Slimming world. Is it a con/cult?

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Basically that really. I've read positive stories but also some completely bat shit crazy ones!

I have a considerable amount of weight to lose. I have recently joined the gym. But I'm reading conflicting advice about the gym and slimming world.

Is it worth it?

@feelingverylazytoday SQ offer you to weigh in for free as long as you stay within a 6lb range. If you go out of it, you get one week to lose it or you have to pay.

Ffs SW not SQ

That link to the New York Times article about The Biggest Loser is VERY interesting! It certainly explains why I can now only lose weight if I drop to 800 cals a day.

Just recently he pestered me to get some Christmas chocolates out. So he chose a box. Later I saw he had eaten two chocolates. I said "I thought you wanted these chocolates - you pestered me for them". He replies "I did".

This reminds me of when I worked at a SEN school. A lad hadn't eaten much dinner ( no issues around food, he just wasn't particularly hungry that day). I turned into my mother and said 'come on, you are not going to waste that food are you? His reply changed my way of thinking ' He said 'But cooldad, it's still a waste if I eat it when I don't want it!'
He was spot on, a lot of us, I believe, carry on eating, due to ingrained behaviour from when we are young. We often eat for the sake of it or not to waste food.

@feelingverylazytoday whilst this is somewhat true, it doesn't support people who change their lifestyle. For example, I joined to lose 1 stone which I did, I am a size 8. I then decided to get into fitness and the gym, I was measured by trained people for my muscle to fat and gained several kg of muscle, this pushed me over the 3pound allowance you can be over your target and I wasn't allowed to push up my target.

So either I could lose my muscle, struggle and force myself to lose fat by restricting my calories, or pay. I just quit. I've maintained a very healthy weight and i continue to gain muscle and work out 5 times a week. This was 8 months ago now!

familydrama I think people who really get into working out seriously probably outgrow SW anyway and so no longer need them.

You can up your target at any time I've changed mine quite a few times as I've got older/been hitting the gym

I think its about mindset. Ive "dieted" before and not been happy with weight for years. I joined SW in Oct 2018 and have lost 1 and a half stone now. Im going slow becuase I still want to go on holiday and eat hat I want or have time off over Xmas / weekend etc. To begin with I went into it with the same mindset as before, but I mde a commitment early on to stay to every meeting I could for a whole year. It massivly made a difference. Yes it is a bit happy clappy, but the consultant is really lovely and it sort of helped to sharpen my focus. I dont want to be over weight. I dont want to spend any longer tugging my top over my bum and feeling bad every night I go to bed, over how unhappy I am with the way I look.

Basic principals which have been said to death are sensible: water, vege, fruit, lean mean and protein, carbs (but not too many). I know people pay week after week, but then I think about all the money Ive spend on DVDs that ever come out their packet, or gym membership, or shakes, or gluten free and that was a hell of a lot more.

I dont buy into all the crazy fakeaway stuff but this is the first time in about 2 decades I feel OK about the way I look and feel in control of what I eat. But Ill be honest - yes its 80% what you eat and 20% exercise - but for me this has been about 90% mindset.... if that hadnt changed I would still be bigger and miserable. Ive still got about a stone to go, but Im OK with it and doing it going forwards

The only way to lose weight is by being in calorie deficit. Slimming World works by creating a calorie deficit by the back door. Filling foods that are not hugely calorie dense are encouraged, while unfilling foods that are comperable in calorie terms are 'synned' to discourage. It tricks you into deficit without you thinking it. Chicken breast is more filling than half a bowl of rice crispies, for example, despite being roughly the same calories. Chances are you can't manage to eat 6 chicken breasts in one sitting, but a double helping of cereals is pretty easy.

All other diets work in a similar way, whether fasting, counting calories or whatever.

The only thing is that SW seems to think their method is somehow special, speedfoods, syns, body magic etc etc.

Of course exercising is amazingly good for you. It's just not very effective as a weight loss tool unless you are doing mammoth amounts of it or eating less/better as well.

See, I disagree, because exercise is part of achieving long term weight loss.

No, it's not going to have as big an impact as diet.

But exercise improves your metabolism, improves your mood, gives you 'non scale' weight improvements, adds tone (good for the 'visuals' of weight loss), and by incorporating regular activity you will be less likely to regain weight.

I've been losing weight on the scenic route, relatively speaking. 6st in two years, two more to go. I've no loose skin so far, improving my running times, and have taken the time to attune my body to the fuel my body needs for work outs.

All the crash dieters I know have put it all back on. I don't want that to happen to me.

See, I disagree, because exercise is part of achieving long term weight loss.

Surely you were agreeing with me then - the very bit you quoted said not very effective unless you are eating better as well. i.e. doing exercise as part of achieving long term weight loss.

Exercise helps me lose weight too, but as you said, it mostly helps in a psychological way, rather than by burning up enough calories to actually cause weight loss by itself.

Ok so I've friends who do slimming world, I see the food they post on ig and believe me I can understand why they keep losing and gaining the same 3lb. I wouldn't be able to lose weight with some of the huge meals they eat and as for the cheats......

