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! 😩

Slimming world only works short term. If you look at their recipes there's a lot of sweeteners & fry light which is just artificial crap going into your body which will mess with your guts & cause you to gain weight in the future. There's no fat in the plan which your body needs. It's a business, they need people like us to keep coming back. I've yet to meet someone who has lost weight with any of the diet clubs & kept it off long term. I have joined it a few times to try lose weight quickly for a holiday or an occasion but I think I'm doing more harm to myself. I'm decided to quit SW for good & try do it the healthy way. It's hard doing it without the support of a group though.

Of course it isn’t “free” it has calories in it!. No disrespect but that is a massive amount of food in a day, I’d put weight on eating all that. The caveat of it being “free” is eat till you feel full, not till you feel sick. A bowl of something like 85g of pasta with tomato and herb sauce is like 300 calories so if you’re eating that plus your normal amount for a lunch, it’s way over.

If it is only a week it is early days, it can work but takes time do not br be disheartened.
My Dsis lost 5 stone with slimming world, she stuck with the rules for a few month's then started making less fussy preparation meal lots of veg, her appetite and hunger levels completely changed that was 6 years ago she is still a 10 she was obese since childhood.

Calorie count instead.

Go use a TDEE calculator to get your maintenance calories and then take off 500 to get your calorie amount for the day. This will be a 1kb a week weigh loss which is much more sustainable

Give people like James Smith a follow on Facebook. he’s very good at stripping back all the noise to the bare (and sometimes frank) truth

I did ww and lost 3 stone by changing eating habits but also exercising. Exercise was key for me but since lockdown I've not been able to leave the house (classed as extremely vulnerable) and I've put alot back on. I have started to follow my ww plan again properly though. Sw didn't work for me at all though i gained 6lb

It worked for me, in the sense that when I was on it I lost weight.

The fact that I’m no longer on it and the weight is back is a broader indictment of diets, though.

I did slimming world and lost 2 stone but it all went on again.
It’s portion sizes which are the main problem. Also it’s low fat which isn’t great. If you look at the pre packed SW meals they are massive. Also very carb heavy. Yes, they limit bread but not pasta and potatoes. Also your 15 syns a day is equivalent of 300 cals which could easily be eaten as junk.

DH and I are losing weight at the moment and all we’ve done is cut our junk snacking completely and restricted portions depending on what we’re eating. It’s going well.

How much water did you drink op? And did you log syns correctly?

I find that Slimming world is very high in carbs

Only if you choose to eat that way. An omelette and salad, fish and vegetables or curry on cauliflower rice are all SW friendly meals, but low carb.

Drinking plenty of water, being mindful and having everything in moderation and exercise is the only way to lose weight for me anyway

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

Sort of. If you take in more calories than you expend, you'll gain weight, and it's perfectly possible to do that even with "free" food. There is no such thing as calorie-free food!

And I agree with PPs - your sample day is a lot of food, and I'm a fat, greedy bastard, so if it seems a lot to me, it probably is.

SW didn't work for me, either. When I was doing it, there was a massive glut of raspberries and they were dirt cheap, plus some of my neighbours who have allotments were giving them away. For two weeks I practically lived on raspberries, which were "free", and one week I actually gained a pound.

What works for me is cutting out a meal. Since I've been WFH, I've only been having 2 meals most days. I have 2 slices of toast with butter and Marmite or honey around 10.30-11 ish, and then an early dinner/late lunch around 4 (I finish at 2.30 and DP is on flexitime, so starts and finishes early). We've been having perfectly normal dinners: steak and chips, pasta, casseroles, roasts, pies etc, and I've lost 8 or 9 pounds.

I've lost almost a stone. I've been doing a lot of gardening too, and have dropped a size in trousers, and am noticeably less blubbery around my middle. (I should stress that this was pretty serious gardening - digging, ripping out ivy and stuff, not genteel, ladylike deadheading and weeding. The digging especially seems to tone my thunderthighs and fat arse).

The only other thing that has worked for me is 5:2 - normal but sensible eating 5 days a week, and very low calorie intake on the other two. That took off 10 lbs in a month, but didn't make as much difference to my size as 2 meals a day plus digging!

