Why are low-fat yogurts only half a syn

[AnonymouseCat]

When they're between 50 and 100 calories each? Because I have a very sweet tooth, I do rather rely on them to keep me "on plan". I eat around four per day and could definitely have more. I know that isn't good for me, but I don't have many other treats and my main meals are very healthy and full of veggies and protein. I find it crazy that I could technically have 30 Muller lights and be "on plan". Clearly that would not result in weight loss! I once admitted to the group that I'd been binge eating a bit, giving an example of when I ate six yogurts in one day. All I got was "but that's only three syns"!

I am aware that this is one of the main criticisms that SW gets. I just wonder how it's possible that these are assigned such a low syn value. It baffles me.

30 low fat yogurts would be 15 syns so yes you could do that every day but you'd get pretty sick of them I imagine. The goal is weight loss not to trick the plan.

They used to be free but they syn sweeteners now so the half syn is probably an arbitrary value. The calories and fat per 100 g is probably the same as fat free natural yogurt. ML just has more ‘additives’.

I guess you could eat 30 mullers in a day, but realistically you wouldn’t. Same as you wouldn’t eat 10 baked potatoes in a day - they are free but not especially nutritious, easy to overeat (eg you could make a huge bowl of chips). When I did sw years ago a lady there made a huge bowl of pasta every night and sprinkled sweetex on it 🤮

My group definitely isn’t of the mentality that you cram as much low synned rubbish in as possible, we are always advised to use our syns for extra touches like gravy, extra cheese or bread, or for a small treat if that’s what you want rather than multiple muller lights. I suppose it depends on your consultant. I think the mentality of sw has changed a lot since I was a member before.

Fat free natural yoghurt is syn free.
Alternatively if you are looking for a dessert for your lunch how about small pot of jelly which is 1/2 syn and doesn't require refrigeration.

Fat free yoghurt is free, the half syn is based on other ingredients...

Free food is free because it’s food that’s not calorie dense and filling, most people wouldn’t be able to eat 4 in a day unless they were skipping a meal or something.

If you’re not ever feeling full or satisfied with the yoghurts - you might want to rethink using your syns on them tbh.

That connumdrum of syns v's calories

Syns are just a warning to go easy. They really dont have much correlation in the real world to callories, fat,sugar content which is why you have to forget calories when doing SW

You know without even checking, that trigger foods - bread, crisps, chocolate etc are high syn'd and that chick peas are free, until you air fry them and start treating them as a snack. Or that you can eat a banana but syn it if you mash it

Syns are to stop you choosing those foods over the free foods, but allow enough leeway that you can indeed eat them - in moderation

I make my own fat free greek yoghurt, I swear you couldnt eat more then a small pot full without being full to the gills and stay full for hours. One of those half syn yoghurts, doesnt touch the sides and I can easily demolish 2 at a time. I use them as a treat, a dessert, a late night snack when I want something sweet

I did eat four in a day - when I was poorly and just couldnt face anything else, but as a well person, I couldnt think of anything worse to just eat. Well and four wouldnt fill a whole in my tooth and Id be hungry all day, even 30 of them wouldnt satisfy hunger

And thats what SW is all about - satisfying hunger in a way that stops you reaching for the foods that we know pile the weight on

I was at SW when they decided they were no longer free, we were also told not to have more than one a day , because some people had no common sense and were eating loads of them

There is a subtle difference between Free and foods with no Syns. Focus on Free, lean meat, fruit veg etc but the processed foods that happen to have no or very low Syns shouldn't be your focus.

I was at slimming world when they free. People were existing on mug shots and miller lights because they were free.

In reality, they are a great source of protein and filling so a good choice, especially the bigger miller lights as they are volume eating too.

The 1/2 point is to go steady as it's not great to eat toffee/ lemon meringue / cheesecake flavour stuff really.

Used to joke that SW had shares in muller

Plain yoghurt is free but it's hard to stomach in vast quantities and anything you add to it will have a syn values er honey and blended / cooked fruit.

I eat Skyr rather than Greek yoghurt. It's thicker and more filling. I have it with fresh fruit and cinnamon. I couldn't eat more than two portions a day

I have Greek yogurt with loads of cinnamon and oranges it's delicious

I agree with this.

It's a really heathy way of eating if you do this. Lots of veg, volume eating, low fat, high fibre high protein balanced carbs

If you live of mug shots, muller lights, skinny whips and fake away it's not so great.

There are two approaches to slimming world.

One is to eat to the plan but also bear in mind that you are aiming for an overall healthy diet.

Another is to "work to rule" and assume that must mean it's healthy, and forget about our own responsibility for making sure our diet is balanced, healthy and sane. To outsource the "healthy" bit to the SW Gods ("if it's free/within syns, it must make for a healthy diet, right?")

You may lose weight while doing it, but it's not particularly healthy to eat 4 pots of yoghurt in a day.

I'm pre-diabetic (due to my weight and diet) so no judgement from me here, I've tweaked SW to suit my unhealthy whims plenty of times in the past (and may do again in the future, I'm a fallible human with a tendency towards disordered eating after all!). I did an online programme to change my lifestyle to get my blood sugars back into control (successfully!) and the tutor was a slimming world consultant as well as working for this completely different organisation. There was a participant who had lost a serious ton of weight (I think 7-10 stone) on slimming world and who couldn't understand why he was pre-diabetic now. He would frequently chip in about eating 15 pieces of fruit a day, or about how he ate two large (500g) pots of flavoured yoghurt as a snack within his syn allowance (I forget which yoghurt and it doesn't matter). He had done amazingly well to have lost the weight, but he couldn't get his head around the fact that his way of eating wasn't healthy for him (in terms of blood sugar balancing) because it was "legal" under slimming world rules therefore in his view it must be healthy. I think he quit the program because he couldn't bear being asked to rein in his high ("slimming-world-legal") carb consumption, eat less fruit and focus more on green veggies and protein. I'm so sad for him, because he'd done so well for his health by losing all that weight, but Slimming World had still somehow let him down by allowing him to believe that his still disordered way of eating was healthy.