Trying MFP before rejoining slimming world.

@leonajade94lk476 I tried SW recently, I was still logging in here but more to go for accountability and I hated it.
1. I don't like the language used with respect to syns, food is food. If something is triggering for you, monitor / avoid it. But its not inherently bad. I found that these were lined up to stop me eating certain foods that sometimes help me meet my goals. I understand the word is related to synergise, but who are we kidding, its meant as sins. Its meant in a negative way.
2. Our meeting had a slimmer of the week, where people had to bring food that would go to the slimmer of the week. On so many levels I didn't like this. Food waste, rewarding with food, becoming competitive with others when really the frame of reference is yourself.
3. It was way to open to the amount of food that you could eat. You could eat a large amount of "free" foods, if you're the sort of person that naturally eats these foods and is over weight from eating too many of these foods, it just won't help you at all. Similarly, the less that you have to lose, I think you're going to have to control things more. Having said that, if you've a lot to lose, well in to the obese category and no understanding of food, I can completely understand how it might help someone get started, but I think its far better to start here.
4. They pushed artificial products, selling them at the the meetings. Honestly I don't care what other people eat, but I hate seeing things lined up selling potentially triggering food to people that are clearly trying to lose weight.
5. I did weight watchers in the past, there was always a motivational part, or how to cook, etc... This alone and the discussion around what people felt helped I think was good (I'm not advertising WW, I firmly believe you're better understanding what you're actually eating) In my (albeit short) experience, this is not what happened in SW, they went around EVERYONE in the room, essentially, oh you lost/you gained, what worked, what didn't. There was no learning around weight loss, etc... For many people if this is your one weigh in, what you did during that week is not necessarily representative of how you are doing in general, for example, if you've trained hard recently or depending on monthly cycle, there can be a couple of lb up that are not representative of your weight loss. I've seen this effect others very negatively in the past (its a feature of anyone that weighs in weekly. I'm a bigger fan of either weighing in more frequently like daily to see the fluctuations and understanding them, or if this messes with your head, every month so there is a more noticeable change and a daily fluctation isn't going to completely obliterate the progress.
6. In my case the leader + those running the show were all over weight, I felt it was the blind leading the blind. I felt they didn't understand what safe weight loss was, I got sad, oh only 0.5lb some weeks, when my average was 1-2 (closer to 2lb a week, approx 1% body weight a week), this should have just been congratulated and acknowledgement that even when you do the same things, weight loss is not linear.

However, there is a well know physiologist (quirky in many ways, but very knowledgable at weightloss/body re-composition, etc..), Lyle McDonald, he does in particular reference his mother and how much group weight loss helps. In her case she used weight watchers. Its not that he was suggesting that these were better methods for losing weight, but the community aspect of it is what can help people.

Weight loss is down to eating less calories than you burn, what ever method is the one you'll stick with is the best for you. But something like MFP allows you to learn the details, for example about carbs/protein/fats and makes it easier for you to analyse what makes it easier for you.

If you decide to give MFP a go, here's a good starting point: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1


TLDR: I don't like slimming world for many reasons. However joining a group may be beneficial for you but I think understanding what you are eating is far superior.