Ex Slimming World Disordered Eating Recovery #2 Underestimating Our Desire To Eat Pasta

[Noseyparier21]

I've been sat for a while reading through these threads and it's helping me so much.

My mam did Slimming World when I was growing up and as a child who was a little bit chunky I also was encouraged to follow it. I can remember being 11 years old at school and having 2 fish fingers and a small scoop of beans for dinner because it was only 4 syns and it was all I could eat within my 10 syn allowance. I think from then my relationship with food has just got worse and worse and Slimming World has a lot to do with it.

Following SW from 11+ I got into the mindset of if it's free food I can eat it and have as much as I wanted whether I was hungry or not. So that meant Supernoodles for breakfast and as a late night snack! I then started to binge as I was restricting myself so much, I can remember making myself a crumble packet mix and just eating it all. Then came the cycle of going to SW classes, weighing in and then having a 'cheat day' where I would consume a fried breakfast, a family size bag of revels and a takeaway for tea as well as snacks throughout the day. Then I would feel incredibly guilty and try and not eat until weigh day.

Fast forward to 2018-19 I managed to lose 2 1/2 stone and through CC, but I was having 1200-1400 calories a Mon-Fri and then as soon as I stepped off the scales on Saturday morning I would eat whatever I wanted until Monday. So even though I was losing weight I was still in that cycle.

Covid hit and I started working from home and put all the weight back on. June this year I was the heaviest and most miserable I have ever been and knew I needed to change! I have lost 6lb so far since June and trying to change my mindset. I'm trying to get out of bingeing at weekends, allowing myself things that I had wrote off as not being able to eat because they were too many syns, and telling myself its ok to have toast for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch which is one of the main things I struggle with!

Longgg post but I've never even typed how I felt about SW before and just had to get it out

 

[no-no]

So your son buys you a gift and all you’re worried about is syns? So glad I got out of this cult

It’s sugar free lemonade ffs. And no need to qualify he’s autistic but at least it got her 166 comments

 

[InkHeart]

Thank you for starting the topic! I had no idea I wasn't the only one.

I struggled with my weight a lot when I was in my early 20s, but I really hated myself so I would starve myself a lot, then end up binge eating, then starving again, etc. It was so shit because Drs were horrible to me about gaining weight, as if they just thought I was being complacent, when actually I hated myself and was damaging myself just like a thin person with an eating disorder.

Anyway, I didn't realise the extent of my problems. I didn't realise I was mentally ill, I thought I just had to stop being greedy. So when I went to a doctor wanting to lose weight, she told me to join SW.

I felt very self conscious there and I hated it. I had bad anxiety and just hated the atmosphere of forced cheeriness and clapping. I also hated that if someone hadn't lost weight, the group leader would single them out and say that this diet was perfect and if they weren't losing weight they must be lying about what they were eating.

I still couldn't stop binge eating, so I started to panic really badly if I had even one bar of chocolate, because it would show up on the scales. I felt like I couldn't live a normal life or see friends because my whole brain was consumed with having to eat a certain way. When I got praised at the group for losing weight, I knew I had to pretend to be happy, but I just hated all that attention on my body and felt like I could burst into tears.

Eventually I was getting such bad panic attacks thinking about going to SW that I just stopped going. After a couple of months, the group leader messaged me asking if I wanted to start going again. I replied with a short and sweet message about how unfortunately I'd developed an eating disorder and felt that being pushed to lose weight was making me behave dangerously (starving and bingeing, being obsessive and depressed). Then this bloody woman had the gall to reply "Do you think coming back to group would help with that?" Absolutely disgusting. Not even an "I'm sorry to hear that", just right into pushing her MLM on me. (Is SW an MLM? Idk, feels like one).

Years later I saw a therapist who specialised in eating disorders, and she said that the worst thing my GP could have done was tell me to go to SW. She said that eating disorders like mine were best treated without mentioning your weight at all, but by improving your mental health to the point that you don't starve yourself which ends up making you so hungry that you binge.

Oh heck, I made myself cry writing this. I hope reading my story might help someone else!

