Slimming world fail

[Beachcountrysidetown]

Slimming world has left me fat, tired, unfit and addicted to sugar.
Their whole concept is rubbish (for me) the fact that a chocolate bar has less syns than an avacardo or handful of nuts is mad and has left me in a state where if I don’t have sugar I get a headache. Two healthy extras being those hi fi bars is also mad - they are full of sugar and no nutritional benefits except a bit of fibre.
I have become frightened of normal foods and never know what to eat as in obsessed with counting a fictional number of points is supposed “bad” food.
The weigh in is crazy - everyone has starved them self all day to then binge on quavers and hi fi bars after their weigh in. Not being able to eat freshly prepared sausages from the butcher as the syns are unknown but able to eat processed crap sausages with the SW branding....
I never exercised as it really isn’t a thing with SW. Yes there’s mentions of body magic but that’s it - getting steps in for body magic if you want to but I was constantly told it’s not needed unless you want to. Thanks to SW I am in the worst shape of my life and I have a good 12 month fight to get my fitness, diet and weight back on track in a healthy way.
Rant. Over.

I beg to differ. Slimming World has changed my life and has made me feel and look a better person after losing four stone. By no means do I advocate sugar but that's up to you to educate yourself on that. They do not promote you to eat sugar, it is simply there as a free food / syn value so it is up to you to decide whether you want to have it or not. I don't eat sugar laden food on SW like Muller Lights or sugar in my coffee and tea and I just opt for natural sweeteners and syn it instead.

I'm not on Instagram so can't comment on that, but surely the point of portion control is eating to your appetite? My portion size is going to be very different to a 6ft man's.
If a 3rd of every meal is veg then that naturally limits your portions. You don't need to weigh and measure everything.

dragon it's obvious to me, yes but maybe not that obvious to someone who is being sold hifi bars and whatever else.

I think slimming world like to promote the "look how much food you can eat and still lose weight" angle and therein lies the issue really. The sheer volume of what some people put away because it's "free" is astounding.

It definitely depends on your group leader because you might have one who advocates lots of green veg and chicken but another might be going at the muller lights and sweeteners angle.

I think people give up on it easily because they don't seem to actually understand exactly how Slimming World works. The "free" foods should only be consumed if it is accompanied with at least a 1/3rd of your plate with speed food. Slimming World promotes healthy cooking and eating. Lots of examples include things you'd buy completely processed like homemade lasagnas, cottage pie, hunters chicken, passata instead of dolmio sauces, herbs and spices rather than buy packets of seasonings (which works out more expensive).

Free food should not be misused, known as a tweak. If you tweak recipes by coating chicken with smash, using rice pudding and diet drinks as a dessert or making couscous cake then no doubt you are definitely harming your weight loss!

I first did SW almost 20 years ago, when I was a 10st (I'm 5ft 7") 17 year old. Have done it a few times over the years, only ever having a stone to lose each time to get me back into a healthy BMI/size 14.

Although it helped me learn to cook (sin-free bolognese and chilli mostly!) I swear it has messed me up. Back then it was all "eat as much pasta and potatoes as you want! Don't ever be hungry!". So I've spent my entire adult life being afraid to be hungry. I was scared of sugar so used sweeteners, would have one or two cans of Pepsi Max a day, and a Mug Shot, because they're "free". It was only when I became a parent 7 years ago and started to read packets and do research that I realised how unhealthy it was.

The last time I went was beginning of last Year, and to be fair the consultant was pushing the Body Magic (though did trot out the usual "you don't have to exercise to lose weight on this plan"), and starchy carbs are now limited. They do try to encourage you to fill half your plate with fresh veg or salad, which they didn't do before.

But Yeah, the Consultant used to say she'd use up all her Syns on an entire box of High Fi bars?!

I'm now reading a book called Eating Less and hoping that helps me shift the pesky stone that's crept back on for the umpteenth time.

Ha can see the slimming world crew have come on to represent how do you think they make money? Cos the mugs keep going back as soon as they put the weight back on as they think eating a ton of pasta and crumpets is ok!
Or they can have ten warby thins or bath in a bath of miller light while gorging on quavers.

Dh has lost over six stone on sw. He's lost consistently for 18 months. His group has encouraged activity, he now swims or does a class at least four days in seven. The only time a muller light comes in the house is when it's used in baked oats. For dinner tonight he eat the same risotto as me, he just measured the amount of goats cheese he ate, and counted syns for the wine and butter.

The group I was at was full of people a few years down the line... all talking about how they were "back on it".

