Do I have to use all of the healthy extras?

[ambern]

I'm going to mostly be using the red plan as I'm allergic to gluten and so can't eat pasta or bread, and have come up with a meal plan for a week that only uses one healthy extra (some extra light laughing cow triangles) on one of the days, and no syns at all. Is this good, or would it be better to include healthy extras every day, like a glass of skimmed milk for calcium or something. I don't have a lot of weight to lose (only between half a stone to a stone), so I thought if I could cut out as many carbs as possible it would help me to just lose that last little bit. However I just wanted to double check that this is ok to do, and whether it would actually help my weight loss to include a few carbs. I don't really want to use any syns unless I'm desperate for some chocolate or something, as I go out and drink alcohol once or twice a week so I'd rather save the syns for that
Thanks,
Amber x

 

[PatchworkPuss]

No it's not good. Your healthy extras are there to ensure you have a balanced diet and you can have gluten free bread for your HEB not to mention all the other options available. You have the choice of either one or two HEAs so that is up to you but you need to use your syns. It will not help your losses to cut back on syns, actually many people find it slows them down. So have at least 5 a day even if you are saving some for the weekend. You can have gluten free pasta by the way - carbs are not bad! Why not just follow the plan as it meant to be followed and see how it goes

 

[Chipmunk89]

If you want the official advice I saw this the other day that someone had copied and pasted from the Slimming World online FAQ


Q: Do I have to eat all my Healthy Extras every day?

A: It won't affect your weight loss if you don't take all your Healthy Extra choices. However, the Healthy Extra section is there to ensure a balanced diet, so from a health point of view we recommend that you enjoy all your Healthy Extras each day.


Of course you should try and use them as they are part of the plan and help provide calcium/fibre etc, which are vital as part of a healthy diet. Obviously, ultimately the choice is yours. Do you want to follow SW 100% or not? If you do decide not to use them and it causes problem's, you can't blame Slimming World as you're not following the plan correctly.


It's also not advisable to save your syns for a binge either. You should have at least 5 a day, even if you're "banking" syns for later in the week.
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Hope this helps. Good luck on your journey!