I wouldn’t have considered joining a slimming club had it not been for a group of ladies I used to work with, I had put on a few pounds after giving up smoking. We all joined Slimming World in March 2003 and I remained a member until September of the same year. It cost £10 to join and then a weekly paid fee of £3.50.
For this sum you were weighed (discreetly) weekly, and your weight was recorded in a book, I got quite a shock at this point when I was weighed to discover that I was 18lbs heavier than the last time I had weighed myself!
After the weigh-in you could stop on and chat in a group of other mostly female slimmers, with a class advisor offering “help, advice and support”. You also had the opportunity to buy Slimming World Magazine at an approximately £1 discount on the high street price and you could buy some revolting sorry nutritious food/fruit & cereal bars.
At the first session you had to complete a personal detail sheet which was handed back in, and then discuss with the advisor your ideal target weight. She explained that once you reach target weight you then could stay a member forever and no longer have to pay the weekly fee. She also pointed out that now you were a member that you (unless you had a valid excuse) would be expected to attend each week, and if you missed a week you would be expected to pay up any missed weeks on your next visit. You were however allowed a maximum four week holiday period annually!
Slimming world is basically a food combining diet. They call it “food optimising”, the book contained the following information:-
You could choose from Original (formerly known as Red) Days or Green Days. I personally preferred the Green days but this surprisingly to me was far less popular with other class members.
Whichever day you preferred to choose, you had to stick with the Green or Original choice for the day, and you were allowed anything from a free food list, a choice from a group of foods, and 5-15 what they called “sins” per day:-
THE
DIET
GREEN DAYS consisted of any amount of the following:-
Rice, Pasta (and Egg Noodles!), Grains, Pulses, Eggs, Tofu, Quorn, Cheese (provided it is either Quark – skimmed milk soft cheese, very low fatnatural cottage cheese or very low fat natural fromage frais, as much very low fat yoghurt as you wanted – the club I went to seemed to like promoting Mullerlite – eat as much as you want of this chemical ridden product! There was no limit WHATSOEVER to the amounts of any of the above products you could eat and they actively encouraged you to each as much as you possibly could – the only stipulation was that you shouldn’t eat more than 10 eggs per week Along with this you had to make 3 choices from two groups of foods which Slimming World called “Healthy Options” and although Slimming World claims with food optimising there is no counting or measuring, these choices had to be precisely measured.
Group A: - choose one only Either Milk or Cheese. A variety of hard cheeses was listed, varying weights depending on the type, e.g. Cheddar 28g or 42g Reduced Fat Cheddar. The same applied to the Milk choice, e.g. Skimmed cows milk 350ml or full fat cows milk 175ml. The diet did cater for vegans or anyone with intolerances, as the list included rice and Soya alternatives for your choice of either cheese or milk.
Group B: - choose two only of the following Breakfast Cereals, Biscuits or Cripbreads, Bread, Dried Canned and Cooked Fruit, Soups, More Cheese, Nuts, Meat & Fish, Oil This list included commercial cereals and crackers/crispbreads etc. again precisely measured, such as; 42g Kellogg’sAll Bran or 2 Weetabix, or 2 slices of Allinsons wholemeal bread or 4 slices of Weightwatchers brown bread from 300g loaf. Fruit – 369g stewed apple without sugar or 57g dried figs. Soups – listing out various canned branded products such as 213g serving of Baxters Carrot & Butterbean Soup or 300g can Heinz Lentil Soup for One. Again a choice of cheese as in group A Nuts – 6 shelled whole Brazil nuts or 12 whole shelled cashew nuts. Meat or Fish: - 82g bacon (lean no fat used in cooking), or 170g lemon sole. Or 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil. These are just a few examples of a detailed list of choices given in the book.
Along with the above you could eat as much from a list of fresh raw fruit (not juiced) as you wished, and any amount from a list of vegetables which could be eaten raw or cooked without fat in any way. The list of fruit and vegetables included most, with the exception of Avocados
RED DAYS consisted of any amount of the following:- Poultry, Fish, All Red Meat, Offal, Shellfish, Tofu, Eggs and again Cheese (provided it is either Quark – skimmed milk soft cheese, very low fat natural cottage cheese or very low fat natural fromage frais, and as much very low fat yoghurt as you wanted – Again as with the green day you choose 3 healthy options which were the same as the green day except that instead of the meat/fish options you had an allowance of pasta, potatoes or rice. Again you could eat as much raw fruit and any vegetable raw or cooked without fat, with the exception of beans, peas and potatoes and of course the Avocado.
SINS What they described as the best bit! You could have anything at all and count it as a sin. A list of sin values of a number of commercial products was included in the book, however, they encouraged you to purchase another book priced at £5.95 that had a complete list of all food sin values. They advised you that you could either have a daily sin allowance of 5 to 15 or save up your sins for a binge at the weekend!
Some example sins - A level tablespoon of French dressing 4.0 sins on either red or green days, a 227g portion of Chip Shop chips – 17 sins on a green day and 28 sins on a red day and my favourite the much maligned Avocado a whopping 12.5 sins on either red or green days.
