Slimming World

angiew321

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

angiewilkes1 wrote: »

I'd love to know how it works. I have a friend who is interested in giving it a go, and the attraction for her is that you can eat as much pasta as you like + lots of "syns", which as you say, includes chocolate and crisps. She has heard that she can stuff herself with pasta and still lose weight. There must be a catch somewhere, as pasta is high in calories, even with a simple tomato sauce on it (or is the catch you eat it plain, so it doesn't taste very nice?!)

I'd love to hear how you're doing on it now: your post was from 11 months ago, so I'd love an update on what you think and how well it's worked.

Your friend isn't going to be successful if she thinks she is going to eat as much as she wants on the Slimming World plan, just because it's a "free food" doesn't make it calorie free, you still have to exercise some sort of portion control, Slimming World isn't a magical place where calories don't exist. CICO still applies. I am fairly sure you don't get a lot of Syns either, it's something like 15 per day (syn is roughly 20 calories) and that's for anything outside the "free food" list.

Thanks, that's exactly what I thought! She seems to think that you can eat as much "free" food as you want - or why else would it be called "free"? I think that's the confusion.

I know people who have been on it and lost loads of weight, so now I know you still have to control your portion size it makes sense.

angiew321

rsergeant79 wrote: »

I lost 8.5 stone doing SW - I have been at target for 4 years -

So glad it worked for you. My take on dieting is that the best diet is the one that works for you. My best diet is to eat exactly what I want, just smaller portions. It works for me!

angiew321

TavistockToad wrote: »

angiewilkes1 wrote: »

zazziepants wrote: »

SlimmingWorld for me has been a lifestyle change. And anyone who says it doesn't work or that you gain weight back after is lying or not doing it properly, because IT IS NOT A DIET Considering I'm terrible at committing to something as big as a 'diet' (and have struggled with food in the past), it's going really well for me. I use MFP like a food diary to keep myself in check and to keep track of things (keeping fatty foods low and making sure I get enough protein, which I find hard cause I don't eat eggs) but because of how SW works, my day usually comes in around the 1200 cal mark.

The core ideaology of SW is that it's about changing how you look at food and cooking etc, e.g. Using low calorie cookie spray instead of oil, or switching to low fat versions of yoghurt etc. It's all about balance and adding colourful food to your plate

I see someone above mentioning green and red days? That's definitely part of the old way of doing it - now you have Extra Easy (measured dairy/calcium, measured fibre, unlimited protein and fruit and veg, not to mention unlimited carbs ) and SP days. SP is Speed/Protein, which basically means you fill your day with half protein (to fill you up) and half 'speed' food (low calorie, high density fruit and veg like carrots, broccoli, strawberries, melon...). The whole point is to kickstart your metabolism and get you eating the right balance of the right foods. And as for Syns - you get 15 per day, which for me the other day included two packets of Smarties (8), a packet of crisps (4) and a handful of cheese (3) on toast. That's hardly restrictive now, is it!?

And what's even better? You literally eat yourself skinny, which means if you don't want to exercise, you don't have to. Because exercise (or Body Magic - waaaayyy less daunting!!!) affects your shape, not your weight.

I mean, I could go on and on, but the only way you'll know yourself is to try it! My only advice is to drink loads of water, favour speed food over free food (they'll explain the details when you join ) and stick to group. For the sake of one hour and £5/€9 out of every week (and I know that money would be spent on chocolate getting me fat otherwise!!) what have you got to lose?!

Best of luck to you x

Ps. The group I go to has over 120 target members, and most of them lost 3 stone +!

I'd love to know how it works. I have a friend who is interested in giving it a go, and the attraction for her is that you can eat as much pasta as you like + lots of "syns", which as you say, includes chocolate and crisps. She has heard that she can stuff herself with pasta and still lose weight. There must be a catch somewhere, as pasta is high in calories, even with a simple tomato sauce on it (or is the catch you eat it plain, so it doesn't taste very nice?!)

I'd love to hear how you're doing on it now: your post was from 11 months ago, so I'd love an update on what you think and how well it's worked.

zazziepants hasn't been on line since June 2017 so i don't think you'll get a response.

Thanks, I didn't notice that!

tinkerbellang83

angiew321 wrote: »

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

angiewilkes1 wrote: »

I'd love to know how it works. I have a friend who is interested in giving it a go, and the attraction for her is that you can eat as much pasta as you like + lots of "syns", which as you say, includes chocolate and crisps. She has heard that she can stuff herself with pasta and still lose weight. There must be a catch somewhere, as pasta is high in calories, even with a simple tomato sauce on it (or is the catch you eat it plain, so it doesn't taste very nice?!)

I'd love to hear how you're doing on it now: your post was from 11 months ago, so I'd love an update on what you think and how well it's worked.

Your friend isn't going to be successful if she thinks she is going to eat as much as she wants on the Slimming World plan, just because it's a "free food" doesn't make it calorie free, you still have to exercise some sort of portion control, Slimming World isn't a magical place where calories don't exist. CICO still applies. I am fairly sure you don't get a lot of Syns either, it's something like 15 per day (syn is roughly 20 calories) and that's for anything outside the "free food" list.

Thanks, that's exactly what I thought! She seems to think that you can eat as much "free" food as you want - or why else would it be called "free"? I think that's the confusion.

I know people who have been on it and lost loads of weight, so now I know you still have to control your portion size it makes sense.

Yeah herein the lies the problem with calling them free foods, you are meant to eat as much so as to feel comfortably full not as much as you want until you're stuffed.

For example a recommended serving per the packet for pasta would be 75g of the dry pasta which is around 270 calories. It's easy to underestimate those portions though if you're not weighing them, I was easily eating double that before I started checking portion sizes with a scale, which would have me at 540 calories before taking into account any other ingredients. So if I then add a large chicken breast, some veg and light mayo I could be looking at around 800 calories for what is a mostly a "free meal".

Your friend really needs to understand that to lose weight regardless of the plan she uses, she still needs to eat less calories than she is burning.

flosoup24

I find it restrictive when it comes to healthy foods like nuts and avocados. And it promotes low fat yogurts packed with chemicals and believes Greek yogurt isn t high in protein??? It didn't work for me or I didn't work for it. I also feel it made my binges significantly worse.

JaxxieKat

If SW is anything like WW, you have to watch out for the pitfalls. I'm not a fan of the "free food" mindset. While no one gets obese on a diet of berries and spinach, if you use all of your points on non-free food you may only be eating the number of calories you'd eat when implementing a slight deficit. You pile on rice, beans, pasta, chicken, low-fat dairy, eggs, etc, regardless of how "clean" the foods are, they aren't zero-calorie. One could easily swing from deficit to maintenance (or beyond) by thinking that "free" means "free-for-all".