 

[Carapop]

Honestly, this may be dramatic but I really feel like slimming world ruined my relationship with food and my life tbh. I actually featured in one of their magazines at one point and was so extremely focused on the diet. I developed bulimia and restricted food so much I was severely underweight, I weighed about 6 and a half stone at my lowest. My mum suffered with an eating disorder too (not as a result of slimming world) and so nobody in my life really stopped me, I also had a job where the desired look was to be skinny.
I had a baby two years ago and found my relationship with food improving, I practically recovered and gained about5 stone overall.
I recently re joined slimming world and all those toxic habits have come flooding back. I allow myself treats on weigh days only which usually result in bingeing and purging. I recently went on a holiday over Easter and gained 1/2lb whilst I was there, I had had some extra treats but was still staying ‘on plan’ whilst there. My’consultant’ text me the next day as I don’t usually stay for group and said she’d noticed I’d had a gain, I should stay for group if I’m wanting to be serious about this and to remember ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’. I have decided to stop going to group and to continue to try and lose weight in a healthier way. I can’t understand the mind set of these consultants who are completely brainwashed into texting someone to force them into staying to their cult group and making them feel guilty over a 1/2 pound weight gain?

sorry for the depressing post but I thought I’d share some of my fave slimming world meals I used to eat religiously
- scan bran crushed with yoghurt
- quark with options hot chocolate powder
- fat free cottage cheese on scan bran
- Weetabix muffins
- crustless quiche
- Lynda mcartney sausages (not a vegetarian and I was somehow convinced by other members that they were delicious)
- quorn chicken nuggets (that Harry lad on insta convinced me they tasted like Maccies ones!)
- frozen muller yoghurt as ‘ice cream’
-I also remember furiously googling whether I could have mashed banana in my porridge or whether I would need to ‘syn’ it

thank you ladies for helping me see the light
---

This happened to me too!! I was in one of their magazines, I don’t want to put myself but they basically made me out to be some fat virgin and thanks to slimming world I had found the love of my life etc etc, couldn’t be further from the truth considering I had a baby at 16 and didn’t join slimming world until I was 20 they didn’t even mention my child in their interview! Just wanted to suit their narrative that slimming world had made me ‘attractive’ and now I’d finally found a boyfriend, something chubby girls could NEVER!

My darling girl, 1/2 lb isn’t a gain, it’s a poo.

 

[Souffle]

My darling girl, 1/2 lb isn’t a gain, it’s a poo.

1/2 isn’t a gain, it’s a poo

has to be a thread suggestion

 

[Souffle]

I posted on this thread or the previous one a while ago. After 20+ years of dieting and disordered eating I finally self referred myself to the eating disorder service. I’ve had a bit of a wait (roughly 3 months) but now I’m finally getting some help for my binge eating disorder. In my first assessments I’ve mentioned SW several times and how it’s affected my perception of food and “good” and “bad” foods. I’m really hoping that I can finally change and give up dieting for good.

 

[ohhhhlaaaaa]

Hello! I’m new to this thread but I quit my class a few weeks ago after coming to my senses. I done a little experiment with myself and done a full strict week ‘syn and free food tracking’ and then a full week calorie counting and it turns out I was actually eating WAAAAAAAY more calories on slimming world than what’s actually bloody healthy!!! 🫣🫣 no wonder the scales weren’t moving/going up! Anyway I’ve decided now to start calorie counting and lost 8lbs already…while eating food I enjoy IM FREE OF SYNS

 

[KingBabar]

I walked away last week. I've descended into madness... weighing clothes to find the lightest, not wearing underwear to weigh in, purging, barely eating for 2 days before weigh day amongst other things. I've never had a very good relationship with food, but it's now much worse. I had an appointment with the practice nurse this morning for something unrelated. She asked if I had a good diet and it all came tumbling out. She made me an appointment to see the gp next week. It's a start.