THE GROUP The group sessions started once every group member has been weighed, so this involved waiting around for anything up to an hour. Then members would be encouraged to sit round the advisor. The class advisor would then read out everyone’s weight losses for the week, never disclosing a person’s weight of course. Then she would question the people who had made any weight gain as to what went wrong. If you wanted to stay for the group session you would also be expected to bring along a piece of fruit. All pieces of fruit were collected in a basket, and everyone was given a cloakroom ticket, at the end of the session a ticket was drawn and the winner would receive the basket of fruit. Unfortunately this mostly consisted of over-ripe bananas and a huge pile of tired looking apples!
Slimming World also gave out awards, such as slimmer of the week, the person who had lost the most that week, badges were handed out for ½ stones, full stones etc. and they had something called the 10% award, which you got when you achieved a loss of 10% of your overall body weight.
MY OPINION
I did lose weight in the seven months I attended the classes. The weight averaged 1-2lbs a week and I did stick to the diet. It wasn’t easy to follow, although once you got used to the routine it became easier, but it drove my family crackers.
I found the group itself offered little support or assistance. I do not think the ways in which you were encouraged to eat were particularly healthy – for example in one group session one women was struggling and the advisor suggested that on red days if she was hungry she could fill up on as much cooked ham as she liked …. Excuse me? What about the salt content? I personally found it quite patronising. You were given a diet sheet to fill out for a week or two, which you handed in the next class. One was returned to me with red rings over it, and written in red pen comments such as “ensure you eat the skin on your potatoes”, and “ensure no fat is used in cooking” without questioning whether I had done this or not. I did lose weight, but found if I didn’t stick to the diet to the letter and had a meal out and ate the wrong foods together the weight went straight back on immediately. I didn’t feel brilliant at any time during this diet, it played havoc with my digestive system, and I often felt tired, lethargic and miserable.
In my opinion Slimming World are looking to make as much money as possible for minimum effort, they have found a principle that works but in theory it could be so much better thought out and people encouraged to eat healthier choices rather than being encouraged to eat as much as possible of one type of not necessarily healthy foods. I also have a feeling they were receiving incentives from certain manufacturers to promote their foods.
During group discussions, the main focus was on the sin values of commercial products e.g. Asda’s frozen chips in gravy were quoted as only being 12 sins (I couldn’t think of a more unappealing waste of sins!)
Also during the first meeting, when the advisor was talking about the advantages of Food Optimising she emphasised how this was a diet on which you could lose weight without having to do any exercise at all if you didn’t want to.
Once I stopped food optimising, the weight quickly regained, I decided to look further into the whole subject of nutrition, I have now read a number of books on diet and health. I am finding that the only way I am suceeding in losing weight, is by a complete change in my diet permanently. I have stopped eating commercial packaged foods, which contain copious amounts of sugar and salt, given up all red meat and dairy produce with the exception of organic yoghurt, and have switched to eating a diet of all fruit and vegetables, nuts, olive and seed oils, oily fish twice a week, only one or two eggs per week chicken and lamb a couple of times a week, the occasional treat of organic bacon, wholemeal bread, an abundence of wholemeal pasta, buckwheat, cous cous, brown rice, beans, legumes, and replaced the dairy with goats produce which is much easier for humans to digest than cows milk, and doesn’t contain the steroids and other drugs that cows are injected with in the UK.
As a final note I would like to share with you a little I have learned about my friend the avocado which has been so maligned in the diet world – avocados will not make you fat and they do not contain cholesterol – they contain all of our six human needs in abundance -water, fat, protein, natural sugar vitamins and minerals – Slimming World reckon your better off eating a chocolate biscuit!
In defence of Slimming World, I would say it was a good social event, I met up with friends outside work and after the weigh-in we’d go out on a sin binge My advice – give slimming world a miss and buy yourself a good health food cookbook instead.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
read so many reviews giving this the thumbs up, now im not so sure..... I did wonder how come it worked...?
sarah xx
makedamn_sure 04.11.2006 11:39
It is obvious from your spiteful review that you are bitter about your weight loss. Although I can't deny that some of what you said is true, the salt intake etc but you clearly did not follow the diet correctly. I have been a member for four weeks and have lost nearly a stone and a half already. As a result of this I feel better about myself. The fact is that it's personal choice if you do excersise or not and if you chose not to then that is no fault of Slimming World. You are clearly too negative or your Slimming World consultant is incompetent.
Rach01484 31.10.2006 21:01
Hey a really good review. Im doing this diet my self and i always wondered how foods with such high salt levels can be good for you? I have to admit, it does work rather well as im almost at 3 stone! Rach xx
Whether you're cooking up breakfast on the run a packed lunch a lazy weekend brunch a ... more
perfect Sunday roast or an informal midweek dinner party this book shows you how--without forgetting your diet plan. Gone are the days of feeling as though you are missing out. Instead here are more than 120 delicious recipes that are anything but typical dieters' food including spicy beef fajitas with salsa Moroccan-style tagine cinnamon and apple crumpets seafood cakes with fennel and orange salad and chocolate caramel cheesecake. Illustrated with stunning photographs throughout this will be a must-have purchase for dieters everywhere.
Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:3-5 working days
With more than 120 recipes, this book shows readers how to whip up delicious meals without ... more
straying from the "Slimming World" diet plan. It caters for breakfast on the run, a packed lunch, a weekend brunch, a Sunday roast or an informal midweek dinner party.
A mouthwatering new collection of slimming recipes - over 120 dishes from all over the ... more
world. This new book from one of the UK's leading slimming organisations takes in all manner of international cuisine. You'll be able to indulge in Italy's irresistible plates of pasta, India's spicy curries, China's noodle and stir-fry dishes as well an an array of mouthwatering recipes from Thailand, Greece, Morocco, the USA and Mexico. Packed with all the nutritional, diet and lifestyle information you need if you're following the Slimming World food optimising plan.
60 Minute timer with bell. 3 Oval tiers. Up to 8 Litre capacity. 1 Ltr Rice container. ... more
Removable basket floors. Visible water gauge. Easy fill handles for safe and quick water top. Easy store system. Dishwasher proof containers. Easy carry handles., Manufacturer: Morphy Richards
Postage & Packaging:free Super Saver Delivery Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The Slimming World system gives you plenty to eat and no forbidden foods. This approach ... more
has enabled hundreds of thousands of members to reach their target weight. No foods are banned there is no calorie counting and there are hundreds of 'free foods' which can be eaten in unlimited amounts. So how can it possibly work? Slimming World defines its highly successful weight-loss technique as 'food optimising' encouraging you towards a healthier style of eating for life rather than simply for short-term weight loss. But if you ever thought this would be difficult or time-consuming think again. In the same time it takes to heat a pre-prepared meal Slimming World Fast Food shows you how to prepare quick delicious meals for yourself and your family. It is packed with advice and contains no less than 120 fast and effective recipes designed to set your tastebuds tingling. Every one of these recipes takes less than 30 minutes to create and food values are calculated for you so you can easily make Slimming World food a part of your daily life.
Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:3-5 working days
Food Optimising by Slimming World enables you to make the most of healthy yet delicious ... more
food. No foods are banned there' s no calorie counting and there are hundreds of ' Free Foods' which can be eaten in unlimited amounts. Food Optimising was originally designed for Slimming World members to make slimming easier and more enjoyable. Now for the first time this book makes it available to everyone. Packed with nutritional lifestyle and diet information as well as over 120 wonderfully healthy recipes simply follow this healthy eating plan and see the weight fall off - and keep off.
Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:3-5 working days
The people at Slimming World know that all slimmers want plenty of gorgeous food - but to ... more
deny yourself is not the way to get slim and stay slim. This unique approach to slimming is based on a revolutionary concept - that of 'Free Foods' - foods you eat in any quantities whenever you're hungry. And they aren't just typical diet staples such as lettuce and low-fat cottage cheese. Free Foods include pasta rice lean meat fish poultry and fresh fruit and vegetables. Fancy a big plateful of vegetable curry with unlimited rice or a pile of pasta with a spicy tomato sauce? How about a monster jacket potato with a tin of baked beans? Or a meaty tuna steak with a heap of ratatouille? Recipes such as Farfalle and mixed bean salad Mild and creamy chicken curry Fragrant pilaff and many more besides can be eaten as Free Foods when you are Food Optimising. Gone are the days of feeling as though you are missing out!
Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:3-5 working days
At last here's the book we've all been waiting for: curries that are healthy low in fat ... more
and absolutely mouthwatering! The Slimming World approach to food optimising means that you never have to deny yourself or miss out - you can indulge your wildest curry fantasies and cook quick and easy exotic meals every day of the week. "Slimming World's Curry Feast" takes in dishes from across India Thailand and Malaysia with dishes both sweet and spicy fresh and fragrant and delicious and decadent. With soups and starters such as Thai green curry soup and Onion bhajis you can recreate all those restaurant favourites at home. Main-course curries feature such classics as slow-cooked lamb rogan josh red-hot beef madras and mild creamy chicken korma. There are plenty of fish and seafood options too like aromatic Goan prawn curry or Kerala-style fish steamed in banana leaves. Or for a lighter option try refreshing lemongrass and prawn salad or chicken tikka with red onion. For vegetarians lentils rice and pulses make fantastic dishes including tarka dhal chana masala spiced beetroot with coconut and Mumbai aloo (cumin-scented potatoes).And an Indian banquet wouldn't be complete without accompaniments such as lime pickle and coconut pickle. Whether you want a simple one-dish supper at home or a feast for family friends this exciting selection of authentic tasty recipes makes for the perfect meal.
Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:3-5 working days
Presents recipes for curries that are healthy, low in fat and mouthwatering. This book ... more
takes in dishes from across India, Thailand and Malaysia, with dishes both sweet and spicy. The recipes include those for: soups and starters; main-course curries; fish and seafood options; and for vegetarians with lentils, rice and pulses.
Sep 23rd, 2004
(Sep 24th, 2004)
exceptional by (17%):
very helpful by (83%):
