Does anyone else calorie count

emmab21

Member
I'm following the SW plan on my own, not going to meetings at the moment as I'm properly broke.

I was wondering if anyone else notes calories as well as syns and free foods and does anyone exceed the recommended 2000 cals a day (for women) on the plan and still lose weight?
 
Firstly I have done calorie counting, did it for the first 6 stone of my weight loss, I dont think you would lose at 2000 calories a day though. I was on 1000 a day which i know is low. It does work but your loss will plateau, which is why I joined SW.

But.....you cannot calorie count and do slimming world, it just doesnt work, I havent a clue how sw works but calories certainly dont come into it!

Good luck in whatever you decide, but from experience SW is the way forward whether its in a class or going it alone with support from all the others on here :)
 
I'm not calorie counting per se, I'm following the plan exactly as I would normally but I am also writing down the calorie consumption out of interest. That way if I'm not losing weight as I would expect to I might be able to see where I'm going wrong. Sometimes I follow the plan to the letter and don't lose an ounce. If I see a pattern between the weeks where I have more calories (due to eating more 'free food') I might have an answer!
 
But.....you cannot calorie count and do slimming world, it just doesnt work, I havent a clue how sw works but calories certainly dont come into it!

I'm afraid calories do come into it. SW works by encouraging you to eat low energy dense food i.e. low calory. A calory is a unit of energy and all diets work by adhering to the rule that calories (energy) in = less than calories (energy) out. Eating a third superfree, discouraging intake of fatty foods and promoting body magic are all ways that SW ensures that our energy in is less than our energy out.

I don't count calories myself as it seems a bit pointless as the plan is designed to take that strain away. However I would doubt you would lose much or indeed anything if you were taking in 2000 calories a day unless you had a very physically demanding job and/or did a LOT of body magic. HTH.
 
I did think about doing both just out of curiosity, to see if I really was in calorie deficit with all I am eating on SW, and I even downloaded the MyFitnessPal iphone app: but when it came down to it, I was just too lazy to weigh and count everything. That's one of the reasons I came to SW from WW, so I wouldn't have to measure every single thing that went into my mouth. I want an eating plan for life, and life is definitely too short to obsess over every tiny morsel of food the way I did on WW.
 
Well said Tinsel!
 
I have tried calorie counting, Cambridge diet, Atkins, WW etc but find slimming world the one that I can managed for the rest of my life. It seems more like healthy eating and not limiting yourself.

Yes, I lost quickly on the calorie counting and atkins but put it back on plus more afterwards.

With SW I see it as I am changing my eating pattern and not on a diet.
 
When I first started sw years ago I was keen to understand how the plan worked. I read all the information about how the free foods were low in calorie, but also filling and nutritious, but I still didn't believe it could work like that (even though i'd had great losses at that point). So i worked out how many calories i'd had for a couple of days. The calories varied betwen 800 and about 1600 a day, and I was eating loads.

So the science behind the plan really does work and we don't need to count the calories as someone's already worked out an easier way of doing it!!
 
I was told that following slimming world you will be having around 1400 and 1500 a day and from experience of other diets this is the amount needed to lose weight steadily. As said before you wont lose weight having 2000 calories a day unless you do a lot of physical activities. I never count the calories thats why i like slimming world no counting required:D
 
I did count calories at the beginning just to make sure that what the plan was saying was right.

I followed everything to the SW letter and counted the calories for a week and I was reassured.

I was having between 1300 and 1500 calories and with the exercise I was doing everything was great.

The plan works and I no longer count calories, but I am aware of them and I do believe you still have to be aware of them.

A lady at my group could not understand why she wasn't losing weight, it turns out she was eating about 800 calories of bananas and yoghurts without her even adding her normal food.

Anyway she cut down and is now 3/4 lb of hitting target having lost almost 4 stone.

I trust the plan now and never question it.
 
i know I could not calorie count and do SW, it would be far to confusing for my little brain. I would end up messing it all up and binging on naughty food, whereas with SW it is more healthy in eating the correct stuff with relasitic treats :)
 
When I began the plan, I wanted to know out of curiosity how many calories I was eating but like others have said - its far to much effort!! Also, by having the freedom of free food I know I eat differing amounts of calories day to day and I believe this helps you loose weight as well as you will not find that platou (SP?!) unlike people like my mother who stuck to 800-1000 cals a day and after few months no more weight would budge!!

LOVE sw - syns are so much easier to count :)
 
I have tried calorie counting, Cambridge diet, Atkins, WW etc but find slimming world the one that I can managed for the rest of my life. It seems more like healthy eating and not limiting yourself.

Yes, I lost quickly on the calorie counting and atkins but put it back on plus more afterwards.

With SW I see it as I am changing my eating pattern and not on a diet.
i have to agree totally with the above post from springergirl :)
 
I had to keep check of my calories as i neared target because if I went over more than 1200 calories the weight didn't shift. It taught me about reasonable portion sizes within SW. I would often eat 80gms rice with my dinner but if you look at the SW recipe books they allow maximum 60gms per portion. Also i had to stop eating the calorie laden instant foods like instant low fat noodles and Uncle Ben's express rice and I also cut back on the amount of sugar I was eating so stopped having Alpen bars and Hi fi bars. I now do a check in on calories at random about once a month x
 
I have been on so many diets over the years I can tell you within 100 cals or so exactly how many I have eaten today if I had to. I try not to and just go with the plan.

One point I would mention - SW is "usually" around 1500 cals a day, but if you are very overweight that is actually quite low. One reason I do tot them up in my head sometimes is that on plan I know I don't enough some days. I would lose weight on 2000 cals a day because I am bigger (although not quite so big as I was now), and tend to be quite active. My basal metabolic rate is around 1800 now - that's what I would need to lay in bed all day. Even without activity I would need to eat around 2700 to maintain, and as I exercise most days as well, would need around 3000+ to maintain, so eating 2000-2500 would still give me a good weight loss. Sometimes (especially the larger slimmers) need to make sure they are not eating too little.
 
I never work out what calories I have consumed but I sometimes look at the calories on the back of things, usually stuff like treats because they give me a better idea of the syn values.
I like to calorie count when exercising though, I just keep thinking for 100 calories burnt off during a workout that's a bottle of Carling Beer I have worked for hahaha ;)
It would actually be interested to know how many calories I have consumed in a day but I'll be honest I'd have no idea where to start on knowing them for every single thing I eat lol! xxx
 
I check my daily calories sometimes and I check that the foods I'm eating aren't too high in calories.
I've found that with SW the plan gives me a framework to eat freely and still come in at a reasonable calorie total, without having to count calories every day.
 
I think most of us have done the calculation when we started out of curiosity, but to be honest the only time I think of calories is if I'm checking something on the side of a packet/tin.
I also keep in the back of my mind things like free fruit that it's easy to go overboard on, like bananas and grapes.
Otherwise I just enjoy the plan for what it is, a blueprint for the rest of my life.
 
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