Slimming World Consultant

[UsernameChangeSW]

Hello, I have a Slimming World Consultant interview coming up. I have had my pre interview phone call and this will be in person.
Does anyone have experience of being a consultant? How do you feel about it? Would you recommend it or not? I am really looking forward to my interview and hoping to get to be a consultant. Any advice will be appreciated, Thank you xx

I would never go back if you paid me.

It sounds like you have been through the mill OP, hopefully you are recovering now.

Lots of diets are restrictive and unhealthy but IMO Slimming World is one of the worst. They manage to combine unhealthy processed food, a terrible attitude to food, disordered eating patterns with cult like behaviour, obsessive group think and MLM tactics.

I did well at SW. I was approached by the consultant, to sign up. As I would boost her profile. They become a group leader, or some such, when they “mentor” more consultants. It’s a chain. But, then so are most jobs really.

I didn’t fancy it (I’ve been around the block, younger me might have done it). I’ve also gained back all of the weight…

UCSW, I went the other way. Once I loosened my grip on restrictioning. I went for full-on binging. It was like an elastic band pinging back after being pulled so tightly. Disastrous!

@Magenta82 I couldn’t have described it better. I would 100% put it as the worst now. Without any doubt. Slimming World is disgusting.
I was underweight and I was the one who started to worry about having an Eating Disorder. I realised how much I restricted was dangerous. I had an Eating Disorder by that point and still trying to recover. Slimming World should not have let my weight loss go that far. Slimming World should monitor everyone’s weight and consultants could have a talk to people about moving on from SW when they have reached a healthy weight. How are you now @Gowlett?

Most of the women at my one, it was t their first time at SW. I think the model works for them, in that you put the weight back on. And return to SW. Interestingly, most of the men kept it off. Menopause aged women were the main customers.

Wasn’t. I’m just trying to get back to healthy eating now.

It works for Slimming World, I mean.

@Gowlett I hope you can get fully back to healthy eating. I absolutely know what you mean by women more menopausal age benefits Slimming World. I used to see that quite a bit too.

But they do give you stuff to move on with after you’ve got to your target.

Going out of target and having to pay again includes going under it and there’s also a lowest weight you can’t go under and still be a member at all.

You’ve clearly had a rough time of it, but if you were attending a group and didn’t get the target stuff and allowed to go underweight you should contact the company because your consultant hasn’t done what she was supposed to.

Swname, yes my mum was well supported by SW.
She’s kept the weight off after a lifetime of yo-yo.

I have done WW and am now doing Slimming World. I do not restrict my intake. I have just come in from having been to the pub and gone to the Indian restaurant opposite and had a meal, including a full-fat lassi, rice, honey and garlic chicken and Rajasthani-style lamb. Tomorrow I will have cereal for breakfast with cranberries, a baked potato with tuna mayo (admittedly low fat mayo) for lunch, and a casserole of some sort for dinner, most likely with chips. I will also have various snacks during the day. None of this do I weigh. Since Aug 22 I have lost over two stone and feel much better and my clothes fit - and my right hip no longer hurts when I drive. I like food. When a special meal comes my way I eat it, not having hysterics about Syns. No-one in my group has ever criticised anyone for eating anything. What does happen is that some idea of what calories you might be eating is pointed out, but not all the time, some time is spent on recipes, and asking how people have done during the week, without any judgement at all. Getting fat is not healthy and not attractive either and being able to wear the clothes you have is considerably more economic than having to buy new stuff because the old is too small. I agree that no-one with issues about food should try a slimming regime, but that is not most people.

Then you were not doing it properly. I don't restrict food, but I choose it carefully.

@Grammarnut
I have an Eating Disorder which I never fully blame Slimming World for. I say it contributed to it. Having an Eating Disorder and attending Slimming World was as if it was validating how losing that much weight was fine.
I never say most people have issues with food. I give myself as an example. @Gowlett has told their experience and @Magenta82 has given their experience and opinion.
Also, if someone has a different experience to you it doesn’t mean they were doing anything wrong.

Hi Username, no, ofcourse everyone's experience is not the same. My point was about feeling hungry and the OPs choice of food, which was not enough to keep her going through the day.

