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! 😩

Of course it doesn’t work - it’s business model relies on a cycle of yo-yo dieting !

Exactly @BluntAndToThePoint80!

What is this free food sorcery?

OP have you added up the calories in the menu you stated? There must be over 2000 in it.

Three eggs? That's 210 calories alone. A jacket potato is about 240 for a small one. Quorn lasagne has cheese and milk, chips are a lot of calories for a tiny amount around 170 for a handful. It's easy to see why you're not losing weight. I've never done SW or WW so maybe the rules as such aren't very clear.

This is so depressing. The whole SW deal seems to be making eating food so complicated that it seems impossible to manage without paying a consultant to help you manage it.

All this shit about syns, cheese allowances, and endless artificial shit just takes you further away from understanding your own body and your relationship with what you put in it.

that's loads of food in one day if you want to lose weight. so many carbs and huge meals. I lost 10lb's on sw, didn't use many syns and was sparing with the free food.

Slimming World is shite!! That's way too much food.
How on earth can you eat that much.
Cut out carbs and exercise - this is coming from someone who has lost 5/6stone by cutting out carbs and smaller portions.
I went to SW for a few weeks, I simply couldn't eat that much food!

That's a lot of food! ! I'd put on weight eating that much. You need to understand what a slim person can actually eat and re-calibrate.

Does SW really advocate salty processed fake food like Pasta ‘n Sauce?! Ick. I can’t see how people would lose weight with rubbish like that advised.

@insomniasucks

I’ve been a SW member since April 2018. I didn’t have a massive amount to lose - a stone - BMI 26 at start. The consultant said at this point the eating plan relied on the eater naturally measuring smaller portion sizes thus carb calories would reduce. The ‘free food’ marketing is successful for people who have a large amount to lose. For my weight range, the plan is not a quick fix.

I’m following the eating plan but I am not liberal with my carb portions. I do have to be really focussed, but not hardcore, in order to lose 1/2lb a week, and when I do that I’m really pleased. I’ve not gone hungry and I am reinforcing healthy eating habits. I am not food obsessed. But I easily put weight back on when I revert back to old habits.

I like my group, and the lead. I find I get a lot from SW psychologically.

You need to cut down on the carbs and increase lean protein and free veg. My last consultant also said that women should cut down on their syns if they weren’t losing weight and also look at portion size. Even if pasta is free food, you wouldn’t normally eat an entire packet, or a whole chicken. She also said that it wouldn’t work for vegans, and some vegetarians would struggle with the diet.

OP come over to this thread:

Fuck, some serious dieting and princessing required http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weightlosss_chat/3938678-fuck-some-serious-dieting-and-princessing-required

It's a friendly and relaxed thread full of encouragement and support.

@enjoyingscience

This is so depressing. The whole SW deal seems to be making eating food so complicated that it seems impossible to manage without paying a consultant to help you manage it.

All this shit about syns, cheese allowances, and endless artificial shit just takes you further away from understanding your own body and your relationship with what you put in it.

Exactly.

Over eaters are drawn to the myth of SW that says you can continue with your bad habits, if you just switch around what you eat. Hence all the alarming 'free' foods and 'syns'.

I used to over-eat. I gained weight. BMI was 29. Years ago, (decades ago). I lost a huge amount of weight on Atkins. I continued to over-eat and thought I'd found the holy grail of how to lose weight and stuff myself silly at the same time. I got ill, stopped the diet, and because I hadn't realised that I had to eat less to lose weight, I regained it, and some.

I get that some of us want to eat loads of food and lose weight. But this won't happen. You can, however, eat enough food and lose weight.

I eat three meals a day, and probably around 1600 calories a day. And I maintain my weight loss of 4 stone, that was achieved by dropping to 1200 calories a day. I'm no longer losing at 1600 calories a day. This tells me that I eat enough for me. I'm active, tall, but late 50s. Some people my age, eat a lot more than I do, and they think they eat normal amounts. I know that if I ate like them, I would gain. I would definitely, without a shadow of a doubt gain weight if I adopted the SW method.

We're all different. But we often don't need as many calories as we think we do. A lot of people would lose weight at my calorie intake, so this shows that our intakes are different, but a lot of people, and I was one, think we need more calories than we do.

It's about cutting back on the processed foods, unhealthy fats, and increasing the salad/veg. It's about portion control. Cutting out sugar was key for me, and the refined carbs.

You don't have to pay to be told to do this - but you do have to expect to be hungry for a few weeks whilst you adjust. So what? So, at 4pm you're ready for your 6pm dinner...so, that's not a problem, accept it, and push through. Willpower! After a couple of weeks you'll be satisfied on three meals a day, that are portion controlled and healthy.
You won't obsess about syns and fry shite, and free foods and "healthy" extras. You won't recoil in horror from an avocado, and rush to the Muller Frights. A lot of people want the best of both worlds - loads of big meals, snacks and lose weight. SW rely on this - but it rarely works, because like I found out on Atkins, to be healthy and well, you need to adjust your food intake in a healthy way that allows all food groups, in the right amount for you.

@insomniasucks

But SW says you can eat as much free food as you like. So it's a con then?

You have to use some common sense though surely. You decided to have jacket potato and pasta in the same meal and you think a bowl of soup is a snack (could be if it was very thin soup I suppose).

A leader at a meeting I was at said the founder was a multi miillionaire as people kept coming back year after year. And hasn't she done well. Yes hasn't she just. There was a bit of a silence and then she quickly moved on.

