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 :(

I have to stick to it completely or I put on weight...so if I'm going out for dinner then I save all my syns for that.

I'm the same on any diet plan though - I once put on half a pound by having half a banana over my points on WW.

SW might look unusual but the idea is eating regularly , with nutritious food, to keep up metabolism.

I'm wondering about syn count.

Three coffees per day, is the milk measured?

It is very easy to go beyond. Also, could you try an SAS with your consultant?

Ive been doing it for one month and have lost over a stone. I have gone from a size 14 to a size 12 and im planning to lose another stone and a half. I rarely use my syns, I have bread once a week if that. I dont drink and I dont go off plan. I am going away this weekend though so will go off plan for the first time. I try to cut right down on carbs, so i might have a small potatoe at lunchtime, hardly any carbs in the evenings. Snacking on apples, not eating pasta either, some rice as I do eat the slimmers world chicken curry my husband makes which is amazing and chilli con carne. The food is lovely - i do miss my snacks but Im determined to get down to my goal weight.

Im doing tons of exercise, so running 2-3 times a week 5k or 10k and going to the gym twice a week. Im suprised I havent lost more. Im desperate for pizza, French bread and butter! I use sweetner in my teas and Im drinking a lot of black coffee to stave off my hunger pangs. I think you really have to go for it, cut out bread and syns and treats so wine and eating out and exercise and drink water like nuts! Good luck.

SW is working for me but my loss is 1lb a week. How are your portion sizes? I use a dessert plate, try to eat slowly and stop if I am full. I try not to overdo the carbs on my plate, so pasta is wholemeal and I have around 2 dessert spoons, but plenty of veg and meat so I don't feel hungry later.
There is a REALLY fine line between losing and gaining, especially now I'm over 45. I am resigned to the fact that I will have to monitor what I eat for the rest of my life...

Im over 45 too and I think this is going to be my way of life too. I never used to put on weight but in your forties it sticks like glue - booo hooooo!

I think you really have to go for it

This is so true. I know we want to be able to go out and have a day off plan or the odd bottle of wine but it all adds up. A bottle of wine is around 25.5 syns of nutritional nothingness. A meal out off plan can very quickly and easily overshoot your whole weekly syn allowance in one dinner!

It's definitely a case of either sticking to plan rigidly and accepting that these things are off the menu for a while (when I do this I get a good couple of lbs off a week) or "fudging" the plan by sticking to it 6/7 days and accepting that this will affect your losses.

I did an experiment once where I counted my calorie load in a week on MFP while following SW. I was racking up around the 1,400 mark every day while on plan - which is about right for a sustainable 1lb loss per week.

Thanks for all the replies. Yes, I do measure my milk for my coffees, if I am somewhere else having a coffee I count 0.5syns for a splash of milk, or whatever the syn values are if its a cappuccino or whatever.

I do try to keep portion sizes down. My plate tends to be 1/3 carb, 1/3 superfree, 1/3 free non carb.

My concern I guess is that i will literally have to live this way forever once I get to goal of I want to stay there. I don't enjoy eating the SW way. The fact that I usually only lose 0.5lb on a 100% week and can gain 2 or 3 on week with one off plan day, once I get to goal I won't ever be able to allow myself a pizza or a cheesecake as it will just undo the years if hard work it took me to get there!

Honestly, I'm not sure it is worth the effort and that is what I need to decide for myself of course, no one else can decide that.

I shouldn't compare myself to others I know but I do end up feeling jealous of those who lose a lot and talk about having one night off per week etc.

I'm having a lot of inner struggles with this, I really thought the weight would fall off if I stuck to plan and I am so bitterly disappointed that it hasn't. I read lots of stories about SW before I joined and I was sucked in by all the tales of 8lb losses in the first week, of losing a stone in the first month, etc. My first month I stuck to plan religiously and saw nothing like those kind of losses. I gained in my second week!!

I was so excited to join and now I feel really miserable about the whole thing.

I really appreciate everyone's responses, interesting to hear different people's experiences of SW. At the moment I feel my choices are to either enjoy food OR lose weight and I just need to decide which is more important to me :)

Good luck to everyone on your weight loss journeys. X

I don't enjoy eating the SW way

And that's it then - it can be rather labour intensive and really is a WOE for cooking from scratch and planning and hard work!

Have you thought about trying WW or calorie counting instead? MFP is a terrific little tool IMO and especially if you're exercising.

I'm sorry to hear that you feel so disappointed by your SW experience and wish you all the best.