 

[Squittel]

Went to the doctor about being fat. It went ok. The doctor looked at me like I was a piece of shit (expected, that particular doctor is never very friendly) was offered Slimming World membership which I turned down because I refuse to go down that route again. She almost rolled her eyes like I was making excuses for myself. But I have been offered significantly subsidised gym membership - access to the gym, all classes and the pool which is great! I was so enthusiastic I think I gave the doctor a shock I haven’t started yet as I have to have an appointment with a special man at the gym who specialises in the fat folk and he seems to only work one day a week

Importantly though, I have started calorie counting. This is a massive deal for me because believe it or not I used to have an eating disorder and I used to even count calories in toothpaste (in case I accidentally swallowed some), I used to give blood just to make my body work harder and use more calories, I binged, I purged etc etc and was very small.

The whole experience pretty much gave me PTSD, when I came out the other side of it I would have an anxiety attack if I was hungry, I never looked at calories for fear of setting myself off again. And that’s when my weight swung the other way.

I am determined to do it right this time. I am already down 2 pounds. It’s not much but it’s a start.

No stupid slimming world. Just healthy eating and more exercise. Wish me luck!

 

[ChubClubThug]

This morning I rolled out of bed and decided to catch an early film at the cinema. Rushed out the door without anything to eat and drink, so I grabbed a large iced latte and caramel cake slice from Starbucks. It was around 600 cals but it didn't matter at all because I've still got over 1050 for the rest of the day. Which is loads if you're savy. If I was still on SW I'd have been panicking that I'd ruined my diet, so I may as well continue eating shite! It really puts it into perspective how stupid syns are and all that crap. No need for it at all.

If you're reading this and thinking about joining again- don't do it you don't need it

 

[Just having a nose]

Honestly, this may be dramatic but I really feel like slimming world ruined my relationship with food and my life tbh. I actually featured in one of their magazines at one point and was so extremely focused on the diet. I developed bulimia and restricted food so much I was severely underweight, I weighed about 6 and a half stone at my lowest. My mum suffered with an eating disorder too (not as a result of slimming world) and so nobody in my life really stopped me, I also had a job where the desired look was to be skinny.
I had a baby two years ago and found my relationship with food improving, I practically recovered and gained about5 stone overall.
I recently re joined slimming world and all those toxic habits have come flooding back. I allow myself treats on weigh days only which usually result in bingeing and purging. I recently went on a holiday over Easter and gained 1/2lb whilst I was there, I had had some extra treats but was still staying ‘on plan’ whilst there. My’consultant’ text me the next day as I don’t usually stay for group and said she’d noticed I’d had a gain, I should stay for group if I’m wanting to be serious about this and to remember ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’. I have decided to stop going to group and to continue to try and lose weight in a healthier way. I can’t understand the mind set of these consultants who are completely brainwashed into texting someone to force them into staying to their cult group and making them feel guilty over a 1/2 pound weight gain?

sorry for the depressing post but I thought I’d share some of my fave slimming world meals I used to eat religiously
- scan bran crushed with yoghurt
- quark with options hot chocolate powder
- fat free cottage cheese on scan bran
- Weetabix muffins
- crustless quiche
- Lynda mcartney sausages (not a vegetarian and I was somehow convinced by other members that they were delicious)
- quorn chicken nuggets (that Harry lad on insta convinced me they tasted like Maccies ones!)
- frozen muller yoghurt as ‘ice cream’
-I also remember furiously googling whether I could have mashed banana in my porridge or whether I would need to ‘syn’ it

thank you ladies for helping me see the light
---

A friend of mine lost about 11st on Slimming World. IIRC, she won some kind of biggest loser award in group, and then some sort of regional award. She then got approached by SW‘s PR team and they asked if she wanted to be in the Daily Mail with a few other women who’d lost a similar amount. Her weight loss story had a certain angle, and that’s pretty much all they focused on for the whole piece. And yeah, they banged on a LOT about pasta. Like she mentioned in her interview she liked pasta and they went on about how she could still gorge on pasta, making her sound really greedy! She also featured in a bunch of other papers as syndicated content and got into like three of those really crap women’s magazines. Think Take a Break but worse.

She did keep the weight off but she lot it in her early 20s and became very active, so I think that helped a lot.

