Slimming World being over pushy

(Ellen) #1

You can tell it’s early January, every 3rd or 4th ad on the radio is for Slimming World, I’m sat at desk muttering to self about it all being utter [spoiler] fucking bollocks[/spoiler]. Be Happy, Free & Slim for Life; what rot, more like be ridiculed & made to feel a failure when it stops working and the weight starts creeping up again.
Just makes me so glad I finally found keto.

ETA : Looks like they’re starting to get a bit worried from the sounds of it… lovely piece of very scientific research.

(Jenny) #2

South Beach has been advertising a lot and now say they are keto friendly.

(Allie) #3

Slimming World at least focuses on preparing proper meals rather than products like WW use, they’re one of the less nasty traditional slimming organisations.

(Kay) #4

They do seem to contradict themselves within the ‘expert advice’ bit of the article. There are at least some low carb positive comments by readers!

(Kate) #5

Apart from when they encourage you to mainline instant pasta. or at least they used to.

I really found their lack of portion control the worst. Consultants would say “mug shots are free!! Eat as much as you want!!! Eat whole pineapples!”

It was supposedly all about sateity, so they were on the right lines in a way, but missed the point that a lot of their customers, me included, could eat a vat of pasta and still not feel satisfied.

There were crazy loopholes, like rice was “free” so people were making rice pudding for breakfast as you had to count cereal. Bonkers!

(less is more, more or less) #6

A quick read revealed the jabbering nonsense for exactly what it is. Those “13 points”
are classic of the lies our doctors, dieticians, nutritionists, and government policy wonks want us to believe.

Take for one example,

  1. Carbs fill you up.

Um, WUT?

Ya got that backward, skippy.

We, here, know better. If that article were true, I’d be dead. Instead I’m running my longest fat reduction in my 56 year life. Even without those fat-reducing carbs! Almost like magic.

Who’m I gonna believe? My body or some “slimming world” expert? I politely suggest that Ms. Slimming World go pound sand.

(Allie) #7

Sounds like it’s different here in the UK as everyone I know who’s don’t SW here has loved it due to learning how to cook properly and with guidance, no junk like instant pasta at all.

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #8

South Beach is a moderate carb reduction, more than Zone but not quite to keto levels. I don’t think of it as keto unfriendly, just as more fruit and veg than I would want to work. So, neighborly, maybe.

(Kate) #9

This was in the UK. Though admittedly about 7-8 years ago so maybe it changed.

(bulkbiker) #10

They are getting worried… this may mean that our message is getting out there…

Their repeat business business model is under attack…

(John) #11

I read that article. Almost all of their criticism is based on “you won’t be able to follow it.” I guess they assume everyone is weak-willed, unable to change their mental relationship with food, and is just a slave to their hunger and will cave into cravings and urges.

They also seem to ignore the idea that while a meal from carbs may be “filling”, how long does that last before you are ready for another big filling meal?

There seems to be a pervasive concept that whenever you feel hungry you are compelled to immediately eat something, and that you can’t just wait a while and learn that being hungry for a few hours is perfectly fine. Like humans have utterly no willpower or conscious control over their impulses. Perhaps that is true of some, but I am pretty sure that people who are serious about it can commit to change.

Maybe these authors think the great masses are lesser people than they are, and as such could not possibly be successful unless something is extremely easy.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #12

That seems to be true for a lot of us. One of the things that makes a ketogenic diet feasible for me is the never-having-to-go-hungry part. In fact it’s rather annoying that I get satisfied and don’t even want bacon.

(Scott) #13

I love my eggs and bacon so when I saw what I can eat I was like this is going to be great. I used to eat a big breakfast that included toast and jam. I would be so hungry by 9:00 AM I would start eating again shaking. Now I eat breakfast and I am done til lunch. No afternoon snack either. This is the easiest WOE I have ever followed.

#14

I want to scream every.single.time. I hear “lower in calories!” and “lower fat!”

ugh

(bulkbiker) #15

Their entire business model is based upon that belief and for most of their customers they are correct…

(Carl Keller) #16

Articles like this don’t threaten how I feel about using keto, but they do make me a bit angry because articles like are still repeating things that we know does not work or is just flat out untrue.

As long as the wrong message keeps being repeated, people will read the message and believe it. I mean it’s on the internet so it must be true! They will do as suggested and fail and wonder if it’s just their DNA’s fault. For god sake’s, stop blaming the butter when it’s the bread’s fault. :stuck_out_tongue:

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #17

Do I want the world to be healthy…yes.

Do I want folks to feel better…yes.

Do I want everyone eating keto and all the meat prices going way, way up…no.

Does this make me a terrible person…I don’t know.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #18

I suspect it makes both of us terrible people, lol! :bacon:

(less is more, more or less) #19

That’s my concern. The “great unwashed” will pass by these articles, half-read them, and half-form opinions, with a general bend that favors the author’s bias. In salesperson-speak, this is FUD, i.e. fear, uncertainty and doubt. You don’t have to fully slam something to dissuade someone. I’ve had many conversations with bright, literate and level-headed people regarding low-carb. “Oh, I’ve heard that… ” and they’ll raise the “case studies” such as in the article above. If you’re in the sugar industry, it’s not a bad way to game culture to stay in your favor.

Post contrary comments in the comments section of such articles? I pass, since the browsing habits of the average Joan or Joe I’m discussing (my guess) is that they will skip the hue and cry of the partisans in the comments section. Who can blame them?

(John) #20

Most people won’t even try the potentially more healthy diets (compared to the standard junk diet) that the low-fat folks recommend either. Those diets also emphasize real foods, prepared with healthy fats (by which they mean olive oil), made from fresh ingredients, and elimination of sugars and limiting starches.

But doing all of that is difficult, or at least time-consuming and inconvenient, and people are out of the habit of regularly cooking and preparing ALL of their meals, or practicing conscious portion control when dining out.

So they will focus in on one part of any recommendation, and then whatever buzz-word sticks in their minds will start showing up on the labels of manufactured food products and they’ll buy that, thinking they are doing something right.

But eventually time pressures, convenience, and habit will override good intentions and they’ll be back to their old ways and nothing will change.

I’ve been doing this for 4 months and it has taken a lot of commitment for me to stick to it, and I spend a lot more time than I did before dealing with food - grocery shopping, prepping, cooking, eating, cleaning the kitchen, learning recipes, improving cooking skills. MAN was it ever easier to just do drive through on the way to work, or grab something in a nice little package from a vending machine.

People will not, en mass, switch over to healthy eating unless it is convenient, economical, and the foods eaten actually reduce hunger by natural satiety and don’t trigger additional hunger because of hyper-palatability.

So all of these competing diet trends are just competing for the very few who are actually willing to commit to a change (and are trying to pick the right path for themselves), or competing for the marketing mind-space to collect money from all of the people who are desperate for results but lack the mindset or ability to make the real changes required.