How well does it actually work for you?

[dragdownthemoon]

I'm currently doing SW. If I stick to plan 100% I lose 0.5-1lb. If I go off plan a tiny bit (last week I ate all my syns every day and went 1.5 over on one day) I maintain, anything more than one meal off plan and I see a gain of up to 2.5lb.

I've been doing it now since September and I have lost 2.5lb in total. It's embarrassing! My consultant just says that I can see where I have gone "wrong" on the weeks I gain (going out for dinner one night, for example), and that a 1lb loss on a 100% week is a "healthy pace for weight loss"

The problem is I can have 4 weeks on plan and lose, say, 3.5lb, one dinner off plan and I'm back up 2, so I'm losing less than 2lb a month! Christmas scuppered all the weight loss I'd had up until then so I was back to square one after 3 months of hard work.

Do I really have to have no life for a year to get to goal? Then what happens once I am there, popping out for dinner once a week I am just going to put it back on again.

Anyone else experienced such a frustratingly slow weight loss? Consultant checks my diaries (I still hand them in every week even though I've been doing it 5 months!) and she says they are fine, just comments that maybe I should try less syns :(

Sorry no help but I'm interested in others views as I'm about join up.

Hope you get some helpful responses!

I tried SW and found it very similar to your experience, I just couldn't lose weight. Now I'm doing Atkins and the weight's falling off.

I'm not saying SW doesn't work as I know people who've lost loads on it (like 15 stone loads!) but when it comes to weight loss it's definitely horses for courses and some plans just don't suit some people.

Hmmm.....that must be quite disheartening. Would you be able to post an average weeks meals and snacks and drinks? We may spot something.

I have a cheat night once a week (the evening of the day of my weigh in) - I eat and drink anything I fancy. Then I eat free food plus a&b the rest of the week with a 5syn daily allowance.

Are you drinking enough water?

A typical day:

Wake up, coffee and a banana

Mid morning snack fruit and fat free greek yoghurt
Coffee (milk from HexA)

Lunch either: pasta salad (always 1/3 superfree), with extra light mayo (1)
Or: cous cous and roasted veg
Or: SW chips, fish pate (SW, free) and big salad
Or: SW "fry up" - trimmed bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, spaghetti hoops

Muller light yoghurt.

Coffee

Snack - wholemeal roll (HExB) and a fried egg. Maybe a slice of cheese for 3 syns.

Dinner, always SW recipe, always free with 1/3 superfree (chilli, rice and veg, chicken curry, home made burger, chips and salad, stir fry beef with veg)

End of day treat - usually choc ice for 5 syns, or a curly wurly, or a Mars bar if I've had no other syns that day.

I drink water all day (I take a bottle of water with me everywhere)

I am thinking I need to stop the end of day treats :(

I also go to the gym 3 times a week though admittedly I only do 30-45 minutes as I am mega unfit and usually just do the bike for a bit then walk on the treadmill ;)

Hmmm....that looks really good

Did you take measurements when you started? Have you lost inches?

When you go out for dinner do you not eat according to plan? You should be able to.

Also, don't be embarrassed by your gym efforts, they're good and the more you do them the more you'll be able todo.

It used to work a treat for me, lost 4 stone about 10 years ago.

3 DC later and I have tried to use it to lose weight after each one but have got no where with it, very very slow loss.

I went back to green and red as that was the system I had used before but still no luck.

For me now calorie counting is the way to get it off. Although I think SW is okay for maintenance.

I didn't take measurements, but there isn't any difference in my clothes or anything.

No, I don't always stick to plan when I go for dinner. I enjoy food and occasionally like to have a dessert, or a pizza, or a glass or three of wine. I don't go for dinner every week, maybe once a month, but a single pizza can undo 3 weeks of being 100% on plan.

Even treating myself to a slice of cake (outside of my daily syns) means I will at best maintain.

When I joined my consultant said if I stuck to food optimising 80% of the time, i would lose weight. This is not my experience.

I'm so frustrated as this is the only diet plan I have ever been able to stick to for weeks and it doesn't work! When I have tried WW or calorie counting I always fall off the wagon within 2 weeks. When I first joined SW I stuck to plan completely for 5 weeks without a wobble. It just doesn't work! Humph.

