Calorie counting vS Slimming world

[Whereisthesunny]

i have done slimming world before with success but couldn’t really get back into it in the recent years. I have come to the conclusion that my issue is portion control (amongst million other things) so decided to try calorie counting.
Using Nutra check and also slimming world app.
Any success stories with calorie counting?

I've done both. A friend started slimming world last year and she's done really well on it and seems to find it quite easy to stick to so I joined her. I tried but it was too limiting for me so I reverted to calorie counting and it's working well.
I struggle with portions too- good food, just too much of it. Weighing everything isn't as bad as I thought, I just keep the digital scales on the side.

There's pros and cons to both approaches so I think it's just a case of figuring out which you're most likely to be consistent with. I liked with SW that you needn't ever be hungry, there's so much choice of "free" food whereas when you've eaten your calories, that's it for the day. But with calorie counting, I can easily make one of the small luxury pizzas and a few G&t's fit in my daily cals if I fancy it without mentally writing the whole day/week etc off. You learn more about choosing the right food for your 'money' ie what will satisfy your hunger as well as your cravings.

My top tip would be aim low in terms of weekly loss. It means you get more cals to play with, still lose but don't feel deprived and makes it sustainable.

I’m sort of doing both - I like slimming world and I need a group to weigh in to keep my motivation going, but my weight loss is really slow. I downloaded nutracheck to see what I was eating, check my protein grams etc.

well on a good slimming world day (7.5 syns) my total calories was 1400! And I don’t even feel like I eat that much, I don’t snack at all (even on free foods) and I cook everything, I’m not drinking alcohol, I weigh my healthy extras. So if it’s 1400 with everything weighed, it’s probably nearer 1700/1800 with sw ‘unlimited’ portions (which I never had really, but I would certainly have had more meat and yogurt than I have been having since I’ve been calorie counting it all). I haven’t been having pasta, rice or potatoes either.

but this is why I ditched calorie counting- I just felt miserable after a while because my food just doesn’t seem to go very far! last week I did sw meals, had my hex a and b, and stuck to syns but also kept to 1400 cals on nutracheck and hit 100g protein - and lost 2.5lbs so clearly the calorie counting helped!

my advice would be that sw is great if you like the foods and cook a lot, but be very mindful of your total overall intake. You can easily eat through any deficit. I like the sw recipes and I like the group so I will keep going but I am definitely going to have to calorie count if I actually want any significant weight loss 🤦‍♀️

I find CC easier in terms of freedom to choose as I am not having to pick from a set group so if I want more bread one day, I just count those in as calories. The problem I had with SW is that it did not easily convert into normal life outside of my own kitchen (events, eating out) and I find CC easier as I know what portion size I should eat. For me, it’s given me a better education about nutrition and food than I had before

I think I will keep it off easier now I have learnt more about calories than I did with SW where I gained it all back!

Thanks everyone i’m sorting doing both so we shall see how it goes. I am feeling quite deflated at the minute as im 42 and probably the heaviest i’ve ever been yet i don’t feel i’ve pigged out the last couple years and always very active so a bit baffled as to what’s going on.
i think i might go to the gp to ask for a blood test to rule out diabetes although not sure if that would be make lose weight rather than gain.
Anyhow thanks for the advice will let you know how things go

The difference between losing a stone a year and gaining a stone is 200 calories a day

100 calories under and you will lose a stone

100 calories over and you will gain a stone

100 calories is ? An extra apple or couple of crackers without any cheese or butter ?

An extra couple of hours sitting down ?( easily a difference between toddler years on feet the whole time and young teen years sitting around, giving lifts )

The margins are small and your body likes to store food just in case of famine - which is why is so easy to go over

That’s interesting thank you. i guess i just don’t feel i have done anything different to what i’ve done previous years plus been more active so a bit surprising.
im overall feeling quite unhealthy and not sure if i just pick things out that i feel going wrong with me because i feel bad about my weight.
Thanks again X

You could actually be right about the difference in hectic life with toddlers as opposed to teenagers.
Feel a lot more relaxed tho so i guess that’s the price to pay 😄

I find I need to calorie count strictly to remind myself about portion sizes. I like that it enables me to be flexible and I have have a burger in a brioche bun one night and it’ll be fine so long as I’ve balanced the day’s calories. After about 4 weeks I can judge things better myself without constant logging.

I went to the doc and was given a leaflet and sent away to calories count and exercise.
I have very slowly lost a stone at SW, but find that the recipes are fiddly and time consuming, but many of my peers have embraced the cooking and have lost far more.
The SW emphasis seems to be on semi-Keto, and regular weighing. Pretty much no bread or pastry, but not really limiting, except that the lack of sandwiches needs planning out.