Is Slimming World a healthy way to lose weight?

[Whitefeather01]

Just that really. Is it healthy? Sustainable? Is the food nice?

YABU - No, not healthy or sustainable.
YANBU - Yes to the above

No, I don't think it is. I don't think it teaches you how to be healthy long term, so members continue to pay into it because, as a PP said above, they feel they can't continue without SW. Which is why you have people on and off the plan for years. SW rely on repeat customers.

I also don't think enough people follow the plan properly. One look at a SW hashtag on Instagram tells you all you need to know. People will "tweak" the plan so they can eat 10 pancakes made out of couscous soaked in fat-free yogurt and sweetener (I'm not even making that up). You wouldn't hopefully eat 10 pancakes normally but some people on SW do because they've made a Syn-free recipe. Some of the shit on Instagram looks so unhealthy.

Eat less calories and exercise more. I know that's easier said than done but that is the basics of losing weight. Some people feel they need SW for the support but there's plenty of other supportive and healthier options out there.

I don't think it's healthy.

To lose weight you need to be in a calorie deficit. Not sure how you can know if you're in a calorie deficit following Slimming World which is why people probably end up gaining all of the weight back.

Everything has a calorie value, there is no such thing as a 'free food'

Look up TeamRH on Facebook - those guys tell it how it is when it comes to weightloss.

I didn't get anywhere with sw. I like ww better and lost a stone over 2-3 months. If anything it taught me how to cook. It teaches portion control and nothing is out of bounds to eat.its all in moderation which leads back to the portion control. I found the meetings more productive than sw. In a sw meeting it just seems to be about what ppl had lost . Not about food education or motivations.

I think its got quite good principles. It's hard to do without cooking from scratch which I think helps you think more about what you are eating. The idea of filling your plate up in thirds is good advice (although a lot of people seem to ignore this one!). However I'm not so keen on the use of sweetner and some of the 'cheats' like cake made from wheatabix.

I've got some of the recepie books and there are some tasty meals in there, I never lost weight on it though :/

I had a friend who followed this diet (without success) for many years. In her case it appeared to cause a very unhealthy relationship with food. This was some years ago though, so maybe they've changed the programme since then.

I started SW in January and have lost 2 stone so far and my partner has commented that we've never eaten as well as we have since I joined. I now cook almost everything from scratch. My herb/spices shelf is full and for the first time in 30 years of coking, I've actually used up a full jar of some herbs/spices.

I eat a healthy breakfast of porridge/weetabix/bran flakes or 0% fat greek yogurt with fruit

For lunch i usually have a big bowl of veg soup- which I batch cook at the weekend and freeze for during the week and left overs from a previous evening meal- this lunchtime I've had cauliflower soup and Gammon stew with small amount brown rice

Last night my evening meal was a large salad with salmon fillets (cooked with mexican chilli cheese melted over the top) and new potatoes.

I also had a large G&T in the evening

I've never been told I can eat as much as I like. the only things I've been told I don't have to account for are "speed foods" which are predominately green vegetables and some fruit. I'm told to balance my plate- it predominately needs to be free foods (unprocessed fruit/veg) with 1/4 protein (from lean products) and up to a 1/4 carbs (which can be pasta but I tend to have brown rice or sweet potato)

No food is forbidden but you are encouraged to limit/restrict foods that are high in sugar/fat. During the past 10 weeks I've had several nights/meal out. What i do differently now is when I've "over indulged" I then pull it back to three meals a day and no treats for the rest of the week- which is what my skinny partner does naturally without thinking.

With regard to using nasty substitutes like sweetener- yes online there are some terrible recipes, but there are some amazing ones too. look at the blogs of two chubby cubs who despise the use of sweetener and other such ingredients and provide brilliant recipes to follow.

With regard to encouraging you not to exercise, that's not my experience. My group do regular walks/runs together, you're encouraged to exercise and track what you do. Lots of the class members come in gym gear and then go for a run together straight after the group- including the one that joined the club on a mobility scooter and just over a year and 13 stone later, now trains in the free weight section of the gym

With regard to it being hard to follow/you'll put it all back on when you stop- I say no sh*t Sherlock!

I've done every type of weight loss their is from VLCD to having a PT and doing 2 hours a day in the gym. guess what, they all work and they all stop working when you stop doing them.

