Slimming world!? Does it work for every one.

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ankfrances
ankfrances Posts: 10
in Health and Weight Loss
Ok my friend did slimming world and lost loads if weight and I've known a few others to do the same. I've always been a weight watchers girl and I've been a gold member three times! Yes, three times! Which mean ultimately I can't stick to it. Why? Coz I'm too bloomin hungry. I'm bit a massive person (due to being on a constant diet my whole life) but I have the appetite of a whale sized pig horse. So, of course when my friend said to me ' you can eat loads and still loose weight on slimming world' I thought, great, bring it on! I'm vegetarian ( but eat tuna, salmon, haddock) and eat relatively healthy but I feel I need larger quantities to feel satisfied and not light headed and moody like I was on weight watchers. Even my periods stopped (sorry if tmi guys reading this). Which is great but obviously not right. BMU says I'm overweight but I'm a 10/12 and 5ft,8".
So off I went following the plan. I do green days. I haven't cheated, done it for a month now. I feel great, energised, satisfied, healthy and...... Fat. I've put on half a stone!!
Just typed in my food diary on MFP and I had to stop at 2200 calories purely because I didn't want know the true extent of my gluttony. I'm i just supposed to be fat!! I need to eat to be and feel normal!! Does slimming world actually work for a greedy person like me!? I currently don't do exercise although I rarely sit down and I have a 4 y/o who keeps me busy. Help please

Replies

  • slimhabit
    slimhabit Posts: 34
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    You have done brilliantly so far. Are you remembering to keep to the balance of your plate ie a third of your plate on superfree? This plan seems to work well for lots of people. For me (like any regime) it works when I stick to it!
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    Slimming world works as long as you stick to it

    So does weightwatchers

    I think your issue is your inability to stick to it for life ... You need to find something that works for you

    Calorie defecit and weight lifting/fitness ...then maintenance calories and weight lifting/fitness for life

    In it for the long haul
  • Velum_cado
    Velum_cado Posts: 1,608 Member
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    I think Slimming World can work brilliantly, but obviously it's not for everyone. The big problem with it is that food energy isn't measured in syns, it's measured in calories. Just because things like fruit and pasta are "free" on SW doesn't mean they don't contain calories. That type of thing can throw you headlong into a calorie surplus that will make you gain weight. If you've joined SW just because you want the green light to eat as much as you want, you're going to be disappointed.

    I'd recommend counting calories for you. Weigh out and measure your food so you have an accurate idea of how many calories you're consuming, then once you've got a handle on that, perhaps you can go back to Slimming World armed with that knowledge.
  • blueboxgeek
    blueboxgeek Posts: 574 Member
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    Calories do count. And Slimming world doesn't count calories.

    For some people, the fact that you are to have a third of your plate full of lower calorie vegetables and salad will work. It will fill them up and they will eat less of the higher calorie foods and will ultimately lose weight.

    There is no magic that says as long as you eat low calorie salad and veggies you can eat as much protein and carbs that you want.

    For some people it will work. For some people (like me) they will just eat more salad so they can eat more chicken and pasta and end up WAY over eating on calories and gaining weight.

    I find I am better when I log everything and see how many calories are in it and make sure I don't eat too many.
  • Leggylass
    Leggylass Posts: 215
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    Slimming world made me gain weight, but it did work for my friends and both my sisters, they eat like horses and they're very active but they have been obese for 30-40 years and yoyo dieting, where as I was always the opposite. Turned out i have an under active thyroid which has possibly hindered me losing like the others.

    Mfp with diet chef has worked for me even without exercise i lost over 50lb but i'm stuck at around 40-50 right now.. i cant do anything about it withought meds and exercise i guess :P
  • b0nnyd0g
    b0nnyd0g Posts: 84 Member
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    Certainly didn't work for me. I have a good appetite too and although I followed what I thought were the rules, I didn't lost weight at all. It is inferred that you can eat unlimited carbs on green days and unlimited protein on red days, then you get the mix and match with the new way of dividing up your plate but still not weighing or measuring apart from your extras

    In fact they were (in small print in my opinion, like Weight Watchers now) saying have these foods in portions 'until satisfied'. Now I don't really have a satisfied button and was just eating far too much.

    I did originally get to target many years ago with WW but it was much stricter then and everything was counted, weighed or measured, there is just no such thing as free food unfortunately.

    Back at target now (or wobbling around there !!) by tracking calories and exercise on MFP and it was the best thing I ever did :)
  • ankfrances
    ankfrances Posts: 10
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    I know you're right. You are all right. Energy intake to energy expenditure! It's simple really. So why is it so hard ????. I joined a group this week. The reason I'm sticking with slimming world (even after putting more weight on, I'm now 11st 4.5lb) is because it's healthy and controlling crap processed foods. I'm going to go with it then concentrate on portion control. I've joined the gym!!! I'm doing classes, swimming and weight training! I cant eat less, I can't go back to being miserable, faint and obsessive!
    Good luck and thank you to every that replied. I've got a weigh in on Monday so I'll let you know if my hard work at the gym has paid off xx
  • ankfrances
    ankfrances Posts: 10
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    I lost 1.5 lb this week and I ate like a pig. All healthy tho. Could it just be my metabolism catching up? And the fact I've started exercise. If I can eat like that and enjoy the exercise I'm doing, then this lifestyle change really isn't go into be hard! Sooooo pleased ????
  • fatboyliz
    fatboyliz Posts: 515 Member
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    It didn't work for me...but that is because I couldn't follow it, as a vegetarian I just ate pasta all the time hehe! Weight watchers was good but found points finicky. I like this site becuae it forces me to look at what is in my food (cals, fat, fibre etc) and I think I am getting some better eating habits.
  • ankfrances
    ankfrances Posts: 10
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    Well it might just be a fluke.... the next couple weeks will tell if this really works. But I'm so pleased I haven't put any on. I can't calorie count. I know my diet is gunna be mostly carbs also being veggie myself (very occasional fish). MFP is an amazing tool to see nutritional values etc. it's defo not something I can do long term tho.
  • swbuckley
    swbuckley Posts: 6
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    Hi, bit late on this, but I do both...

