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?

OP i believed you anyway but even more so after reading this.

www.the-pool.com/news-views/opinion/2018/28/Lily-Peschardt-on-Slimming-World

encouraging members to "spend less time with overweight friends"

I like that some posters here are aware that these business models are a load of crap. If they worked (and stayed working) for most people then they’d have no business.

Anyway, I’m currently reading an amazing book called Fat is a Feminist Issue. I’m
Finding it an utter revelation. I think some of you here may find it’s the book for you too:

If you like the group and find it helpful overall why not challenge the leader when/if she does this? I would just say something like 'as I just mentioned to you, I'm not comfortable with having my gains called out' or similar. You might find a lot of support within the group to this stance and it might wake her up to how inappropriate it is to do this against someone's wishes.

Ultimately if she persists, she'll lose customers, which is stupid. I've never been to a group where the consultant would do this if the person wasn't happy about it.

After seeing the article linked above i dont think Slimming World particularly cares about peoples happiness.

That Pool article reads like satire. SW is besmirching the legacy of the Salem witch trials by using the phrase 'body magic' and they are demonising food and linking it to hellfire and damnation by using the phrase 'syns' - I mean come on.

I don't go to SW anymore and I'd have plenty of my own criticisms of its methods but that article is ridiculous.

When I went I think they would just mention that you had gained but did it in a supportive way and would ask if you had had a difficult week and there was no finger wagging if you admitted to have had a great weekend drinking and eating, just good advice as to how to get back on track.

If you are unhappy about it then let them know but everyone is surely in the same boat????

Weeeeelllll....I'm not on board with how they put the "spend less time with fat friends", but there is research that indicates that your eating habits are very easily influenced by the people that you're around and eating with.

So if you spend time with slow eaters, you eat more slowly. You spend time with pickers, you pick. You spend time with people who overeat, you may be more liable to overeat. Because we're social creatures, it seems like we may synch with the people around us, and that includes eating habits.

I assume that's the thinking behind this. It's not meant to imply that you drop your friends because now you're skinny, you're better than them.

That pool article is a load of rubbish - I’ve got that booklet, it’s a list of percentages of target members polled and it says, 4% of target members spend less time with overweight friends... so 96% don’t....

That’s not encouraging people to do it.

Saying gains is about making them not shameful, just factual... which they actually mention when you join - though if you’ve specifically said that you don’t want a gain mentioned they are supposed to respect that.

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

Absolutely horrendous!!!

I lost 4.5 stones so freaking SLOWLY (my body wouldn't do it faster - steroids) - think 4 years. Frustrating at the time, but grateful I never suffered the way you did, you poor thing.

We all want the weight off quickly, but I am surprised people who should know better encourage this!