To think that Slimming World just doesn't work

[insomniasucks]

Ok, so I have been following SW for a week and have lost nothing! Exactly the same weight as last week. What am I doing wrong or does SW not suit everyone. Here is a typical SW day for me:-

Breakfast: 3 eggs scrambled in Frylight, tomatoes and mushrooms fried in Frylight, slice of wholemeal bread from a small loaf (HexB), cup of tea with milk from allowance (HexA)

Lunch: Batchelors Pasta N Sauce Cheese & Broccoli made with water (2.5 syns), jacket potato and a huge salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, beetroot, onions) balsamic vinegar

Dinner: Either syn free Quorn lasagne with HexA 30g cheddar cheese, salad and maybe syn free chips cooked in Airfryer or syn free Quorn curry and rice, or jacket potato with salad, or roast Quorn dinner with Frylight potatoes and loads of steamed vegetables

Snacks: Fruit, syn free homemade soup made with loads of speed veg, sometimes homemade crisps in AirFryer, Fage yoghurt with frozen fruit

Help! 😩

Haven't RTFT but it does work, provided you also exercise portion control. I've lost quite a lot of weight on SW and its given me a lot of insight into what I was eating and when, which enabled me to break some bad habits.
No diet is magic. The idea that you can lose weight without ever feeling hungry is, IMHO, unrealistic. There has to be a calorie defecit. SW does give a reasonable framework but you have to think about exactly how much you are eating too.
I think the free foods thing works on the principle that you won't actually eat excessive amounts of them as they are not actually that appealing in their "plain" form. But that doesn't work for everyone and you might need to also weigh/reduce the quantity of some free foods .Obviously if you eat large quantities of pasta, rice, potato etc then there is a lot of calories there and you won't lose weight. But if you fill up on lots of veg and plenty of protein rich foods with only a small amount of carbs then you will be more successful.
Basically it sounds like you are eating too much. 3 eggs is a lot. I wouldn't serve that much to my ravenous growing teenage boys. And lunch should be either pasta or potato not both. Ditto I would never serve lasagne with chips as there are already plenty of carbs in the lasagne. Soup would be a meal for me, not a snack.
I find the syns idea helpful because it helps me limit foods that I really like without totally banning them. For instance, I love chocolate digestive biscuits. 1 biscuit is 4 syns. Nowadays I can eat one and stop because I'm thinking about it in those terms, whereas before I would have eaten half the packet in one go. I think it depends on your mental approach to a degree. I haven't gone to meetings or even used the online community very much, but the structure and recording what I eat has made me plan meals better and think more . I guess I could have done the same for myself, and just written my meals in a notebook but I find the app useful and the fact that I am paying for it does motivate me to stick to it and I am seeing good results. It won't appeal to our work for everyone, but I think you need to give anything you try more than one week.
In a nutshell, yes, it does work if you also control your portions, but its not magic.

Havnt been to class in years but the golden message my consultant always said was - eat a wide variety of foods and everything in moderation.

You are supposed to have a third of your plate made of veg or salad. It's very much learning to eat until you are full and recognising those signals.

I did SW. Lost a bit of weight but it was a slog and I didn't keep it off. Didn't work for me long term but I know people who swear by it.

Same for me with WW. Lost two stone but as you say a slog. I stuck to it like grim death, never used that extra points allowance for socialising, exercised every day and never lost more than a pound a week after that first week - sometimes I’d maintain. And having worked that hard of course I couldn’t keep it off.

@Abbazed

It's free as in till you're full not stuffed. You need to eat three meals you're basically having 2 meals in one sitting.

Are you comfort eating? I'm not trying to be cruel. Trying to help.

Possibly, but comfort eating is the main problem for a lot of overweight people. That's why I thought SW would work as there is no weighing or measuring all these delicious free foods.

It's what's allowed.

Again OP (sorry for the multiple posts) this is classic. You sound almost like you think losing weight with slimming world is a question of following the rules and then being rewarded, like it's a video game or something.

@EveryThingWillBeWorthIt

I swear by SW but it's true it doesn't work for everyone. You food list in your OP is perfectly fine, are you having at least 10 syns per day? Trust me the plan doesn't work without them. I've lost 3.7st so it is definitely achievable but some weeks I didn't loose anything despite following the plan.

Where SW does fall down is that everything has a calorie content, so whilst you can technically eat as many potatoes as you want, they get round the counting aspect by making sure your plate is 1/3 full of speed and as PP have said you need to watch your portion size.

I'm obviously not sure how much you have to loose but if it's a relatively low amount it can take longer to come off. Try not to get disheartened, most people who are used to 'dieting' are used to quick fixes and SW isn't that, it's a lifestyle change, slow and steady wins the race

I need to eat more syns? Mind blown Thank you for your message, a lot of posters have made me out to be a right greedy cow.

It all sounds very complicated and common sense surely is needed here too. Jacket pot and pasta for lunch is absurd. Would people usually have this?
As previous posters have said, back to basics with calorie counting and exercise. It’s boring but that’s the thing that works and is sustainable long term.
Packets of pasta are full of salt btw too so really unhealthy from a blood pressure perspective. It may well be “allowed” but won’t do you any good in the long term.
Sensible eating needed rather than faddy diets. Good luck

@BumDiggyDiggyDiggyBumDiggyBum

I feel like you and I are similar OP, in that SW just wasn’t strict enough for me. All this free food, eat til your full bollocks just gave me free reign to binge on yummy pasta and potatoes. I’ve tried it about 6 times, it doesn’t work for everyone.

I’m now on cycle 2 of joe wicks plan. It was expensive to buy it, but it’s working for me. I lost 9lb and a load of inches in cycle 1. They calculate your macros for you and give you recipes and workouts, snacks etc. Ideal for someone who needs a strict plan, I’ve found. And I feel bloody amazing from it!

