To think that slimming world doesn't work?

[Waifwafer]

Many of my friends (including myself) have joined Slimming World over the years. There is a trend - they all lost quite a substantial amount of weight over a relatively short period of time. Kept it off for no more than six months, then ended up putting it all back on... Sometimes more.

Looking at the plan, it doesn't look like a sustainable, long term lifestyle and it doesn't even seem like a healthy way to lose weight. Viewing treats as "syns" seems dangerous. Encouraging in group for members to eat unlimited pasta is ludicrous. It's essentially a calorie deficit just like every other method of losing weight, but encourages members to view food in a negative way.

Also, the whole experience is based on the number on the scales, which may fluctuate week-on-week and not actually be anything to do with fat loss.

AIBU to think that Slimming World is all a big con and doesn't work on a long term basis?

It doesn't say "it's better for you"

It's saying that 2lt of diet coke has fewer calories than an avocado....

I’ve not read the whole thread, but I’ve been doing Noom. No good/bad/banned food. Just lots of psychology re your eating habits taught by daily lessons (5-7 minutes a day over a few months) a calorie goal and input system like MyFitnessPal. I’ve enjoyed it more than SW and WW

All these people misquoting and mis representing the plan are fascinating.

It's like saying that... People who drive cars dangerously mean that the driving license system is fundamentally flawed in its teaching.

When you learn to drive, you're told the rules, shown how to drive safely over a period of time... The "plan" works, you're told how to achieve success.

Bit then SOME drivers start jumping lights, or speeding, or don't indicate
..and OH NOOOOO, the driving lessons don't work... The laws are wrong....

🙄

There is a massive amount of missing the point going on here.

If it were easy to lose weight on you own then we would all be doing it wouldn't we?But that doesn't happen does it because we lack will power, nice food is plentiful, and a host of other reasons.

SW and most diets do work if you stick to them, change your long term habits and very importantly because of the group motivational aspect. SW also stands out because there is so much free food which keeps hunger at bay and hunger is a dieter's main enemy.

Yes they are huge commercial giants out to make profits. And you might question the wisdom of encouraging endless muller lights etc.

But for all of you criticising, what do you suggest when very few people are successful on their own?

It works, for a tiny tiny minority that have the time and discipline to follow it to the letter.

They make their money out of the very vast majority that make little progress or fail.

@GrandmasCat

It works, for a tiny tiny minority that have the time and discipline to follow it to the letter.

They make their money out of the very vast majority that make little progress or fail.

True.

Same as WW etc.

Doesn't mean the plan doesn't work...

@Coffeeenow you articulate what I think. Plus SW's cohort are people who park a alt have always struggled with weight and poor habits so one could argue, most are doomed to fail anyway.

All diets work on the premise that you change your diet and or life style permanently. If you lose weight and then go back to eating like you were prior to losing the weight then of course you will gain it all back.

Unfortunately I speak from experience having done most diets including - SW, Atkins, WW, lighter life, exante to name a few.

Back to the drawing board again for me this year......🙈🙈

@EishetChayil

It baffles me that people still pay good money for this. There's so much free advice online.

This. I don’t know why anyone needs slimming world or WW these days. Other than for moral support. No one needs to pay for information on how to eat a balanced diet. It’s all over the internet.

I did SW in 2015, hit my target weight and then promptly put it all back on.

It does work so long as you stick with the plan. FWIW I don’t like the taste of sweeteners so Hi Fi bars and Muller Lights weren’t for me. I also found it hard to trust the system when I could eat a whole raw banana on Free but if I mashed it with a fork it had syns. And working full time with two small children I found it hard to cook from scratch every single night.

All the people I know who have done it lost the weight successfully then regained it all again because it wasn't sustainable long term.
Apparently it's quite expensive and time consuming if nothing else.
I've never tried it, instead preferring the cheaper and less time consuming method of fasting.

YANBU. I bit my tongue the other day when a relative said they were going back to Slimming World after Christmas because they lost a load of weight on it a few years ago before putting it all back on again, ‘so we know it works’.

