Slimming world

[Caffeine Fiend]

I think it depends what you like to eat. I like to be able to pick things up on the go but also I like biscuits. I dont want to have to pick between picking a pre packed sandwich up and then not being able to have mayo / ketchup / a biscuit with my tea at night.

I want to be able to add fruit to my baked oats without it impacting what oil I can add to dinner.

I want to have oats or cereal for breakfast and a toastie for lunch without using 5 or 6 of my precious syns on one of them.

Ive also been at target with SW but couldnt maintain it for the above mentioned reasons. It was too restrictive for my life style. I also like being able to use things like jarred sauces or fresh soups without attaching a syn value to it. Especially when home made isnt any less calories half the time.

I cant do all of that and not weigh out things like pasta / rice / potatoes etc. Probably why I was up and down when I tried.

 

[antisocialmedia]

You’re absolutely right, they do encourage you to use them but only where necessary. If a consultant has told you that you HAVE to use them then they are not doing their job properly.
Syns are just Slimming World’s own way of promoting the 80/20 balance. The hope is that by using the syns, you’ll be less likely to feel deprived and go on a massive calorie bender.
I don’t think you should have them for the sake of it and any consultant with an ounce of common sense will say that syns are there to be used IF you need to.

Someone mentioned above that fundamentally all diets are cals in/cals out, call it what you want. I don’t dispute that. The approaches are very different though. I add vegetables to my plate without a thought when I follow Slimming World. I remain aware of trying not to overdo it. When I was doing CC I was weighing peas and having meltdowns when I couldn’t because I had to weigh to the gram. Even pre-packaged things because those things can be as much as 20cals more or less either way. Weighing a banana, eating it, then weighing the skin to find out how many grams/calories I’d eaten is not a life I want to live. You’ve got people weighing eggs and reverse weighing yogurts. For me that’s not a healthy place to be in. How long before they’re refusing all food that they haven’t weighed?
I did it for six weeks and I was there already. Like I said earlier, this is just me and my experience but the truth is that I can’t be the only one.

Edit: I also found the 80/20 rule a lot harder with CC. Those of us trying to lose weight are in this situation because we have repeatedly made unwise food choices.
A sceanario: It’s 10pm, you have 250 cals left over that you have to use, you’ve had your 20% junk for the day already, are you really going to use that on some chicken or a massive bowl of fruit? Course not.
(Team RH insists upon using all your cals. If you’re less or more than 20cals either way, no gold medal for you! You need gold medals for 14 days in a row to progress and have cals lowered.)

I'm finding calorie counting more liberating than Slimming World and Weight Watchers. I wouldn't join RH, Munro or Courtney whatsherface

 

[SootySweepAndSoo]

I used to love slimming world accounts on Instagram. I think my favourite of the ones I followed were Lifethroughemseyes and Lilandlife. Spanjee. Foppperholic. Chloe Phillips. Mrs mummy wright. There was some girl from Liverpool Nikki something? She had dark hair and was always saying My lubs! Her neighbours cat used to come round and she would claim it as her own

The usual ones really that have already been mentioned on here. But I got so overwhelmed with it all. I now don’t have a clue how to lose weight or eat nomally. I struggle with it

See the separate 70+ threads on Fopperholic!! What a fraud she is!!

 

[Ck2020]

Same as the intuitive eating bandwagon the other year aka the only eat when you’re hungry diet

I’d be 50 stone with that I’m hungry 24/7

 

[Grumpyscotslady]

It's the portion sizes that irk me with a lot of slimming world accounts!

They like to create the illusion that you can eat as much "free food" as you like and lose weight. Massive plates stuffed with tons of meat and chips that's probably not short of 1000 calories Along with their bio that will have how much they've lost. What they don't tell you is that they've lost some weight at their biggest, but haven't lost anything for the past 6 months

Its like these people actually think "speed food" is magic and eating some broccolli alongside your gigantic portion will make you lose weight. I feel like the rule of having 1/3rd of your plate as "speed" doesn't work for everyone, they just buy a bigger plate!

 

[Ck2020]

When’s gemma.b going to tell the fans how much weight she’s put on then

there’s no way on earth she can be in a calorie deficit cos she ain’t losing shit

 

[WalterMittyfan]

I can see where the syns thing can mess with your head if you want a meal out or a piece of birthday cake but our consultant emphasises the use of flexible syns and isn’t afraid to use the c word (calories). If you want to have a treat you decide how many syns you need to enjoy yourself but stay in control and set yourself a limit. It’s no different to having extra calories if you want them. You just have to accept that you might not lose weight that week and that’s fine.
I think a lot of SW members hand over responsibility for their eating to the plan/consultant and will not make decisions for themselves based on common sense. They lose the plot if they go over by one syn (20 cal roughly) and/or take the free food concept to the max and blame SW when they don’t lose 3lbs every week.

