Every week I receive many emails from followers asking for advice and desperate to know why they are not losing weight. Some at the end of their patience with Slimming World and about to give up on the plan altogether.
Never fear, we have all had weeks/months without weight loss. I myself have had the same experience’s and I would like to share with you some common mistakes I regularly see in the Slimming World community and mistakes I have even made myself in the past.
Slimming World is a plan, with rules.. and as much as some people believe rules are made to be broken, there are only so many rules you can break before you are “off plan” and gaining again. Slimming World have professional dieticians who work hard all year round to make sure that we are getting the best nutritional advice so why would we want to go against what they recommend? Also one of the things I cannot seem to get my head around is, why pay all of that money to attend a group or be a member online, only to go against what you are meant to be doing?
Yes, I have many followers who still follow the old Red and Green days, or still don’t Syn Muller lights.. That is absolutely fine, if it works for you great! But eventually it might stop working so here are my top 10 Slimming World Fails.
1. Treat Nights
When I first joined Slimming World I would always have a Treat Night after weigh in. At first it didn’t seem to affect my weight loss but after a few months I started to see less and less on the scales and noticed I seemed to be having more and more “treats”.
Many followers will go for a “Chippy Tea” after group.. and I am not saying it is 100% bad but I am saying it may be affecting your weight loss each week. A treat meal could end up being in the excess of 100 Syns and this is not far off most peoples weekly allowance altogether.
The statement I often hear is “It doesn’t affect my losses..” but how do you know it doesn’t? Try a month without treat night and limit your treats to your allowed Syns only and see if your weight loss increases.
Now I have a treat once a month.. Mr Fatgirlskinny and I will go for a meal or have a takeaway. It is something to look forward to.. but that week I will always find I lose less than the week before.
2. Are You Removing The Fat?
A mistake I often see is people not removing the fat from their meat. Even if you are purchasing lean cuts or bacon medallions etc there is usually still some visible fat and this absolutely has to be removed.
Also you 100% need to remove the fat before cooking too.. for example cooking a steak or a joint of pork. Remove ALL visible fat before putting in the pan or oven.
Another tip is to drain the fat from lean mince and other meats and use kitchen roll to soak up any excess fat. Every little helps! I am very particular about making sure I remove every trace of fat!
3. Weigh Your Healthy Extras
Healthy extras are a necessity of the plan but they have very specific weight allowances. Too often we become lazy or confident that we know what the weight “look’s like”.
Recently a friend of mine admitted she used to serve her Shredded Wheat bitesize by eye or by counting them as she has been on the plan for so long.. One morning her husband told her it looked a lot more than she usually has.. So she weighed it and it was 20g more than she should be having because the shredded wheat sizes had changed! She had been roughly counting them and whinging she wasn’t losing weight..
Always weigh them accurately with good scales because even a tiny bit more could mean you are actually having “Syns” and going over your allowance everyday.
4. Are You Checking The Syns?
Syns change constantly and something that could of been 5 Syns two years ago could now be 6 or 7.. Manufactorers change their recipes constantly and Slimming World have to keep their Syn database up to date with these. I know a lot of you go it alone at home or rely on information online. But the information you have may be incorrect.
Slimming World are often running free vouchers to join on your first week or discounts joining online. I highly recommend joining even if it just to check you are still doing everything correctly and to check the Syns of your favourite treats. Getting it wrong could mean you are consuming extra Syns per day resulting in no weight loss.
5. Too Much Sugar
One of the best things about last year for me was Slimming World giving Muller Light yogurts a Syn value.. I was elated.
For me Muller Lights are just full of sugar and I actually know someone who was eating 10 of them a day! Yes 10! Not only was that almost 1000 extra calories a day on top of the rest of the food she was eating it was almost 140g of Sugar!!!
I know Syns are there to be used but I do my best to limit myself to 5 Syns of sugary treats per day and try to use Syns on other things like savoury products.
6. Not Everybody Has A Big Loss Their First Week!
9 times out of 10 the reason I see people giving up after their first week is because they didn’t have a big loss! Not everyone loses 10lb in their first week so don’t give up after 7 days if it isn’t working for you! Your big loss will come!
7. Free Foods Does Not Mean Unlimited Foods
The theory of “Free Foods” as always annoyed Mr Fatgirlskinny as he believes it encourages people to over eat and forget that food still has calories! You could NOT eat 30 chicken breasts, 10 tins of baked beans, plates and plates of Slimming World Chips and 300 Carrots a day along with all of your Syns and still lose weight. (Good luck fitting it all in and yes I know that is a bit of an exaggeration).
Free foods should still be eaten with caution and try to teach yourself portion control or your eating habits will never change. Always fill your plate with Speed vegetables before carbs and only eat until you are full. Do not force yourself to overeat plates and plates of pasta if you do not feel hungry. Free doesn’t mean Calorie Free.
8. Are You Bored?
Boredom leads to cheating and cheating leads to gaining. I know we don’t all have time to create lavish meals every night but please do try to seek out new recipes and try new things.
Every week I ask Mr Fatgirlskinny what he would like to eat if he could eat anything he wanted.. and then I do my best to find a Slimming World friendly alternative to this! Also we try to cook together so that we are also spending time together.
Don’t forget to change your snacks too.. don’t eat the same thing every week because that is when the plan will become a chore.
9. Write Everything Down
If you don’t have access to the Slimming World planner App make sure you get yourself a Food Diary. Write down every single thing you eat because it is so easy to forget!!
In fact I even did it myself last week.. I started creating a meal using cheese thinking it would be my 2nd Healthy extra of the day but totally forgot we had cheese on our Baked potatoes at lunch time! I ended up having to Syn it.. but I could of so easily ended the day over my Syn allowance!
10. Are You Eating Enough?
It may sound silly but are you actually eating enough? Only having 1 or 2 Syns or no even no Syns will not make you lose more weight. Syns are there to be used! Also skipping Healthy Extra’s are wrong too.. this will not help you to lose weight. As I mentioned before the plan is there to be followed. Skipping Syns and Healthy Extras can result in no weight loss.
Please remember that these are suggestions from me and I have many years of experience with SW. What works for me may not work for others. But if you are finding your weight loss has hit a wall please feel free to try these suggestions! You may be pleasantly surprised 🙂