They do promote you to eat sugar - their hi fi bars are full of sugar. They promote miller lights as they are “free” and they promote powder packet pasta kits - all bloody full
of processed crap and SUGAR.
No you don’t have to eat them - but they are a huge part of the diet weather you like it or not.
And no - I wasn’t worried my friend would trick me into eating unhealthy food - I just didn’t want to sound bat shit but asking gram for gram what was in her lovely soup.
I’m not “fat because I made myself that way” I joined a slimming club to shift a stone. Giving the same syn value to chocolate as healthy food such as avocado is madness and teaches a lot of people to make bad nutrition choices.
I’m pleased it works for a lot of people - but for a vast amount of people it simply creates a yo yo effect.

I did sw for all of 3 days. I put on 7lbs and my stomach was so bloated that I actually thought my skin was going to rip and I have never farted so much in all my life.
I wasn't even eating the free foods.

I had one of their ready meals and couldn't finish it because it was so big.

Friend has lost several stones on it and swears by it but even she admits her stomach is abnormally distended

I'm glad op has started to cook healthy foods. Being scared of food or mesuring everything all of the time isn't good. Yes mabey to begin with to shrink portions or get a general idea but otherwise eat as much vedge as you like. I find the midsets of dieters can get scary.

Yes a sugary bar may have less cals but longterm weight loss is from eating fibrous and slow releasing foods not needing a bar all the time.

I so want to start my own food lifestyle club for overeaters because half the problem is looking at weight instead of body composition of fat and muscle and water. If you lose a pound it could just be it's water weight! I'd ban the scales!!

I had been a SlimmingWorld member for a while and lost weight ok but just felt I got to a point where I wanted to understand more about nutrition and how to fuel my body properly. I had been relying on tons of fruit and sweet snacks which just weren't giving me enough energy to cope with my day. I wanted to be strong, lean and feel great.
I'm now a member of team RH and feel the best ever. I'm also at my lowest weight ever and the fittest I've ever been. Well worth a look if you want a long term answer and a whole fresh look at eating.

Do people realise when you reach your target weight you actually get a free SW membership as long as your weight doesn't go above and/below 3lb either way? So I don't think they are just all about money! I am happy spending it until I get to my target then go from there. It's worked for me and it is the first diet I've tried, very convenient and fits in with my family too.

Every single person I know on slimming world has poked the weight back on at some point!

Poked?! Piled

But Beach even if you do choose to eat hi fi bars you can only have max 1 a day right?

You sound a bit obsessive about wanting to know gram for gram what is in a vegetable soup - the whole point is you don't have to weigh or measure vegetables, potatoes, beans. What were you scared of?

Again syn values just give a simple way of tracking calories, if you choose to use calories on a bar of Galaxy instead of an avocado then that is down to no one but you.

It sounds like you want a very strict diet that is all done for you and you don't have to make any choices yourself.

This is funny!

OP, slimming world is about choices.

I choose lean meat or fish veg and potatoes/rice/pasta. I choose whole meal toast for my extra B. I choose fruit not chocolate. I choose veg stick and dips not mullerlights. I choose exercise not laziness. I also choose butchers sausages and don't concern myself over the syn value bc they are much better quality and meat content than others.

Basically I chose to loose weight. You didn't.

It's not SW to blame. It's you.

milky yes but 3lb is nothing and a lot of people could put that on overnight. The point is that it's not sustainable long term and chances are you will go back when you've put it all back on!

Syn values beinh directly related to calories is ridiculous when there is so much crap which is "free" - does that not have any calories then?

Yes they could but they give you another week to get it off or back down again so they're not unreasonable. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but SW has worked for a lot of people and have been successful on it. Fair enough it does "promote" food that people who are clean eating wouldn't consume but isn't it about choices? If they want to drink Diet Pepsi then they can, if they want to eat mug shots, they can! We don't feel like we are missing out.

Try teamrh fitness on Facebook, bloody brilliant

Making - all food has calories. Syns are your extra 'treat' calories. Sometimes I use them on wine and chocolate, sometimes on butter or nuts.

Olivers - what on earth did you eat to put on 7lbs?

You could feel like that doing any sensible diet though realistically. But sw will never work long term - like when you stop attending groups etc - Because it doesn't teach you anything anything I dont think.

A lot of people say it teaches you to eat lean meat and veg but so do most diets and that's surely just common sense anyway.

childmindingmum yes I know that, what im saying is all food does have calories. So eating a shit tonne of "free" food is still putting away hundreds of calories. But you can only eat limited amounts of some calories. They both make you put on the same amount of weight.

If you eat to your appetite and 1/3 your plate is green veg then you can't really eat a shit ton of anything though can you?