 

[eSsExBiRd]

This shit is why it gets a bad rap. I see Brittany the racist beg has switched and someone said on her thread that they’re pleased she switched as SW was “toxic”

SW is NOT toxic, Brittany and these twats interpretation is toxic.

 

[Gossislife]

I had to screenshot what the filling is, as it would have sounded like I’d made it up it sounds utterly revolting! View attachment 524363

Think I may have just vommed abit in my mouth

 

[Robbie09]

i HATED it when practically every single person weighed in on boxing day and posted it. absolutely no need at all to weigh yourself, of course the scales will be up if you’ve indulged for 2 days but it’s christmas!! live a little ! it’s not real weight gain, it’s water retention and the food is still in your stomach lol. it’ll go away after a couple days. a lot of accounts also made it look like they had lost loads of weight around january when in reality they’ve just dropped their ‘fake gain’ from xmas. i couldn’t imagine myself waking up on boxing day and thinking yeh let’s jump on the scales what a great idea, it’s actually really quite sad

Boxing Day I’m still eat like it’s Christmas Day and weighing myself doesn’t enter my head lol.
I’m then good again till NYE/NY day and back to it then

 

[Longgtimelurker]

I wasn't sure of the general attitude towards SW vs CC on this page so I've held off commenting.
Here goes; SW fucked me up. Big style. My mum joined SW, had previously been on WW but it wasn't working anymore. A colleague lost weight on SW so my mum decided she would too. My mum has always been on a diet. I have grown up around a woman who calls food 'good' and 'bad' and is absolutely obsessed with how much she weighs. My mum lost 3st initially which was great and I loved that it made her seem happy so I decided to join SW with her when I was 20/21 (I can't remember because, frankly, I don't want to)

I thought being 'skinny' would be the answer to all my problems. The consultant always went on about how 'happy' everyone will be once they are 'skinny' or their 'goal weight'. I lost 2.5st, eventually got down to 10st 8lb which should've made me happy. But I wasn't. I was terrified of putting ANY weight on. I was terrified to go out with friends, would turn down lovely, delicious food at my boyfriends house because I couldn't control how it was made or what the ingredients where. I specifically recall working all day Saturdays and not eating (I worked at Asda, very full on and exhausting) so that I could 'save myself' for going out and getting drunk that night. I was no longer in control, SW was. I weighed myself everyday, sometimes multiple times. Even the 'free' and 'speed' food made me feel this consuming guilt that I was eating 'too much'. There was an event in group in which people wrote 'inspirational' things (centred around losing weight) and stuck them to this big board. One woman wrote 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'. This quote is used widely in the pro-anorexia community and was famously said by Kate Moss during her battle with anorexia. That quote stayed on that board until I decided to leave SW over a year later. I went on holiday at this 'goal weight' and I expected to feel confident and gloriously happy, like my consultant promised I would.

However, I still hid away because I still felt 'too fat'. Anyway, life progressed and I started to see through the plan. Things that didn't make sense, for example the blended fruit not being free and the Muller Light saga where they magically gained syns over night. I still went to SW, paid money to stand on a scale because my mum did. How could I explain to my mum that SW was impacting my mental health in such a way? We aren't the sort of family that talk about serious things like that. I don't even think my mum or dad believe mental health issues are real. Lockdown came, the first one, and I STILL did the Zoom meetings, still transferred this woman who didn't really care about me £2.75 (reduced fee) to weigh on my own scale and sit on a video call with women I didn't like who, actually, really annoyed me. Then the opportunity came, the consultant was leaving. And I knew, that was my chance to leave too. So I did, I said to my mum (terrified, may I add) that I was leaving SW because it was affecting me negatively (she still doesn't know about the borderline ED part of it all) After leaving I spent time eating food as I wanted, when I wanted and actually enjoying myself for the first time in almost 3 years. I did put all the weight back on, but that's fine! I would rather weigh more and be happy because being 'skinny' made me miserable.

A few weeks ago I decided, mainly out of curiosity, to look at how many calories I ate a day. I never intended to start CC. I realised I wasn't eating nearly enough for my body. Most days I sat at around 1000 calories which, I'm sure I don't need to point out, is extremely unhealthy. Because I always thought that the less you ate, the more weight you would lose. I did this for a week and then the week after I decided to weigh myself and start CC but in a lighter way, I didn't want to fall back into the SW trap and the control that had over me. I don't track when I go out, don't track my drinks (I mainly drink diet anyway) and definitely don't count alcohol. I'm not as in to the losing weight side as I once was and eat what I want mostly, just in better moderation. in 2 weeks I have lost 2.5lbs. I think that's pretty sustainable. SW was not the dream I was sold it to me. One day I hope to convert my mum to CC. SW is not working for her anymore.

