Slimming World
Encyclopedia
Slimming World a UK
-based weight loss
organisation. It holds groups around the UK, led by consultants, who are self employed. According to the company, over the past 40 years more than five million slimmers have attended its groups.
Slimming World claims its members lose weight through a combination of its 'Food Optimising' eating plan, moderate activity through its 'Body Magic' programme and group support and shared experience with other slimmers, which encourage behaviour change.
At a group, members are weighed and their weight change is shared with the group. A member's actual weight is confidential, and is not revealed to the group. During the hour-long session, members share their experiences of the preceding week, discuss their weight losses or gains, and share ideas and strategies for the week ahead, during a session called 'IMAGE' (Individual Motivation And Group Experience) Therapy. Members share practical advice such as recipe suggestions, as well as strategies to cope with times when motivation is low.
Slimming World was founded in Derbyshire in 1969 by Margaret Miles-Bramwell, who remains its chairman. Caryl Richards has been managing director of the company since 2001.
The company began in 1969 with a handful of groups in Derbyshire
and expanded into Yorkshire
. By the 1980s
, Slimming World had 700 classes in the UK and by 2009 there were 6,000 groups. It Is a Very Help Ful Club.
Slimming World's charity, 'SMILES', was launched in 1997. SMILES stands for "Slimmers Making It a Little Easier for Someone", and since 1997 it has raised more than £2,000,000 for charity.
Slimming World magazine was launched in 1998. In 2008 sales exceeded 286,000. Slimming World also publishes a range of recipe books and directories available to members in group.
In 2001, Slimming World pioneered 'Slimming World on Referral' in the UK, whereby GPs can 'prescribe' attendance of a group for 12 weeks. So far Slimming World has worked with more than 50 Primary Care Trusts and in excess of 22,000 people have used the scheme.
In 2003 Slimming World launched a programme for 11- to 15-year-olds. Through the 'Family Affair' programme, children between the ages of 11 and 15 can attend Slimming World if accompanied by their parent or guardian. They follow a special eating plan called Free2Go which encourages them to make healthy swaps, such as replacing high fat
foods with healthier alternatives.
An online weight loss programme was launched in 2004, offering a service to slimmers who do not attend a group. Originally called bodyOptimise it was renamed as Slimming World Online in 2011. The services offered by Slimming World Online mirror those supplied by a group.
counting involved. Food Optimising is purportedly based on the scientific principles of satiety (the satisfying qualities of food) and energy density
, and encourages slimmers to fill up on nutritious, low energy dense foods to satisfy their appetite, while limiting consumption of less satisfying, high energy dense foods. Unique to food optimising is the unlimited choice of many 'free foods' which can include lean meat
, fish
and poultry
, pasta
, rice
and grains, vegetable
s and fruit
, which may be eaten freely. To help ensure a balanced diet, daily portions of 'healthy extras' are permitted, including bread
, cereal
s, cheese
and milk
. Finally, controlled portions of higher calorie, less filling foods are included, such as crisps, wine
, chocolate
and sauces. In Food Optimising these are called "syns". Most adults have a daily "syn allowance" of between 5 and 15 "syns".
Food Optimising has a variety of plans, which may be followed on a daily basis as the slimmer chooses:
, silver
, gold
and platinum
'Body Magic' awards. Platinum is achieved when members are routinely active/exercising five times a week for thirty minutes at a time.
The support continues outside the group via contact and support from the consultant, other members and through the website
, 'LifelineOnline'. The website contains an online "syn-check", recipe ideas and support.
Lida
. It states that its pregnancy programme is designed to ensure that mums-to-be and breastfeeding
mothers can continue to manage their weight, with the consent of their midwife.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-based weight loss
Weight loss
Weight loss, in the context of medicine, health or physical fitness, is a reduction of the total body mass, due to a mean loss of fluid, body fat or adipose tissue and/or lean mass, namely bone mineral deposits, muscle, tendon and other connective tissue...
organisation. It holds groups around the UK, led by consultants, who are self employed. According to the company, over the past 40 years more than five million slimmers have attended its groups.
Slimming World claims its members lose weight through a combination of its 'Food Optimising' eating plan, moderate activity through its 'Body Magic' programme and group support and shared experience with other slimmers, which encourage behaviour change.
At a group, members are weighed and their weight change is shared with the group. A member's actual weight is confidential, and is not revealed to the group. During the hour-long session, members share their experiences of the preceding week, discuss their weight losses or gains, and share ideas and strategies for the week ahead, during a session called 'IMAGE' (Individual Motivation And Group Experience) Therapy. Members share practical advice such as recipe suggestions, as well as strategies to cope with times when motivation is low.
Slimming World was founded in Derbyshire in 1969 by Margaret Miles-Bramwell, who remains its chairman. Caryl Richards has been managing director of the company since 2001.
Company history
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
and expanded into Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. By the 1980s
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
, Slimming World had 700 classes in the UK and by 2009 there were 6,000 groups. It Is a Very Help Ful Club.
Slimming World's charity, 'SMILES', was launched in 1997. SMILES stands for "Slimmers Making It a Little Easier for Someone", and since 1997 it has raised more than £2,000,000 for charity.
