I am now 5 weeks into the Slimming World plan and actually despite my initial unwillingness and flirtation with mutiny I am starting to respect the process a bit more.  This is in part due to me losing 8.5 lb (3.86 kg) and 2% body fat in this time and also because I conducted an experiment of sorts to put the Slimming World ethos to the test.  Briefly, I took the Slimming World rules seriously for a week and then counter-intuitively added up all the calories I consumed.  Counter-intuitive because I wanted to avoid having to calorie count since it is laborious and time consuming and a little bit soul destroying.  (HOW MANY CALORIES FOR THAT TINY THING?!).  But annoyingly maths and science and numbers is just how my mind works. I like to know why something is working.  Saying JUST BECAUSE has never been a valid reason to me.  And before I could trust Slimming World I needed my own proof that it would work.  After all there is ultimately only one way to lose weight and all the fancy-pants named diets, fat-fighter clubs, dietry supplements and exercise tricks in the world won’t change that fact.  In order to lose weight you must take in less calories than you use up.  So I decided to test whether the Slimming World plan would actually do that for me.

Results: It turns out – if you actually follow the plan and eat to appetite it is extremely difficult to consume a lot of calories.  On my worst day, when in a ravenous rage because how is anyone meant to feel full from eating low-fat cottage cheese (?) I stormed around the kitchen and ate an entire can of baked beans. Cold.  From the tin.  And then proceeded to eat an entire bag of mixed baby leaves salad, 3 apples, an entire tray of cherry tomatoes and a few dry bits of wholemeal penne pasta (because I wasn’t waiting for 10 minutes for it to cook).  These are free foods (ones you are allowed to eat an unlimited amount of) so ha! I thought.  Let’s see how this turns out.

Ahem, well, actually quite well – just 1400 kcal for the whole day (including omelette with toast for breakfast, baked sweet potato for lunch and a generous serving of chicken pasta with cheese for dinner).  Hmmm, I mused, maybe the Slimming World plan is on to something after all?  Most days during my experimental week I consumed between 1100-1400 kcal and since for a woman my size I might generally be expected to burn between 1500-1600 calories a day WITHOUT EXERCISE this is already creating an energy deficit of maybe 200-300 calories per day.  With my running, swimming and cycling on top this could potentially reach the magical number of 500 kcal per day and hence 3500 kcal per week and further hence about a pound of weight-loss per week (since 3500 kcal = 1 pound).  I am still not entirely sure what a pound is having never lived in the middle ages and preferring to use the international scientific standard unit measure of weight (the kilogram) BUT it seems like a reasonable amount of weight to be losing.

Of course there is still the whole syn business to contend with – and this part does grate on me – but in terms of free foods I think the Slimming World plan makes a lot of sense.  Additionally Slimming World is about the only health/diet plan I have read which doesn’t automatically rule out diet coke – which I drink far too much of and no I don’t have any plans for the foreseeable future to it give up thank you very much.  Additionally pasta is on the menu, as is rice, cous cous, potatoes and bananas – which means I can still carb load before a long run if I want to.

Bad news is energy gels, electrolyte drinks etc. must all be counted as syns.  Of course I generally don’t use these products for anything less than 2 hours running – heck for anything less than an hour I don’t even bother with water – so I guess I shouldn’t worry about it too much.  It may even be beneficial to train without the sports energy products as I guess you will have to use up internal energy stores (i.e. FAT!) rather than the readily accessible liquid glucose in the energy gels.  Additionally I suppose it is not a bad thing to train through fatigue as your muscles should hopefully get used to it and adapt.  My only reservation is being able to replace the electrolytes such as salt, potassium and calcium which you will lose through sweat – water alone will not replace those – and without them you run a real risk of muscle cramps at best and dizziness, irregular heartbeat, mental confusion, muscle paralysis, collapse and coma at worse – so maybe I won’t give up my Pocari Sweat on long runs just yet!