Weight loss is simple, it's not easy but it is simple. All you need to do is eat fewer Calories than you burn. There are a multitude of ways of creating this deficit, some far more complicated than others.

4 years ago I weighed 289lb (almost 21stone), I've been maintaining in the 148-152lb range for over 2 years and just decided I'd like to drop another 10lb.

But I didn't diet, instead I made a lot of little changes that added up to a massive lifestyle change that means now I eat a lot less and move a lot more. No foods are banned or synned, if I want to eat something and it fits in my Calorie allowance then I do.

I have also gone from being unable to walk across a room to running marathons. I train 6 days a week, and I train hard. Yes I will always have issues with food, but have mostly learnt to turn to exercise rather than the giant box of chocolates.

I try to have a healthy lifestyle rather than diet.

Eat less than you burn - to lose weight
Strength train to preserve muscle and strengthen bones (especially important for us ladies), to look better after the weight loss
Cardio for heart/lung/mental health and to give a few more Calories to eat.

Oh and contrary to what some SW fans say, muscle does not weigh more than fat, a pound is a pound. But muscle is more dense than fat, so a pound of muscle is smaller than a pound of fat. Also you won't put much (if any) muscle on in a deficit, especially as a female. You won't get bulky with those 5kg weights, believe me, as someone who has spent 2 years working very hard to put muscle on, you need to eat at least at maintenance and lift some progressively heavy weight to put on muscle

Ask yourself, is SW a lifestyle you’re willing and able to follow long term? High chances it’s not and just the mental side of worrying/calculating syns and what not will become very tedious. SW is BS

But I didn't diet, instead I made a lot of little changes that added up to a massive lifestyle change that means now I eat a lot less and move a lot more.

Congrats on your amazing weight loss, but I don't understand how 'eating a lot less' isn't dieting. That's literally what dieting is. Do you call it a lifestyle change simply because you plan to do it long term? Because surely that cpuld be applied to any diet if you managed to do it long term?

I once tried it to lose baby weight. Jesus Christ it was like a cult. The fact they use the word “syns” should say everything you need to know about their approach to creating a healthy attitude to food.

Being realistic about the amount you are eating and why is really the only way forward.

Someone once told me don’t eat food that has an advert for it. Not bad advice.

With that much weight to lose you need to get into a routine of eating a set amount of calories each day (say 1200) plan what you are going to eat the next day and don’t allow yourself to deviate from it.

Keep telling yourself food is fuel. Look at when you eat food otherwise than to fuel your body. Plan a strategy to do something else at that time, read, go for a walk, meditate, knit, play the piano.....,

Find someone who is honest who you will tell each week how much you have lost if you need some external accountability.

Good luck and well done in wanting to do something to improve your health

@lazylinguist

A diet is mostly seen as something temporary you follow to lose weight, so Atkins, SW, WW, etc, and it has a lot of negative connotations including depriving yourself

What I did was change my way of thinking about food and moved to eating more healthy rather than depriving myself. Rather than it being something temporary, my way of eating is something that I could easily continue with once the weight was lost. By becoming more active I also completely changed my lifestyle and learnt that while it's nice to have chocolate etc occasionally, too often will affect how I perform at what I love to do, so I eat to fuel my running, strength training etc

That reads like a SW brochure.

They are all the same. If you want anything to work you have to do it forever and that is why 90% of us fail.

I still don't think it's any different from dieting. How is "I changed my way of thinking so that I eat less/more healthily and within a calorie allowance and I have become more active" actually any different from "I am losing weight by eating a calorie controlled diet and exercising"? People are just as capable of falling off the wagon whatever they call it.

Saying it's a lifestyle change doesn't magically make it stick. It's just re-branding. The diet companies are all calling their diets 'lifestyle changes' now, and there'll be as many failed 'lifestyle changers' out there as failed dieters. If you're one of the tiny percentage who succeed long term, then that is fantastic and massively well done, but by pretending it's not a diet we're just letting the diet industry fool us all over again.

I’ve read about half of the minimums thread. I can’t believe how little SW consultants make. One made £10 from a meeting. Another made £40 even though she had nearly 50 weigh-ins that night.
And the amount of hours and hours of effort it takes too. Endless leafleting, advertising, trading and other meetings. It works out well below minimum wage.

When I did SE I remember roughly working out how much they could make and thinking even though it was a big group, it didn’t appear to be worth the effort and I was assuming they kept 100% profit. It looks like they only get to keep 25% at first going up to 40% after enough new members! I’m amazed anyone sticks at it.

It’s the ultimate in accountability though even if you don’t make any money you literally can’t afford to put loads of weight on.

IME it isn’t done by people who need the money (obviously or they’d work elsewhere!) it’s women who love the feeling they influence others and need the lifelong accountability themselves.

My mum has had a yo yo diet on SW for YEARS. She keeps gaining then get to target etc she has no idea the calories in things or what they mean. She constantly is obsessed with making syn free desserts rather than finding filling protien filled foods instead.

All Slimming world is, is calories in vs calories out. It's just that someone else has calculated the calories for you.

It's a 'con' as much as everything else even the jab.

If I could always eat the right amount I'd not need to diet.