Depends on your definition of ‘works’ of course, and if all you want is a short term fix then it does indeed ‘work’ but very very few people keep it off long term, and it often screws up people’s relationships with food in the process which means they struggle even more with their weight long-term, as well as struggling with their body image because they’ve briefly had a taste of where their weight ‘should’ be. That was my own experience with doing WW in my early 20s, it was incredibly damaging to my body image and my relationship with food and I’m still wrestling with it a decade later.

Noom, Slimming World, WW etc etc etc. All of these will only work while you're sticking to them which will always become impossible in the long run. There's a lot of arguing which one is better but they're all the same.
Noom (or whatever) will work for you NOW because you are sticking to it NOW. When you stop, which you will, it will stop working.
The only way is to find your own way of healthy eating that fits in with your life & a form of exercise you enjoy & do it 80% of the time.

My SIL does it regularly. She's a intelligent woman, but keeps returning to SW because 'it worked before'. It's so, so hard to get out of that mindset and that suits SW just fine.

SIL's sister has been very rude to her about it over the years. I remember SIL coming into the living room and sitting down with a huge plate of pasta with sauce. About 15 minutes later, she returned with another enormous plate. Her sister started laughing and said 'Fuck me, is this deja vu or did somebody put me in a time machine?' It was rude and a bit funny of her, but she had a point. On what other diet could the rules be interpreted to suggest that (huge) second helpings of pasta was ok? Weirdly, SIL did lose weight (obviously I don't know the plan well enough to see where the essential calorie deficit comes in because I'm not prepared to pay for the privilege), but the diet was seemingly unsustainable and she put it back on. This has happened multiple times. Still withal, I've had my head turned by the idea of Slimming World as when you put on weight and feel desperate, you'll try anything.

Most people will put on weight if they deviate from their diet.

I mean, ALL diets work if you follow them to the letter and never stop. I guess the real issue is whether the plan (whatever it may be) is realistically possible in the longer term...

But any diet which creates a calorie deficit will "work" whilst you're on it, and "fail" when you go back to the old habit which made you put on weight in the first place! But it's not a failure of the plan when you out weight back on when you're NOT following any more - how mad is that thinking??

But yes, any of them will only work for you long term if you can realistically stay on them long term - whether that is the plan itself being realistic (and it sounds like SW can be, although depends on interpretation), or whether it isn't realistic for you personally.

It's like a merry go round. You stick to plan, you lose weight, you stop, you put weight back on. So you join again, rinse repeat. There's a reason that it's such a good business model but people have to ask themselves why they have to return to slimming world so many times. The plan does work but for the vast majority of people it's not a sustainable way or living.

I lost a lot of weight with SW then put it all back on again. The next time I chose to lose weight I hired a coach who designed me a personalised plan that I was able to stick to and continue to do so. It's about finding diet and lifestyle changes that are going to be achievable long term for you. Not a one size fits all fad diet that you will never stick with long term.

Aside from that it's really problematic to have a bunch of women sat around clapping for one another when they have lost 5lb because they've had a stomach bug all week. It's not a positive or healthy way to live. It is too focused on numbers on scales and not the several other factors that can make weight deviate from week to week. I no longer weigh myself but I do take measurements, recognise the way I feel in terms of strength/mood and keep progress pics. It's not all about the numbers.

@00100001

It doesn't say "it's better for you"

It's saying that 2lt of diet coke has fewer calories than an avocado....

It literally says that Diet Coke is “free” and an avocado is a sin.

@GirlInACountrySong

why just single out slimming world? that stupid macro counting thing,weightwatchers,shakes....all as bad

what about BIWI's LC bootcamps?

What about BIWI's bootcamps, @GirlInACountrySong?!

@SirChenjins

It’s like every single weight loss or lifestyle plan - as soon as you stop it you put the weight back on. Quite why SW is singled out I don’t know.

