So I cut down my free foods and . . .

Brightonrosie

I want to be fitter again
At last after three months I have lost a decent amount of weight (2lbs) and so has my daughter!! As many of you know I have been struggling so i looked at the amount of calories I am eating in a day knowing that an excess of 3500 calories in one week would cause you to put on one pound, only 500 extra a day (one packet of pasta and sauce and 1 Mulerlights yogurt as an example). As someone near to target my needs would be much less than when I started but I was still eating the same amount of food. This evening I took my food diary to my consultant and as usual she said "that is brilliant well done" I then turned it over and revealed my "brilliant" day diary was 2200 calories. She was shocked!! I then showed her my new diary which wasn't greatly different other than having less free foods (hardly noticable) but what an amazing difference in weight. Perhaps we should have slightly different guidlines when we are approaching target or have been stuck having lost a reasonable amount of weight already. SW is a brilliant plan and i will continue but I will check calories once a week at random to check what my intake is like.Sorry for the long post but sooooooo pleased the weight has begun to shift again.
 
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Congratulations on the loss! I know that Calorie counting is not for everyone as there was a big debate on this before in another thread, but if something is not working I think you need to look to other alternatives and see what could change. Glad to see that for you the Calorie counting provided a result!
 
No don't get me wrong, i am still doing slimming world but seeing where I need to cut back a bit ie do i really need that extra banana or mugshot????
 
I really think this is my problem.

I need to cut down on my free foods, as I've sts for the last few weeks despite being really good.

xxx
 
I think its more an issue of over-indulging in the "free stuff" thats the problem.
In the past I would see eating a whole chicken as a challenge, but I could as it was free!...wrong! Eating in excess whatever diet you are on definitely slows down losses. Moderation is the key!
This is another reason why the band helps me...I physically cannot over indulge in the free food.
Well done on the shift in weight hun both you and your daughter. This calorie counting is working for you, so well done!

xx
 
Great news, Brightonrosie. It's such a good feeling when the weight comes off.

The discontinued Success Express plan was designed to speed up weight loss and it did it by drastically reducing your free foods. It was 2/3 superfree at each meal and the 1/3 free food could be red and/or green. 1 or 2 HEXA and 2 HEXB but snacking only on superfree. Superfree then included eggs, quorn, fat free yogurt etc. You also had your normal syns.

So it shows that SW did acknowledge that reducing your free food significantly would speed up weight loss.

I'm the same height as you and I'm now almost exactly the same weight as you. Also like you, I'm finding the weight coming off much more slowly now. I lost my Christmas gain pretty quickly but it's back down to my normal slow loss. I'm also pretty convinced like you that I need to cut down more on my free foods and up my superfree to reduce my calories. I could cut back on my syns but I really need to save about 30 for the weekend to have a good drink and I always like to have at least 5 syns a day. As you get nearer to target, it gets harder to shift the weight as you need fewer calories.

However, I'm still surprised at being able to lose all the weight that I have with the amount of food and alcohol that I've had. It's certainly been a very enjoyable way of losing weight but now I'm going to have to work a bit harder as I get nearer to my target.
 
I think this is what I need to do! I put my calories into a counter and I was over 2,000 for 5 out of 7 days.When you don't have much to lose I guess thats not really going to work! I will definitely try it this week,so fingers crossed,i hope your weight keeps coming off at this speed! :)
 
Well done you Brightonrosie, im so pleased that youve identified the area that you need to work on to carry on your already successful loss. I think the same rule applies to a lot of other people too - unlimited free foods = calories = stay the same or even a gain. I suppose its not just about the good food versus bad foods its about calorific intake versus outake.
 
Congrats Rosie, I know how fed up you've been recently. A 2lb loss is fab!

I don't have much weight to lose now. I STS last week, and the more I think about it the more I'm convinced it's due to simply eating too much and/or having too many calories. Early on in my SW journey this probably didn't have much effect but now with just over a stone to lose I think it's time I start reducing things to keep on with the steady 1-2 lb losses I've been having.
This week I am consciously thinking about what I'm eating a little bit more than usual in terms of snacks and whether I REALLY need to eat it. Then if I want a snack it's superfree or a HE. I'm also keeping my syns at around 5-8 a day (I tend to have the maximum), and upping a lot more on the superfree foods.
Let's see what effect this has - I'm desperate to reach the 2 stone mark!
 
