Slimming world

[WalterMittyfan]

Just clicked on the tags page on IG for #slimmingworlduk. Bearing in mind that this last week we have been focusing on the importance of speed food and replacing one third of free food with speed food, you would never believe this from the sea of beige and chocolate together with completely non slimming world accounts just using the tag to get attention. It’s one of the most mis-used tags around.

 

[Blondetech]

I liked Mrs Mummy Wright - ridiculous name though - and she absolutely smashed her weight loss HOWEVER I seem to remember it going on far quicker then it came off

JSG - eating not only the rainbow but everything the rainbow covered- smug AF until she piled it all (and more) back on !!

 

[Instagram Sham]

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

The only thing Donna tackles will be diabetes and halitosis. Fucking yoghurt and cheese triangles

 

[disillusionedbythegram]

I dont think anyone disputes that SW works. Long term it doesnt give you the tools to maintain your 'target' weight. Also Ive said this for a few years now, not in relation to PTs jumping on the hate SW bandwagon. I have no views here, no clout to gain by posting what happened to me.

You cant avoid meals out and celebrations forever. You dont want to have chicken in black bean sauce and boiled rice for every takeaway and having takeaways of your choice and 'unlimited' free food doesnt go hand in hand with maintaining weight.

I wouldnt go as far to say as SW gave me an eating disorder but I had disordered eating. The full binge/purge rollercoaster. Barely eating before weigh in but then eating 'on plan' but more carbs and bigger portions the 3 days following weigh in. Id stop drinking water at 1pm for a 5pm weigh in.

I was seen as the 'ideal SW-er' at my class. Constantly looked up to and told to ask as I was doing 'so well' so I felt more pressure to continually have a loss each week. I couldnt say outl oud what I was doing because I knew it wasnt normal.

Im more educated now and realise that weightloss isnt a downward line constantly and fluctuations are normal. Especially for females, we ovulate, we menstruate, we hold water more than males do. I dont need to analyse my whole weeks eating if I gain half a pound and wonder where I went wrong.

Also having been what I would say is skinny for my frame/height I realised that loving myself wasnt solved by being a weight/size. If you dont love yourself as you are you'l always see something wrong no matter what size you are. I could see my bones and still felt just another half stone would be better.

I feel like I could’ve written this myself. Slimming world has taught me a lot of useful things like cooking from scratch, filling up on lower calorie foods etc but it definitely wasn’t sustainable for me. I’m currently enjoying applying all the good things I learned from slimming world to calorie counting

 

[NMK]

Not sure if she has been mentioned sorry if she has!

Anyone remember Jennifer JSG who lost loads of weight put some back on and her consultant messaged her by mistake saying ‘Princess P is only 5 stone lighter than when she started ’ the consultants as far as I was concerned were always stuck up + arrogant wouldn’t listen to anyone who didn’t worship the plan. I lost all my weight with SW but I became obsessed and since having my daughter years later I struggled again with my weight have since been calorie counting since January and have lost two stone half a stone to go and I’ll be the lightest I’ve ever been the freedom is amazing!! + I finally eat avocados again

 

[theeyeroller]

Time for me to sign up again. Have made a pig of myself all Easter and need to get it sorted. Anyone any decent recommendations for accounts to follow? I’m a bloke so no sugary pancake unicorn sprinkles shite ideally.

Tryingtodoitall_sw is probably the best SW account, she doesn’t abuse the plan, her food always looks good but isn’t too “faffy” and she’s really witty. She doesn’t put sprinkles or whole chocolate bars on top of her pancakes/oats and she seems to be doing a good job of maintaining a nearly 7 stone loss unlike most of them. She also doesn’t do any ridiculous ads, begs or swipe ups. I’ve unfollowed most of them and I’m not even doing SW anymore but still like following her.

