what do you do when SW doesn't work?

apbran

Member
My wife has been following SW for several years but the net loss is zero. She wants to lose weight but the marketing hype of SW is defeating her. The Food Optimising book says you can eat as much as you want of free foods, "you can fill even the biggest plate - and go back for seconds - and still lose weight." "Enjoy unlimited pasta, rice potatoes, ..." (Page 11)
I am more scientific and know that weight loss requires you to eat fewer calories than you burn off. Unless you restrict calories in some way you are not going to lose anything but the SW book seems to defy the laws of biology and thermodynamics.
 
SW does work.
You are restricting the calories by only having limited A and B choices (so bread, cereal, cheese, milk etc) and those syns eg treats.

You can fill your plate and you can go back for seconds but those foods you are filling up on are predominantly vegetables, lean meat and carbohydrates.

Does your wife go to group? Has the consultant helped her?
The marketing hype for SW is great. It works.
 
I'm glad it works for you

She joined a group, got the books and stopped going to the meetings and tries applying it herself. I can understand that it is difficult to eat lettuce and steamed vegetables to excess but not so difficult to eat a lot of pasta, rice and potatoes.
To lose a pound a week you need to reduce your intake by about 500 calories per day or 3500 over the week. Filling up on pasta does not do it and the system doesn't seem to cater for this.
After a while following the system with no weight loss she gets disillusioned (again) and gives up. Then a few months later comes back and tries SW again as though doing the same thing that didn't work last time is going to work this time.
 
the green days do not work for me but the red do. Maybe she could do red days and these restrict the potatoes, pasta and rice. It is worth a try to find which plan suits her.EE and Green are not for everyone
 
Very good advice I think. I would thoroughly recommend that your wife attends a group though, because the support from not only the consultant but also the member really does help you see things in new ways. Does she apply the 1/3 super free rule?

Wishing you wife the very best of luck. It really does work :)

Lots of love, Caramelle X X X
 
The thing with SW is to not try to understand it. It is a tried and tested method and there are thousands of successful losers with SW.
I eat a lot of pasta and potatoes and I lose well. As long she has plenty of veg and fruit she will lose.
I suggest she goes back to group and stays. Not everyone can do it alone.
 
Hi.

I have lost over 4 stone since May using the SW plan so I can quite categorically confirm that it does work.

HOWEVER. Your wife does not go to group and that can make a significant difference in terms of motivation. Also, she may be one of those people who are prone to put more weight on by eating high levels of carbs. I am like that, and found the original/red day part of the plan worked much better for me.

The plan DOES work, and its proven to work, you just have to find the plan that best suits you and stick to it. Going to group and having a supportive partner are also massively useful weapons in this battle.

I appreciate that it must be frustrating for you to see her struggle this way, but the plan DOES work, if followed correctly. As I assume it is a long time since she last went to a group, she may not be aware of the additional new plan that they offer, which is called Extra Easy and combines elements of both the red and green days. It might well be worth her rejoining a group, attending regularly, and trying out the new plan, or the "original/red" plan and seeing what a difference that makes.
 
Sorry but if your wife isnt losing weight then she simply isnt following the plan....there are so many living proof examples on here of people who have followed it 100% and lost vast amounts of weight, and likewise lots who have just lost a little.

Personally I wouldnt be able to do it without going to group, but maybe she could post her food diarys on here and see if people can pick up any little problems.

But if she follows plan she WILL lose weight its as simple as that :)
 
You have to experiment with what works for you. SW will take you so far but you need to have the right attitude and willpower. The SW hype is not defeating her - she is defeating herself. Has she really been following the plan 100% for several years? If she has does she understand the plan completely? If so why in 'several years' did she not investigate other diets? I don't want to sound harsh because not one of us here got fat by eating nothing but lettuce ;) but blaming 'marketing hype' means that she is not confronting issues that must obviously be present somewhere and is not taking responsibility for her own actions. These are things that all of us here have faced or are facing. Why not ask her to come here herself and see if we can help and support her to succeed?
 
