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! 😩

are you having any drinks at the weekend? are you having your 2 plus litres of water each day?

Also are you exercising? even a short walk each day

@tabulahrasa

“If it worked for any significant percentage, by which I meant people lost the weight permanently, there wouldn’t dnt be any overweight people left!!!“

I think you underestimate how many overweight people there are...

Maybe, but my point (badly worded) is that the vast majority of them are not on their ‘first ever diet’ If the first diet you used worked permanently , there wouldn’t be that number.

Like others have said though, ‘diet’ has become a word used for a short term spell to reduce weight with prescriptive rules that bear no resemblance to how you live usually. With a ‘not on a diet’ presumption that you can go back to eating how you used to.
The word ‘diet’ ought to mean ‘what I can eat, enjoy and stick to permanently for life while still maintaining a healthy weight

barbaraofseville You make a good point. I only paid for 8 months and have had nearly a years membership for free. Several in my group are target members. If you treat it as a diet and stop and go back to eating family bags of crisps and choc of course weight will go back on. I still follow plan now I’m 5 stone lighter because It’s normal healthy food. I may have a piece of cake etc at weekend to maintain. There’s no obligation to eat weird processed food or odd combinations. If you look on SlimmingWorld website there’s a free veggie and meat eaters 7 day sample plan. The veggie one has Moroccan stew, veggie risotto, south Indian vegetable curry and a sweet potato, spinach & red pepper tortilla. All look tasty and appealing to me, nothing like the processed Quorn and packet pasta OP has chosen to eat.

“Maybe, but my point (badly worded) is that the vast majority of them are not on their ‘first ever diet’
If the first diet you used worked permanently , there wouldn’t be that number.”

64.3 % of adults in England are classed as overweight... so widened to adults in the U.K. that’s about 33 and a half million people.

If every single current slimming world member reached a healthy BMI every year and stayed there forever and no children ever grew up to be overweight it’d still be 37 years before they ran out of members.

So, yes even without people regaining weight, there’s still huge numbers of people.

Slimming world stats are pretty much the same as any other way of losing weight in terms of longterm success.

There really isn’t any magic way of losing weight that’s more successful on a population level - the key thing is for individuals to find the way that suits them the best longterm... until we manage to fix what’s going on with society to create that issue to start with anyway.

I lost 4 stone and I can eat like a horse ;I don’t have an off switch) however you eat to ‘satisfy your hunger’ so not ramming your face with free food.

Average day for me:
Breakfast-veggie omelette and a piece of fruit or porridge from heb and fruit.
Lunch:ham or chicken with salad (salad consists of lettuce tomatoes, hard boiled egg, cucumber, radish, Pickled onions, beetroot and a teaspoon of coleslaw)
Dinner: mug of syn free soup, grilled meat or fish and 1/2 plate of steamed vegetables.
Snacks:whatever i had enough syns for.

until we manage to fix what’s going on with society to create that issue to start with anyway.

My outlook on this prospect is very bleak. Mammals are, broadly speaking, evolutionarily conditioned to consume whatever they can find to eat, and that's compounded by the massive amount of money in devising new and exciting means to hit our brains'/bodies' pleasure centres with food, making it addictive and indulgent even for those people who do seem to have a natural "off button". I don't see any effective social solution to overcome the programming, it's just too powerful, and I don't see any likelihood of the food industry becoming less motivated to make more and more delicious and addictive types of junk food. I've no idea how it ends.

FUCKING HELL OP! What did you eat before if that's your diet? 🤔

I've been doing SW on and off for years and have lost over three stone. Sometimes I go to group week in week out and lose nothing. It's very demoralising at times. Two things:

1. I tend to be complacent and not count or weigh everything I eat, just guessing.

1. I might not always lose weight each week, but the thing is, I don't put it on either. The thought of the weekly weigh in makes me think twice about what I eat. So at least i am maintaining.

Then when I get fed up of it all and take a break for a few weeks...boom, 10 pounds back on before I know it. This has happened in lockdown - I just can't help myself, I like nice food too much!

Now I really need to get back to group and start losing those pounds. Shame they're being a bit slow in reopening.

So the message is stick with it. A small loss is better than a big gain. And follow the plan properly.

Hey OP I saw your note about struggling with balanced meals as a vegetarian - I have just bought Joe Wickes's lean in 15 veggie cookbook which is full of great ideas - should be online, too.

I personally only see calories if I calorie count - I am really surprised at SW's list of 'free foods'. Too much of anything, be it pasta, eggs or even veggies will lead to weight gain.

Duh sorry - only see progress if I count calories!

That's a lot of calories , the pasta thing is 500 cals on its own . Slimming world is trying to encourage you to make healthy choices . Plus it's only been a week . Drink loads of water and try to eat less food overall .

I’m sceptical about sw and ww and all the others
Surely it’s in their interest to keep you coming back every week and paying up If it worked they’d loose their customer base

Anyway op. Loads of veg protein and water is the answer. Cut the high carb high calorie foods out
And exercise

@QuimReaper

until we manage to fix what’s going on with society to create that issue to start with anyway.

My outlook on this prospect is very bleak. Mammals are, broadly speaking, evolutionarily conditioned to consume whatever they can find to eat, and that's compounded by the massive amount of money in devising new and exciting means to hit our brains'/bodies' pleasure centres with food, making it addictive and indulgent even for those people who do seem to have a natural "off button". I don't see any effective social solution to overcome the programming, it's just too powerful, and I don't see any likelihood of the food industry becoming less motivated to make more and more delicious and addictive types of junk food. I've no idea how it ends.

I agree with this.