 

[Shielder2021]

This is from 2019 and they don’t post anymore but their page is still there... I got blocked for commenting on this post saying it was an absurd portion and just pure gluttony or something along those lines a couple of days later they did a post/story about keyboard warriors

I’m pretty sure what I get from the Chinese as a treat has less cals than that. And they were trying to say it was 3 syns it’s eat until you feel satisfied hun, not eat enough to feed a small village. And that was leftovers too imagine what the original portion was if they had finished it in one go, #slimmingworld all the way View attachment 496834View attachment 496835

I remember them always served food in takeaway cartons? With fizzy pop

 

[elloelloello]

Aww I like Gemma , I’ve followed her from the beginning and you can see the weight loss in her before and after photos and in her reels that she does

She’s lost loads from face and waist

Aw well fair enough we are all entitled to our own opinions! I find her pictures and the filter she uses so annoying and it’s all over my explore page it pisses me right off if I see another malteaser bunny or an edible star on top of porridge I’m going to scream

 

[Snooper82]

SW are definitely rattled.

Are they having a laugh? I’ve known more people give up on SW than any other “plan”. I’ve done it myself 4 times. As someone said above, it’s a great way to encourage cooking from scratch and promoting lean meats and vegetables, BUT, it definitely demonises foods. I can’t forgive the avocado thing and also nuts.

 

[Pinkoctopus]

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 could have written this entire thing myself! I too gained major problems around food and mental health related.. I am not “following” anything right now, starting a new job I’m trying to find my feet a little before thinking of food etc, lots of just getting a meal deal (I eat really well and always homemade for evening meal) until I can really look into CC and trying it out for a week or two and seeing how it goes

 

[disillusionedbythegram]

Does anyone follow Yasminlauren_lifestyle? She used to do slimming world. She irritates the hell out of me posing and grinning. She loves herself bad!

Just catching up so there might be more on this but just wanted to agree that she irritates the hell out of me too. Every single minute of her life is shared - she did 6-7 stories the other day of her taking out the bins in her pyjamas. I honestly find her so cringey

This is where SW does need to invest further I feel. You sit there at a group asking about how to navigate a social event or what to have when you really fancy a takeaway but don't want to blow your weight loss and there aren't really any answers. No-one wants wants to have fish and chips then take the batter off the fish or order chicken in bloody black bean sauce with boiled rice and is there anything more depressing than worrying about what you're being fed if you're at someone's house when really you should be enjoying getting together with people....especially when we've been denied these kind of events for the last year.

The on/off plan is a bit of a head fuck for so many people. It's all very well for consultants to say nothing is banned but it doesn't seem to work like that in reality. So many of us struggle with having food we can't easily fit into the plan so we end up veering off then having to reset.

When I used to attend a SW group I had a consultant who was actually very good at this. She said try decide what you want to have before you go and use ‘flexi syns’ so eg if you figure out your starter main and pudding of choice plus a few drinks is around 70 syns, give yourself 70 syns for the day. It’s all purely psychological but she said if you just ‘go over’ 15 then you’ll stop counting and more likely to binge whereas if you mentally give yourself a higher number then you are still in control of what you’re having. She also said you may not lose that week but that’s okay because it won’t do as much damage as you think if you remain in control that one night. I don’t personally do slimming world anymore but for a time, this mentality worked for me if it was once a week/fortnight

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

Its like a culty competition as to who can eat the most food within there syns and healthy extras. Its hard to believe outwith SW and Instagram anyone eats breakfasts like that on a daily basis. Surely not.

 

[PeacefulFlower]

I just wanted to say to those who feel like their head is in a spinner over SW v CC - trust yourself to calorie count. Yes I have days where I use my calories for junk, but I take a moment to notice why (eg, crap mood, husband annoying, it's raining, etc) and to notice how it makes me feel, and then carry on eating pretty healthily thereafter. I find myself feeling really sorry for those SW target members who are struggling and not enjoying life because they are so constrained by the plan and cannot trust themselves with CC - It has taken me probably three months of "staying the same" to get my head sorted, to learn to enjoy food again without any kind of anger, guilt, or general misery. That said, I still attend a weekly SW class as I literally have little else company wise, me time wise. Which is a trifle sad but nevermind! Please, just keep at it and take the time needed to trust yourself. I speak as an SW follower of a good 20 years!

