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?

@ivykaty44

However, it never addressed my obsessive eating habits

Does it say that on the tin?

It promotes it. No weighing or measuring. Repeated at every newbie session. For most over-eaters it's why they choose it. It encourages it. It's designed for people like me. It's not healthy. But it is a business model that keeps you paying out and disguisesitself as health focussed.

It doesn't work long term because it's not sustainable. I managed it for about 2 months before I got fed up.

In my experience the easiest, safest way to lose weight is to focus on 1) being in a calorie deficit (burn more than you consume) 2) aim to get your macros right (which involves more than likely decreasing fat/carbs and increasing protein in your daily diet and 3) incorporating healthy consistent exercise into your daily routine, and making sure it's something you enjoy and want to commit to (for me it's dance workouts or walking workouts) and also to include some form of strength training whether it's with a fitness band or body weight exercises. The weight loss is slow but consistent doing it this way and more than likely to stay off long term.

The problem I have with it is it works when you’re on it, but you can’t half-ass it as you can with some other diets. For example, if I’m calorie counting, I might have a 350 calorie lunch, then at four pm lose my shit and eat half a packet of biscuits. This is bad news but on SW it’s particularly catastrophic, because instead of my calorie controlled 350 lunch, I had a wildly uncontrolled, enormous bowl of pasta containing possibly 750 calories and THEN my biscuit consumption, after which I will tell myself I am back in the straight and narrow....which might mean a 850 calorie dinner, consisting mostly of (‘Free’)potatoes and (‘free’) baked beans, whereas in my calorie-controlled diet I might have a 400 calorie dinner. Yes, I’ve crammed half a packet of jammy dodgers into my mouth in both scenarios, but with SW there’s no reining things in.

You either do SW or you don’t. I have never gained weight so swiftly as I did when half-doing SW.

Was the only thing that worled for my mum.

She started in 2012...is still at or below her target weight 10 years later. Only went to the meetings til she hit her target and has carried on eating that way since.

Guess it works for some,not for others.

Worked*

MeredithGreyishblue

Where does SW say it address obsessive eating habits?

it may well promote "health eating habits - thats very different from promoting "addressing peoples obsessive eating habits"

It does work ! You can't go back to over eating when you reach goal though .. !!
I lost two stone last year and have kept it off by keeping my calories down and exercise up!

@ivykaty44

MeredithGreyishblue

Where does SW say it address obsessive eating habits?

it may well promote "health eating habits - thats very different from promoting "addressing peoples obsessive eating habits"

It's in their marketing! They claim to have a whole system designed to help, called IMAGE. I wonder how many SW customers have heard of it, let alone been helped by it? Because it sounds like it's way above the average team leader's qualifications.

www.slimmingworld.co.uk/health/how-sw-works/behavioural-change.aspx

Sooo expensive and many of the people buying it don't seem to be losing weight. Losing lots of pounds but not the pounds they want to lose

I followed a chap on SM for a while who lost 16.5 stone on SW, only to put it all back on.

I see a load of SW accounts on Instagram, and the food that people post looks disgusting. Crap junk food. Spaghetti hoops for breakfast, crisps, loads of weird skinny syrups, low cal whip bars. Just eat real food and calorie count!

what that diet must be doing to peoples insides grosses me out

Yanbu. I have had a couple of friends who done it and became obsessed. Its almost cult like. One was a slimmer of the year after losing 9 stone. Yep she put it all back on. She rejoins loses a couple of stone,puts it back on and the cycle repeats. Its a huge con.

www.slimmingworld.co.uk/faqs/before-you-join/eating-disorder-advice

I have an eating disorder. Can I still join Slimming World?

We feel that joining a Slimming World group or our Online service may not be the best solution for your weight management at present.
Although we’d love to be able to help, eating disorders aren’t our area of expertise. We believe that for your long-term health and safety you would be best supported by trained professionals in this field. We’d encourage you to speak to your doctor or practice nurse regarding your weight concerns. They should be able to give appropriate guidance and possibly a referral to a specialist in this area.

MrsTrumpton. thank you, its certainly suggesting the tackling of self sabotage & ingrained patterns of eating - which would cover the binge eating.

it seems a lot to be promising within a group meeting, and obviously failing in cases

@tabulahrasa

www.slimmingworld.co.uk/faqs/before-you-join/eating-disorder-advice

I have an eating disorder. Can I still join Slimming World?