SW does work for some people, but I don't believe that it is sustainable for long time use. I believe it is like a drug you need to wean off of, it's a safety blanked to go under when you lose trust in yourself. The woman with the Kate Moss quote quit SW and now does CC. I fully expect backlash for this comment but I needed to share my experience somewhere

I totally agree with what your saying! I do follow slimming world and its worked for me i lost over four stone BUT my relationship with food is awful im now basically scared to eat anything which isnt ‘SW friendly’ with the fear of putting weight on. I decline going out for dinner with friends,If they go to the pub i’ll only have water or a diet coke. Or im the total oposite and i’ll binge BIG time

I know i need to step away from SW but its been my biggest comfort for so long as its the only thing thats helped me to loose weight.

 

[Shielder2021]

it’s ridiculous isn’t it! the more I look at it the further removed from SW it gets, I didn’t even notice the mini Lindt bunnies initially

And the Easter eggs stuffed with crap have started
The endless baked oats with various chocolate plocated on top.. No more original content or incentive to want to do SW they do there own version

 

[StrawberryCream]

Whatever happened to jsg miss slinky?
I follow clare o'hara, she lives not far from me. I really like her tbh and her consultant is also really nice too.

I’m pretty sure she deleted her page because of her thread on here, it went wild after she posted her weight gain and she had a few weeks of losses and then I’m sure a maintain and a few gains and then disappeared. Someone on here said they live in Liverpool and seen her and her sister in a Macdonald’s eating double cheese burgers and chicken nuggets so I’m guessing she was also probably no longer a vegan and couldn’t keep up the facade?

 

[SpiceWeasel]

Christ!! I couldnt even eat a triple burger when i wasnt following slimming world let alone when i was.

Well i lie i could but burger only no chips or sides. Absolute pure greed and cooking for likes

Me neither it’s just total overkill. I bet these two are the type of people when you ask someone what a takeaway/restaurant is like and they go ‘oh it’s great, you get loads!!!’ And you’re like ‘yes but what is the food like??’ measuring quality by quantity!

 

[thenoodle]

This is sad. Dieting while pregnant

 

[ChampagneBox]

That Josh Clark should stick to the day job instead of baking I’m sure he likes his shortbread but is it commercially viable? I doubt it

 

[Buswanker]

Not all your syn allowance no but I have literally been told by a consultant to have at least 5 syns a day, I know it’s nonsense but it does get etched into your mind that you must/should use them.

You’re absolutely right, they do encourage you to use them but only where necessary. If a consultant has told you that you HAVE to use them then they are not doing their job properly.
Syns are just Slimming World’s own way of promoting the 80/20 balance. The hope is that by using the syns, you’ll be less likely to feel deprived and go on a massive calorie bender.
I don’t think you should have them for the sake of it and any consultant with an ounce of common sense will say that syns are there to be used IF you need to.

Someone mentioned above that fundamentally all diets are cals in/cals out, call it what you want. I don’t dispute that. The approaches are very different though. I add vegetables to my plate without a thought when I follow Slimming World. I remain aware of trying not to overdo it. When I was doing CC I was weighing peas and having meltdowns when I couldn’t because I had to weigh to the gram. Even pre-packaged things because those things can be as much as 20cals more or less either way. Weighing a banana, eating it, then weighing the skin to find out how many grams/calories I’d eaten is not a life I want to live. You’ve got people weighing eggs and reverse weighing yogurts. For me that’s not a healthy place to be in. How long before they’re refusing all food that they haven’t weighed?
I did it for six weeks and I was there already. Like I said earlier, this is just me and my experience but the truth is that I can’t be the only one.

Edit: I also found the 80/20 rule a lot harder with CC. Those of us trying to lose weight are in this situation because we have repeatedly made unwise food choices.
A sceanario: It’s 10pm, you have 250 cals left over that you have to use, you’ve had your 20% junk for the day already, are you really going to use that on some chicken or a massive bowl of fruit? Course not.
(Team RH insists upon using all your cals. If you’re less or more than 20cals either way, no gold medal for you! You need gold medals for 14 days in a row to progress and have cals lowered.)

 

[Gossislife]

Triple burgers! Just so gross. This is a total misrepresentation of SW. Most people will not lose weight eating like this. View attachment 507206

Can't say that looks very 'heart healthy' either. SW is about overall health, these people may look slim on the outside but the story of what is going on internally could be very different. High levels of sweeteners, salt, additives etc are never good and consistently eating this way will have hidden impacts.

 

[Wowwwwwwwww]

Why do the insta bellends put their beans or spaggy hoops in a tiny lil side ramekin?

 

[PoppyKJ]

She’s doing something wrong coz she never loses anything. Clearly lying about something.

There’s ways around it, just depends how you do it.

She clearly wants to keep eating sugary breakfasts and labelling it healthy.

Her body needs less grub I like to check in now and again.. not gemma