Becca Jane St Clair

I used to post a lot about my Slimming World journey. As some of you know, I did manage to lose a bit of weight through Slimming World, then gained some of it back and struggled quite a bit. Then, the pandemic hit and I felt that there wasn’t really much support out there and I decided not to return after the pandemic, and especially after they upped their prices! I know Slimming World struggled during the pandemic and they tried creating virtual meetings via Zoom and giving us half-price meetings if we already had purchased a countdown before they had to shut down groups, but I just didn’t feel as though there was support. We obviously were expected to weigh ourselves at home, too, and I don’t even own a scale because I would honestly step on it multiple times per day to check my weight if I did. And it’s very hard to receive personal attention over a Zoom call. There was nothing personal about it. I don’t even recall our consultant contacting us if we stopped attending the Zoom calls. I certainly felt as though the £45 I paid the week before we had to stop meetings was completely wasted!

But let’s get back to my struggling. When I first joined SW, my goal was to get my weight down to a weight that a doctor told me I needed to get down to for a procedure. I got down to the weight I was told, and they basically told me I hadn’t that I actually needed to lose more and get down to an amount that I wasn’t comfortable weighing. But I returned to Slimming World anyway and I struggled whenever we would get told to “remember why you walked through that door.” or “remember your goal”, because I no longer actually had a tangible goal.

I also struggled with “do you know why you gained weight?”/”Do you know why you didn’t lose anything this week?” because I felt like it was shaming people for the choices they made throughout the week. If it was my birthday, anniversary, or heck, just a bad day and I wanted to have a piece of cake…I was going to have the piece of cake.

We got told to “eat in moderation”, yet foods like pasta, rice, and potatoes were “unlimited”…talk about a carb overload! Speaking of carbs, I actually did lose 30lbs before I joined Slimming World by cutting out carbs entirely. Even now, I don’t eat pasta as often as I used to, and rarely rice, but I do like potatoes and bread. Other “unlimited”, sorry, “free” foods included yogurt brand Mueller Light and people were not discouraged from eating an entire 6 pack of yogurts in one day. Pickled onions were also considered “free”. I’m allergic to onion so I never ate them, but you would see people posting pictures of the weirdest plates with their little onion garnish.

Packet of lunchmeat? Fine. Eggs? Fine. Apples? Fine. Banana? Fine. But don’t you dare put that banana in a blender or press the juice out of the apple. Now it’s synned. A tin of chickpeas was fine, but if you roasted chick peas, you guessed it…synned.

Now I’m not saying that the plans don’t work. I’m sure they do for some people, and I know people who have had great success on the plans. In fact, I have an entire category on my blog dedicated to my experiences on Slimming World and recipe sharing. The problem is, you pretty much have to be on the plan for life. The “maintain” part of the plan involves you weighing in every week and if you fall above or below something like 3lbs off your original goal, you either get put back on the plans, or told to eat more.

And the plans just don’t work if you have other dietary restrictions. For example, people who require Gluten Free foods will struggle on the plans. As a diabetic, I struggled because a lot of the “free” foods still had quite a bit of sugar in them, including the yogurts. I’m allergic to onions (and garlic), so that made some of the recipes hard to follow as a lot of them rely on adding a ridiculous amount of either. I’m also allergic to maple syrup, so can’t use that as a sugar alternative. If you can’t drink cow milk, you can’t use almond milk as your dairy option. In fact, I don’t even know what someone would do if they were both gluten and lactose intolerant as one of the big daily requirements is a Healthy A (dairy) and a Healthy B (Bread/Wheat).

The plans also struggle to cope with any amount of exercise or training above just going on a walk. In fact, they claim you don’t need to do any exercise at all and you will still lose weight. I recently started running, and I know that if I was still at SW I would get reprimanded for a “gain”, when actually, I’ve lost inches on my waist and hips and the fat on my calves has all been converted back into muscle.

I also know some people who developed eating disorders because of Slimming World and the idea of “binging” on pasta or potatoes. or the idea that meeting night is also “cheat night” so you could stuff your face after the meeting and it wouldn’t matter because you’d get right back on the plan on the following morning. We were encouraged instead of using our 15 “syns” per day, that it was ok to save them up for one big meal during the week instead. My own view of food is pretty skewed and I barely make pasta anymore because I feel like I used to make too much pasta but I ate it anyway because it was “free”.

But no, I shouldn’t completely poo poo on Slimming World. I have made several really good friends through the group who I still talk to regularly. I gained confidence in cooking and creating recipes. And yes, I did lose some weight, even if I’ve put some of it back on.

But I won’t be returning to Slimming World, or Weight Watchers, or any of the other “weight loss plans” that claim they aren’t diets while being diets.

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DISCLAIMER: I do not work for Slimming World, I am not affiliated with Slimming World beyond being a paying customer/member, I get no personal benefit from writing this post other than the joy of sharing.

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