Thread: 20 cals = 1 syn rule when no free food allowance

I've seen so many threads on here asking for syn values on non free food items, it made me think - is it worth having a sticky thread that explains this rule, with the "20 cals = 1 syn when no free food allowance" as the title.

After all, we now know its official as Slimming World have added the "Snackulator" to the official website which works on exactly that basis.

I know there will still be tons of people that take no notice of the various sub forums and stickies (mostly newbies until they get used to it), but it might help people realise that they can work it out for themselves. So much easier when you are at the supermarket and know that a quick sum in your head will give you the answer.

Just a thought

Yep I agree! Having just had a look through a few pages on here lots of questions could have been solved using this rule xx

these are all the foods that have NO free food allowance:

Alcoholic drinks
Biscuits, including cereal bars and savoury crackers
Bread & crispbreads
Breakfast cereals
Cakes & bakery items, e.g. carrot cake
Crisps & snacks
Dressings & dips, e.g. salsa, salad dressing
Fruit - canned, dried and stewed
Pastry products (sweet & savoury), e.g. salmon en croute, apple pie
Pizza
Puddings & desserts
Sandwich/deli fillers
Sandwiches and wraps
Sauces, e.g. jars of tomato-based pasta sauce
Soft drinks, including yogurt drinks fruit/vegetable juice and fruit smoothies
Soups, all varieties
Sweets & chocolates

so the 20 calories = 1 syn is accurate for any of those types of foods.

If however there is a free food allowance to an item then of course the syns calculator needs to be used, because various parts of the nutritional information are taking into account. i.e. calories, fat, protein and carbs as well as the weight listed for that nutritional information.

So many people forget to give this information when asking for the syns of a free food item.

Hi there, iv only just joined this forum. I did Slimming World last year, and lost 3 stone altogether. I had to leave for personal reasons, and have decided to try again, but just doing it at home.

Could someone please explain this non-free food rule please? Im a little confused. How do I know if it is a non-free food? Also, is there a certain amount involved? Totally confused, lol :-s

Thanks,

Victoria

Originally Posted by Tinnedtomato

Hi there, iv only just joined this forum. I did Slimming World last year, and lost 3 stone altogether. I had to leave for personal reasons, and have decided to try again, but just doing it at home.

Could someone please explain this non-free food rule please? Im a little confused. How do I know if it is a non-free food? Also, is there a certain amount involved? Totally confused, lol :-s

Thanks,

Victoria

This was just about sharing with people a simple way to work out the syns of various types of packaged foods without needing to use syns online, or the books etc. But it only works when those foods do not contain any FREE foods.

The free foods being, fruit and non starchy veg (on all plans), meat, fish, poultry etc on original/EE, and starchy veg/pasta/beans/rice etc on Green/EE - ie all the free foods you should have listed in your food optimising book.

So, for example, if you were in a shop and trying to work out the syns on a kit kat, and the calories were 110 cals - you would know that the kit-kat would be 5.5 syns as 110 divided by 20 is 5.5 - and a chocolate bar has no free foods.

If however, you were doing Original or EE and wanted to work out the syns for a pork sausage, and the sausage was 160 cals, you couldnt automatically assume that the syns would be 8 (160/20=8), because the pork ingredient would be a free food, so the actual syns would be reduced accordingly - and only the boffins at Slimming World HQ know how to do that!

Originally Posted by Tinnedtomato

Hi there, iv only just joined this forum. I did Slimming World last year, and lost 3 stone altogether. I had to leave for personal reasons, and have decided to try again, but just doing it at home.

Could someone please explain this non-free food rule please? Im a little confused. How do I know if it is a non-free food? Also, is there a certain amount involved? Totally confused, lol :-s

Thanks,

Victoria

I have listed all the items that have no free food allowance above, so you can use the 20 cals = 1 syn for those.

Anything else you need to use the syns calculator.

Thanks guys, thats great. Totally understand now )

Thanks for that great tip answers alot if my questions without me having to ask!!!

Based on this loose rule, does this mean that if I burn off 20 calories in exercise I could be deleting a syn?

Originally Posted by Muttick

Based on this loose rule, does this mean that if I burn off 20 calories in exercise I could be deleting a syn?

I love this suggestion!! Lol

Sent from my iPhone using MiniMins

so do i!

Originally Posted by mandy296

This was just about sharing with people a simple way to work out the syns of various types of packaged foods without needing to use syns online, or the books etc. But it only works when those foods do not contain any FREE foods.

The free foods being, fruit and non starchy veg (on all plans), meat, fish, poultry etc on original/EE, and starchy veg/pasta/beans/rice etc on Green/EE - ie all the free foods you should have listed in your food optimising book.

So, for example, if you were in a shop and trying to work out the syns on a kit kat, and the calories were 110 cals - you would know that the kit-kat would be 5.5 syns as 110 divided by 20 is 5.5 - and a chocolate bar has no free foods.

If however, you were doing Original or EE and wanted to work out the syns for a pork sausage, and the sausage was 160 cals, you couldnt automatically assume that the syns would be 8 (160/20=8), because the pork ingredient would be a free food, so the actual syns would be reduced accordingly - and only the boffins at Slimming World HQ know how to do that!

This is really helpful thank you, my consultant hadn't mentioned anything about this so probably wouldn't have found out if it weren't for this forum

this is really helpful thank you so much, explained it very well x

Can anyone please tell me if items are every more than 1 syn per 20 calories? Does anyone have any ideas on how to work out syns when mixing free foods?

No I cant see why anything would ever be more than 1 syn per 20 calories - why are you asking?

And sorry Im not sure what you mean by mixing free foods. If you mean how do you work out the syns when there is a free food allowance involved then there is no way to do it other than look things up online or work it out on the syn calculator if you are a SW member xx