SlimmingWorld Fat-Shaming

[jayjay007]

I have been going to SlimmingWorld for over a year and it's probably my third or fourth time with them over the last 25 years.

I have now lost just under 3 stone and love the amount of food I can eat and the general healthy way of eating.

However, over the last few months, it appears that the consultants are announcing the amount people have put on if they had a bad week. In the past they only announced the loss not the gain.

When I asked the consultant why they were doing this, she said they have always done this, which is not true. In the past they would say, not had a good week or have lost in total X amount.

I feel very upset about this and when I asked not to have my gains read out, she did it anyway. I'm not a masochist and feel less inclined to go and pay my weekly fee to be fat-shamed in front of 30 or 40 other people.

Very disappointed and when you make any complaint to HQ they say it's up to the consultant!

Has anyone else had this issue or maybe people don't mind their gains being shouted out?

This sounds really awful! I haven't tried Slimming World but many years ago I tried Weight Watchers but left because I wasn't happy with how it was run and didn't receive helpful answers when I asked questions. I would not be happy having my gains shouted out. Do you have another club near you so you could have different consultants?

It's hardly fat shaming you. Can you take the emotion out of it and just view it as fact. Loss one week, gain the next, it's about the total overall, not each individual step. I think you need to adjust your reaction and response to it tbh.

jayjay

Ive been twice and they never said a gain....sounds like its a new thing

And i think it would be very antiproductive

Slimming World online....only you will know

No they havent always done this...............certainly not while i was losing weight with them and i had three different consultants.

Its also really unfair as you sometimes cant help a gain as your weight fluctuates while you are losing I went from 21 stone down to 11 but i got stuck at 17 stone 9 for a good few weeks.

But i did lose the first 7 stone in 7 months which gave me gallstones. And i was told this was the cause by the medical professionals treating me for the condition. I became very ill and suffered EXCRUTIATING pain and had to go on morphine and eventually lost the job i had at the time This was 2002/2003 so just before social media and before it was more well known that fast weight loss could cause it. I had to wait nearly ten months to have my gall bladder removed and in the last 3 months before the op could not even eat SOLID food and was living on water biscuits and slim a soups. It was hell. And pre morphine i was mixing all sorts together like paracetamol tramadol etc ANYTHING to stop the pain.

It is fucking irresponsible for these slimming companies to be encouraging fast weight loss and applauding the faster the better. Thats bad enough on its own.

To read out gains as well would exacerbate this kind of situation even more.

I have never had my gains or losses announced to the group - I wouldn't go if they did. They just ask who has had a good/bad week - say who lost the most etc. If they want to make money then they need to encourage people to keep going back. I am sure this must be down to your group leader - could you find another group?

JayJay. Firstly, well done for taking care of your health. Your loss is a massive achievement.

I have no experience of SW (went once, didn’t like the way they singled out members without expressed consent) but I clerked for WW for a number of years.

SW is a franchise, which is why they leave so much up to the consultants. Each one is a essentially a business in their own right. If you don’t like your current consultant’s ways of doing things you have two options. 1) change to a different class/consultant or 2) mobilise. I guarantee no one else in your class likes being fat shamed either. Write a short letter stating this and get your entire class to sign it. Your consultant won’t like it, but they’ll suck it up for the sake of their business.

Good luck!

Why do you need to go to a meeting at all? There are hundreds of online slimming groups.

I think sw and ww are not helpful to any women as their business model relies on women gaining back the weight and returning again and again. The meetings sound like the 7th circle of hell to me even without the shouting out your weight. There's a fantastically supportive low carb bootcamp forum on MN which I'd highly recommend, and where no-one is making any money out of women's struggles with eating.

Your weight naturally fluctuates up and down day to day regardless of actual body fat gained/lost. This can be down to water levels, whether you need a poo etc

It does seem a bit silly to call this out

There is no shame in a gain happens to all of us at some point I've been a consultant twelve years we have always done I usually say had a gain, small gain, scales were mean but also say the amount sometimes

@HelenaDove I believe rapid weight loss was the cause of my gallstones too...I lost 30 pounds in 6 weeks. I didn't know then that taking ursodiol can stop gallstones forming when on a rapid weight loss diet. My gastroenterologist also said it is really bad for our health.

I have used SW a couple of times and they never announced gains and as a private person I would have been mortified if that happened. Felt uncomfortable having losses announced tbh.