Does Slimming world work? Not for everyone- it hasn't worked for me in the past. But at the moment, with my head in the right place and taking the time to plan/prepare my food, it's certainly working for me.

@FaithInfinity If you eat how you've always eaten, you'll be as heavy as you've always been. It's standard for any diet. If you're overweight, you simply cannot lose weight then go back to how you ate before that made you overweight. No matter what you do. "You'll put it all back on when you stop" is just a silly thing to say - you can't 'stop'
If you're overweight, the ONLY rememedy is to change your entire lifestyle for good. Even if you reduce your calories and exercise, often touted "the only healthy way", you'll put weight back on if you stop doing that. SW (from what I understand) IS sustainable because it is something that you could easily do for the rest of your life - I.e. don't add extra fats to your foods, limit processed foods and foods with added fats and sugar, make vegetables the bulk of your diet. That surely is how people typically should be eating, forever?

Maybe there's some critical stuff I'm missing. I'm just going off of what I've been told by people who do SW.

Though I suppose I'm being pro SW, I think the groups, merchandise etc are a rip off, though I suppose the groups are a positive social affair for some

I lost almost 5 stone with SW, but after that the weight stopped coming off and I started to find it really hard work being so good at staying on plan all week to find I'd lost half a pound or nothing at all week after week. I also felt cheated after my consultant with her amazing 10 stone weight loss had actually achieved this by going against SW advice and doing SP( being in ketosis) for almost a year up to the point where her periods had stopped and her hair was falling out. Not a great way of proving that "you can absolutely lose weight by sticking to the basic plan". I also got fed up of the cult-like feel to it all and the forced "fun" activities in group, the favouritsm shown to the people who joined in with it all etc.

Any one I know who's done sw have gained what they lost and added. My husband and I went on to a keto/low carb diet and it's helped a lot. My advice, for what it's worth, it's about changing lifestyle and relationship with food regardless of the diet that you choose.

melissasummefield I’m confused about the banana thing as well. I previously went to slimming world and had a couple of different managers, and they all said fruit eaten in its normal form is free but if cooked or mashed it’s not because it has to be syned because of the sugar it produces.

Now I just think all slimming classes are a lot of shite, eat what you want in moderation.

A friend of mine is now doing keto....lost weight from slimming world but blood sugars went through the roof. I'm sure somewhere between the two is a healthy alternative

The problem is if you have truly disordered eating (which you will tend to if you have multiple stones to use) no diet will really help.

SW and WW are problems because you focus on food all the time. You have to count stuff, measure stuff (no matter what they say) and plan stuff out.

It means that if you are a severe overeater you just constantly think about what you’re going to have next. There isn’t much focus on nutrition and a lot of reliance of sweetness which don’t deal with your sweet tooth.

I’m currently on a doctor mandated meal replacement diet (2/3 replacements per day and low carb meal) which is very boring but the lack of sugar has seen the cravings disappear (stable blood sugar) and my sweet tooth adjusting).

But whilst it’s effective I am still a compulsive eater. I’m sticking to it but having to address the issues that make me overeat which is much much harder.

If you have just lost a little control and have 2 stone or less to lose a switch to low-carb is the next thing you could do in my opinion. Also in the opinion of my cardiologist who despairs at the constant pushing of low fat diets.

I eat more healthy on sw than I did calorie counting. The principle of speed for really helps up my veg. You take from it what you want. Don't buy the branded products if you don't want, don't buy into the buzz words or whatever but the basic principles work. Everyone at my group has an overall loss even if they gain on particular weeks. I like it.

Nope. Check out Rebelfit's take on SW (find him on FB)

Look at "Slimming Hurled" for ideas of what some people eat mostly boiled eggs by the looks of things!

It is a great start. Dsis started eating all the crazy recipes, as the weight fell off she opted for less preparing, more veg and potato, she lost 4 stone 5 years ago now, she kept it off. She also replaced her 5 cans of full fat coke a day for coke zero.

Cooking from scratch might seem a hassle but a couple of days batch cooking makes life a lot easier. A slow cooker for soups, stews, and stock. I batch roast chicken wings and thighs (5 mins prep with seasoning of your choice) for snacks and meals. Once you're in the habit of it, your bills will go down and you'll feel better for it.

