Slimming World and Slimfast

A few weeks ago, I decided to conduct a little experiment. By putting together the Slimfast plan and the principles of slimming world, I couldn't see any reason why I shouldn't get impressive results. I had figured it all out down to the last detail, so that I could be totally on plan for both diets.

Hopefully, if you're reading this, you already know the basics of the slimming world plan. 1 healthy extra A, such as mik and cheese, 1 healthy extra B, such as cereals and bread, unlimited free foods, such as fruit and veg, and 5-15 syns a day for anything else. 

The Slimfast plan is very simple. 3 x 100 calorie snacks, such as cereal bars or fruit, 2 x Slimfast shakes, and 1 x 600 calorie meal.

The first thing I did was figure out how many syns a Slimfast shake is. Now this was slightly complicated, because the nutritional info is for a shake 'made up as directed' with 250ml of skimmed milk. Sure, you could use skimmed milk, but then you'd go over your healthy extra a choice allowance. So I sat down and worked out how many syns the milk would be and then subtracted it from the total syns of the shake. This left me with 7.5 syns per serving, which is two scoops of powder. So two shakes would be 15 syns. Made up with almond milk, I could use my healthy A choice, but I would only use half my HexA for unsweetened almond milk, leaving the other half to bulk up my meal or as a snack. 

Then, I figured out I could swap the Slimfast snacks bars for hi-if light bars or alpen light to provide my healthy extra B choice, as well as two of my three snacks. The other snack could be fruit. 

For the 600 calorie meal, as long as it was syn free and completely comprised of free foods, it would fit in perfectly with both plans. Obviously, speed options would be better here, but after a liquid diet for the rest of the day, I found myself needing the extra carbohydrates. 

So, to sum up, the combined Slimfast Slimming World plan looked something like this.

Breakfast

2 scoops of Slimfast powder (7.5 syns) made up with 250 ml of unsweetened almond milk (1/4 HexA)

Snack

1 alpen light bar (1/2 HexB)

Lunch 

2 scoops of Slimfast powder (7.5 syns) made up with 250 ml of unsweetened almond milk (1/4 HexA)

Snack 

100 cals fruit, such as 1 pear, a handful of grapes etc

Dinner

Syn free meal, such as spaghetti bolognese, jacket potato and salad or risotto, as long as it doesn't exceed 600 cals and to include 1/2 HexA. 

Snack

1 hi-fi light bar (1/2 HexB)

So how did it go? Great. I wasn't hungry, I had fewer cravings because I was having so much chocolate based products in the shakes and the snacks, and it was really easy to stay to plan as I was eating so regularly. 

In the first week, I lost 1lb. I was a little disappointed, I had been expecting at least double that, if not more. I had seen other results of people doing similar things, normally following the Slimfast plan but with a syn free dinner, so not quite as complicated as my plan, and getting 5-10lbs lost in a single week. 

So, for my second week, I decided to incorporate more SP days. This was much harder, and I did feel more hungry and craved more carbs, such as pasta and potato. The result? 2lb loss.

Two weeks of not being allowed any syns as I used them all up on shakes and I only had three pounds to show for it. Sure, 3lb is great and I'm by no means complaining, especially as it got me to my next award, but it does feel like a lot of work for not much result. I have done better on weeks where I used up all my syns on rubbish as long as I stuck to plan otherwise. Yes, I did enjoy it, especially as it was so much easier to prepare two skakes in the morning as opposed to a breakfast and lunch, but it was expensive, monotonous and didn't give me the results I hoped for. 

Give it a go if you want, I didn't get massive results but that doesn't mean that you won't. I think how much you have to loose has a huge part to play. I was just over half a stone from target when I tried this experiment, so maybe if you have a little more to loose it'll work better for you.

If you do try it, I'd love to know how you get on. You can find me on Instagram @dietstartsonmonday.


EDIT - I will admit to being a little shocked this evening when I randomly checked this blog for the first time in nearly 4 years and saw that this post has got a lot of interest! I’d like to remind readers that this post was written a long time ago, and the Slimming World plan has changed a lot since then. Back then, you got a full litre of unsweetened almond milk as a Healthy Extra. I don’t follow the Slimming World or SlimFast plans anymore so cannot comment on whether this approach would still be ‘on plan’, but I wish you all the best if you do decide to try it!