Ooh I will look in to that. Thank you and well done for feeling amazing and losing weight

I did slimming world last year, the focus for me was being weighed each week

Do they still tell you not to weigh yourself at home? I did SW years ago, and at that point we were told that we mustn't use our own scales because theirs were "much more accurate". Be that as it may, I did weigh myself at home from time to time - and according to my scales I had lost weight between one week and the next. But SW's scales reckoned I hadn't - even though I was wearing exactly the same clothes as when I'd weighed myself at home. That was the point at which I lost faith in SW.

@Midsommar

OP have you looked at the calories in the Pasta n sauces? Very high in cals, and carbs. Team that with a carb-loaded jacket potato and you're asking for trouble!! In my experience calorie counting is the only way to go for successful weight loss. I'm currently eating between 1300-1500 a day; it can be challenging especially around the time of your period when chocolate cravings kick in! But I've definitely noticed a difference. Good luck with the weight loss, you can do it girl!!

Thank you! Yes calorie counting is the future for me I think.

@insomniasucks Have you tried totting up the calories in your OP? I think that will help you understand why you're not losing weight. Please ignore the user who is saying that you're not eating enough "syns", eating more "syns" is just more calories and won't help you lose any weight

So just one portion of carbs is free a day?

No, but a wide variety of foods so not just constant pasta, potatoes and Quorn constantly.

@Sirzy

No it doesn’t, when you actually look at what they say properly nowhere does it say eat two meals at a time which is basically what your doing!

Your looking for excuses to keep eating massive amounts of food, doing so is fine but your not going to lose weight doing so.

Then SW need to be clearer.

I lost 2 stone in 8 months while 'going' to the SW meetings. I did not follow their plan exactly. I cut out all cheese, butter, chocolate, cakes and any fried or fatty food, and cut down on the amout I ate of everything else. The day before and day of the class I ate very little, mainly fruit and veg. But every friday night I had a treat of a fish and chip takeway.
The main incentive for me was for someone else to check my weight every week and not to have the humiliation of having my name called out as someone who had gained weight. So I did stick to 'my' plan.
The main thing with SW, WW etc is that they make their money from the members, if everyone who joined lost weight every week and then left they would not make a profit.
So the diets are planned so that they are either too boring or complicated to stick to. They know that if some food is 'free' people will eat more, and lets face it, the ones who go aren't good at eating small healthy meals.

It’s about finding the diet that works for you. Slimming world reduces your calories intake by reducing your fat content. I found my portions were massive on slimming world because the food isn’t satisfying- carbs don’t fill me. I cut sugar, reduced my carbs and upped my fat content. I eat much less but am fuller because a higher fat diet works for me.

@DressingGownofDoom

Thing I found about SW is i would be starving and stuff myself with loads of carbs because i wasn't getting enough fat and would just never be satisfied. My fitness pal is easier and cheaper.

Yes that sounds familiar.

You food list in your OP is perfectly fine, are you having at least 10 syns per day? Trust me the plan doesn't work without them.

What on earth? Isn't "syn" food things like cheese, wine and chocolate? I thought the 'syn' system was to help people limit their intake of these things without banning them, which would enable them to stick to the diet in the first place. No diet requires treats in order to work. Have I misunderstood?

I think SW does work for some people but not for others

Friend lost 5 stone doing SW. I put on 5lbs in my first week and I couldn’t even eat all it was saying I should eat, never mind the Free stuff.
I tried their ready meals so I knew exactly what I was eating and could only manage 1/2 a portion before feeling stuffed and bloated.

@greeneyedlulu

I've done slimming world and lost weight but then put all back on again. That daily food intake you have listed is a massive amount of food (cheesy pasta on a jacket potato?) for trying to lose weight. If you carry on with that daily intake you'll probably gain. You need to calorie control, probably 1500 a day for a week or so then drop down to 1200. Exercise too! Sorry to say but I've every trick in the bloody book and I'm only successful with calorie counting and exercising!! The only thing I found useful with sw is the weekly weigh in and cooking everything from scratch. Try Noom, been on that for 10 weeks and have lost 12lbs so far. You can eat what you like but you have to stick to a calorie budget each day.

I will look in to Noom. Thank you.

Saying "it's allowed" should not be a reason for ignoring the food knowledge that you likely already have. Surely you must know that that is a huge amount of food and it is very unlikely you will be in a calorie deficit?

@Pickles89

Why not just count calories? I've been watching what I eat since the start of lockdown and have lost nearly 2 stone. I have between 1200 and 1400 cals most days, not felt too hungry at all.

Well done on your weight loss

Haven't RTFT. But a few points:

1. Weight loss takes time. It's only been a week.
2. Women's weight fluctuates. I'm easily 2lbs heavier when I am due AF. Alcohol, too much sodium, dehydration also cause water weight spikes for me.
3. Syns are meaningless. How your typical day translates in to calories is the only thing that is relevant and will tell you the reality of your food consumption.
4. Once you have calculated 3, find a TDEE calculator online to work out how many calories you burn on average.

Weight loss is calories in < calories out.

And patience.

I was also suspicious of their scales. Some weeks almost all of us had stayed the same or gained weight, ( dispite what our own scales said) then the next week most of us had lost.
One of the local leaders was actually sacked for altering the scales.

@Ivalueloyaltyaboveallelse

What SlimmingWorld doesn’t teach you is portion control. They encourage you eat lots of foods they say are syn free.

True!

Then SW need to be clearer.

If you're having lasagne and chips or a roast and chips then are you 100% sure you are having 1/3 veg? That's a LOT of vegetables.