@Grammarnut Hi, I am OP and I didn’t choose to have a bad relationship with food. It was mental health and then Slimming World didn’t help. When I started I enjoyed Slimming World. I ate with Slimming World always in mind. Getting awards, to target and then feeling good changed when I had no control over eating and was scared by the very thought.

The consultant was if she didn’t support you to maintain.

She should have given you the book with maintenance routes and gone over those and some other bits in the book with you the day you hit your target.

When you went under your target range, and had to start paying again that should have triggered her to talk to you about switching routes and making sure you were using that target book until you got on an even keel.

Going under a healthy BMI and not going back into it within a couple of weeks automatically causes the computer to remove your membership - the only way that doesn’t happen is if the consultant hasn’t put your height in the system.

IME any kind of weight loss organisation can trigger eating disorders, because many people arrive with disordered eating already - some consultants are better than others at spotting that and supporting that because the training on that isn’t particularly extensive, there is some, but it could be a lot better. Usually you spot it before they get to target, but it can be less obvious.

But that’s why the failsafes are built in, so that at that point it’s not being left for the consultant to spot.

So something has gone badly wrong if it’s not been picked up on - and they’ve absolutely not done what they’re supposed to is the only way you can be underweight and going to group.

So if that’s the case, when you’re up to it, you want to report it, at the very least that consultant needs to be checked on or it could happen again.

The thing is that the majority of people who have tried more than one diet probably have some kind of disordered eating issues.
A diet is never going to fix that, however good the diet. There needs to be much more training on how to spot disordered eating, not just eating too little, but also binge eating etc. It may have changed but when I was yo-yo dieting and moving between all the clubs SW was one of the few that allowed you to join if you had an eating disorder, but then never offered any additional support for people affected. Most weight issues are psychological not physical and more needs to be done on this.
Slimming world encourages unhealthy patterns to an extent, pushing their processed snacks, talking about unlimited food and not pushing appropriate portion sizes, a can of strongbow or a mars bar having fewer syns than an avocado, encouraging people to share ways to eat "free" food in an unhealthy way (scanbran "cake" lasagne "crisps") at meetings, etc. They also encourage poor thought patterns, replacing the i with a y doesn't make talking and thinking about food being a "sin" any less damaging. I've been dieting long enough to remember when they used sin not syn. The talk of sins plus the really odd way it takes over your life and the damaging thought patterns make it more like a religion/cult than a diet club.

I lost 2 stone with Slimming World relatively quickly and gained it back slowly. I don't know anyone in my social circle who has successfully lost weight and maintained it.

I agree with you that more needs to be done in respect to training especially around disordered eating... but...

There’s no hard sell on processed snacks, there’s only cereal bars to sell and it’s not worth pushing them, people like them or they don’t and they don’t make much money for the consultant.

Portion size is mentioned, but, in a fairly loose way as the idea is that you’re starting to pay attention to how hungry you actually are and when you’re comfortably full - and also, it’s just not a huge issue because it’s very hard to not be in a calorie deficit when a third of your portion is low calorie veg and the rest is lean proteins and and either more veg or potatoes rice or pasta.

Avocados are less syns than Mars bars weight for weight - it’s just that a large avocado is about 4 times bigger than a Mars bar... it’s a low fat calorie controlled diet, all fats and calorie dense foods are treated similarly, just because something is healthier it doesn’t make it lower in calories or fat.

Things like misusing free foods to make crisps or other snack foods are absolutely not encouraged - if people say they’re having them we have to tell them why they’re no longer free, It’s covered in the packs and there are articles online about it. It doesn’t stop people doing it, but it usually comes from unofficial Facebook groups.

It doesn’t suit everyone, nothing does or weight problems would be much easier to combat,

I’m also a member, that’s who they recruit, lol, and any form of calorie counting triggers very disordered eating with me, I’d happily skip meals and live off small amounts of chocolate instead - that’s not great either, but that isn’t because calorie counting encouraged that, it’s because I worked out I could work it like that. That’s what happens with some slimming world members too, they try to work out ways round the things that are restricted, it’s not because it’s designed that way, it’s because people are really resistant to changing what they’re doing.

I go to slimming world and don't buy into using a ton of sweetener in my cooking, or quark, or cauliflower rice! I never stay to group as I can't stand listening to the shite that people spout.

I'm not interested in batch cooking or buying SW snack bars, I just need the discipline of being weighed once a week. That's what works for me. Slow and steady.

