I try to stick to 3-5 syns a day and then have a big blow out once a week or so and have 50-90 syns on a night out. This week it was 123, which is far too many - but that's rare!
Since joining Slimming World, I have heard the following:
- You should not save up your syns to be used on a certain day or at the weekend (SW website);
- It's fine to save your syns and have 105 per week instead of 15 per day (my consultant);
- For maximum weight loss, you should eat all your 15 syns per day (online forums);
- For maximum weight loss, you should avoid eating all your syns every day and cut down (my consultant);
- You should start with 15 syns per day then if your weight loss slows down, you start by cutting back your syns to 10 per day (online forums);
- You should start with 10 per day and then you can always increase these whilst still loosing weight when the diet gets boring (online forums);
- Using flexible syns is good for your weight loss as it increases your metabolism (SW consultant);
- Using flexible syns is bad for your weight loss and should be avoided and only done when you have no alternative (SW website)
As you can see, both at the classes and online, there's lots of theories!
Personally, I find it impossible to stick to this diet if I can't have a blow out night out once a week. I'm in my late 20s, so I don't need to go out every night - but I do want to see friends and have fun on the town once a week or so. That wouldn't be possible unless I could save syns.
Also, if I ate my full syns every day AND had a big night out - I wouldn't loose weight. That would be fine for maintenance (and probably what I'll end up doing to keep the weight off once I've lost another two stone!) but not for weight loss.
You have to tailor this diet to your own personal circumstances. If you eat steadily, I think it's fine to eat 10-15 a day and expect a reasonable weight loss. If you binge on alcohol or bad foods every now and again, you need to cut it down.
There's lots of people with lots of theories - many of which are contradictory. You have to figure out what works for you.