I would try different plan, or as you love food how about just calorie control? Use an app like myfiness pal and log everything you eat.

I lost almost 10stone on the green plan, green wasn't really supported as they were using extra easy but having done green before and knowing it worked for me, I carried on with it and just used group for weigh in.

Extra easy doesn't work for me, I'm the same as you I either maintain or even gain a 1lb, sticking to it rigidly and controlling the portions e.g using a small plate.

I needed a group to weigh in and have that on my mind knowing that I was going to be weighed by someone else.

I also exercised a lot, aquafit twice a week, gym 3-5 times a week and running 2-3 times a week. To begin with I used a couch to 5k app for the running. The gym was just bike and treadmill, with some weights for toning. Aquafit I just enjoyed it so went to both classes.

I did want to just pick up on something you said though OP which was " At the moment I feel my choices are to either enjoy food OR lose weight"

I honestly have found no other eating plan that gives me a greater variety and choice of food than SW - and without really cutting anything out (apart from alcohol I guess)

It's true that a lot of people survive SW on mugshots and muller lights which must be depressing and shit, but it really and truly doesn't have to be this way. Most recipes are SWable and I am a massive greedy foody

here is a great place for finding new ideas and I often just look at recipes online or in my books, cut out or reduce the fat content - boost the veggies and Bob's your uncle!

I do agree that SW gives the most variety and choice of food - it is the only plan I have ever been able to stick to. I suppose a very slow weight loss is better than no weight loss?

I love cooking from scratch! But I wanna put coconut milk in my curries and lots of cheese on my hunters chicken, and I want to have garlic bread with lasagne. I love food and I love creating meals and I don't find the cooking part hard work, and I don't dislike SW meals but there are nicer ways to cook and eat IMO (ways that make me fat lol)

I do really appreciate all the replies x

I guess it would just be nice to see bigger and better results when I feel I make a huge amount of sacrifices. But there is no quick and easy way for weight loss is there. Not when you are getting old like me :D

Have you considered trying low carb? As I said earlier I was the same as you on SW, just couldn't lose anything and, tbh, wasn't that impressed with the recipes either. I also thought it was my age (I'm 43) and was quite depressed about the thought of either remaining big or eating food I didn't much like for the rest of my life.

Since starting Atkins I've found it much, much easier to lose weight and the food is gorgeous. It feels like a sodding miracle tbh! I appreciate it's not for everyone but worth looking into?

"But I wanna put coconut milk in my curries and lots of cheese on my hunters chicken, and I want to have garlic bread with lasagne."

The problem is that you can't eat in a way that makes you put on weight and lose weight at the same time.

If you want to lose weight and keep it off you have to eat differently.

Foods like that aren't completely off the menu, you just need to make adjustments - either with ingredients or with other foods that day or week.

So if you want coconut milk, have it and count the syns, or have low fat coconut milk and count less syns, or add fresh coconut flesh or water which is even lower or use coconut essence and a low fat dairy product or replacement.

If you want garlic bread, have it and syn it, make it with nice Wholemeal bread and have it as a HE and use lurpak lightest to make the garlic butter.

Cheese - HE and syn the rest.

There's nothing that will let you eat as you were before and lose weight... Or I wouldn't have put weight on to start with, lol.

It's not that you have to make huge sacrifices exactly I don't find anyway, it's just that if you want to have a dinner with something like coconut milk or loads of cheese then you can't expect to also be able to eat chocolate or drink wine...but another day you can swap that around, so it's not a sacrifice - just balancing things more.

I do understand how you feel. I lost 6lbs in my first three weeks, then STS, then gained a pound (That was entirely down to me going out and stuffing my face though) and now we'll see where I am on Friday. I've been VERY GOOD this week so hoping for a loss.

The way I look at it is that if I give up now I will gain that 6lbs back and a bit more and just be unhappy about that. I've been on and off SW for YEARS and I'm bored with the same old merry-go-round, it works IF I work at it! I also think that the way I feel when on SW is sooooo much better than when I'm not on plan. I've got more energy, I'm in a better mood, I'm not prone to big sugar highs and lows. 0.5 lb loss per week means that in a year you will be at target...I know that sounds like a long time but it's still better than being the same weight in a years time isn't it?

As to the food cravings - You can use coconut milk! Just choose the lower fat version and syn it. I think it's about 14 syns per tin and if you're making a curry to serve four then that's only 3.5 syns per portion...the full fat one is around 30 syns I think which still only works out at 7.5 syns per portion - only half of your daily allowance. Have you tried coconut essence? You can add a few drops of this to a curry to make it coconutty - or a tbsp coconut oil (6 syns)?