The diet definatly works as you can see snuggles above has lost over 9 stone which is what i have to lose ive lost 17lbs in 6 weeks. Your wife cannot be sticking to the plan if shes not lost any weight at all. You dont say how much weight she has to lose i have alot to lose and at the moment are mainly sticking to green days as they make me feel fuller ive been having full plates of potato wedges large plates of pasta and huge jacket potatoes green days are all about fibre is she having wholemeal pasta and leaving the skin on the potatoes.
 
She joined a group, got the books and stopped going to the meetings and tries applying it herself. I can understand that it is difficult to eat lettuce and steamed vegetables to excess but not so difficult to eat a lot of pasta, rice and potatoes.
To lose a pound a week you need to reduce your intake by about 500 calories per day or 3500 over the week. Filling up on pasta does not do it and the system doesn't seem to cater for this.
After a while following the system with no weight loss she gets disillusioned (again) and gives up. Then a few months later comes back and tries SW again as though doing the same thing that didn't work last time is going to work this time.

I think it is difficult to eat pasta, rice and potatoes to excess and Slimming World does stress moderation - it gives 2 golden rules for a healthy diet: 1. take a wide variety of foods and 2. everything in moderation.

Page 11 in my book is a list of superfree foods so I think your wife may have an older book - perhaps pre the Extra Easy plan which most people now do.

I avoided the old green and red plans as I felt they were unsustainable and had the same misgivings as you. The Extra Easy plan though is fantastic and I now do some red or green days here and there but for a life long plan - Extra Easy is brilliant.

I'm told that statistically, those who stay to group are more sucessful. There are lots of reasons for this but I see week in week out members who have not read the book properly or have not understood something and its only by talking about their week in class, that this can be pointed out to them.

I've done many 'diets' over the years, Slimming World Extra Easy is quite simply a fantastic healthy eating plan that outshines anything else IMO.
 
I love carbs but to be honest I don't have huge platefuls now as I can't have all the creamy sauces, mayo, buckets of cheese with them :) So for me, psychologically, I feel I'm eating enough carbs now using my hex for sauce etc and in a way you can't really eat too much as you would either have to syn it or eat bare pasta....euch! :)
 
Does she have any medication that could be affecting her weight loss.

all the rest of the advice i would have spouted out has already been said above - if she is doing EE plan she needs the 1/3 rd superfree and if she is following Green/EE she will need to limit her intake of carbs or meat in turn.

I hope she goes back to class and succeeds xxx
 
I find it slightly puzzling that you are contributing to this forum on her behalf. Does she know that you are doing this? What does she think about it?

You can't lose weight for her - she has to do it herself. As Sockmonkey has said, why not get her to join this forum herself, and then she could get all the help and advice that the lovely people here are happy to give.
 
I find it slightly puzzling that you are contributing to this forum on her behalf. Does she know that you are doing this? What does she think about it?

You can't lose weight for her - she has to do it herself. As Sockmonkey has said, why not get her to join this forum herself, and then she could get all the help and advice that the lovely people here are happy to give.


Well said Avisk. I agree with you 100%.

I am another one who has lost weight with SW. I vary the days but do more green than red and eat potatoes, pasta , rice etc. I stick to plan, I eat my syns. I never deviate from the plan.

I have lost 4 stones and 4 lbs since February of this year and feel fantastic for it.

No other diet has done this for me.

Perhaps your wife is one of those folks who should not eat gluten as that can inhibit weight loss.

For what ever reason SW works for the majority. Thousands and thousands of people all over the world have lost enormous amounts of weight. It must tell you something..............SW works !!!!

I fear the problem here is not SW but your wife.
 
I do agree with what every one else has said, and can also vouch for SW working. I lost 32lbs in 16 weeks, and hubby is now on 5 1/2stone since jan this year.
The free food can be eaten unlimited, BUT however i think SW are assuming that each indervidual will show a degree of moderation in how much they eat.
You are correct in what you say about needed to eat 500 less cals a day to lose, an all free food does still have a calorie value, so if eating 3000 cals a day on pasta, then your not going to lose.
Although not compulsory on GREEN plan, it is strongly reconmended to follow the 1/3rd superfree rule. much of the superfree food used up more calories to eat and digest than you actually gain from eating the thing in the 1st place.

there was a post recently where someone wasnt losing, and they were eating there 3 meals and then snacking on FREE mullerlights and bananas.............. BUT 6 mullers and 4 bananas a day........... well that adds up to about a 1000 cals on its own. so a loss was not on the cards.

