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?

@melmos

Not the point of this thread but I think the emotion in the responses highlight what a complex issue our relationship with food and weight is both personally and as a society.

Absolutely!

I lost the last bit of baby weight when I went a few years ago but I found the meetings a miserable experience and was just paying a fiver to get weighed. Having to go round the room and say whether you had put on or lost and the ridiculous incentives where they rewarded the biggest loser of the evening. If you only had a few pounds to lose then this was never going to be you. I found it hard to take it seriously as a long term option when the group leader's weight went up and down all the time and she went to another group to keep on track!

The general plan is quite good but certain things don't make sense such as the SP plan. The reps are not very knowledgeable and success is only measured by what the scales at the meetings say. If you are losing body fat and inches but not actual weight you are deemed a failure so it can knock your confidence. Half of the meetings is spent trying to sell you hi fi bars and cookbooks.

I think when people say it doesn't work, they don't mean that if you stick to Slimming World (or weight watchers, noom, Cambridge etc) you won't lose weight, what they mean is that the vast majority people who do these diets will ultimately end up heavier than when they started. That's the reality. Of course there are some success stories and some people do lose weight and keep it off forever but the diet industry rely on the others who pump money into them year after year.

I think saying "it's not a diet" doesn't help the mindset either. Ok so it's a long term lifestyle change so not a diet in that sence but... you shouldn't be in the mindset that you can eat whatever you want. Because in reality you cant. You can whatever you want IN MODERATION. The plan works, but the high level message doest reflect the plan which is 1/3 super low GI with every meal eaten first on the plate the rest low GI and high gi in strict moderation. That's SW in a nutshell

All these type of plans are the same. Get you in and reliant on them so you keep paying year after year.
I was on ww a few years back, so many users got to goal and would leave only to return having gained weight again. I lost a lot of weight but it made me a bit obsessive over food, I will not be returning to it to lose current excess fat after having baby.

Slimming world is a diet. If you do the diet you will lose weight. It does also teach you a little about the need for fibre and a healthy sized dairy portion.

With any diet, if you stop dieting and binge on unhealthy food, you will gain the weight again. It’s not he diets fault. You can eat a little more once you are trying to maintain rather than lose weight but if you revert to pigging out you will gain.

I can’t really see that’s the specific diets fault.

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

what about BIWI's LC bootcamps?

I lost a lot of weight on SW without ever eating a muller light or a hi fi bar
I don’t eat pasta anyway as am gluten free and most of the substitutes or awful
The main thing that helped me was meal planning and documenting what I ate which you can do just as easily on my fitness pal
I also benefitted from the accountability and support of other group members - some of whom are now good friends
The only reason I gained some (not all) of the weight was lockdown blues upped my drinking and I stopped doing SW group whilst they were online only
I’m currently trying to lose weight again with a combination of things including only drinking at weekends - more exercise and low fat, low sugar, low carb general healthy eating
I cook most things from scratch due to allergies

Slimming world is awful.

The point is that your diet should be sustainable. Places like SW introduce a new ‘system’, but it’s not sustainable in the long term- so people lose weight, are delighted it works- and then fall off the wagon. When people fall off the wagon, they’re told it’s because they stopped following the plan- the blame is placed on them, and they ultimately sink more money into SW to lose weight again.

It’s a great business model to have a diet that’s not sustainable so that people are highly likely to gain and come back again and again… repeat business!

It can work. I lost several stone on SW and kept it over for well over a year. I put a small amount back on after I broke my spine and wasn't able to be as active.

The basics of cooking for myself rather than pre prepped food, having a third of my plate filled with vegetables and allowing myself some "treats" each day, have stayed with me. Whilst I am not at my lowest target weight, I am nowhere near my heaviest.

For me it worked. I still use the principles and recipes to help me maintain a balance. And have gone back to those basics to help me loose of the extra lbs lockdown has given me.