I’ve calorie counted for about 7 years. Not obsessively, but it’s important to be aware of how much your body actually needs compared to what you are consuming.

SW doesn’t seem to teach an understanding of fuelling your body for nutrition and performance.

“SW doesn’t seem to teach an understanding of fuelling your body for nutrition and performance.”

It does though - enough? Maybe, maybe not...

It’s hard to tell for me because obviously you come to things with your own knowledge.

The problem is that people join it and then do their own version of it and ignore the bits they don’t like, then get annoyed when it’s not doing what they want it to.

For me it works, it has enough structure that I’m not relying purely on my own willpower (I have very little, lol) but isn’t so controlled that I get obsessive, calorie counting makes me very obsessive.

That’s not to say it suits everybody equally, but it’s not a terrible plan in itself.

Hi OP,

Just wanted to chime in with my pennies worth.

I lost weight years ago with SW, then just gave up and gained all of it back and more (my doing though, not SW fault at all).
It is primarily based on a very outdated low-fat way of eating. Fat is good for us, we need it to keep our bodies healthy and is satiating so helps us to feel satisfied after a meal.

I have started losing weight again and I'm enjoying butter, olive oil etc.. as well as animal fats. But it is in measured amounts, for example if I am frying something I only use half a tablespoon of oil or butter.

I limit the amount of processed food I eat, they key for me is choosing wholefoods, foods of the earth and the best quality I can afford.

Pasta is a processed food so I don't eat that often at all but I do like rice, lentils, chickpeas (these are lush in curries). And potatoes. There is nothing wrong at all with potatoes, they are a wholefood and are good for you. Obviously don't eat like 4 in a day but there is no need to avoid them at all.

Hope you don't mind but I have made some adjustments to the days food you shared based on how I might eat it:

Breakfast: 3 eggs scrambled, tomatoes and mushrooms fried in olive oil or good quality, organic block butter. If you still want your slice of toast just have 2 eggs to compensate? PS: Apart from the frylight (which I detest) there was nothing wrong with this breakfast AT ALL
much better that bloody Weetabix that someone suggested!!

Lunch: Jacket potato (try sweet potato for extra fibre) and a huge salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, beetroot, onions) balsamic vinegar. Chuck in some olives or nuts maybe for some good fats and protein.

Dinner: Quorn lasagne with cheddar cheese and salad or Quorn curry and rice, or jacket potato with salad (again get some goods fats in there, make a dressing with olive oil, mustard and lemon juice), or roast Quorn dinner potatoes and loads of steamed vegetables.

Snacks: Fruit, yoghurt with frozen fruit. An oatcake with a tablespoon of full fat greek yoghurt and blueberries on top is very nice. You could dip some apple slices in a couple spoons of peanut butter (the proper stuff that is made with only peanuts though, not sunpat shite)

Sorry that is soooo long

@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! 😩

You’re eating shit loads, no wonder you’re not losing weight. SW isn’t a magic formula, if I ate all that I’d be sick and put weight on.

No such thing as a “syn” either. Calories is the word you’re looking for.

3 scrambled eggs with toast?? Too much
A whole packet of pasta with a jacket potato?? Far too much.

SW is a cult. They lie to you. No food is “free” of calories.

If you can't loose weight on SW, your doing it wrong.
Don't care if you think you're doing it right, if your not loosing weight you're doing it wrong.

I used it to get from 18st to 13st. At my peak was loosing 6lbs per week.
So was my OH

I just don't see how eating unlimited amounts of pasta and potatoes can possibly lead to weight loss.

@KatherineParr4

I just don't see how eating unlimited amounts of pasta and potatoes can possibly lead to weight loss.

Well lots of us on this thread are proof that it does work so.....

It does. I am lost 4st in a short period of time doing just that. But, unless you carry on forever, it goes straight back on and you're still greedy and unhealthy! I really really despise the way they sell it and deliver it but no denying it works short term!

I just don't see how eating unlimited amounts of pasta and potatoes can possibly lead to weight loss.

I think it is true for people who are very overweight and have diets where they eat large amounts of processed food, chocolate, crisps, biscuits etc which don't really fill you up but if you ate the same amount of calories in potatoes it would fill you up much quicker and for longer, unlike processed stuff.
It definitely doesn't work for most people though and I think that's part of the reason some people put the weight back on after SW.

It's a money making racket built on really poor nutritionally advice.,

If someone could explain how foods can be syn-free, I'd really appreciate it......except no-one can actually do that because it’s made up nonsense. SW ready-meals are syn-free, yet supermarket ready meals have LESS calories and fat yet have loads of syns 😂 Ok then.
Calories are calories....
SW seems to make it all so complicated.
And even though some people have been on it for years (but never manage to stick to it for more than a few months at a time) they defend it to the death. It’s like a cult.

I know I'm late to the thread and no, I haven't read it all. Nor have I read all the OPs replies yet (I'm on android app so no new feature for me sadly). The thing about free food being unlimited is that SW don't really explain that it's only unlimited provided you also have the 3rd speed with it. It's not unlimited if you just have potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. Saying that, I also know people who rarely eat veg but have lost a decent amount on SW. Some things don't work for everyone - not necessarily because the plan doesn't work but because you aren't following it 100% or you aren't reasonable with portion sizes. You do have to be responsible for yourself in regards to that. I personally lost over 5 stone on SW and have found it easy to keep off - it's not a quick diet - it's prompted a major mindset change for me in figuring out what is a normal amount to eat and what really isn't but is common (like share bags of sweets or crisps in one go).

twilight they are also revolting!
Yes, it's all a huge marketing con but, when people lose 9lbs in week one, you can see why they go back.
I need someone to recalibrate my brain! Or wire my jaw.