As the others have said each plan works differently for each person. Maybe GREEN just doesnt work for her. Try red or EE. Or fill up on more fruit and veg and less carbs
 
Would be nice if we got a reply.
 
Slimming World does work, having lost nearly 3 stone since I joined 17 weeks ago. SW also offers a money back guarantee if you do not lose weight in the first four weeks. Did you wife fill out a food diary and pass to her Consultant. If she did not, then the Consultant cannot help her to ascertain if she is making the right food choices. IF she did fill these out, and lost weight in the first four weeks, then this success can be replicated throughout the rest of the time needed to get to target. Staying to group for Image Therapy is also a must - I have learned so much about food choices and ideas for meals, even though I have bought all the cook books. Please forget the science bit - slimming world has done that for you - yes whilst the plan says that you can eat as much pasta/potatoes etc as you like on green/EE days, who could actually eat a sack of potatoes!! Also remember that 1/3 of each meal should be superspeed foods, which do not actually include pasta etc.
 
It definitely does work - or is working. I eat very well, but i think that there may be one or two underlying issues here.

First thing that set alarm bells ringing was when you stated pile your plate with as much pasta or as many potatoes as you like and come back for more.

Replace the word "like" for the word "need". If you want to overdose on food, make sure it is the superfree variety!

Secondly, I find the fruit and veg really does work - I feel robbed if I don't manage my five-a-day in some form.

Finally, there has to be some form of exercise too in my opinion. I currently fit 1.5 mile brisk walk into a 30 minute lunch break at work and manage at least 10 miles over a weekend. This combined with food optimising, common sense and most importantly the group sessions (cannot stress this enough) will see results - and in some case pretty spectacular ones too!

Perhaps your wife keeps a diary of every single morsel eaten and genuinely records all syns? - this could be shown to the consultant to see what is causing it?

I can only deduce far too much pasta and/or potatoes would be the cause.

I say most of the above because if I was to eat pounds of spuds and mountains of pasta and give up my walking for TV/internet sessions, SW wouldn't work for me either.

Also I find it imperative to plan meals well in advance and stick to it - might seem a bit of a faff on, but again, it works for me.

someone a lot wiser than I once said, "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail."

People on here will of course help, but we need to know more details.

Steve
 
The OP stated that his wife doesnt attend group - so without the consultant support she is way more likely to struggle anyway. I am however quite curious as to why the OP wants to diminish her efforts with comments about why the "science" of the whole plan is contraindicative of its success. If it didnt work, then people wouldnt pay to go to class, buy the books, and it wouldnt be a business that has lasted for 40 years. It would have been dismissed as total hogwash in five minutes and they would have gone bankrupt years ago.

Even if the OPs wife is not losing weight effectively and IS following the plan to the letter, which is clearly not the case, as he states that she does it in phases, gets disillusioned, stops, and then goes back on it again, well then it is to be expected that the "net loss" will not be much of anything to speak of, simply because she is not following the plan consistently, and so every time she comes off it, she will rebound.

OP, I reiterate my earlier comment that your wife should attend group, so that she can get the proper support to ensure she is following the plan properly, and that she should test out variations of the plan that dont involve endless carbs, whilst many people get great results from the green plan, others do not and it may be that the one she is following simply does not suit her own personal body make up and metabolic system.

But overall, whether she is losing weight or not, you should bear in mind that whilst following the plan, if she is in fact following it correctly, which we have yet to establish, she is still eating a much healthier diet when ON the plan, than she is likely to be when OFF the plan, and she should be supported for that, and not analysed about the minutae of calorific details. Recent research has started to ask questions about how relevant calorie counting actually is, and that we should perhaps re-evaluate and classify foodstuffs based on their nutritional value instead. Which is, if I had to summarise the SW Plan in a nutshell, effectively what the whole thing is based upon. NOT counting the calories, but eating in the most effective and beneficial way for weight loss without feeling deprived.
 
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