Slimmingworld & Weightwatchers

Slimming world and weightwatchers have both created their own points systems that are essentially less accurate versions of tracking calories.

Within their respective points systems certain foods are “free” and certain foods contain “syns” or “points”.

You have an unlimited allowance of these free foods and are encouraged to eat them as much as possible, and you have a set allowance of points or syns to spread out over the week.

If you stick to your points allowance you will most likely lose weight, because by limiting certain foods you create a calorie deficit.

However these programmes have their flaws.

The biggest problem with both of these programmes is that whether it is deliberate or not – they are subconsciously demonising certain foods and giving a false understanding of others.

Let’s start with the free foods. The foods on this list will be things like chicken breast, wholemeal pasta, vegetables, fruit, low fat yoghurt and so on.

It is really important to understand no food on that list is devoid in calories.

Are they good options when dieting? Yes. They fill you up, they have a low calorie density, but they are not free.

It is misleading for people to believe that they can eat unlimited amounts of these foods with zero negative consequence.

They do contain calories, and if you aren’t monitoring your portion sizes because they are “free”, you can easily unknowingly over consume calories.

Which explain the times you may have been to your weekly weigh in, feeling like you have been perfect, but are left disappointed by the result. Made worse by the person who is bragging about losing 3lbs despite having 2 takeaways and not even being “on it”.

Now onto the foods that have points or syns. First let’s start by addressing the fact that as soon as they are labelled as foods with syns or points you are going to deem them as “bad”.

Often these foods aren’t the best choices when dieting. They may be more calorie dense, they may not be the most filling options, they may be things that are easier to over consume, but by just labelling them with a number of points or syns it is misleading.

100g of wholemeal pasta, contains 300 calories and is free, yet a single chocolate bar which has 95 calories is 5 syns or 2 points. When you start breaking it down like this you can see where the problems lie.

Their respective points systems have had huge success for people because people feel like they can live “normally” and make progress. As long as they stick to their points, they can lose weight without having to fully restrict themselves and remove their favourite foods from their diet.

But year on year people find themselves back in the same club, trying to lose the same 1, 2 stones they lost the year before, because they lack the full understanding of portions sizes and calories that they need, to sustain their progress.

By applying these same principles of flexibility and tracking, but with the correct understanding of calories and portion sizes that you will learn in this programme, you can make the same progress and finally keep it off.