    I go to slimming world, cos the weekly accurate weigh in helps keep me on track, plus I stick to the free and superfree foods, plus the optimising.
    But I use myfitnesspal to also track what I eat from this plan to make sure I don't go over on portion size etc, or eat too many syns cos I have used enough calories with the free foods etc.
    I tried just counting calories by myself but to be honest got nowhere. If you're like me, and you need some structure and what foods are actually good, I find slimming world works well, and can always track calories too to make sure you don't go over!
  • ankfrances
    ankfrances Posts: 10
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    Ok I'm going to try both. I went back and is put on the 1.5lb I lost the previous week. In SWs defence, I ate ALOT and the fact I'm still the same weight I'm not overally worried about as I don't feel I've been dieting. Only thing I'm gutted about is I've been workin my *kitten* off in the gym! So I expected maybe a teeny tiny change aleast. Sooo I'm going to follow SW principles of healthy eating and stick to 1500 calories a day logging on MFP. I missed this weeks weigh in because I had a vile cold (and subsequently ate my body weight in carbs ????) weight watchers works for me but I don't want to go back. I'm so sick of starving myself ????
  • mraamoore
    mraamoore Posts: 2 Member
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    I must say, I'm 2 months into slimming world s plan and I actually have not felt deprived once.
    I eat a hell of a lot, enjoy the benefits of all the healthy food and lose weight every week.

    SW is great for me as I love to cook and the SW curry book and fakeaway book are cracking. (google the slimming world burger in a bowl)

    I had been using the MyFitness app for around a year.
    I think the two have tied in brilliantly and sw has added some discipline to my diet
    I probably cheated the app in the past by not measuring oil.

    The only change I have made is to cut out butter and use spray oil (unthinkable before sw)
    I also now eat tonnes of fish! control bread intake and if I cook red meat I cut all the fat off.

    I suppose sw is common sense all in all, but I know that I can be short on common sense sometimes when it comes to my diet (despite having a very in depth knowledge on the rules of thermodynamics)

    The group session is also great for hearing about new recipe ideas too.

    I think the biggest lesson (even if I already knew it) for me is that I can not out run a bad diet, I was often a culprit for "I've had a hard week of workouts, I deserve a night of beer and crap food."

    Sw tells you to have a blow out once in a while.... But control the blow out, make it one day and not a downward spiral.
  • aethre
    aethre Posts: 150 Member
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    I tried Slimming World for three weeks. It made me feel *so ill*, with problems with IBS. On my third week, I hadn't been to the loo for about nine days despite eating a lot of extra fruit and veg, and was extremely bloated. Of course I weighed heavier and I felt awful, and that woman stood there with my diary and berated me for buying turkey breast mince instead of *extra* lean turkey mince (which the shop didn't sell!)

    I've since decided that high-fibre, low-fat diets do not agree with me at all and am doing a lot better just counting calories and making tasty meals without panicking about not being able to find extra-skinny-lean-fat-free that comes out to roughly the same calories once you've finished trying to make it palatable. But my SW experience really put me off losing weight for about a year.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    Maybe low carb can help you? Lots of people report that they feel less hungry on fewer calories when they eat more fat and protein and less carbs. If you choose to not eat meat, that's up to you, and maybe you can figure out a low-carb-no-meat diet that works, but sometimes one has to choose between two evils - which one is bigger? And you aren't even a vegetarian, you're a pescetarian (neither fish nor fowl...)
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
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    One of my friends lost all her baby weight on slimming world, and also took up running. She looks amazing.

    I tried following the SW stuff for a while when I was losing weight after my first baby and it didn't work for me at all. I didn't gain weight, but I didn't lose as fast as I had been.

    I'm now doing carb cycling after my third baby, and this is really working for me. All the 'free' pasta, fruit, muller lights etc really doesn't agree with me! I also don't like 'diet' foods like muller lights.

    After my 2nd baby just a calorie deficit and general healthy eating worked.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,411 MFP Moderator
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    Ok I'm going to try both. I went back and is put on the 1.5lb I lost the previous week. In SWs defence, I ate ALOT and the fact I'm still the same weight I'm not overally worried about as I don't feel I've been dieting. Only thing I'm gutted about is I've been workin my *kitten* off in the gym! So I expected maybe a teeny tiny change aleast. Sooo I'm going to follow SW principles of healthy eating and stick to 1500 calories a day logging on MFP. I missed this weeks weigh in because I had a vile cold (and subsequently ate my body weight in carbs ????) weight watchers works for me but I don't want to go back. I'm so sick of starving myself ????

    This is probably were failure will happen again. SW is no different than weight watchers. Move on from this diets and figure out which foods will make you full. Second, you are young and active. Both of which will require more calories. The average women I know is losing between 1700-2100. So if you are active with a child, and you do classes on top, I wouldn't be surprised if you were at the top end of that.

    What I would suggest is not complicate things with Slimming world, but rather set a calorie target (I can help set you up), use a food scale and track for a month and follow up with progress. I know that you are 5'8, 158 and 28 years old, but how long do you workout, do you have any medical conditions and do you use a food scale?


    Also, if you are a vegetarian that eats fish, you are actually a Pescetarianian.

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