This happened to me too!! I was in one of their magazines, I don’t want to put myself but they basically made me out to be some fat virgin and thanks to slimming world I had found the love of my life etc etc, couldn’t be further from the truth considering I had a baby at 16 and didn’t join slimming world until I was 20 they didn’t even mention my child in their interview! Just wanted to suit their narrative that slimming world had made me ‘attractive’ and now I’d finally found a boyfriend, something chubby girls could NEVER!

 

[CrazyGiraffeLady]

I joined slimming world before I got married and hoped to lose a bit of weight. I hated the meetings and I wasn’t prepared to take a bit of fruit in so someone else could take it home, is that a thing everywhere? Anyway I went to my meeting, hated it went home and ordered a takeaway because the consultant said I’d look better if I lost around 8 stone and I could try to lose 2 stone a month. Honestly I was so shocked because I’d never be able to lose it that fast.

 

[leoparddolly]

Slimming World absolutely destroyed my already fragile relationship with food. I lost 5 and a half stone in about 11 months many years ago and I felt incredible. But I didn't have crisps or wine (my two biggest loves ) for that whole time and I developed some pretty destructive habits. I was one of those who would starve myself on weigh in day. I'd have a black coffee and some melon for breakfast, then nothing but water until 2pm and then nothing at all after that until after weigh in at 7.30pm. I started using laxatives if my home scales weren't showing a loss. I was weighing myself multiple times a day. And, the second I had some time off plan for Christmas, I gained an extraordinary amount back. And never lost it again. In fact, over the course of the next few years I gained it all back, plus an extra 2 stone on top.

I went back to SW numerous times but could never quite replicate my first success, no matter how much I stuck to plan. Clearly because I'd completely screwed up my body and metabolism.

Over the last 6 or 7 years I have gained and lost the same couple of stone multiple times. I've always been a secret eater but it got worse and worse until I was bingeing constantly and then beating myself up about it, always resolving to "start again on Monday." Finally over the last 6 weeks I feel like something has clicked. I've been calorie counting using Nutracheck, aiming for between 1700-1900 calories per day. I've managed to lose a stone in that time, even with a few meals out and plenty of wine. I exercise a lot, for pleasure and not because I want to punish myself. I've finally stopped assigning "good" and "bad" labels to food. I'm no longer scared of white bread. It's been a long road to get here but I'm hopeful that this time I can maintain my new healthy relationship with food.

All that was just to say that it can and does get better. It's a marathon, not a sprint. I've had to make my peace with "only" losing a pound or so some weeks when that would have killed me at SW. Now I see that slow and steady weight loss really is the only way and that it's so important to eat the food you actually enjoy, as opposed to food that makes you miserable just because it's syn free.

 

[anonymous1221]

So your son buys you a gift and all you’re worried about is syns? So glad I got out of this cult

 

[KingBabar]

Update... saw my GP and I have an appointment with my local ED service soon.

 

[JustWonderingIf]

This is the second thread to talk about with like minds who are leaving SW for good and switching to more sustainable and healthy diets.

Many of us who have done SW know it promotes unhealthy eating habits and fear foods. The aim of this thread is to create a space for ex members to rant and ask for advice and support in undoing SW habits.

Whether your lingering issues are -
- fear foods (i.e olive oil)
- constantly looking at food as synful
- still measuring cereals, bread and cheeses and scared to break the habit.
- blaming yourself when you have a gain
- scared of exercise due to a consultant telling you it stops you losing weight.
Or any number of ways SW may affect still affect your diet after you've left..

Feel free to share what you are struggling with or what has helped you take back control of your diet.
Together we can put syns in the bin for good.

Couple of notes to add on:
- This thread is Anti Slimming World please consider if this is a thread for you if you are a current member of SW and/or very supportive of it. Please refrain telling us SW is great and we misunderstand it as a couple tried to in last thread.

If you are an SW member looking for tips on leaving you are very welcome here!

- If you feel you have developed a severe eating disorder please contact your GP for help as we on this thread can only give support and unqualified advice about slightly disordered eating habits and mindsets arising from SW membership.