CHEESE desires are usually solved by having a Green day - on these days you would weigh your chicken (115g raw weight) for 1 x B choice, then you could have 60g of cheddar (1 x B choice, 1 X A choice) and you'd still have another A choice for milk for your coffee. The rest of the day would be the usual free veggies, beans, lentils, potatoes, pasta etc. It's a great way to curb those cheesy cravings!

A sort of garlic bread can be made using a WW petit pan (B choice) with some roasted garlic and a tsp butter (2) syns.

It's about a mindset I think - a way of tweaking recipes and finding ways to make little changes that can give you the comfort you need without breaking the syn bank, and then suddenly you don't give a shit about not being able to have a choc-ice or a bounty bar or a big bag of crisps...because you're full on the good stuff.

Bloody hell - sorry for the mammoth post! I'm in a bit of an evangelical phase at the moment

x-posted with you tab - great minds and all that.

I hope you don't mind me commenting as I'm not doing SW, but this popped up in active conversations.

What I realised is that there are basically two diet models:

• restricting the type of foods you eat, with the hope that that will keep the calories down; or

• counting the calories directly.

SW does the former. I found it really didn't work for me because I'm not great at the portion control (especially on free carbs like rice) and because the plan totally relies on you staying on plan. If you don't restrict portions and you also have some wine (my downfall), then you've soared over the calorie limit.

For me, I've found that WW works. I can decide that, for example, I'll stick to an enormous bowl of non-point veggie soup and one slice of bread for lunch (hardly any points) to 'earn' the points to have a slice of cake, or a couple of glasses of wine. SW doesn't really let you account for that in the same way, so I went 'off plan'.

Although WW or calorie counting get a lot of stick for their (admittedly rubbish) ready meals and pretend biscuits, if you ignore those and do it 'right' it is actually much more like how a thin person naturally eats. I used to live with a skinny housemate who everyone said ate like a horse. She'd go out and eat a pizza and drink wine and never put on weight. But what you noticed when you lived with her is that there were also evenings when all she fancied was a salad with some tuna, or a huge pile of stir fry veg. She wasn't concsciously dieting, but she was naturally balancing the blow outs with low calorie days.

Ah we must be right then buttercup, if we both suggested the same things, lol.

As for the recipes...there are a couple of things that are slimming world recipes that I have tried and gone, yeah I'll make that again, but most of them I find at best boring.

I prefer my own cooking, so that's what I do, I just adjust things I like anyway or for the odd thing like pizza I just accept that I can only have limited amounts of it. (Fake slimming world friendly pizza substitutes just aren't the same).

I'm having curry tonight, I use fry light instead of oil and yoghurt or quark instead of cream...add a bit more veg and it's a slimming world curry, but everything else is the same, I use the same spices and what have you and it tastes nice still.

I don't do huge losses, it's a lb or a lb and a half mostly...over a year and a bit I've lost just over 6 stone though because it does add up.

I've had slimmer of the week precisely once and that's because I somehow managed to lose over Christmas last year when no-one else did, rofl. I don't care, I get to buy normal sized clothes instead of a sticker.

YY - I think the portion thing is definitely a problem for some on SW. They do urge you to only eat until you feel satisfied, which is all well and good but I do know that most people don't feel "satisfied" until about 20 minutes after finishing their food - so it all falls down a bit on that front I think.

My problem with CC and WW was that I would rather have wine than food so would skimp on eating the good stuff in order to get my wine allowance! I accept completely that this is my problem though. (Also the weighing everything drove me damn near demented)

I do still have the odd binge glass or two of wine but I now only do it occasionally and I keep everything low for the rest of the week to make up for it - or accept that I'm sabotaging my loss for that week.

It's tough all this really, isn't it? I sometimes consider moving to Tonga and being considered a stick insect.

x posted again!

I rarely use SW recipes, I find them bland, bland, bland and always watery! What's with all the water?!

"My problem with CC and WW was that I would rather have wine than food so would skimp on eating the good stuff in order to get my wine allowance!"

I did that but with chocolate . I also found it made me weirdly obsessive about food... I'd spend all day going, hmm, if I have that for lunch then I can have that for dinner, oh but if I have that instead I'll be able to have this instead...it really wasn't healthy for me.

I don't do that with SW, I know what I'm making for dinner tonight because it's all I have in, lol, but mostly I just do shopping, buy ingredients and then cook what I fancy.