Horrified by slimming world

[Wackelle]

I'm surrounded by people on slimming world at the moment who are essentially stuffing their faces constantly but telling me its OK cause "its free" how can anyone lose weight without counting calories, and eating cooked breakfasts?

Surely this is not healthy, I was also told you can save your sins and have a takeaway at the weekend. Wow.

Not for me.

The thing is, if a third of your meal is vegetables that aren't potatoes, your portion of potatoes and protein or whatever is going to be naturally smaller.

Yes, you could in theory eat twenty muller lights and six chicken breasts and of course it wouldn't work, in the same way as on a lchf diet you could eat twenty full fat yoghurts and thirty eggs and it doesn't work.

I like SW because if you dismiss the fake shite, you're left with quite a healthy and sustainable way of eating.

It is indeed staying the lower weight that is the issue. I have a lifetime behind me of struggling with my weight. To a certain extent I have to learn from my failed attempts which is why this time I have introduced a hunger scale before eating and am also looking at my feelings around food.

Most diets (including SW) do not work long term because diets have end points. From what I have seen the most successful slimmers stay as free group members following their weight loss. Three women in my group have been at target for more than 7 years now. I would guess the same could be said for the WeightWatchers plan.

I am using my past failures to inform my eating this time. I am 51 and I want my 50s to be healthy. So once I've eaten and am full I treat any other food desires as "something else". I've realised I like a cup of coffee after an Ian meal as it gives me sitting down and relaxed time. That stops me eating when I am not hungry.

I am no saint...it's my birthday today and I am out for dinner tomorrow. I will not be on plan unless the menu has something I fancy that is low in calories/fat (unlikely). But a birthday is once a year..a takeaway is occasional. What I am trying to do is change my thinking around food and make it a more normal process. SW works for me because I don't feel restricted by it. I can cope with the happy clappy group stuff because the other group members are great. The group consultant is also lovely.

Hunger scale...I forgot.

Someone shared one with me in a FB group. Images below.

It's been great for me because my eating had been so bad I had lost all insight into hunger. So I was getting all the wa up to the irritable with hunger point and not noticing the signs building up to that. So I have found eating regularly works well for me. Even if it's just a banana between meals.
I rate my hunger several times a day, it just helps me stay in touch with my own body signals that I had ignored for so long.

And by eating regularly I no longer get to the point of reaching for utter crap food.

Horrified? Haha

In order to follow the plan properly you need to make sure that a third of your meal is made up of fresh veg or salad, not including carby ones like sweetcorn or sweet potato. So you're hardly stuffing your face with nothing but potatoes.

If a very overweight person eats a large plate of low fat food then they will still lose weight as even though they're eating two jacket potatoes, a tin of beans and a massive salad, when taken together with the rest of their day's food it's probably still a much lower calorie meal than they need to maintain their weight.

It's not just slimming world devotees who put weight on again after stopping following the plan. If anyone goes back to the sort of eating habits they had before losing weight, they're going to put the weight back on, right? The point is that you're supposed to make permanent changes.

I find the flogging of hi-fi bars annoying though, I'll give you that. Overpriced air. But it's not compulsory is it? Neither are muller light yogurts. SW bingo anyone?

Today I've had porridge, a ham salad sandwich, fruit and a chicken and veg curry. Horrifying indeed.

As a short term SW member, I intend to stay on plan for life.....I am not on a diet, this is a lifestyle change.

I won't eat take aways, mc Donald's or any crappy processed food for the rest of my life. Why?? Because the above has contributed to the decline in my mental health for years.

I've not known when I'm eating or what & ive struggled with my weight for absolute years.....I've now grown absolute sick of it & have adopted a new lifestyle which is slightly regimented however over time will become the norm to me.

I haven't eaten bread in weeks
I haven't eaten chocolate
Nor crisps or takeaways

When I was stuck in hospital, I desperately missed my healthy meals.

I eat on average 7 syns a day, however, 4 aren't actually necessary as I buy a type of rice for lunch at work for convenience.

What I've come to realise is, hunger doesn't make you skinny, a healthy food plan which involves enough food does.

To be able to do the above & stick to it, you need to make it a part of your life.....not willing to fall off the wagon simply out of convenience &! Also understanding that should you do? Tomorrow is another day, write off today & start afresh.

I think the key message I take away is that it's fine to have the occasional takeaway. It was my birthday yesterday, I have friends coming over tonight and I will have a takeaway with them. BUT I am still on plan until this evening and I will be straight back in plan tomorrow. My goal this week is not to gain weight but to maintain...if I lose then that's a bonus.

