Small weight losses.

[r.j.]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here after lurking a while. I have noticed a lot of people feel they are failing in their diet if they dont lose a certain amount each week, losses of less than 3 pounds seem to be regarded as a failure. I used to be one of these people. Until I went to see my Doctor, I explained to him that I was doing slimming world but that most weeks I struggled to lose more than 1 -2lbs. He was horrified that I would want to lose more weight than this per week. He explained to me that the body will not only turn to fat supplies when dieting but will also turn to muscle mass and BONE MASS and INTERNAL ORGANS! as fat is actually pretty hard for the body to access so if the body thinks it is not receiving all the nutrition etc that it needs it will simply hold on to the fat reserves for a rainy day and turn to muscle bone and organ instead. This horrified me! It also lowers your resting metabolism making true weight loss even harder. My Doctor was pretty stern with me and said people who have less than 3 stone to lose should never lose more than 3lb max a week, ideally 2.
He said all the people who he knew who had successfully lost and maintained that loss had done it slow and steady.
This has changed my entire attitude to weight loss, I realise now it isn't a race or even all about how I look, its about improving my health too. So, imagine my surprise when I go to weigh in last week to find the C pushing a 5lb per week weight loss club! How can this even be possible for the average person?? 5lbs of fat equals 17500 calories you would have to create a deficit of 2500cals per DAY! wtf? Loads of people were saying they were gonna take part, and to be honest I found it quite irresponsible, if you stick to the plan and lose 5 pounds great, but I honestly dont believe this is a realistic amount of weight to aim for and it seemed that the ladies taking part are going to achieve this by eating only superfree! This is not the slimming world way, I have never found SW to be about deprivation unlike other slimming clubs so was very disappointed with my C. She should be setting a healthy example to us not encouraging unhealthy eating! What is wrong with an average weight loss of 1.5 pound per week? That is 78 pounds per year!
I don't mean to criticise anybody and obviously everyone is entitled to do what they want but I think this sort of behaviour puts pressure on everyone to conform and think how disappointed some ladies will be if they dont get 5lb loss, some may even give up entirely. Sorry for the rant!

 

[chantsy86]

Slimming world's average weightloss is 1-2lb im always happy with a 1lb but do like it when 3lbs come off from time to time.

 

[r.j.]

Of course it is lovely when you get a larger loss and it can be inspiring for the week ahead and for others around you. It was just the way our C was touting the 5lb "club" just seemed wrong. I love slimming world and my group but sometimes I think the onus is too much on the scales each week and what you have achieved each week instaed of the cumulative effect of weeks of dieting. For example my sister comes with me and so far she has lost three and a half stone, one week she had a half pound gain and a massive deal was made of it and she felt like she had failed, but to me she has done an incredible thing, three and a half stone gone, that is what she should focus on not a half pound gain, that, lets be honest could even be because she hadn't been to the toilet! If someone had asked her a year ago if she'd like to be 3 n half stone lighter she'd be thrilled. Sometimes I think our obssession with what the scales say each week can be detrimental. I think us women are far too hard on ourselves at times, I notice the men in our group do not freak out at a small gain or maintain, maybe we should take a leaf out of their book...who'd have thought it, a woman learning from a man!! lol

 

[SlimmingKitchen]

I have always had small weight losses. Anything from 0.5lbs to 2lbs a week at the most and I have learnt to accept it.
Everyone is different. Some will lose tons and others not so much.
It is healthier to lose 1-2lbs a week anyway and they say if you have a steady weight loss it stays off for longer too x

 

[donna88]

I worry slightly about your group to be honest and your consultant. I agree pushing a 5lb club seems irresponsible especially encouraging members to only eat superfree, like you say that's not the slimming world way!

Also the story about your sister worries me too, I've been really down on myself when I've gained in the past and its been my consultant and other members of the group who've told me not to be down and to look at how far I've come already. I don't think I would have managed to carry on if my consultant or group made me feel bad about a maintain or gain, we're hard enough on ourselves never mind our support network being hard on us too.

 

[r.j.]

