Am I eating too much?!

[Woody18]

Hi all, I am following the 7 day menu plan to get me kickstarted and used to the SW way. But it's day 2 and I seriously feel like I've eaten far too much and that there is no way I will lose weight on this! I'm 46, only 5'2 in height and have around a stone to lose. Usually I need to restrict to 1000 calories to have any chance of losing weight...... I know you'll probably say slow and steady wins the race and I must be prepared to lose weight slowly but the trouble is I have a holiday in 2 weeks time and was seriously hoping to drop half a stone!! (according to other threads I've read 4/5 lbs or more is a normal loss for week 1 or 2 from what I can ascertain).
This is the menu I am following - must admit I'm chopping and changing the days a bit so had day 1 breakfast today for instance as didn't have the right ingredients yesterday (but surely shouldn't matter?)
www.slimmingworld.co.uk/healthy-eating/non-vegetarian-menu.aspx

I'm even too scared to have any syns! Don't want to weigh myself until after 1 week but am so worried I won't have lost anything if I keep up this stuffing my face with lovely food
Any other shorties out there who have had success with following the plan and can give some advice/reassure me please that I will lose weight?
Many thanks

It took me 3 weeks to lose half a stone and I felt full and not hungry. But I lost 6lbs over 2 weeks. I've lost 4.5st on SW and an extra stone myself before. I'm 5ft 1. So I do look a lot better now x

I’ve lost 2.5st with SW and have also felt like I’m stuffing my face! I find I lose weight quicker if I do it with minimum carbs.. so huge portion of bolognese for dinner but tiny amount of pasta, huge chilli but only a spoonful of rice, omelette for lunch instead of sandwich etc.
This should speed it up for you if you have a holiday goal in sight

Thank you, sounds like I need to watch the carb intake then. I'm wary of carbs anyway as don't feel they agree with me and have previously done low calorie, no carb diets which worked but I just can't sustain them now, get such cravings and want to binge.
And massive well dones on both your weight losses, incredible and utterly inspiring that you have done it through SW and possibly by what I am eating now!! So great to hear that it's working for another 5 footer too!

You can lose weight with the carbs but it’s iust slower. Don’t get me wrong, I do eat carbs but limited. So a sweet potato or two slices of bread but then very little pasta or rice in the evenings. I do think cuttin carbs in the evenings helps. But I do have a huge serving of whatever is going with it.. bolognese, chilli or curry!
Also, have some syns. They really do help you stay on track. Treat yourself to wine or chocolate or crisps once a day

You can eats carbs just make sure you have 1/3 Speed I eat loads of pasta and potatoes it's silly to do SW and not follow it properly.

But SP days ARE low carb Infinite... they limit potatoes, rice and pasta etc.
Anyway, people figure out what works for them. I’ve definiely found limiting theee carbs speeds weight loss

Thank you all, it's just so good to be able to have some carbs whilst on a diet as I think that is what has made me fail in the past with other diets which are low carb due to the cravings and then subsequent binge. I really think this method might actually suit me, fingers crossed.....
I will include some syns too but just can't get my head around the fact I could be losing weight while eating crisps or chocolate!

You need to have at least 5 syns a day for the plan to work, and it does work there's so many people out there that have stuck to plan and lost so much weight it's truly amazing!

SP days are smart carb not low carb with two b choices loads of protein and speed veg/fruit and not recommended for new members.

Track what you're eating on MyFitnessPal and see how many calories you're clocking up.

Don't second guess it, don't count calories, just follow the plan for your first week and see how you get on.
Get your food diary checked by your group leader and make sure you're following it properly, then maybe have a few SP days later on once you've really got your head around the basic eating plan.

SW is nothing to do with calories, so don't bother counting them.
We've got 2 ladies in our group who lost 6+ stone each in a year by following the plan to the letter. Plenty of new members lose half a stone in the first 2-3 weeks

@LizB62A calories is calories. It's so easy to overeat on Slimming World! I know because I've been a member in the past. Eating "as much as you want" full of carbs and free food like ham and meats, it all adds unnecessary calories. To lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficit. It's as simple as that!

You're not meant to eat as much pasta ß as you want though. You are meant to plate up 1/3 speed food so max 2/3 of a plate of pasta and that's if you don't have anything else. It's easy to cheat yourself on SW but if you read the literature and stick to it the emphasis isn't on eating as many carbs as possible but on the 1/3 speed.

@SlimmingMumOf1

I didn't suggest that the OP eat as much pasta as they want.
I suggested that they follow the plan to the letter and SW is meant to be simple to follow and not about counting calories.

Yes, a lot of people take it to extreme, eating multiple Muller Lights in a day and using loads of sweetener. However, as a newcomer to SW, if the OP spends a couple of weeks getting used to it, maybe follows some of the sample 7 day meal plans, they can get good results without getting confused trying to track Healthy Extras, Syns and calories

It's all good advice! Thank you everyone, all valid points.
Having been following some of the meals on the plan (particularly dinners) but not all (I'm just enjoying fruit, yoghurt and 40g muesli for breakfast so doing that everyday) I feel I am finally "getting it" regarding what to eat and have at last found a way of eating to suit me and one that will lose me weight . Fingers crossed anyway.
In the past I have calorie counted (pretty much for 20 years!) so have very good knowledge anyway of the calories I'm eating. But have got so frustrated that I can't seem to lose weight unless I'm on 1000 or under calories a day (people will say to me that's rubbish and I need to eat more calories but honestly being so short means my calorie requirement is only 1500 a day so v difficult to make a deficit and diets like 5:2 are impossible) - this obviously means a low carb low calorie diet has worked for me in the past but now if I try it I get huge cravings and ruin the diet by binging.
However, this SW diet....... enables me to eat a lot at every meal which I'm not used to (used to skip breakfast as felt it made me hungry sooner during the day). I can at last see how filling up my plate with the speed food is really working as I'm not hungry and craving things between meals and I'm at last not scared to add a bit of rice to my evening meal and have a bit of bread if I feel like it. I do agree with poster above that if I had 2/3 of a plate of pasta, I would not lose weight though! But just having some is really helping as I'm not depriving myself, which I think for me is the key, as I have beaten myself up for years and years if I've eaten carbs and gone over 1000 calories.

Thanks for all your comments, all useful

So how did your first weigh in go @Woody18?