How can you lose weight on free pasta, spuds etc?

[VeganCow]

Can anyone explain this?
I have always felt SW is the best of the diet plans out there, with good results but I ofter wonder about this. A huge plate of mash, or pasta is high in calories. Are they assuming you wont have a massive plate of it?

[thatstoast]

SW have moved away from that a bit and towards a more balanced diet with Extra Easy. They don't promote Original/Green as much anymore. You are right though. If you wanted to do a green day and sit down and eat a massive plate of mash or pasta (or both!) then technically you'll still be on plan.

[BikeRunSki]

You are mean to eat those things in combination with free and Superfree veg until you are full, and HXA or HXB. Not stuff yourself on mash or pasta alone. The idea is that you fill up on the pasta/rice/spuds do you don't binge on biscuits later.

[Jackie0]

I always found portion control to be a huge stumbling block for me on sw.

[VeganCow]

I understand it would be on a mixed plate.
But I have seen photos of a SW meal that had 3 quorn turkey burgers on it (300 calories) a massive pile of veg, and LOADS of pasts.
i added it up and calorie wise it came in at about 1000 calories - for one meal! How can you lose weight on that?

Also a plate with 2 eggs, 2 linda mccartney sausages, SW chips, loads of beans. Also around 800 calories.

[VeganCow]

jackieO can you explain?

[HeySoulSister]

SW is the only plan which completely buggered up my eating habits.... Really really stupid to tell people food is 'free' or 'unlimited'

[Jackie0]

It's been a while since I was a member but I struggled with the concept of eat as much as you want, I'm too greedy . I think there was less focus on a balance of foods then. It's unlikely I would have over eaten spinach but slimming world baked chips , yes.

[VeganCow]

Jackie, thats exactly what I was thinking.
If they said all veg apart from potatoes/salad/fruit was free, could understand that. People are unlikely to gorge on lettuce or carrots.

But pasta? SW chips? Doesnt make sense!

[VeganCow]

People who are overweight in the first place havent got that way overeating carrots have they?
A person who likes food, and used to eat pasta and chips a lot, told they dont need to cut back on those, its like a green light.

[KatherinaMinola]

You don't. SW is a flawed diet plan in this regard. But it is a diet that encourages healthy, balanced, normal eating - better than some of the weird exclusion diets. I'd say it was a good diet for maintaining a healthy weight - it just formalizes normal healthy eating.

But (unless your diet is quite poor to begin with - and that does apply to a lot of people) you won't lose a lot of weight on it. You do need to exercise portion control too.

[OneSkinnyChip]

I totally disagree with this actually. It takes a bit of getting your head around but it is the perfect diet for evening snackers because making filling meals with lots of pasta or potatoes means you are pleasantly full for the evening. I don't know if it would work as well for someone who was eating well already and with very little weight to lose but for a typical overweight person like myself it is eating really good healthy meals in decent quantities which makes it easy to avoid eating crap.

[loveisagirlnameddaisy]

As far as I'm aware, certain foods such as pasta and pots are recommended to be eaten less frequently than fresh veg and fruit otherwise weight loss will slow down. They made this pretty clear to me at my meetings so I was never under the impression that carbs were truly unlimited.

If you follow SW to the letter I think it encourages healthy eating. There are syns for the odd treat but other than that, you have to cook from scratch pretty much all the time and use fresh ingredients. Not sure why that's a bad thing?

[OneSkinnyChip]

Agree loveisagirl. We were told that the superfree foods should be a third of your plate. The reality is you can have a huge plate of pasta but chances are you'll only overeat a couple of times and then realise that you've overeaten. That has been my experience. I now cook MORE of everything so there's always plenty leftover for lunches, which stops me thinking I may as well eat that last spoonful.

It's much easier to eat 200 calories worth of chocolate than 200 cals worth of pasta or potatoes. I think potatoes are better because they are really filling and less moreish than pasta.

[loveisagirlnameddaisy]

Also, other carbs are regulated e.g. bread and cereal as they form part of you healthy extras allowance along with dairy. So far from gorging yourself on any food you feel like, the plan in its entirety does force you to rethink your eating habits.

[PhoebeMcPeePee]

As another poster has said it's the 1/3 of your plate being superfree foods that will ultimately reduce your intake of things like spuds & pasta. If you take a typical spag Bol meal & add a portion of superfree veg or side salad that takes up 1/3 of your plate you simply can't just pile up the pasta as much as before or you wouldn't have space on your plate (or in your stomach ) . And then take away the higher fat meats & excess cooking oil, the garlic bread, the covering of cheese etc and your plate might be as full as before but it's much healthier. Works for me anyway

[6031769]

our consultant also pointed out that whilst some foods are called free you should only eat them until the point you feel full. If you keep eating after you are full then you will slow/ stop your weight loss.

[fairylightsintheloft]

I agree that sw doesn't work so well if you're eating habits are not bad and you have just allowed 1-2 stone to creep on. I have only lost half a stone since easter cos all I'm doing differently is fewer biscuits here and there. I can't really relate to those in the group with much more to lose who talk about eating huge packets of crisps or whole cakes..I never did that anyway so its not really doing the job for me. I'll probably go back to low carbing which has always worked much better for me

[Stickerrocks]

If you are following the green plan to the letter, it's actually quite hard to have a huge amount of potato, rice or pasta, because you still need something else to go with it. Jacket potatoes with baked beans get boring if you have then for each meal, whereas protein and fatty foods are strictly limited. I found you naturally reduce the portions of free food in proportion to the A & B group foods you eat with them.

[DoristheCamel]

My best ever weight loss of 5 and a half stone in 12 months was done mainly on the original and green plan. More of the green tbh because it's cheaper to follow.
I used to have a jacket potato with a packet of pasta n sauce on the top (fairly reguarly)as recommended by my then consultant. Also plates piled high with sw chips with poacged eggs and tinned spaghetti/beans.

I agree this isn't the healthiest way to eat but compared to other cheap options it worked for my weightloss.
All this was a few years ago now in the dats before EE. I really struggle on EE to shift my weught and am seriously considering following green instead.

[cherrybombxo]

Personally I think the big problem is the attitude of "eat as much as you want". I have a diet and fitness account on Instagram and see loads of people with plates piled high with roast potatoes, etc. Technically it's "on plan" but you won't lose weight that way. It's not "eat as much as you want", it's "eat as much as you need", i.e. eat slowly until you feel satisfied and don't push through to finish the entire plate. Always eat more veg and protein than carbs.

I love SW and think it's a great plan for clean, healthy eating but some people have their own interpretation of the plan, which doesn't lead to weight loss.

[Midori1999]

I think the plan is great. I love food and love big portions and for me there is a massive phsycogical benefit to the words 'eat as much as you want/need to'. The 1/3 superfree is actually an attempt at portion control, as if 1/3 of your plate is superfree it's not protein or carbs.

I do eat huge portions and have good losses when I stick to plan (illness has made me go up and down a bit since Easter, but I'm still 2 stone lighter) and I also choose healthier options and eat much more fruit and veg. Some days I eat massive platefuls of pasta, other days I don't and I think that's part of the point about 'free' foods, very few people are surely going to gorge on huge platefuls of pasta, potatoes, rice etc with every meal, but for some, even if they so they will still lose weight as it's still probably better than eating a packet of biscuits and a family bag of crisps.

I wasn't huge before SW, although a post pregnancy size 18, the biggest I've ever been, but it's definitely encouraged me into muh healthier eating habits and having been under the care of the endocrine team and specialist dietician recently due to my illness, I'm aware they feel it's a healthy plan, although obviously within that plan people still have to make good choices.