is slimfast reeeallly bad? and hello, a newbie on here [wave]

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It depends what you mean by "bad". As far as I'm concerned, the main problem with it is that it relies on your willpower to work. Let's say you do decide to lose a stone and a half - that would mean about 20 weeks of this, or 280 milkshakes. Can you imagine your will to live lasting that long? I can't - and I can't imagine not going crazy troughing rubbish once it was over out of sheer relief.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you are hungry, you will fail. The only way to lose weight successfully is to exercise and eat in such a way that you can eat when you're hungry, and eat food you enjoy.

Have you tried weightlossresources.com? It's great for helping you focus and a hell of a lot cheaper than Slimfast. If snacking is your downfall, I'd suggest you do what I do, and buy loads of fruit and consider it a "free" food. (I know it's got calories, but I've never noticed it affecting my weight loss, even when I am eating loads).

I'm hoping that my success as a ELMM'er will stop too much flaming if I admit I started my weightloss using slimfast.

I agree with Sophie, if you're hungry you'll fail and by far the best way to loose weight and keep it off is by keeping track of what you eat, making sensible choices and moving more.

But at my heaviest I had a terrible relationship with food. I couldn't bare anything to be left, so I was eating the girls leftovers. Odds and sods to stop them going to waste (I'd even been know to eat food they had dropped on the floor ?) I had to clear my plate (and my husbands). I needed to break that cycle and I found slim fast helped me do it. I knew by day if it wasn't a shake I couldn't have it. And with my evening meal I always made sure I left some. After a month I felt confident enough to start ELMM and haven't looked back.

I don't thing in its self slimfast is "bad" but I think you have to have a long term plan outside of slimfast. I'd suggest you identify why and when you snack and work at ways to break bad habits but try to fit in with your natural eating patterns (eg for me I know I can't face breakfast in the morning but would end up hitting the cheesebox until lunch if I had nothing so now I have my breakfast about 10 am once the girls are at school/preschool). I know if I'd only used slimfast to loose weight as soon as I stopped I would have piled it all back on again.

I didn't sign up to weightloss resources but did do my own calorie counting to keep track of what I ate

hth a little

? thanks for the replies, I really don't see it as a long term solution, but I am finding it helpful to break the bad habits of snacking when I'm bored... I do have lots of fruit (usually grapes) which I pick at whenever I feel myself hovering near the kitchen ?

I'll have a look at weightlossrsources later though ?

Hey chick, I know you mentioned that you had bought some slimfast last week but we never got a chance to chat about it with the boys around.

I've been following weightwatchers, can't remember whether I told you that or not. It's been pretty easy to follow and there are loads of recipes to keep things interesting. I've pointed a lot of my own favourite recipes too, so it's not like I've had to change everything I make which would make it harder to stick at.

I've found the best thing for me has been to eat larger meals, yes believe it or not! In hindsight, I had been undereating at my breakfast and lunch and this was leading to me snacking in between. So I've managed to lose weight by actually eating more! Just eating it at 3 meals and not picking constantly throughout the day. And also choosing lower fat options since my weakness has been good strong cheese and soft cheeses. Sadly, I have pretty much had to cut these out, and they have to be a treat now.

Just email me if you want an idea of what things I eat - all boy friendly too!

Again I think it all depends on the person, I tried it was hungry all the time, and got headaches, wehere as a friend of mind did it for about 3 months and shifted some weight and then moved onto WW once she knew she had broken the snacking cycle

I would dedfintely reccomend weight watchers, but its up to you and how you feel about what will work for you

I've never done it before but what worries me about it is surely it isn't a good long term way to keep weight off? Atleast when you lose weight by changing your eating habits you're on your way to a healthy lifestyle and know how to make good food choices. What happens when you lose all the weight? You'll stop the shakes but then will be unsure how to eat to maintain the loss? Each to their own, but personally it isn't something I could do. I wanted to know what to do when I hit my goal otherwise I'd have returned to my old eating habits and would have been back to square one.

Good luck with what ever you decide to do.