It seems to work for some people, the ones that eat more vegetables and less pasta and crappy food. But these people would probably be able to do it themselves at home because they're just following basic common sense about food.

If you notice, anyone who says they have success with SW have tweaked the plan even more to make it work. For example, avoiding sweeteners, eating better/less carbs etc. So it isn't really SW that has worked for them, but their own stricter regime.

I think it depends who you are.

I used to have a brilliant diet, then due to some awful personal problems I basically ate and drank my emotions. Now I'm in a better head space, about 3 stone overweight and I've lost my way. I'm exhausted after living through everything I did.

So, against everything I believe in, I've been doing sliming world (from an old book/pdf I found on pinterest, I can't afford to pay for it). I bloody hate quark, sweetner gives me headaches, and I wouldn't touch muller lights with a barge pole.

So why am I doing it? It gave me an easy way to be accountable. I follow it loosely, following the principles of trying to replace my mid-morning chocolate bar with fruit, and my mid aftenroon bag of crisps with something more fruit/veg based, my evening chocolate is there, but perhaps not a massive bowl of dairy milk, and I'm still having a g&t and/or a glass of wine. Just not a bottle. I still have a croissant at the weekend, and a full on sunday roast (yorkshire puddings made properly not with bloody porridge oats)

I knew everything, I just needed the 'syns' side of things to keep my mind in check to hopefully change my lifestyle back to what it I was before. It probably doesn't make any sense? I loathe myself for joining 'the cult' as I always called it, but actually I'm feeling a lot better and remembering what it was to cook a meal from scratch and not jsut stick some oven chips in.

I'm warbling. basically, if you follow it to replace bad habits (etc not always turning to carbs and chocolate) it's probably more sustainable? I don't know. I'm not massively thinner yet, and I had a wobble a few weeks ago when I was getting my head around it, but the more I do it, the healthier I feel. Mainly because i'm having a lot more fruit and veg and a lot less salt and alcohol!

OH. Also, I'm not going for the massive 7lbs in one week weight loss, because I think when it comes off that quickly, it probably isn't sustainable, I have a friend who does WW and she basically starves herself, then when she reaches target weight binges, then starves herself, then binges. Which is why I can't see me counting the points.

SORRY. I'll go now. Hope I've made some sort of sense!

I've been on SW for 7 years, target member so dont pay. I never make the "cheat" recipes ("mmm, it's just like eating a Gregg's steak bake!") Or buy quark/frylight/iceland ready meals/hifi bars etc. The people who do that and eat pasta/rice/packets of ham/muller lights/other "free" food etc in unlimited quantities will never lose weight. Cook from scratch, portion control and move a bit more.

@TheGlaikitRambler - I do agree with you actually, similar to what I've described, and I think that's the way I'm going, I just need the stupid 'syns' for a bit to remind me not to be a twat.

p.s. I don't calorie count because I will always use the 'but a banana is more calories then a g&t' thing, which i know makes me a dick, but it's who I am!

Name change for this -

Ex SW consultant here - it does work as long as you practice portion control - something they will never admit to. Calories in must be less than calories out to lose weight - simple.
It is a cult - they treat their consultants in an almost abusive way, there is a script that they read to consultants from, and I often felt gaslighted by middle management, to the point that I gave my franchises up.
The groups were amazing - that's what helped so many of my members to lose weight - the psychological support - but that only works if the consultant is good at that side of their job. That was the part of the job that I loved.
The pressure to keep our members weight losses above an average of 1lb a week or more was incredible.

I feel so sorry for the consultants now - whether they will see £2 for every £2.50 will probably depend on how many members sign up and pay for the virtual classes - the only way to earn decent income from the groups was to have 50 plus paying members in a session (consultants earn nothing from target members).
For example I could earn 50% of the fees I took after I had paid my venue rent, if 50 plus members had paid and turned up. If it was 49 I would earn 45%, and if it was 25 or less I would earn 25%. Some weeks if I covered a group with no consultant of their own I might earn £20 - often barely covering the petrol.

That was very long winded - to sum up, yes it works - but for the majority of people it is the group experience that makes it work, so bear that in mind - the plan by itself won't help most people. Losing weight is hard, keeping it off is even harder.

OP whatever you decide to do, whichever diet you choose - good luck

Join Slimming Hurled on Fb and decide for yourself 😁