I just wondered if this will be the nature of SW for me, it's better in terms of never being hungry, easier to stick to, but very slow in terms of weight loss, and basically I can never eat cheesecake again. I find group infuriating as it is full of people confessing all the crap they have eaten all week and still lose 5lb, and me with my measley 0.5lb loss after being super good! Grump ;)

It took me a year to lose a stone a few years ago. It really was too much like hard going. I tried again and lost nothing. And it gave me indigestion with all the rice and pasta. At the moment I'm trying to avoid high calorie foods and snacks between meals and have lost a few pounds.

OK, a couple of questions. How much do you have to lose? What are your portion sizes looking like, especially WRT to pasta/rice/white potatoes?

I am a very slow loser as well so I understand your frustration. Try not to compare your losses/lack of losses with others in your group as we are all different.

Your consultant should be talking to you now about either filling out an SAS log or trying a different plan (although they are now pretty much only pushing EE and SP - I tried SP and lost a couple of pounds)

Do you plan your meals for the week in advance? Are you eating the same breakfasts/lunches/dinners on a rotation?

There are a couple of other things you can try - a success express week or a fishy week. I can tell you a bit more about these if you want (although the fishy week is pretty self-explanatory!)

Might also be worth asking your consultant whether they still do the Fast Forward plan and if so to give you the details. You might need to just give yourself a jolt.

It always seems to be (to me) those that use their HEB for bread loose less and slower than those that cut out bread altogether, and use an alternative HEB.

I'd like to lose 2 stone in total. Well, only 1 stone 11.5lb to go now after my mammoth 2.5lb loss in 4 months! :-/

I will try giving up bread and having nuts or something as my HExB.

I will try and up the water I drink and downsize portions.

Should I stop using my syns?

No, don't stop using your syns but keep to an upper limit of 10 - that gives you somewhere to go if the weight loss doesn't kick start. You could also try cutting out the chocolate and using your syns for healthy oils and adding them into your meals. I rarely have any "proper" syns (and by that I mean crisps, cake, chocolate bars) as I use mine for things like butter and olive oil

Another thing is the exercise - I have no idea why but I always plateau for a good three weeks when I start exercising again, so it could be that?

How old are you dragdown?

I've found it more or less impossible to lose any weight at all since I hit 45 .

Or I do exactly what you've done - lose 3lb by being holy as hell over the course of a month, gain 3lb if I have a slightly indulgent weekend. Its a killer.

I got to target on slimming world by being incredibly strict, rarely eating dinner and breast feeding. That was seriously the only way that worked and it was unsustainable. I went back last year and followed the diet to the letter and lost about 5lb then stalled for months and months.

I think for me calorie counting is the only thing that actually works and it's quite depressing.

it might be worth giving SP a go. I am much the same as you and my weight losses are nothing spectacular but I did SP for 3 days last week and lost 5lbs. I didn't even lose that much in my first week! All the info you need is in the new black book but in a nutshell it is no pasta, rice, potatoes or cousins cousins. Loads of lean meat, Vegas and certain fruit. No yogurt. Usual 5-15 syns, 1 HEA and 2 HEB. I have lost 3 stone 10 lbs now and 13lbs away from target. It has taken 10 months so far x

Thank God for no cousins cousins.

cousins cousins should be cous cous. Really should check what randomness my phone has picked before I post!

and Veg not Vegas! Giving up now!

There's a famous Pagwatch post where her phone changed couscous to anal anal - so count yourself lucky!

I've just left SW after 3 months because I didn't like doing extra easy and now they've changed the diet so they no longer support green/red plan. I lost the most weight if I did green with the occasional red day.

Once good thing they have introduced is a low carb option (SP plan) which they only recommend doing for one week at a time, I lost 3.5lb doing this.

Now I've left I'm still following the plan, loosely, and trying to eat an SP dinner every day (e.g. low fat meat with green veg). I've lost another 5lb in the last 4 weeks by doing that, and that includes 2 bottles of wine per week and the occasional treat. I should note that I'm also doing 2-4 hours exercise per week as well.

The extra easy is totally hopeless. I knew somebody who lost 19 pounds in five weeks on the red day option. I couldn't stick to red days but they certainly got the weight off.

I'm not a SW person, on here lurking for tips but the list of what is eaten in one day looks huge. I don't think I could eat this much in one day. Presumably you don't have to eat all this to do SW?

I think SW is excellent if you are, say a size 18 wanting to get down to a 14. But if like me you are a 12/14 wanting to get down to a 10 it's just not calorie deficient enough.