We feel that joining a Slimming World group or our Online service may not be the best solution for your weight management at present.
Although we’d love to be able to help, eating disorders aren’t our area of expertise. We believe that for your long-term health and safety you would be best supported by trained professionals in this field. We’d encourage you to speak to your doctor or practice nurse regarding your weight concerns. They should be able to give appropriate guidance and possibly a referral to a specialist in this area.

There are three medically recognised eating disorders in the UK – bulimia, anorexia and binge eating. The vast majority of dieters – including most commenting against SW on this thread – will not have been diagnosed those BUT may well have disordered eating patterns including a long history of yo-yo dieting. You'll note Slimming World doesn't encourage those sufferers to go to their doctor though, because they are dream customers, coming back time and time again to lose weight and paying for the misery of it.

Just search #SWUK on Instagram and you can clearly see the crap women on slimming world are eating and why it doesn't work long term. I'm actually baffled that anyone can lose weight in the stuff they're eating. The carbs And sugar must be causing immense cravings and energy drops

My mistake, there are a few more eating disorders that are medically recognised, including Orthorexia. BEAT lists them here. My point stands though – the majority of dieters don't have eating disorders but suffer with ingrained disordered eating patterns like yo-yo dieting. They're not discouraged from joining SW, but probably should be.

WineGetsMeThroughIt I just looked up that hashtag. One of the first plates is beef and mushroom curry Mayflower curry – so, a shop-bought sauce laden with hidden sugar – with rice AND chips! On what planet can that be healthy??!!!

@ivykaty44

MeredithGreyishblue

Where does SW say it address obsessive eating habits?

it may well promote "health eating habits - thats very different from promoting "addressing peoples obsessive eating habits"

Surely most people are over eating. That's how you get fat! By eating the whole bar of chocolate and not one chunk. It encourages this behaviour. It's how it makes money. It's the whole thing - how it differentiated itself from WW all those years ago. When arguably WW was looking at nutrition in its weights and food categories and portions.

SW never addresses that. It might tell you it's going to but the groups themselves are all people being given a round of applause for swapping 6 bags of crisps for 12 boiled eggs. Or drinking their own body weight in aspartame. There's no nutritional education and they certainly don't encourage exercise.

The therapy bit purports to look at behaviours but in reality when a consultant (who don't have to meet any particular requirements other than a willingness to risk money investing in a franchise) leads a group they are clueless and they don't alienate any members by being honest because they want them to come back. So they agree to people creating franken-foods to suit their gluttony and love of a meat pie. Let's look at how to make an aspartame roulade that you can eat ALL of rather than addressing how to manage only eating one slice of real food.

And people look up to these entirely unqualified "health professionals" that take their cash every week. And they listen to the nonsense.

I consider myself a fairly intelligent human and even I went along with it for a few months until I started to actually think about it. Because you WILL lose weight. So you conveniently don't look too hard.

I was 10st 9lbs (at 5ft 10). In the first week I lost 2lbs and when I stepped on their scales the woman gave me a sympathetic look and said “2lbs?

That's awful. When you are a healthy BMI but wanting to get to your personal ideal weight, 2lb is an excellent loss in a week. You generally only get losses of more than that if you are starting from a point of being overweight.

@tectonicplates just general comments nothing about weight. They were not the most flattering pics though and I have defo put weight on. I assume these cards went to lots of people but the fact she had seen my unflattering pics made it personal. Like I said I'm not offended. My DH and I found it quite hilarious.

@Sackofnickles

I followed a chap on SM for a while who lost 16.5 stone on SW, only to put it all back on.

While still on the plan or after he stopped?

Slimming World is a commercial business. Its designed to suck you in and keep you there as long as possible. I've known so many people yo yo on Slimming World. Its terribly unhealthy.

The fact they have their own food products that they encourage you to buy rather than fruit and veg says it all really.

My friend was once sat with a huge tub of pasta which she gleefully told me was a "free" food and she could eat as much as she wanted. Unbelievable.

One of my close friends has been doing sw on and off for about 20 years. She's looses lots if weight but then put it back on again. Her meals used to be weird and if she saved her syns or whatever it was she would eat a packet of ham or something else random. I used the NutraCheck app and fitness pro. Both are good way of counting calories, keeping track of sugar and fat intake. The fitness pro is bluetoothed to my watch so can track steps done and calories used. I find a basic healthy eating, no junk, calorie controlled diet better than sw or ww. But then we are all different x

@MrsTrumpton

WineGetsMeThroughIt I just looked up that hashtag. One of the first plates is beef and mushroom curry Mayflower curry – so, a shop-bought sauce laden with hidden sugar – with rice AND chips! On what planet can that be healthy??!!!

It isn't.

But isn't following plan either....