One of the things that has surprised me when reading posts on this forum is people saying that they have things like mugshots, pasta and sauce, and "quiches" as snacks. To my mind they are meals (or rather, meal substitutes). To say they are free as a meal is fine, but not as a snack before or after a meal. It's like having a second dinner!

I just had a look at a packet of Mug Shot, which is free on green, and itis 239 calories. That's low for a proper meal, but ridiculously high for a snack, even if it is free.

I think that maybe some people who get stuck might do better if they adjusted their idea of what constitutes a snack.
 
As everyone knows I love Slimming World, but the problem is the following is written in a very small font (comparatively) and isn't in an obvious place: "first rule of Slimming World, everything in moderation"

I think SW is great for letting you ‘eat’ whilst you are breaking habits and adjusting rather than other diets that basically say, 3..2..1.. ok stop eating and break all your habits...GO! Like others have said portion sizes tend to creep up just because it’s free and whilst you are losing weight that's great go for it! However once your habits have changed, its then about tackling portion control and lifestyle.

The idea of free foods has always been they are filling whilst being relatively low in calories, I use the chocolate bar/ bowl of pasta example.

At the end of the day it's all about changing your habits for life, you wouldn't walk into a class to learn a new language and expect to walk out being fluent! I seem to have lost my point, but anyhow there you go!

Natt xxx
 
Well done Rosie. That is good news. You must be so pleased.
I totally agree with you and that is why I think I lost slower to begin with an my weight loss sped up at the end.
I used to take a lot of free food to work every day. I then lost my job and being at home I felt no need to nibble. I still don't and even though I am at target I am still losing. I re-target last week as I was 4.5 pounds under target, and I still lost half a pound this week despite having more that 15 syns each day, and my HEXs. Perhaps I will add some more free food to my diet!
 
I am deffo doing this now. I was shocked to realise that on the first day I logged calories, I ate 700 calories in 'snacks'. That is outrageous! It was 2 mullerlights, a banana, 2 apples, ryvita minis (HEXb) and a 2 finger kitkat (5.5syns). All within plan. But how can I possibly lose weight when I am consuming that amount of calories nefore I even eat a meal! It was a bit of a eureka moment for me. I will follow SW. Still better to ahve a banana, or a muller, than another kit kat, even if they are the same calories. But I need to aske myself whether I really need that food.

Lynda
 
Well done Rosie, I'm really pleased for you :)

I always have one eye on my calories, because I counted calories for such a long time. I don't formally count them, but make a mental note.
SW is a very convenient way of sorting the calories into healthy, nutritious meals and limiting fat.
I would never have pasta 'n' sauce/mugshots or SW wedges as a snack, because I know that I wouldn't lose weight if I did that on a regular basis. I also watch portions of carbs and make sure my meals are balanced. Now that I'm at target I'm trying to make sure that my extra food isn't all bread and cereal bars.
I'm glad this has come up because sometimes when people say they are struggling because they are 100% but not losing, I think it's because they eat too much free foods and not enough super-free foods and speed foods, but when I said this once, it wasn't very well received.

It's important to always remember that you're trying to lose weight so too much of any food isn't going to help.
SW isn't a 'eat as much as you like' diet it's 'eat until you are comfortably full' diet - there's a difference there.
 
Rosie well done.
i too have been watching how much free food i have been eating and cutting it down considerably this week so i expect a higher loss on my Sunday weigh in.
i think you are absolutely right in your observations
Good stuff
sending some sunshine xx
 
Can't write loads as I'm at work...but I am SO pleased for you :D
 
Well done Rosie

Completely agree with everthing said so far. I sometimes think of this issue on minimins when someone says they are not losing and there always seems to be a heap of people saying "are you eating enough?" "You need to eat more". I think sometimes people can pick up the wrong message from this- almost like you NEED to eat lots on SW to lose weight.

SW always say eat until satisfied and then stop- I think we are all a little guilty of the whole "well it's free, so what's the problem" and eating something when we aren't even particularly hungry. I guess we have to listen to our bodies a little and learn to understand when we are truly hungry, or when we are just being a bit greedy

You are an inspiration to us all!

xxxxx
 
I had to laugh as in the paper the other day it said Gordon Brown had cut out his kitkats and was having 8 ?9 bananas A DAY instead!:eek:. We've often discussed this in class, and our consultant recommends that you only have 1 banana and 1 mullerlight a day. I now tend to go for the shape longlasting ones as they're even lower in cals. I don't have that much to lose either now and find it needs more thought to get the losses.
 
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