Slimming World magazine was launched in 1998. In 2008 sales exceeded 286,000. Slimming World also publishes a range of recipe books and directories available to members in group.
In 2001, Slimming World pioneered 'Slimming World on Referral' in the UK, whereby GPs can 'prescribe' attendance of a group for 12 weeks. So far Slimming World has worked with more than 50 Primary Care Trusts and in excess of 22,000 people have used the scheme.
In 2003 Slimming World launched a programme for 11- to 15-year-olds. Through the 'Family Affair' programme, children between the ages of 11 and 15 can attend Slimming World if accompanied by their parent or guardian. They follow a special eating plan called Free2Go which encourages them to make healthy swaps, such as replacing high fat
Fat
Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...
foods with healthier alternatives.
An online weight loss programme was launched in 2004, offering a service to slimmers who do not attend a group. Originally called bodyOptimise it was renamed as Slimming World Online in 2011. The services offered by Slimming World Online mirror those supplied by a group.
Food Optimising plan
Slimming World states its eating plan, 'Food Optimising', is a "flexible, empowering, permissive approach to healthy eating". There is little or no weighing and measuring and no calorieCalorie
The calorie is a pre-SI metric unit of energy. It was first defined by Nicolas Clément in 1824 as a unit of heat, entering French and English dictionaries between 1841 and 1867. In most fields its use is archaic, having been replaced by the SI unit of energy, the joule...
counting involved. Food Optimising is purportedly based on the scientific principles of satiety (the satisfying qualities of food) and energy density
Energy density
Energy density is a term used for the amount of energy stored in a given system or region of space per unit volume. Often only the useful or extractable energy is quantified, which is to say that chemically inaccessible energy such as rest mass energy is ignored...
, and encourages slimmers to fill up on nutritious, low energy dense foods to satisfy their appetite, while limiting consumption of less satisfying, high energy dense foods. Unique to food optimising is the unlimited choice of many 'free foods' which can include lean meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
, fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
and poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
, pasta
Pasta
Pasta is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine, now of worldwide renown. It takes the form of unleavened dough, made in Italy, mostly of durum wheat , water and sometimes eggs. Pasta comes in a variety of different shapes that serve for both decoration and to act as a carrier for the...
, rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
and grains, vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
s and fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
, which may be eaten freely. To help ensure a balanced diet, daily portions of 'healthy extras' are permitted, including bread
Bread
Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...
, cereal
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
s, cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
and milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
. Finally, controlled portions of higher calorie, less filling foods are included, such as crisps, wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
, chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
and sauces. In Food Optimising these are called "syns". Most adults have a daily "syn allowance" of between 5 and 15 "syns".
Food Optimising has a variety of plans, which may be followed on a daily basis as the slimmer chooses:
- 'Extra Easy plan': Free Foods include most fruit and vegetables, fish, lean meat and poultry and eggsEgg (food)Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...
, wholemeal pasta, potatoPotatoThe potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es, grains and beans. Healthy extras include bread, cereals, cheese and milk. - 'Original plan': Free Foods include most fruit and vegetables, fish, lean meat and poultry and eggsEgg (food)Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...
. Healthy extras include bread, cereals, cheese, milk and carbohydrateCarbohydrateA carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula ; that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 . However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical...
s such as wholemeal pasta, potatoPotatoThe potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es, grains and beans. - 'Green plan': Ideal for vegetarians, Free Foods include most fruit and vegetables, pasta, rice, potatoes, grains and eggs. Healthy extras include bread, cereals, cheese, milk, nuts & seeds, and proteinProteinProteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
such as lean meat, poultry and fish.
Physical activity
Slimming World encourages members to introduce physical activity into their daily lives through its 'Body Magic' programme. The emphasis is on introducing activity gently at first, such as getting off the bus a stop early a couple of times a week, or walking up two flights of steps instead of taking the lift occasionally, then on finding forms of activity which can be integrated into everyday life. Members achieve bronzeBronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
, silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
, gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
and platinum
Platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...
'Body Magic' awards. Platinum is achieved when members are routinely active/exercising five times a week for thirty minutes at a time.
Group support
The support of the consultant and other members is an important part of Slimming World's methods. When a member is losing weight successfully they receive praise and inspire the rest of the group to do well; when they are struggling to lose weight, they have support and practical advice from the group to help them get back on track.The support continues outside the group via contact and support from the consultant, other members and through the website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
, 'LifelineOnline'. The website contains an online "syn-check", recipe ideas and support.
Lida
Health and pregnancy
Slimming World encourages women to manage their weight healthily during pregnancyPregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
. It states that its pregnancy programme is designed to ensure that mums-to-be and breastfeeding
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is the feeding of an infant or young child with breast milk directly from female human breasts rather than from a baby bottle or other container. Babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk. It is recommended that mothers breastfeed for six months or...
mothers can continue to manage their weight, with the consent of their midwife.
External links
- Slimming World official website
- BodyOptimise Slimming World's online service
- ciao.co.uk Customer Reviews of Slimming World