Exactly! She was nearly in tears and ready to throw the towel in, our C announced to everyone she had put on then proceeded to lecture her about protecting her weight loss and not letting her success make her giddy and forget the plan, which I do get what she was trying to say but it just wasn't the case for my sister. Maybe our C was having a off day, sometimes there are so many people in our class that I think she hasn't got time to know everyone personally and just ends up throwing generic statements out there. I am considering changing groups, our C is a lovely woman but I honestly wonder sometimes if she actually knows anymore than is written in the books. I thought C's would be super knowledgable about nutrition and exercise, my C told me not to bother with body magic when I said I wanted to go for the gold level, told me just to eat myself slim instead, told me proudly she had never exercised once through her diet. Seems to me slimming world have a party line of good nutrition and moderate exercise but no way of enforcing it, which leads to misinformation and disparity between what one group is told by one C and what another group is told by theirs.
God I'm like a miserable old bat today!

 

[bc201]

It's like when I first joined and went to class ( had around 2st to loose) quite a few larger ppl said " why are you here you do not need to loose weight!" I was upset! As although to them I was ok they did not realise that although I was not massively over weight as I have joint problems my weight makes a different to my mobility !!
Since loosing the excess my mobility is much easier and having to take less painkillers ( not much body magic though but plan still works). By the way changed class and C now great and there was a woman there when I joined that had had a new hip and she was inspirational to myself
So what I'm trying to say everyone's journey if unique ! So just celebrate you're success and same to your sister she's done brill! And a gain from time to time is nothing to worry you just celebrate you're success to date not on a week to week basis
Sorry long winded today !!

 

[vanda]

I would be concerned about the 5lb loss club too, that is not a healthy loss to be encouraging - not for a long term eating plan anyway. Not so good about the way your sister was treated about the gain either. To be honest I love the SW plan but prefer the WW classes. I feel sw slimmer of the week is not a good idea, there is more to success than the number on the scales. I also feel the IT focuses on loss and intended loss too where at ww more useful things are discussed. Bit of a dilemma really, have just restarted sw and am already not loving the classes and thinking about changing to ww

 

[nearly]

"Slow and steady" sounds like a good motto. I've been losing about a pound a week. Which is certainly slow. But it's going in the right direction. Maybe you should talk with your consultant after the meeting, privately, about the reasoning behind the big push for big numbers. Tell the consultant what your doctor said.

 

[Ally89]

I got disheartened when i lost 0.5lb, i'm a slowish loser anyway and rarely lose more than 0.5lb or 1lb a week, but i did get disheartened before, but when i went off plan after my Nan died, I ate so much crap over 3 months, and i mean copious amounts of junk (4 bars of choc, 5 bags of crisps a day plus whatever else) but i only gained 8.5lb over 3 months...i came back here and some people had put that on just over xmas...looks like those small losses keep the weight gaining to a minimum, 3 months...roughly 12 weeks an with the at least 3000 cal binge day cycles i was stuck in and it added up to less than 0.5lb a week gains...small losses are definitely better than big. Before i wanted to lose it fast, but now i am content at small losses, especially if it means i can go off plan every now and then and not worry about gaining to much

 

[CraigA]

If i was you i would go to another group, your C sounds awful!

Ive lost alot of weight and i think it worked out at about 4.6lbs a week which is a hell of a lot but i do alot and i mean alot of exercise with it to. I would never tell anyone to try and join a group to drop that amount of weight its crazy.

I think most people in our group lose about 0.5-1.5lbs a week and to be fair we do have 16 target members in our group which is alot.

 

[chantsy86]

I often hear the consultants saing they want highest weight losses or they have been highest in area in that month or so on. Maybe they have targets to meet or certain bonuses maybe you should try and get in touch with slimming world just by email because the 5lb loss is definitely not right. I have never been pressured about how much to lose.

 

[jaylou]

As with many of these posts, the consultants comments are open to interpretation. We were not there, we don't know how the consultant phrased it, nor how the person took the comment. We are all different.

I doubt the consultant is horrible or awful and I doubt there's a need to jump ship!!