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! 😩

The only way to lose weight is to eat less calories than you burn. is overly simplistic
It is generally correct. There may be a few confounding factors such as hormone levels inhibiting your ability to burn fat, your metabolism being higher or lower, your body reducing your metabolism and making you feel tired... but in general you need to expend more than you take in. There was a well publicised case of a man who lost weight by eating only 1800 daily calories of junk food. edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html

Exercise is the only healthy and safe way to lose weight and keep it off
There’s a well known saying “you can’t outrun your fork”. Diet is more important than exercise.

Way too many carbs in those meals IMO! I lost 3 stone a few years ago and kept it off by cutting down starchy carbs and upping the protein and veg. Walked a bit more though still don’t exercise as much as I should. I think SW works if you need that structure but definitely too many carbs!

@insomniasucks

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

No it's not a con.

I have lost 8 and a half stone with SW and with the exception of gaining weight during pregnancy, I've kept the weight off and it's been 3 years.

Foods are given a title of "free" meaning you can eat them without having to count, weigh or measure.
But you need to be sensible and eat to satisfy hunger, not over eat for the sake of it.

You also need to have 1/3 of your plate filled with speed foods at each meal(look in your book under fruit and veg for the S symbols)

This doesn't mean having a huge lasagne with jacket potato and adding a side salad,
It's not about having speed foods in addition to free foods, the aim is to replace free foods with speed thus naturally reducing your calorie intake.
Ie lasagne and extra salad instead of the potato.

If you're feeling hungry try adding some protein rich foods to your meals (look for foods with P symbols) these will keep you fuller for longer.

Realistically no one can eat unlimited amounts of food and not gaining weight.'
SW don't mention calories, but ultimately it's a calorie controlled diet.

If you follow the steps of 1/3 speed (replacing free food not as an addition)
Eating to satisfy hunger, 2xA & 1B (always weigh / measure when needed, plus 15syns (maybe more depending on start weight)
then you should be seeing losses.

But just to point out I have also had plenty of maintains before, they do happen, even on good weeks!!

Im 2 weeks in and have lost 7lb on SW

You eat a lot of potatoes! High in carbs so even without the oil can’t be ideal on a diet.

WW might suit you better op as you would need to weigh your rice and pasta and potatoes have a points value. I think it would give you much more clarity.

Here's my day today:

B Overnight oats with fat free yoghurt and raspberries

L Homemade tomato and balsamic soup with 4 ryvitas and laughing cow light

D Homemade schezuan turkey mince with brown rice.

If I want a snack later I'll have fat free yoghurt with fruit or a packet of hoola hoops puft.

I've never tried SW or WW or any of the paid diet plans, but I'm currently having a lot of success doing a mixture of 16:8 and calorie counting with MFP.

16:8 is intermittent fasting - so you eat all your food within an eight hour time slot (pick any period of time to suit your lifestyle - I do 9-5 as I have a very active job and need to eat regularly through the day, but many prefer 12-8). I'm mixing that with calorie counting - MFP has allocated me 1350 a day. I eat really well on that - my meals look something like this:

B - fruit and greek yoghurt with some honey. Coffee with milk.
L - normally a protein-filled sandwich on "thins" bread, with the rest of the plate being filled with raw veg - cucumber, tomatoes, red peppers, carrots etc. I have low fat cottage cheese as a "dip".
D - normally a hot meal. Something like veggies with couscous and pesto, or roasted sweet potato with mediterranean veg and some cheese. Tonight I'm having roasted vegetables (including potato for my carbs).

Drinks are either black coffee, green tea or water, with the odd can of Diet Coke thrown in. Snacks are pumpkin seeds, fresh fruit or something like homemade flapjack.

I never go to bed hungry. I walk a lot during the day (average of 5 miles a day at the moment, normally more when work is busy) and I've lost a stone and a half since the 21st of May. It's the only diet I've ever really stuck to and I don't struggle. If I fancy some chocolate or an ice-cream, I have it, and just cut down my portion sizes elsewhere.