Overview – Eating disorders

Read about different types of eating disorders including anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder. Find out about the possible causes and treatments.

www.nhs.uk

The UK's Eating Disorder Charity - Beat

Struggling with an eating disorder? Caring for someone who is? Beat is here to support you.

www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk

 

[rubyred66]

We have a member of the community weight loss group, an ex slimming world member or so we thought, they had an ED caused by slimming world. They paid for personal trainers and is a member of a cross fit gym and lost a lot of weight since joining us. After confiding about the eating disorder, and asking us for help. I got a friend to help her with free advice and therapy through her own business as a favour to us.

This week, total shock to see this person win woman of the year in a slimming world group. All of her weight loss attributed to slimming world, mentions body magic, not cross fit or personal trainers. She’s now hoping to go to head office. I feel betrayed and I am very disappointed.

 

[WhatABore]

I was just looking through a bit of this and saw a lot of comments about weigh day rituals. I just wanted to add my piece to this as this is all your own doing!

You don't have to starve yourself the day before and/or the day of weigh in. You don't have to not drink all day if you're an evening weigh. You don't have to not have carbs the night before (what is this about?). Just stick to it like it's a normal day and every week will be consistent!

This is very common amongst members and for some reason it appears to be regularly joked about on instagram etc as the thing everyone does on weigh day. The sooner you get out of this awful routine the better! It's also amazing how many people go in and weigh looking pretty deflated due to clearly not eating/drinking throughout the day, get a crap result on the scales then sit in the group and open a giant lunchbox of food and follow it up with a packet of hifi bars. It's too common.

The returning members with membership fees removed thing seems to repeat a couple of times a year and I believe many consultants do this more than that and pay the members fee themselves to get new members on their books. Like so many things, with everything readily available online, the number of signed up people is lowering.

Thanks to the person who mentioned the nutracheck app being on offer. I found a promo code on google and got the annual sub for £24. It's actually quite an eye opener. On the default "well balanced" plan I consumed well over the daily recommended of everything except fat and saturated fat! I wasn't expecting to on sugar with slimming world cutting that out but it includes the fruit and veg sugar which took me to 192% of my daily recommended sugar.

I do however love that it shows my protein intake was at 155%. I've had a PT tell me how I need to up my protein levels through any kind of methods but the easiest and best being shakes. I can go back and let him know how much protein I get from my general daily meals and how I don't need any of that supplement rubbish.

If only it was as simple as just not doing it ay?
Nobody says you have to do it. That isn't the point. It affects you mentally.

Nobody has to have eating disorders... but it isn't that simple is it?
If only it was as simple as just not doing it?
Nobody would have anorexia, bulimia ect?
Infact, nobody would be overweight in the first place if it was that simple

Just be lucky you haven't experienced it.

 

[irishjen]

I'll never forgot the uproar when Muller lights had to be synned. My consultant was nearly murdered

 

[Vickster2110]

I walked away last week. I've descended into madness... weighing clothes to find the lightest, not wearing underwear to weigh in, purging, barely eating for 2 days before weigh day amongst other things. I've never had a very good relationship with food, but it's now much worse. I had an appointment with the practice nurse this morning for something unrelated. She asked if I had a good diet and it all came tumbling out. She made me an appointment to see the gp next week. It's a start.

I could have actually written some of this myself, especially the bit about the clothes....I've seen me go to class in the dead of winter...-10 degrees with what I called my "fat class clothes" on, this was cycling shorts, a vest and sliders.....wrong on so many levels but not once did my consultant take me aside and tell me it was wrong and there was no need.....in fact I once got to half a pound off my target and the consultant tried to get me to go and take my underwear off to weigh less!! Its taken me over 20 years to realise what an awful cult it is.....I too would starve all day on weigh day......then go to the chippy on the way home.....we where told the only way to ensure losses every week was to stay to group.......I grew to Absolutely hate them...rude people talking over one and other.....the consultant saying the same old things week after week....its depressing and we were all paying for this Haha! I have now deleted myself from the group...deleted the consultant from my facebook and I feel like a weight has been lifted already!!