For me it's unrealistic to say I will never have another takeaway because I will but that has to be an occasional choice and not a weekly one ...not that it ever was a weekly choice.

Had porridge for breakfast which fills me up until lunch ...I usually have a banana mid morning then lunch is cold meat and salad.

Not coming back op??

Sw isn't for me personally - I'd eat too much and prefer ww. Ww also has a plan called filling and healthy which is made up of free foods - you still need to have an element of portion control.

If someone has a fair bit of weight to lose and they cut crap out for healthy food they will lose weight.

Sorry, just seen someone ask why I'd not come back, not gonna lie I've not read all the responses but the ones I read seemed pretty pissed off - .

Perhaps the people I've encountered are slightly misinformed or following the diet wrong, ultimately weight loss is due to a calorie deficit and judging by what these people eat/say they eat I am baffled as to how this is happening.

If you'd rather pick me up on one word used in the title rather than the actual content of my post then um, OK. I dunno, just something about these slimming clubs in general just doesn't sit well with me.

It's a bit rude to start a thread criticising something and then not read all the responses from people trying to answer your question.

I find it an easy plan to follow. Lost 3.5st on 2005 and kept it off until 2009 when I became ill. Now back in the zone. We've had no take aways in the 5 weeks I've been back. I cook using the recipes where quite a few of them are just simple ingredients from my cupboard.

My downfall is crisps. Instead of reaching for crisps, I now go for something else like sugar snap peas and carrots. I've been known to have 5-7 packets a day. This makes me not have any until Saturday night when I get nice ones to share with Dh.

My consultant says to eat until you feel full and not to stuff it in for the sake of it. As I have reflux issues, I have been feeling ok since starting it now off my medication until a procedure and it's been a struggle to find things which do not upset my tummy.

My friend uses my fitness pal. She's within calories but often misses any fruits or veg for a huge plate of gravy after a class.

it's a bit rude to start a thread criticising something and then not read all the responses from people trying to answer your question.

Agree. Esp considering some people were saying things you may agree with!

Slimming world works for massive people because if you have 5+ stone to lose you must be eating shit loads to start with - so slimming world gives these people guidance in eating "healthier" (I say healthier however, if you consider fat free muller lights and various other chemical loaded crap healthy then there is your issue with food!!!)

However, if you don't have much to lose, it won't work. I tried it - I had a stone to lose and I put weight ON with slimming world as I was just eating carb after carb.

Calorie counting along with lowering carbs is the way to go for anyone not already really fat

No Ripped it's about eating until you feel full and not loading up with carbs, no more than a third of my plate is carb. If I loaded up with carbs I would gain weight too.

It's about eating more healthily. If I am hungry between meals I have a bit of fruit or even (shock horror) a Mullerlight yoghurt. And I don't eat those yoghurts daily either. Thing is that they may be chemical crap but if someone is eating poorly before starting this way of eating then a Mullerlight yoghurt is nothing in comparison.

Most of my food is fresh and cooked from scratch, I adapt recipes I e used for years and I am losing weight.

It works even if you only have a stone to lose but not if you overindulge in carbs as you discovered to your cost.

SW works. However I do believe that it still encourages large portions when really you shouldn't eat portions large than both your fists combined. So when people come off the diet and keep the portion sizes bigger they are more likely to put on weight again.

Do it and keep your the portions reasonable and you should be fine.

Or do as I'm doing and count calories.

Yes I suppose if you've previously eaten another to get 5 stone overweight then the odd muller light isn't going to make you anymore unhealthy than you already are.

I get that SW helps people lose weight but it tends to be such an unhealthy way of eating. I once had a colleague who would sit down to lunch at work with a mug shot, muller light yogurt and curly wurly. Yes she was losing weight but it's hardly a healthy lifestyle to adopt is it?

(I acknowledge that you don't have to do the diet like this, but if you're bad for making unhealthy choices - hence why you would be overweight in the first place, you are surely more likely to choose a mugshot over a salad?

Ooh her take on SW is what got her overweight in the first place. I take chicken salad to work which I prep at home.

I don't think SW would recommend that daily either fwiw.

The only thing I find wrong with SW is how difficult people find it to understand the rules.

The rule is one third fruit and veg. A muller lite is free when served with fruit not when eaten alone. You couldn't eat many if served that way.

