Can someone explain this to me.....

[Sunshinerainbowslollipops]

I'm hoping someone can explain this to me... I've started SW and I understand the principles and am getting on well but what I don't get is this - a fat free yog is a free food and is 90 calories and 0 fat so why could you not substitute that for say 90 calories worth of 0 fat marshmallows? Is it because you would eat more if you ate the marshmallows as you wouldn't be full? Or is 90 calories of one food more fattening than another? Confused! Thanks!

Marshmallows have sugar...fat free yoghurt shouldn't.
Not all calories are created equally.
How many yoghurts can you eat and probably more marshmallows

Try not to think calories on sw or you might start questioning the plan and tweaking it then wonder why you've not lost.

It's not based just on calories - it's about things like, protein content, how filling it is and how long it takes you to eat...and other stuff like that.

I'm a fan of sw and lost and maintained but I do think they have some corporate tie in with muller lights which influences their view on this. Also, it just can't be a great thing to eat 4/5 Yoghurts a day which is what people in my group were doing and gaining/small losses (obviously I don't know what else they were doing). For a lot of dieters it's hard to lose sweet stuff and muller lights seem to fill that gap for many in a relatively controlled way.

I agree that thinking of calories on sw might just muddle things. The plan works well for me when I absolutely focus on one third speed food with everything. It goes to pot when I work away as it doesn't seem tailored to eating out or grabbing a sandwich but now I'm at target I seem to be able to work around that or pull it back when needed.

Thank you everyone, makes a lot more sense now. I'm only 2 weeks in but have lost 9 pounds so far from sticking to it religiously.

I tend to think of it in terms of whether the food is good value for the calories. So 90 calories worth of yoghurt is probably better value than 90 calories worth of marshmallows as the protein in the yoghurt will fill you up for longer. In theory a calorie is a calorie in terms of weight loss. Whether you eat 1500 calories of junk a day or 1500 calories of proper food, you should still lose the same amount of weight. In reality, the 1500 calories of junk probably won't fill you up so you'll end up eating more and losing less.