YANBU. I lost 3 stone with slimming world. Then plateaued and couldn't lose any more. Then I felt shit and lost interest and put it back on. Slowly. The leaders aren't interested once you stop being 'star of the week'

I only know of one person who has kept the weight off for years doing slimming world. She clearly has an eating disorder and signed up her daughter as soon as she was old enough to attend too. When we go out for a meal she talks about syns etc non stop. Constantly trying to convert others to her way of eating it’s like a cult.

Most people have a body size ‘set point’ or ‘range’. Traditional ‘diets’ just fuck that up, but forcing you into calorie deficit for as long as you can hack it. Once you start eating ‘normally’ again, you regain the weight and usually some more on top.

Psychologically, diets tell your brain there is a famine. So when you stop the ‘famine’ your body tries to regain ASAP and some in case of another famine (diet). It’s actually your body being smart and trying to help you.

We aren’t all meant to be stick thin our whole lives, but societal conditioning means we are all pushed to hate our bodies and aspire to be thin / thinner with whatever the fashionable body type is. This societal conditioning and consumerism makes diet companies a LOT of money.

It’s incredibly depressing.

Years ago since I tried it so may have changed, but never worked for me. I need portion control, not being told I can eat as many potatoes as I want 🐷

It’s like you say OP it’s just a calorie deficit diet. It encourages people to cook from scratch a bit more though and think about what they are eating which I think is good for people who previously have eaten a lot of processed food etc

I was on a slimming world recipe group just to try get some new meal ideas and what struck me though was people seeming to think it was some magic formula like asking questions like if they’d still lose weight if they didn’t eat the allotted amount of veg with a meal or if they would still lose weight if they ate less than their allowed amount of syns for the day so maybe some of the people that do it once that strict guidance is gone they don’t have a clue and just over eat again 🤷🏻‍♀️

I joined to lose the baby weight, and get back to my usual size. Not to get “skinny” like the diets of my youth (fags‘n’vodka). I’m 45 now.

At th first class the woman
behind me said “you don’t need to lose weight”. I said I’d had a baby. She said “Yes. Nip it in the bud now. Otherwise, it’s a slippery slope...”

What I noticed is that most members are post-menopausal women, who have been members on and off for years. It’s not their first time at the SW rodeo.

What I found helpful was to loosely work within the SW framework. Not o it to the letter. Which my yo-yo dieter mother is doing, with gusto. She always puts the weight back on...

It works short term but it isn’t sustainable, it’s sad that people constantly go back to it, it’s like this hasn’t clicked for them yet.

You’ve got people eating the weirdest rankest stuff as well as substitutes for ‘bad’ foods.
It’s really not great is it.

If you go on a diet just to lose weight you will probably fail.

If you adjust your lifestyle (including your diet) to become healthier you will probably lose some weight as a by-product.

I remember people having a discussion in a group I went to once about having rice pudding made with diet cream soda and a muller light - as a breakfast! In what world is that a healthy choice?!

It creates an attitude of good and bad foods which isn't based in nutritional evidence. Eg white pasta (free=good) and avocado (syn=bad). I have a history of eating disorders and find SW immensely triggering for this very reason, no food should have an inherent value judgement placed on it.

I once ate avocado in an office of women all doing SW.
You would imagine I was tucking into a kitten by their reactions
They all did SW so that they could drink prosecco all weekend, the wierd thing was they would all post pics with glass in hand and the others would post really PA comments about empty calories even though they did the same.

My TDEE as an obese 5ft 4 female will be drastically different to an overweight 6ft1 male, for example.

I assume, like other systems, you’ll be given a different number of points to work within.

Well no, because you're supposed to eat until you're not hungry. This would be a much smaller amount of food for a 5'4 female compared to a 6'1 male.

If you follow the plan and eat the required proportion of fruit and vegetables, the calorie density of the food is sufficiently low that you're in calorie deficit so lose weight.

I have lost 3 stone on WW and put it back on - got to size 10
I have lost 3 stone on SW and put it back on - got to size 10

They are businesses - and I am simply greedy!