64 upvotes, 3 direct replies (showing 3)
View submission: Does Slimming World make sense?
Slimming World groups food into 3 main groups.
Free food - most fruits/veggie, low fat meat, etc
Healthy Extra - a set amount of fibre & dairy every day, so bread/cereal & milk/cheese
Syns - unhealthy food, different foods have different syn values. A chocolate bar could be anything from 5 - 30 syns depending on the type.
You get a set amount of syns a day you are allowed. The basic idea is that you swap out high syn foods for low syn foods & low syn foods for free foods.
It’s more complicated & complex than that, but that is the basic idea.
Comment by GlitchingGecko at 26/01/2025 at 22:05 UTC
45 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Exactly, and for most people, it'll work, because their problem is they eat a huge takeaway for dinner or an entire pack of biscuits for a snack, so instead they're eating 'free' low fat meat, fruit and veg until they're full, and still dropping a tonne of calories.
However, if your problem isn't the calories you eat, but a lack of activity and exercise, giving you 'free reign' to eat as much fruit/veg/meat you like can actually make you put on weight.
My mum tried to put me on that when I was a teenager. Instead of having a piece of toast if I was hungry at night, I'd make a huge salad with an entire pack of sandwich meat and twice as many calories as a slice of toast, because it was 'free food'. Instead of one banana, I'd eat six, because it was 'free'.
Comment by fishyfishyswimswim at 27/01/2025 at 11:15 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Actually, this is forgetting a critical group - speed foods. Essentially veggies and low sugar fruits.
It does work if people actually follow it. What people don't realise is there are rules beyond "as much free food as you like".
It's:
As much free food as you like, provided at least one third of your plate is speed food AND you stop eating as soon as you're full.
What that ACTUALLY does is force people to fill up on higher fibre more nourishing foods and DOES limit the amount of simple carbs. It just means people don't have to constantly count calories.
ETA: speed foods are a subset of free foods but need to be called out separately as the rule around 1/3 speed exists
Comment by MissingBothCufflinks at 27/01/2025 at 08:27 UTC
-2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
And its fucking nonsense and a MLM scam that definitely doesn't work