Any meal you make must have one third of the plate vegetables or fruit.

The overall calorie intake for me was higher but GI lower, I lost 6 stone in two years.

Okay as an example.

It's Sunday and I've had a cooked breakfast made without using fat.
We've used bacon medallions, Heck chicken sausages and eggs. DS has had baked beans but a third of my plate is tinned tomatoes which is a speed food. Very low in calories.

Lunchtime will be turkey sandwich and salad plus Lidl snack tomatoes which I've developed a bit of an addiction to.

Tonight we have beef casserole done in the slow cooker ...already on. I will serve that with potatoes alone as there is lots of added veg in the casserole. The potatoes will take up a quarter of my plate.

In between I will have fruit and make sure I am drinking water or tea/coffee.

I may have a Mullerlight...or I may not. If I do then their orange one is gorgeous.

In addition to this I can have between 5-15 syns a day...syns are foods which contain a lot of calories, fat or sugar. I refuse to syn avocado as I love it. I generally have half in a salad. and I am still losing weight.

I generally add my syns in cooking such as gravy etc but once a week sit down with a milky coffee and a four finger KitKat (11.5 syns for the Kitkat). I make the coffee from skimmed milk and that's part of an allowance each day.

I don't need to go to SW to do this but I find the support helpful and I love the recipes. We've tried out several with great success here. There are some I won't touch though....cauliflower base for pizza anyone? For the support I get I can cope with the happy clappy atmosphere. My consultant is fabulous, knows the eating plan inside out and has lost weight herself using it. She's had a break to have a baby and has 10lbs to lose....she's losing again now.

I've lost a 13.5lbs in 4 weeks following the SW plan. Free foods don't mean calorie-free, just no need to weigh - and portion size is emphasised both in group, online and in the magazine. I wouldn't lose weight if I only ate pasta, rice, noodles and potatoes all day. It is ultimately healthy eating, and I find it a very easy plan to follow, no expensive food required, and it works.

It's easy to rip apart something ......

What many people need to understand about SW, and WW / Scottish Slimmers and every other group, is that for those folk going half the battle is mental, it's in your (my) head. Completely agree that weight loss is "just" taking in fewer calories than I need. I'm a perfectly intelligent person who does know that a mars bar has more calories than a apple. I'm not thick ..... yet I respond well to group support, even if it can be a bit happy-flappy at times.

Yeah, rip the pi$$ out of mullerlights if you want for being full of chemical crap or whatever ..... but for many folk, and I include myself, it's about making just A change. One change at a time.

I've been doing SW for a year now, and have lost almost 4 1/2 stone. This is the first time in my life I've lost so much, and could lose another couple of stone, and keep it off.

But you know what has worked for me? Eating fewer ready meals, and cooking more from scratch. Eating a huge amount less chocolate, crisps, white bread and takeaways. Drinking far less wine. I've just snacked this lazy Sunday afternoon on a packet of blueberries, a year ago it would have been a family-size bag or 2 of chocolates (and I'm a family of just me!)

Yeah, ok, I've had a few Mullerlights in that year ..... and unlimited amounts of potatoes. Clearly I've taken in fewer calories than i needed. But I said earlier it's one step at a time ..... I'm 4 1/2 stone down, I'm a damn sight fitter than I was a year ago. Maybe I'll cut down on the mullerlights next ..... but you know what, I'm not perfect, I'm just a normal woman who wants to improve her health. Note that I said "improve" ..... it may never be some folks' idea of "perfect" or "clean" or whatever, but I suspect there's a lot "imperfect" about other folks' lives I could rip apart

Im also horrified with SW. Not the plan though. The plan works very well for most people.
Its the actual SW classes that horrify me.

The only thing that 'bothers' me about SW is that fat-free products such as yoghurts are free foods... how are they 'free' if they have refined sugar in them?

drquin bloody well said.

And well done on your loss.

llama the classes are horrific. My consultant keeps telling me she loves me. I find myself thinking 'fuck off' repeatedly...but in a perverse way, they do really help (for me!)

"how are they 'free' if they have refined sugar in them?"

They don't generally, the 'sugar' listed in the nutrional information is lactose and fructose, the same sugar you'd have eating plain yoghurt and added fruit.

They do have a load of weird chemicals, that plain yoghurt and fruit wouldn't have, but they have the same sugar and calorie content.

My whole family needed to lose weight and between us we have lost 11stone.

Wow! Well done to you all, that is amazing!