Slimming world

gabrielleelliott90
gabrielleelliott90 Posts: 854 Member
edited November 14 in Health and Weight Loss
I personally did SW for awhile, it helped me shift some weight. However I felt restricted. They go on about how you can have unlimited fruit and veg, WOW, how fun, like any normal human being would not crave junk food. They allow junk, but to a lesser degree. It's all about healthy, yet unlimited eating, which can lead to a gain! I'd be stuffinf myself with all this fruit, way too much fructose, not healthy at all.

Every Tuesday night after weigh in, I would binge on junk food. Showing that it is restrictive. I just watched a video of this woman who does it, and she will go to Mcdonald's; not have any food. On this programme people are taught to think they can't have fast food, because otherwise they will basically gain weight. Nope. You could of course have a big mac within syns, if you are lucky! Considering you only have 15 syns- 300 calories. So actually, no, you can't.

I feel sorry for people who get into this way of eating, sure, it is healthy, too healthy. It works, but it's no fun. I'm glad I changed to MFP because it means I can eat what I want, and still lose weight....

What are your opinions?

http://www.slimmingworld.com/losing-weight/the-big-difference.aspx

Replies

  • gabrielleelliott90
    gabrielleelliott90 Posts: 854 Member
    BUMP
  • gabrielleelliott90
    gabrielleelliott90 Posts: 854 Member
    Bump
  • Marchmallow
    Marchmallow Posts: 124 Member
    I hated Slimming World, didn't work for me, as I'm a vegetarian they stuck me on the green plan, which means all white carbs apart from bread items are 'free' foods. So.. as much white pasta, white rice, potatoes, etc., as I wanted (as long as 1/3 of my plate were 'superfree' vegetables) ...and I'm a renowned carboholic. Absolute crap. I lost about a pound every six weeks, until I started secretly calorie counting and then I started losing weight, with the group leader saying that I'd 'finally gotten the hang of the programme'. £5 a week rubbish. MFP is better and it's free!
  • honeybee_kisses
    honeybee_kisses Posts: 172 Member
    I hate slimming world. I know some people have a lot of success but I personally think it doesn't teach any good habits needed for sustainable weight loss. The fact that pasta, rice, sugary yogurts, packaged foods and even some ready meals are 'free' food is awful, now I'm counting calories I can't believe how much I was eating before! And yeah, the unlimited fruit and veg as if it has no calories.
    I used to worry myself sick with guilt if I had a chocolate bar or white toast lol. Nothing tasty fits into your syns! A lot of my friends and family do it and I just want to scream when they're stuffing their faces with the new slimming world ready meals (free of course but laden with calories) And telling me how good for you it is!
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    I figure this kind of stuff works for some people. If it does, great. But weighing food to the fraction of an ounce to determine how many calories are in it works for some people. If it does, great. Personally, I prefer something that is somewhere in the middle. I don't want to ever say that it doesn't matter how much I eat of some kinds of food, but neither do I want to be so concerned with getting the number of calories right that I can't enjoy my meals.
  • LovingLife_Erin
    LovingLife_Erin Posts: 328 Member
    I did SW for several months and lost about 50lbs on it. When I got my fitbit and decided to calorie count to see what calories I was having on the EE plan, it turned out that my calories were too low for what I was burning in my exercise (think almost 2000 deficits). I found that eating the free food filled me up so I could only eat so much of it, but a lot of more calorie dense food that isn't as filling was syned so I wasn't eating it. Now I'm tracking calories and eating some more calorie dense food, and still losing weight. I did find it a really good way to get started though as I personally needed the structure, and I did learn a lot of healthier ways to modify meals, and it gave me the confidence to really get started on my weight loss journey.

    I think that if you aren't active (or only lightly so) it is a good way to get started, but for me calorie counting is more sustainable, especially as I'm working out more.
  • gabrielleelliott90
    gabrielleelliott90 Posts: 854 Member
    Thanks for your opinion guys :) sorry Marchmallow and Honeybee_kisses had bad experiences, it is expensive and just to mainly weigh on a pair of scales. I know how that guilt feels, it is so not a healthy way to be teaching ourselves, being brainwashed into having a piece of cake or whatever and feeling guilty. Why should we? Ah I feel so sorry for people on SW.

    @Timothyfish Yes it does work for people who aren't too fussed with food, and don't care for calorie counting, I think your approach is good, I think everyone of us on MFP are worried we will become too obsessed with calorie counting some point.

    @LovingLife_Erin See, I think that is how a lot of people on SW lose weight, they either eat too low (as fruit and veg tend to be low) or they eat low and have no syns, or have syns and eat too low, and then burn it all off, basically starvation except they don't realise.
  • LovingLife_Erin
    LovingLife_Erin Posts: 328 Member
    @gabrielleelliott90‌ Yeah... My calorie levels would have been OK if I wasn't working out, but I needed to be eating more really in the long run if I was going to keep being active. I would eat most of my syns, but it wouldn't be enough and since free food was filling, I generally would have felt I'll if I tried to eat more of it. I now still eat most of the same meals as when I was on it, but allow extra cheese and such, and more calorie dense snacks like Nakd bars (which are about 7 syns but literally only nuts and fruit). For me, knowing my calories in/out will work so much better in the long run!
  • krupskaya
    krupskaya Posts: 23 Member
    I did slimming world for 8 months and lost 51lbs. HOWEVER I developed binge eating disorder. I honestly never had a problem with that before. Yes I overate which made me 50lbs overweight but I'd never go on mad out of control binges on whatever food I could lay my hands on like I began doing at the end of my time on SW. I still have that problem and wish I'd never bothered with SW at all. I think it was being so restricted and seeing food as the enemy - your syns really don't stretch very far when you want something a bit different to pasta and potatoes.
  • natboosh69
    natboosh69 Posts: 277 Member
    edited March 2015
    My Mum lost around 30lb on SW, but I think it was probably more down the amount of exercise she was doing per day. I think SW has too many rules and restrictions, would rather just count cals and eat what I want.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,021 Member
    Regardless of what diet program out there, only about 10% succeed on continuing/maintaining their loss.
    Ask most people who are lean and fit or aren't overweight and they'll usually tell you that they eat SOME of everything they like, but they just don't go overboard. What a great way to live...........eat what you enjoy, but not to the extent that it piles on the pounds for you.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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  • lamb_Samantha
    lamb_Samantha Posts: 2 Member
    I love slimming world, it's a great start to ease into losing weight as you're not actually that restricted about what you eat as it caters for al tastes. I'm not much of a meat eater but love my carbs. I'm doing MFP as I can't eat as much now as my stomach has shrunk but stil need to shift the fat.
    Good luck everyone with whatever your diet/weapon of loss is :-)
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