You are not encouraged to eat unlimited pasta, either by the group leaders or by the SW pack. If you read the info careful and follow it it’s actually a very sensible approach - lots of whole fruit, veg and protein, some pasta, rice, etc, limited processed carbs like bread, limited fat and dairy. Syns just are a way of thinking about what you’re eating over and above your daily intake.

It worked for me and reset my thinking around what I was eating. Counting calories was far too much of a faff for me, so I didn’t do it - but I wouldn’t knock it or any of the other approaches. If you’re prepared to stick at something sensible and follow it properly then great - the only person putting the food in your mouth is you.

This. I have an Instagram that I use for inspiration and the amount of people who have "switched to calorie counting because SW is awful" and then started eating awfully is crazy.

I even fell for it. If left to my own devices I won't eat healthily, I'll eat my calories and lose weight but it'll be junk. That's why I like slimming world, it does encourage healthy eating.
Any diet is going to be hard and most likely challenging long term. Especially since the kind of people who go to weight loss groups (like me) probably have deep rooted emotional issues or reasons why they find weight loss hard to maintain.
Slimming world has recently started focussing more on mindset.

I actually think weight watchers is more damaging but nobody seems to pick up on that.

There is a trend - they all lost quite a substantial amount of weight over a relatively short period of time. Kept it off for no more than six months, then ended up putting it all back on... Sometimes more.

Was the weight gain when you stopped following the plan by any chance? Because that will happen with any diet or lifestyle change if you don't stick to it. But it's far easier to blame something like a diet plan/SW than yourself!

Any 'diet' plan only works when you follow it. My DH does SW, he's kept the weight off for over a year now and as a previous poster said, goes to the meetings free weekly. He's kept the weight off because he's stuck to the plan.

Well, no "diet" works long term unless you address the reasons for the weight gain in the first place, and why people fall off the wagon. What are the triggers to overeating and how to develop life-long healthier habits. eg do you (generic "you") recognise the feelings of hunger and satiety, and do you carry on eating when full? If you do, then why? Is it comfort, boredom, habit, greed, etc? Recognising which it is and looking at other ways to manage those feelings without reaching for the food is a vital start of the weigh loss plan. Keeping a food and mood diary can be very enlightening.

When I started at SlimmingWorld I was convinced it wouldn't work. I only went because the GP insisted I do that as part of the path toward gastric surgery.

I went along and followed the rules, because I am a rule follower. And to my shock, lost weight. Lots of weight.

I discovered that despite being pretty knowledgeable about nutrition, the amount of bread I thought I could eat was way off.

I miss avocado and nuts and seeds- of course I do- and if I was more virtuous I'd spend my calorie dense food allowance (syns) on them. But I'm not, so I spend it on crisps, biscuits and chocolate.

I can eat plenty of low density calorie foods, lots of fruit, veg and lean protein.
I have to count treat foods, bread and fatty foods. It's pretty straightforward.

I'll always have to count, to some extent, but I hope over time it will become a more automated process.

For those that are saying this thread is missing the point and that anyone will put weight back on if you deviate from the plan:

The point I'm trying to make is that SW doesn't seem like a sustainable lifestyle choice, thus being almost impossible to stick to long term. Viewing foods as "syns", congratulating members who ha lost the most weight that week (even if it's actually 5lb in water weight or from a tummy bug rather than actual fat loss) and promoting low calorie but synthetically enhanced foods over calorie-dense nutritious food all points to this:

Short term, rapid weight loss, possibly a bad relationship with certain food groups and teaching members to celebrate the number on the scales, which might actually mean nothing.

Eating less, moving more and taking measurements seems much more sustainable long term... And it's free!

@Waifwafer your mantra of moving more and eating less is fine for perfect individuals. Mia Tod us aren't, and need support or cajoling or rules. I don't agree with everything SW encourages. For me it's far too meaty fir a start! But it also encourages the consumption of more veg, fewer carbs with empty calories, and less fat. Of course all those things are fine in moderation but the people who go to SW don't eat in moderation on the whole.
So yes I'd ageee if you're a perfect human being you can do it yourself. But frankly if you're that person you're less likely to need to adjust your diet in the first place!