years is up to the individuals. I am one of them but SW works. If you want to lose weight.

Yep and these get regularly posted all over my Facebook feed 🙄

So, name change for this! I am currently a Slimming World consultant - I became one because I lost weight and found the group such a huge part of what helped me lose weight that I genuinely wanted to shout it from the roof tops and help other unhappy overweight people lose weight as I had.
I absolutely love doing my job - there is nothing that beats supporting someone to make changes to their lifestyle that results in weight loss, health benefits, achieving exercise goals and watching their self esteem soar.
The plan is good common sense healthy eating without restriction on lots of foods so that you don’t feel deprived, the groups are about supporting each other - losing weight on your own can be really really hard (otherwise we would all have done it!).
I love my members and am so proud of them regardless of their weight change each week.
I would never ever berate a member for not coming to group - I do understand how shit life can get and the last thing I would want to do is add to that shit!!
Some people just stop coming and then rejoin having regained their weight and while it’s heartbreaking to see I am always happy that they trust me enough to come back.
HOWEVER, the organisation is fundamentally a cult. They sell us a licence to run a group as a self employed person - they tell us over and over that it’s our business. But the rules we operate under are pretty much the same as an employed person does but tougher. We have to run our groups a certain way, sell their products (at very little profit), and we get a certain percentage of our takings dependent on how many members come each week. So we are pushed by numbers in order to earn enough - that is why, in my opinion, some consultants get very pushy with missing members - because a few missing members can make a huge difference in earnings.
We are constantly told that if we aren’t earning as much as we need to it is down to us - that we can’t be following the SW to way to recruit and keep members properly, that if our members aren’t losing a certain amount of weight each week we are doing something wrong. And if we dare to suggest the SW business model may not be as perfect as sold we are met with frosty condescension and told the problem is with us not SW.
So, unless you are very successful (often luck of the draw as to where your group is situated) you end up feeling useless, but all the time we are fed the line that nothing matters more than our members and no matter what we must be there for them, even if we earn 10p think what a difference we have made to someone’s life. If we are sick, unless we can find another consultant to run our group for us at cost to us, then we just have to go and run the group. If we want a holiday we have to pay another consultant to cover our groups while we are off. If a consultant leaves we are harangued into covering the consultant-less groups - often for pennies, because of the members. And we all do it, because we all genuinely care so much about our members.

If we dare to speak up about anything we are contacted by senior managers and read the SW script over and over and over again until we agree that they are right and we are wrong. So in that respect, yes it is a cult, but please know that the majority of us consultants aren’t in this to make shed loads of money - we do this because we know how it feels to be overweight and miserable because of it, and because we want to help.

This unhappy consultant though is leaving the organisation because it has wrecked my mental health.

The plan works, the majority of consultants genuinely care, but I would never ever recommend becoming a consultant to anyone.

I've never done SW or WW. When I lost weight I did it privately and my own way. The idea of going to meetings put me right off(Fat Fighters definitely!). I used weight watchers foods but it was before SW really caught on and WW was the main one.
I know people who've done SW,a old friend of mine did and she hated it and called it a con.
It's designed for people to lose a lot of weight in a short space of time but not for long term weight control is what I heard.
I guess they've a right to protect their copywrite though.
I do think it comes across as a cult and I particularly don't like the idea of labelling food as 'syns',demonising certain foods.

I’ve lost 7 stone with SW so it does work. The happy clappy group session is laughable but some members do share genuinely good ideas and recipes. They are fiercely protective of their brand. Just a shame their Iceland meals are so revolting