As long as I end the year lighter than I started that's good enough for me. Nothing is instant and life is too short not to enjoy good food and company every now and then.

I go to SW, I stop for the group

I have never once bought any SW product , I do not use fry light, I dont buy UPfood , and up till the first of this month I drank like a fish and I lost weight and am still maintaining

Do I restrict food? Yes to some extent I do. Im mindful of what I eat. I keep a third of the plate speed - sw talk for fruit and veg, Ive upped the protein and Ive cut the carbs and those I do eat are wholemeal

Are my portion sizes smaller? Hell yes. This time last year I could eat my body weight in pasta, now Im nearly down to the recommended ( by the NHS and printed on packets ) portion. Do I weigh? Nope, its just naturally come about, more veg on the plate, less pasta required :) Do I obsess about what Im eating? Nope. We were in a garden centre the other day, stopped for lunch - ham egg and chips - dont mind if I do thank you . Bloody lovely it all was as well but not a vegetable in sight. Now DH needed a meal that evening but I didnt, I took a small vegetable tagine that I had and him and mum had a proper roast. I could have had the roast, only I wasnt hungry enough for a roast and I would have over eaten

Do I snack? Sure do. But snacks arent just crisps and biscuits. For me a snack now is something high protein, chicken usually or half fat cheese and pickles

Those that run into problems are those that are trying to cheat the system, and not making the dietary changes they need. Yes Ive been tempted to make HM crisps in the air fryer, do the chickpeas and lasagne sheet crisps but what am I learning? Thats its still ok to mindlessly munch away all day?

We have friends over, the crisps and nuts are put out and I tuck in same as everyone else, I go to theirs I tuck into whatever they put out, I dont say no not for me. Because its not an every day thing. Same as eating out, its not every day, its a one off so I eat from the menu and enjoy

Tbh I dont think Ive ever counted a syn and Ive lost 2 stone nearly. I take from it the principles of upping the protein, lowering the carbs and choosing lower GI ones, and filling the plate with veg, eating 3 meals a day ( well I usually only manage 2 ), only eating when hungry and stopping when full. And the most important , even though it wont make you loose any quicker , upped the exercise.

We have a great consultant. She picks up on everything. I hit target the same day as another lass and we both moved onto slim for life. My weight fluctuates to 2lb either side , at the moment even after Christmas Im still 1lb below target.I ate my fill over Christmas , if chocolates were in front of me, I had one, I had cake and pudding and mince pies and sausage rolls and pate and cheeses and red wine coming out of my ears. The other lass, she has become very much like the OP and has restricted herself beyond belief and within 3 week of supposedly maintaining has dropped below target after Christmas , and was taken aside for a chat. I know the lass has really taken it too far, I speak to her. She syns everything and has become obsessive.She had a drinks party and refused to take a gin because she had nibbles and didnt want to go over her syns. She weighs herself daily, admitted to it and was strongly advised not to but she still carried on. But thats not SW , thats in her own psyche and SW wasnt the place for her but consultants are not psychiatrists

SW sell themselves as an healthy eating plan for life , which it is, compared to what we were eating before we got our fat arses through the door. Now Im at target Im now looking closer at what I eat and am making more changes, putting in more of the healthier fats, cutting the alcohol back for example, but I still go and weigh in weekly and stay for the chats for the accountability

I go to Slimming World- they welcome people of all ages at our group, women and men, some women bring babies.
The SW bars are at the back on a display with the cook books but they don't push them, or the magazines (at the back the week they are published). Some people buy them some don't.
I have been to SW once before and hated it because the consultant sounded stupid but I am liking it this time- she doesn't talk SW nonsense and explains Syns really well as a means of making you think about controlling high calorie food, not as SINs.
I'm eating well and losing weight. I tried a couple of their ready meals and don't like them so am happy sticking to my own cooking.
There is genuine discussion about eating difficulties we face as individuals and about things like food labelling. Once every couple of months there is a 'taster' session where people who want to take along something they have made that works with the programme and people try it. It's a very supportive experience - in my view. Totally different to the last time I went to SW where the consultant told me one week that I hadn't lost weight because I had eaten peach flavoured low fat yoghurt instead of the strawberry version- same breakdown of fat/sugar/carbs/protein- and because I had eaten onions twice which apparently absorb water and are indigestible 😂