It's worked amazingly for me and I've noticed a huge difference in the way my clothes fit too.

@ittakes2

You eat a lot of potatoes! High in carbs so even without the oil can’t be ideal on a diet.

I bloody love em

OP, apologies if you've already answered this, but how much weight to you need to lose to get to your ideal weight?

@SophieB100

OP, apologies if you've already answered this, but how much weight to you need to lose to get to your ideal weight?

About a stone.

Okay, thanks.
A stone isn't loads - usually the more weight you need to lose the easier it comes off.
Stick with your plan, but reduce the carbs, and watch the portion sizes.

So, a smaller helping of lasagne, no jacket, lots of veg.

I know you bloody love potatoes but halve the amount, and fill up the empty half of the portion with more veg!

Make changes like that to every meal and see how it goes. And ditch the pasta and sauce type stuff - have an apple and a bit of peanut butter (just a spoonful) instead.

Have a look at low G I type diets - I think the sugar spikes caused by the carbs are causing a lot of your hunger.

Good luck

You still need to exercise control when doing SW...you can't just eat everything in a day because it's syn free

You're eating a lot of food. How big are your potatoes?

You shouldn't be having air fried chips as a snack either.

You should be having at least 1/2 of your meals as veg or salad. I bet your lunch is more potato than salad and your dinner sounds very carb heavy too

I don't know whether SW is a con or not, never tried it, but that really does sound like a very large amount of food OP. I'm currently trying to lose weight - and it is working, slowly. I've tried all sorts of things in the past in terms of cutting carbs completely etc and various things have worked but what they had in common were simply that one way or another, I was eating fewer calories. Now I'm not cutting anything out, so can eat 'anything' I want to, but I am religiously logging it in MFP and sticking to 1,200-1,400 calories per day and it's working - it's slow, and it's not linear, weight on the scale can fluctuate quite a lot but the overall trend is steadily downwards. I think it really is that simple in terms of calories in / calories out - albeit simple is also far from easy. Because the sad truth is you need to be in a consistent calorie deficit. Which also means most likely being a bit hungry a fair amount of time. I think your appetite does start to adjust though as you get used to eating more appropriate portions. Very simple, and on face of it no need to pay anyone for fad diet plans, but not easy.

And I agree with the people who have said it's 80/20 diet and exercise - the only time for me that it was entirely exercise - I ate WHATEVER I wanted, and I mean it was a LOT, and I was still losing weight, was when I was doing a sport very competitively. I was genuinely training hard for 20+ hours per week. Ate like a horse, with no guilt whatsoever. But not a particularly sustainable lifestyle unless you're a professional athlete - not v compatible with full time job, family life etc. I enjoy exercise and work out prob 5 days a week - but usually only about 30 mins - so not really burning that many calories. This is more for fitness and strength and the majority of my deficit comes from just being very mindful of how much I'm eating.

Good luck OP, I hope you find something which works for you.

I know others have said but you are eating a crazy amount of carbs, you’re not eating anywhere near enough veg or protein.

If you put the supplied diet into myfitnesspal you’ll see how many calories you’re actually having.

To lose body fat you need to be in a calorie deficit, if you exercise do not then eat additional calories.

Here is an approximate calories
3 eggs 234
Tomatoes 20
Mushrooms 21
Bread 90
Breakfast total 365

Batchelors pasta thing 464
Jacket potato 200
Salad 60
Lunch total 724

Quorn lasagne 368
Syn free Chips 180
Total dinner 548

Fage yoghurt 73
Frozen fruit 35
Snack total 108

That gave a daily total of 1,745 calories.

I'm surprised it's not more calories! No milk/sugar for teas and coffees and any other calorie filled drinks?

Diets don't work op. Not long term.

Free food is all very well, but portion control is key: if you eat 2lbs of sweet corn, you gain the associated calories even if it is a speed food. Get rid of the bread and any oil. I dropped a stone in the past fortnight following SW rules.

Horrid cliché-don’t look on SW as a diet, think of it as a change of lifestyle. Lay off the carbs!