 

[Eyerollbrainache]

I would honestly never go to a SW meeting or weigh in again. They are the most toxic places. The consultants are sales people, the whole business is designed to make money. There is no nutrition advice. Labelling any food a syn is disgusting. All food has a calorie value, just eat at your limit and stay in deficit and you can eat what you like. It takes a bit more effort to weigh some pasta or rice but eating unmeasured amounts of anything isn't going to help you lose weight. The people who do well generally have a lot of weight to lose so for them cooking from scratch and even thinking about eating healthy food will help. Its a massive con.

This it doesn't teach you how to portion control. People regain after because the mentality of 'free food' teaches over eating, 'have as much as you want/fill up on speed'. Then when it comes to real life situations like eating out and celebrations/takeaways or similar, the plan doesn't work. It's great if you have absolutely no idea where to start, but once your near your goal (cringe) weight, there's no education on how to maintain. Stupid things like have an extra healthy extra isn't how to maintain, talk about calories, nutrition, real life food encounters. I've lost 4st twice on SW and 5 St once after....... I regained everytime because I didn't have a clue how to balance it all. I've lost 3st now and kept it off for 4 years because once I stopped SW and started trying to eat healthy, it became sustainable

 

[Rahrah]

Just started sw it’s good so far and wanted to start eating normally after decades of ww-the plan has been changed for the worst and got annoyed that they cut the in person meetings for when we go back to normal to the bone while paying celebrities to pretend they are doing it. I like that you can’t ‘save’ syns so the next day is a new start rather than the next week. Fascinated with Boothy and her dinners with both chips and rice, and this weekend she added a nann in as well. I find the influencers who have sw in their name but calorie count instead really annoying, I don’t get why sw does not clamp down on this as it can’t be good publicity as it really says that sw is good, until it isn’t!

 

[SpiceWeasel]

If you look back 50 years ago people were so much slimmer without being on any form of diet/plan and it's simply because everyone was so much more active, owning a car was far less common for a start, I am so lazy sometimes if it's raining or something I drive to the shop which is a 5 minute walk everyone ate full fat everything and there was no such thing as fry light. I was in the supermarket the other day thinking it's actually an achievement in itself not to be overweight when you can get a 5 pack of doughnuts for £1 but a box of melon is £2.50!

 

[SpiceWeasel]

I always know I'm doing Slimming World properly when I'm having to go shopping every other day cos I can't keep up with all the veg I'm going through I don't really eat that much fruit tbh, love it but find if I eat loads it does slow down weight loss. All I've got in fruit wise at the moment are some red apples and honey dew melon which I think I burned more calories chopping up than I will take in from eating it

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

Its not even the biscoff or whatever that bothers me. Its the 10g of whatever spread theyve used melted when its nowhere near 10g. Harry Prickard does it *all* the time with various things.

I have baked oats almost every day, I do half a banana mashed (makes it sweet without sweetener) 30g oats, 1 egg, 60-80ml of milk, 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Then I add whatever toppings/fillings I want. I like lemon and blueberry, raspberry and white choc (I use the little drops you get in the baking aisle) chocolate orange is nice too with the zest and juice of an orange added and some powdered hot choc. Theyre never more than 350 calories but on SW Id be synning all over the shop for my baked fruit, especially that pesky banana. So I can completely understand why people would rather put a choc bunny on there food and add a metric tonne of sweetener. Made the Pinch Of Nom baked oats once and they were just an eggy disaster. They put 2 eggs in. Do not recommend.

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

tryingtodoitall_sw did some really good stories on the full mail shot thing. Very sensible

 

[thenoodle]

I don’t get the fascination with baked oats, I tried a few years ago and it was like slop