My problem with Slimming Clubs 🙄

For legal reasons, let's talk about this hypothetical business called "Slimming Club"...

No no wait - let's call it "Skinny World".

"They'll never know" (tiktok reference)

Let's say that they charge everyone to weigh themselves in front of a group and are then praised or chastised based on whether that scales is higher or lower than when they paid and stood there the week before.

The sad thing is, that the majority of women that join these clubs want to be healthier and leaner.

Surely it is known by now that just because the scales goes down, it does not mean that you are any healthier or leaner.

Of course, you *can be* lighter, healthier and leaner, but correlation does not equal causation.

Here's why focusing on the scales as a measure of progress can actually be detrimental to your goal of looking leaner.

Muscle is more dense than fat.

Having muscle makes you look leaner than if you were the same weight with less muscle.

I've had hundreds of clients tell me that they were advised *AGAINST* training in the gym after the scales didn't budge/went up.

Can you see how crazy that is?!

You are improving your health, getting stronger, balancing your hormones and looking sexier... but the scales hasn't budged so you must be doing something wrong?!

Give me strength...

But why are these 'leaders' giving this advice?

Because they don't know any better.

I'm pretty sure the leaders are picked because they have lost a lot of weight through that club.

Not because they have studied training, nutrition or health psychology.

Years ago I did Weight Watchers because I was 20 and I wanted to be skinny.

I was quite active but I knew nothing about nutrition.

I lost a lot of weight fast. I was eating mainly chicken salads and Walkers Baked ("only 9 points for 6 packs"). I was doing a lot of cardio to "earn points" for more food. *shudders*

But what happened when I was extremely thin? I as advised by my family to stop.

But I had no knowledge of nutrition. So I piled on the weight when I tried to live my life without WW.

Then I had a great idea - I'll go back and pay them again!

Very smart business model to be fair.

But for somebody like me now, in this industry where I see so many women uneducated and beating themselves up for a number on the scales, it is important for me to make women independent, empowered and full of knowledge so that they never have to join one of these pointless 'clubs' (read: businesses) again.

I could go on and on with this rant, but maybe I should practice some gratitude because if these businesses didn't exist, maybe I wouldn't have so much success with my business, when the women finally come to me after giving up on these clubs.

Maybe I should make a 'Slimming World Survivors' group.

Eh... I mean Skinny World.

Click below to join.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhan "Weight loss ≠ Improved Health (but can correlate)" O'Hagan