If you really want to loose weight and keep it off, speak to a nutritionist. This one www.osborne-nutrition.co.uk/ is running a 6 week online course, it’s fascinating, all based on science and involves the whole body system. I’ve been following her advice for 5 weeks and I’ve lost 6kg. I can honestly say that it is the easiest “diet” I have ever used, mainly because it is just what I would normally eat with some small adjustments (no/low carb).

God your post brings back memories of sw op! Encouraging over eating and binging on 'syn free' stuff yet discouraging sandwiches from tesco and making your life more complex. Not at all healthy. From my experience diets dont work. When I tell myself I'm on a diet and restrict myself I binge. I currently have chocolate in the fridge and its stayed there for days because I've told myself if I want it I can have it and as it's not forbidden I've not fancied it really. I'm purposely not calorie counting or weighing as I get obsessed. I eat food when hungry stop when no longer hungry, and eat mainly home cooked stuff with plenty of fruit and veg, drink mainly water, but dont restrict myself. I'm actually finding my tastebuds change and am looking forward to carrot and hummus etc. I fancied dominos last night and told myself if I still want it then I can order one on Friday evening.

A better meal plan might be -

Egg on toast / porridge and berries / cereal etc with fruit

Wrap with chicken and salad / pasta salad / veggie fried rice/ crackers, cheese, chicken, hummus and veg / leftovers from previous evening

Home made lasagne/ pasta bake/ curry / stir fry/ chicken and rice / halloumi burger and sweet potato fries etc with appropriate sides, plenty of veg in the sauce.

I do think jacket potato and pasta is a bit ott and am surprised you thought to eat that. Also all the processed shite isnt good. Batchelors packet pasta is full of crap.

Snacks - cucumber and carrot with hummus, yogurt and fruit, etc. Dont make snacks too interesting they should be something 'boring' as if you snack on cake of course you'll want more! If you want chocolate or crisps etc have it as part of a meal, eg dessert after tea or similar.

a lot of the free/speed foods are high fibre and fibre makes you fun.

if every meal you apply the one third vegetables/speed foods as requested - then this will decrease your other foods on the plate.

no more than a third carbs on your plate

@heartsonacake

That’s because diets don’t work. They’re not healthy.

Exercise is the only healthy and safe way to lose weight and keep it off.

This is objectively untrue. Any expert will tell you that diet is the most important aspect of weight loss, and that exercise is there to underpin a healthy life.

OP- I think you might want to track calories as well, as it sounds like you've eaten around 2,000, which is most people's maintenance intake, not for weight loss.

I think (though I am not an expert) that different bodies respond to different things. My weightloss golden area is low-ish carb, 1300-1400 calories a day, walking for at least 40 minutes a day. I've got friends who can only drop weight if they're on 1200 a day, or who can get rid of 5lb in a week if they just eat brown pasta & pesto.

Basically I'm pretty sure that there's a lot about the interplay between our genetics and food that we don't understand, and maybe you need to shop around a bit.

I'm currently doing Noom (not very diligently) and have lost 8lb in six weeks, which isn't amazing but better than nothing. Might be worth a go? Get the free trial if you do do it.

So it isn't free food then? I'm an all or nothing kinda gal and can eat for England. To tell me I can eat as much of certain foods that I want is false advertising. I think I'm going to calorie count from now on. Exercise alone doesn't make you lose weight, like a previous poster said, it just makes you strong, it's a calorie deficit that's the key.

I'm not bashing SW at all, a lot of my friends rave about it, but I need more restrictions.

All or nothing is what keeps us in the cycle of dieting.

Please, do some reading around the psychology of weight loss and why diets don't work. Work out why you're overeating, find better ways, and heal your relationship with food and your body. ^Then; the weight loss can come naturally.

For me I was overeating because I was avoiding intense emotions, and sugar and dairy are addictive for me.
I still have sugar and dairy occasionally, but I build meals focused on foods that don't have them in, and I try to allow myself to feel tough feelings knowing that they'll pass. I'm not "there" 100% all the time, but I am much happier and healthier than before.

The only way to lose weight is to eat less calories than you burn. I'd recommend using mfp to track this and use a calorie calculate to find out your TDEE

@User56781234

I can't think of SW without remembering the old 'Things only people who've joined slimming clubs will know' list.

1. Group leader: "You can eat a whole bag of pasta if you need to.....but you won't be able to."

You: "I beg to fucking differ, Linda".

I'll see myself out

@tabulahrasa

“Eh? Aren't tomatoes, mushrooms and wilted spinach speed food?”

They are... but if they’re a third of your portion, then your original portion must have been 5 eggs to be left with 3.

I need an degree in maths I think what about the wholemeal toast on my plate?

@enjoyingscience

This is so depressing. The whole SW deal seems to be making eating food so complicated that it seems impossible to manage without paying a consultant to help you manage it.

All this shit about syns, cheese allowances, and endless artificial shit just takes you further away from understanding your own body and your relationship with what you put in it.

Totally agree.

@MrsSchadenfreude

You need to cut down on the carbs and increase lean protein and free veg. My last consultant also said that women should cut down on their syns if they weren’t losing weight and also look at portion size. Even if pasta is free food, you wouldn’t normally eat an entire packet, or a whole chicken. She also said that it wouldn’t work for vegans, and some vegetarians would struggle with the diet.

Ah that's interesting. I'm definitely going to cut carbs from now on.