I used to go to one years ago and, to be honest, can't remember which company it was. I do remember that everyone just used to step on the scales and the consultant said whether you'd lost weight or put it on. That was actually part of the motivation for me, the thought of going there and looking bad in front of everyone made me determined not to put any on.

The very first time i attended a slimming class was back in 1994 I cant remember whether that was SW or WW I only attended one class ..................i distinctly remember the women who had had a slight gain ..............each of them were given a little wooden elephant by the "consultant" I never went back to that one .........or attended another slimming class until 2002. (see above)

Milly thats great but like i and other posters have said...........your weight fluctuates. If you are constipated or if your period is late...........my last one was 31 days ago. Im not having sex so its not pregnancy, Im 45 and gearing up for the change.

Kyan this is the first time ive heard of ursodial.

Hey @jayjay007

That sounds really crappy and counterproductive.

Some groups recommend blind weigh ins where you don't know the exact number but they give you the gist of whether you're on track or not. Helps to keep from obsessing and creating disordered eating patterns.

Also, you might not know this (most people don't) but it's actually pretty dumb for women to compare their weight to the previous week. Like, REALLY dumb. Your weight naturally fluctuates throughout your cycle. You are the lowest a few days after your period starts, then it generally goes up, down, WAY up, then back down to the lowest point again. That happens every month. It's only sensible to compare your weight to the same point in your previous cycle. Usually the lowest point (just after the start of menstruation) will give the most accurate reading - once a month weigh in. But if you want to weigh in weekly then just make sure you're not comparing it to last week but to 4 weeks ago.

If you're losing weight pretty quickly or you naturally have small fluctuations this effect will be camouflaged by your overall weightloss. E.g. If you are consistently losing 0.5kg (of actual fat) a week your scales might read:
69.0, 68.8, 68.1, 68.2, 67.0

However if you naturally have more significant weight fluctuations or you're losing weight slowly compared to your fluctuations the scales might read something more like:
69.0, 69.2, 68.3, 69.4, 67.0
Even though you're making exactly the same consistent progress as the other person, it's hidden by your body's natural tides.

The problem with this is if you're weighing in weekly and you're not aware of this effect you're going to get really discouraged when you're trying so hard and yet APPARENTLY going backwards! Especially because the time when your weight is likely to be at the highest fluctuation is also likely to be right around the time when you're PMS-y, emotional, and actually need extra food anyway (scientific fact - the week before you bleed your BMR increases and you need about 600kj extra per day), so it tends to trigger a 'what's the point' binge.

Just thought that might be useful info for you, it certainly helps me. Also a longer time frame between weigh ins helps me to focus less on the individual 'mistakes' and more on the overall picture. A burger here, a bag of M&Ms there, in a week that will completely derail your progress but in a month, if you're doing the right stuff the rest of the time, it's actually not that big of a deal.

I am BloodMagic and this has been your weekly Period Public Service Announcement

Apparently it's their new policy to do this. I met a new consultant who said they were told to do this at their training.

When I asked my consultant about it she said that its her judgement call on it and if she felt it necessary she would do it. I asked for her not to do it for me and she still did.

Perhaps theyve been reading the fat shaming threads on AIBU and have realized they can get away with it in the current climate!

Bloodmagic thankyou for your very informative post

I stopped staying at meetings because of off the cringey clapping at peoples losses and fake commiserating with peoples gains. It all felt completely weird!

I stopped going to commercial weight loss groups because I got really sick of all the pseudoscience that got spouted at them and, in some cases, the inflexibility. This was even true of an NHS-run one that I did.

Somebody would get on the scales and find out they'd put a pound on, but insist that they stuck to the plan and even done a bit of exercise. And you could guarantee someone would say "oh, you've probably just gained muscle." It was much more likely they were ovulating or just coming up to their period, but this idea that you can gain a pound of muscle in a week just by walking to the shops got spouted even by the group leader.

The NHS one was a bit better re the science but they refused to consider changing the calorie target for individual people, so everyone was on 1400 per day, regardless of whether they were tall or short, old or young, if they had several stone to lose or a few pounds. My weight loss simply stalled because I needed less than 1400 calories but they were totally rigid about it. Now I just do it myself at home and go with what works .

jayjay i wouldnt be attending a class where boundaries arent respected.

jayjay007 I agree with HelenaDove, if the consultant refuses to respect your boundaries (rather than had a moment of forgetfulness) then it feels like the T&C of your participation have changed.

GraceMarks - 1400cals? I might need that on a particularly active day but if I ate that on a sedentary day (i.e., most weekdays) then I wouldn't maintain my current weight, I'd gain.