Slimming World or Calories?

First and foremost, Slimming World is expensive and calorie counting is free.

You don't need to exercise to lose weight as long as you eat less than your body uses over the course of the day. That's called a calorie deficit. Any diet where you lose weight will get you to a calorie deficit no matter how many special rules it has or doesn't have. If it doesn't get you to a calorie deficit then you won't lose weight.

Calorie counting allows you to spread your eating out however you wish over the course of the day. You can eat mostly in the morning, mostly in the evening, a lot of small meals, a couple big meals with no snacks, whatever works for you. The only thing you need to manage is that you have a calorie deficit.

I'm having the exact same debate with myself. I've done SW on and off for the last 3 years, I get bored eventually and go totally off plan - my own fault, not the plan because there is lots of variety.

However I just got the Fitbit Aria scales for Christmas and want to do my own weigh ins rather than pay for group. Thing about that is I don't have access to Syns Online. So thinking of going the calorie route, I just find it so tedious filling in every morsel into MFP when on SW lots of food is "free" and doesn't need counting.

Any successful diet comes down to a calorie deficit. Slimming World's diet plan isn't calorie counting, but it structures the plan so that people will tend to eat at a deficit. You can use calorie counting or design any other plan for yourself that gets you to eat at a deficit and you'll be successful.

Are your friends really having long term success? As in lost significant weight and kept it off for a long period of time or are they just losing weight the first few months into the plan? The vast majority of diet plans work. They all work for the same reason, they cause you to consume fewer calories per day than you burn, albeit through different methods. The problem is that, as was @piadot 's experience, for one reason or another we stop using the plan. You need to utilize a plan that is sustainable for the long run in order to have lasting success. To me, short term success followed by return to previous weight is no success at all. Calorie counting is not exempt from this reality but it eliminates some of the barriers that cause people to abandon their plan such as expense, dietary restrictions (banning of certain foods/types of foods), monotony, or a time limit expiration (30 day plan, 90 day plan, etc). I'd give it a fair shake before I dipped into my wallet and did some other method that causes you to lose weight for exactly the same reason (calorie deficit).

The thing with slimming world which I love is that it is easy to continue the plan, as more of a lifestyle rather than a temporary diet. It has taught me how to make different choices on food, and though I occasionally fall off the wagon and gain a bit of weight (mainly if work gets so hectic I get lazy and order takeaway, or if I drink too much alcohol - the Christmas period is a nightmare for this!), a lot of the 'rules' are in my head and I follow them without thinking now... cutting fat off meat, only having extra lean meats, lots of vegetables etc.. at the moment, I've just got back onto healthy eating following a Christmas binge (why do we do it?!), I am measuring everything I have on slimming world just to see how the number of calories works... I'm interested to see how many calories there will be!

I think the "eat as much as you like" is a little misleading. You are also supposed to have 1/3 of the plate from the free/super free foods (can't remember which) in order to fill you up.

I like slimming world because it has taught me different ways to cook, but I don't intend to do it long term. I think there are lots of cheats - like 1 syn cakes or whatever, but to me, that's ridiculous as you'd never eat an entire cake. If I want cake, I'd rather have a small piece of "proper" cake!

Right now, I need the accountability of going to a group. It's stopped me from ordering take aways or guzzling down massive bars of chocolate. I live on my own, so there's nobody around to see it! I am logging on here as my food diary and intend to continue on here when I feel I can manage my weight loss without a weekly group.

I did slimming world and lost almost 3 stone really quickly, I could eat as much rice and pasta I wanted and that suited me perfectly... Until I stopped and put nearly 5 stone back on. Slimming world doesn't promote the right ethic so when you stop and eat 'notmally' the quantity isn't sustainable with weight loss