1st July, 2021
I have spoken in past blogs about the times I watch Youtube. It fills the time when I am not feeling well enough to do other things or when I am awake and can't sleep because of the pain I am in. It's not a waste of time because I learn so much and it also enables me to hear the opinions of people I would never meet. I love meeting new people and I do talk to a lot of people when I am out and about, but on those occasions that I can't get out at least I can watch “ordinary” people. You can choose the subjects that interest you and you may hear things you might not hear otherwise. On one I watched recently, a lady who used to be a consultant for a slimming club explained that she had left and why. It was so interesting for a number of reasons. She had actually been involved with two well known slimming clubs in the past, and been a consultant and run clubs for both of them. She had lost some weight as a member with the last club over a few years, and then progressed into training and running her own club. She had followed her training and run the clubs within the rules, doing exactly what slimming consultants do. Talking about the specific plan, weighing people each week, asking them want went wrong if they didn't lose the weight they needed to, telling people “off” if needed, doing the group talks, etc. Those of us that have been to these clubs know what it is like. Then for some reason during the start of the first lock down in the U.K. around March 2020, she started, for whatever reason, to question her training, the eating plan and how she felt, as far as I understand. She then went on to do an independent nutrition course and started to view things in a completely different way. She looked at what she was eating each day from the plan of this particular group and worked out the total calories of the complete days eating plan and found she was well above the total calorie allowance to enable her to lose weight.
It began to dawn on her that the plan that may have worked for some had some major flaws. She said she knew that some were happy with the plan and it had worked for them, however it hadn't worked out for her in the end, or for so many other of the people that had attended her classes. She had begun to realise that people could stay within the plan and not lose weight, or even put it on because, unknown to them, they were taking in too many calories. She had made the great realisation that weight loss is down to the amount of calories in being less than calories out. She said there was nothing wrong with whatever “diet” you choose but without knowing you calorie intake it may not give you the results you are after.
She also said, if I remember correctly, that she had been trained to use The Plan and that calorie counting was not needed, but she now knew that wasn't quite right. She left being a consultant, counted what calories she was eating and lost a good amount of weight. In another video she apologised to her past club members for how she had been and how she had treated them. She said she had followed her training but now knew she was wrong. She had not really thought about it while running her club, just said and did what her training told her to do. She said she was sorry for how she had made people feel when they hadn't lost weight even when they said they had followed The Plan. She also said that she felt the public weighing and then the public announcements of weight loss and gain was wrong, not considering people's feelings at the time. All this because she learnt about calories through doing that independent course.
When you train with a club they will train you about their plan. She now realised that didn't always work and why, and I think she then went on to have her own clients independently, I suppose to continue to still make a living, but I am not completely sure.
Now, this is what I think about all this. I know that slimming clubs have not worked for me for many reasons, and I have tried quite a few. It is as far as I remember a written out plan for you to follow, and this indeed can work for many who think that a plan telling you what to eat is easy.
It can be, but for me because they want you to do the plan and not count calories and you have to follow The Plan, perhaps without any knowledge of calories, there is plenty of room to fail and not achieve your results. There is also no flexibility if you are wanting to eat something off plan. It is not good at all to eat junk food all the time, but at least knowing something about calories can give you a certain amount of flexibility. You can not live on a plan all of your life, well not in my experience, you need to find a way that will work for you, and you alone.
I am trained in catering and in beauty therapy and I do know about food. I have a level two Health and Nutrition certificate and have “dieted” for many years. I do know what calories most foods contain so I stood a good chance of working out how many calories I needed to lose weight to lose weight slowly, and what was in the food I chose to eat. Saying this, all the information is on the internet should anyone wish to research it.
All this lady was saying, and what I have been saying, is that a standard plan does not work for everyone. To be completely honest, a lot of plans are not designed to work long term, after all it is an industry for making money in my opinion. As this lady said, if it works for you, good play, but do not be afraid to look at what you are doing if you find it is not working out for you.
The science says less calories in than calories out and you will lose weight, it is as simple as that, but if you know what you are eating then that little bit of extra knowledge can help a lot.
Watching this lady and listening to what she said helped me confirm that what I believe is right. I had worked out why I didn't to do a club plan and I was right. So many have said the same thing, which must mean something. Just seeing someone that had totally believed her training was right suddenly realise it wasn't, and how it had affected people was quite thought provoking. As I always say, always question things and don't trust completely what you are told. Always take a good look at the evidence that backs it up. What you see and are told may not always add up to a true and complete picture. Do what is right for you.
Until next time,
Love, Jackie
xx
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