I think your eating too much. If your planning on having a heavy lunch then you need to have a smaller breakfast. Having that huge amount of carbs everyday is doing you no favours. I struggle with slimming world because I have zero portion control and therefore have tiny losses. Instead of having soup as a snack, have it as a much (lunch). Your lunch example above says that you've had a pasta sachet AND jacket potato, you only need one of these things, not both!

Just try cutting down a bit this week and see how you get on. Good luck!

It does work, are you telling me that you had no Syns at all? Other than 2.5? i think you will find that yoghurt may have some Syns. Also portion size does matter, it may be free meat for instance but you shouldn’t be eating shedloads. You need far more speed food, lots of veg etc

The roast dinner, did you have gravy? That’s normally a syn. Some quorum has a syn value n

Why not follow the meal plans they provide for a week and see how you get on

@LunaNorth

The fact that I’m no longer on it and the weight is back is a broader indictment of diets, though.

This is true. 'Diets' - pretty much any diet! - will work, while you're following it. If, when you reach your target and then simply revert to what you were eating before, then the weight will go back on again!

It's not the 'diet' that does that - it's people who don't understand that they have to shift their way of eating. If your WOE before the diet was what made you fat, then it's logical and obvious that reverting back to that WOE will undo all the weight loss achieved on the diet.

SW doesn't work for me, at all. I've got sensory issues around food and am a massive fruit and veg dodger. I'd gain with SW. My MIL however has lost 3 stone on it and kept it off by continuing with SW food 80% of the time for years.

I've just lost a stone in a month (3 more to go) by strictly counting calories, sticking to 1500 a day, walking lots (20000 steps a day) and taking Alli. Like someone said unthread, you can't outrun your fork (or outwalk it in my case). Calorie counting doesn't work for everyone but it does for me as I'm quite all
or nothing too.

I did SW for 3 weeks. I was miserable, I ended up eating things I would never normally eat (so many jacket potatoes, jam on toast) and avoided things I would love (fancy salads at cafes - couldn't work out the syns).

So I decided not to do that and did Couch to 10k instead. Back in my pre-pregnancy jeans.

I found it works and always lost a lot of weight quickly. You can have big portions but your breakfast and lunch alone would be around 1000 calories.

Slimming World is not a 'con'. I lost 4 stone on the plan very easily and have kept it off for over 5 years. Most people at the group I went to, me included, had huge losses on the first week. Are you eating too many syns without realising it perhaps? I'd recommend eating your evening meal as a SW SP style meal with no carbs.

My brother in law lost a lot of weight c. 10 years ago and has kept it off by recognising that he was a sugar addict and cutting out all refined sugar. He's really strict with himself, like an alcoholic who knows just one drink and it's game over. He still loves food though, has lots of bread and cheese! He's also become a cyclist.

Although I agree with those who say exercise doesn't burn enough calories to help with weightloss on it's own, I do think it's an important factor. If you exercise seriously, you become interested in eating properly to fuel the exercise and while you're out on the bike etc, you're not on the sofa with crisps!

It's as much as you need, not as much as you want. And you have to use your head a bit. Yes potatoes are free, but for example, eating 8 in one sitting is no good for anybody.

I'll admit I don't know anything about SW but from the meals you have posted, that looks to be about 6 or 7 meals worth of food in one day. I think your portions may be way to big.

3 eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, toast. Swap to 1 or 2 eggs and then choose 2 of these items rather than all 4.

Pasta or potato or salad. Choose one of these not all 3.

Lasagna with a small salad. Chips not necessary. Small portion of curry with rice.

Soup is a meal on its own, not a snack. As a meal soup on its own is fine, doesn't require a ton of veg with it.

I did slimming world and lost 1.5 stones but it was gradual. 1-2 pounds a week. With any diet there is no secret - eat less; move more.

Cut down on fatty foods; increase veg.

It sounds like too much food. Listen to your own body

As everyone else is saying.

Also, you say your using an airfryer? Are you sure that's allowed? When I did it years ago it was a few sprays of frylight on your cut up potato to make chips.

I don't do SW but I find that when I follow my diet I don't lose anything week 1 as my body is like WTF? and then week 2 I drop a few kilos.