In my experience dieting as a vegetarian sucks. Low carbing is so much easier when you can eat filling protein. Chickpeas and quorn don't compare with fish fillets, lean steak, chicken etc.

OP I’m a vegetarian too, I’m also dairy free, I’m six foot, 96kg and around 11% body fat, I know women need higher body fat than men.

1. Measure your waist, thighs, upper arms etc.
2. I know almost everyone has said it, but fuck me I’m impressed by all those carbs!

Here is a typical day for me, I have type one diabetes so I know exactly what I eat a day.

Breakfast
4 scrambled eggs with 50g black beans

Lunch
Veg currie, cauliflower, onion, chic peas, aubergine, spinach, okra, peas, one roti (a bit like a wrap/thin pitta). I’m lazy so I use a balti paste and add things to it, the oil in the paste means no need to add any oil in the pan.

Dinner
Salad
Leaves, cucumber, toms, celery, radishes, spring onion, beetroot, carrot, courgette, one egg, avocado, seeds, nuts, one roti. Home made piri piri sauce. As this isn’t calorie dense its eaten from a mixing bowl, I’m also dead classy.

Snack
Protein shake made with water, banana and one oreo.

I’m on 2,100 today which is a little low, I normally aim for 2,550 per day. During the active rugby season I need an additional 1,000 a day to maintain my weight.

Keegan Hirst has a good calorie guide and recipe book, the meat/fish in recipes could be switched to quorn etc.

drive.google.com/file/d/1uUkw1WIe3YEyqcQvMd6OHa--_eVWRm0A/view

drive.google.com/file/d/1WPKxcyJ79CdM-LybXA9akE3opkIin6Ka/view

@tabulahrasa

“One of the local leaders was actually sacked for altering the scales.”

How? They’ve no controls on them...

It was a long time ago, and they calibrated them at each meeting according to what the floor surface was like i.e. wood , concrete or carpet etc. It was happening quite regularly everyone gaining for a few weeks and then after the leader giving them more ideas/recipies they all started loosing again. Some of them got together and checked their weight just before class in the chemists and complained to SW head office. They did a spot check and found they were wrong.

Controversial op but if you are feeling deprived on that diet and at those quantities you might want to consider weight loss surgery. Even old me before I lost nine stone would consider that to be a lot of food for a day.

Soup is a meal, your having it as a snack

Its pasta or a jacket potato, not both

3 eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms and bread for breakfast is alot.

• How about weetabix and a banana instead?

You have to much Fried food even with 'light fry spray'

Things like balsamic vinegar have alot of calories, all types of sauces do, especially the likes of mayo, if you are having that

Try lasagne and vegetables without the chips

Can you cut the 'snacks' completely?
Or snack on things like celery, carrott sticks and pepper chunks ?

I am VERY VERY over weight and just started last week to eat better and get my butt moving more

I've started with 15 minutes of warm up and 15 minutes of exercise , either circuit or boxcerise.... Iv cut all snacks completely, they are just not needed

Food makes me happy, but it has been getting silly for so long now

Don't have snacks in your house then you wont eat them, that's literally the only way i can do it....

Iv been doing something like :

Breakfast:
2 weetabix with Semi skimmed milk
Or 2 pieces of toast with Flora light butter

Lunch:
Grilled Cod or salmon (plain no breadcrumbs)
Plain white rice
Mix of vegetables
Or
2 plain grilled chicken breasts, cucember with weight watchers wraps with light mayo

Dinner:
A tuna or boiled egg salad

Try more vegetables and less frying and definitely less snacks

@Burpalot

Controversial op but if you are feeling deprived on that diet and at those quantities you might want to consider weight loss surgery. Even old me before I lost nine stone would consider that to be a lot of food for a day.

A bit extreme when I only need to lose a stone

Just saw your veggie....

Swap the meat for veggie alternatives

@insomniasucks

You only need to lose a stone?

Your only 1 stone over weight?
Christ, i would just try cut the snacks, eat better portion sizes and exercise abit.