When Is A Syn Not a Syn?

[FatOllie]

I’m just new to Slimming World (first week)and one thing I’m not sure of is what to count as Syns.

I was travelling yesterday and had to have dinner at an airport. Seeking to avoid Syns, I ordered an 8oz rump steak with flat mushroom and herb potatoes, intending to trim off any fat and herb potatoes, thinking they would be mash with some herbs added - – I’m doing the Extra Easy diet so lean meat, mushrooms and potatoes are all Free Food.

The potatoes turned out to be sautéed/diced garlic potatoes. Okay, I thought, I’ve been good at keeping my Syns under 10 every day this week, one portion of these potatoes won’t do any great damage.

When I went to look up the Syns for the potatoes today to enter into yesterday’s diary, they come up at 15.5 Syns which is more or less what I expected but out of curiosity, I looked up 8oz rump steak and found a nearly compatible meal, J D Wetherspoon, 8oz Sirloin Steak with Jacket Potato, Peas, Tomatoes & Flat Mushroom (nothing with diced potatoes available) which to my horror shows 38 Syns!.

So how many Syns did I commit yesterday with this meal – 15 or 38?

 

[Stepout]

JD weatherspoons meals are quite bad for syns if you look at the same meal with chips you ll see the syns are more or less the same
Not sure what they do to their jacket potatoes but prob half the syns will be for that

Sent from my iPhone using MiniMins

 

[kingleds]

Its to do with how stuff is cooked hun. So even seemingly free food would not be free if not cooked in a SW friendly So if your steak was grilled with no added oil & the mushrooms as well then they are likely to be nearly free (you can never be too sure).

Weatherspoons meals tend to have alot of oil used in the meat to cook it - not in the jacket itself (which contary to popular myth is not injected with fat or any such nonsense) The syns for that meal include the butter they serve with the jacket & assume you will use!!

Weatherspoons have a syn free meal - 5 bean chilli with rice (no tortillas) which is lush btw

 

[Shirleen]

Last time we went to a Wetherspoons the outside of the Jacket was slick with oil, had to leave the skin. The tomatoes and mushrooms are fried too.

 

[Mizkirsty]

I picked up the nutritional info from spoons and popped the info of the jackets into the syn calculator and they do come up free so the fried jacket myth is rubbish!! The syns as mentioned are for the extras your assumed to have used!! Xx

 

[FatOllie]

Thanks all. It wasn't actually Wetherspoons I ate in, it was Frank and Benny's at Stansted Airport, the Wetherspoons dish was just the nearest equivalent I could find.

I'm still a little confused though, am I right in saying that even though all the Free Foods have Syn ratings, you can basically ignore the Syns on the Extra Easy diet provided you have them plain i.e. no sauces and not cooked in oil?

 

[kingleds]

Free foods are only free if they are cooked the SW friendly way (ie without adding any oil or fat - except fryljght), and have all visible fat removed. So chicken is free - but not chicken skin. if you use oil or butter you need to syn the oil or butter.
All free foods on red & green are frer ob extra eaay.

 

[~*~Louisa~*~]

Yes most things have syns (few are free on all) if you were doing original your potatos would be x amount of syns but free on green if doing green lean steak all visible fat removed cooked with no fat it would be x amount of syns but free on red

and both free on Extra easy

High syn values for take away meals are a number of things... 1 is super free your unlikly to have enough superfree to make an extra easy meal

2 cooking jacket potatos are NOT cooked in fat but the steaks can be some do flash fry and then griddle some dont but you cant know for sure
plus dispite the slant on the hotplate cooking things they cook greasy foods on them leaving a build up so it is cooked in fat

The jack potatos come with butter thats added to the syns

then ofcourse the chips
mushrooms are fried, tomatos fried it all adds up

 

[FatOllie]

Despite my little hiccup on Saturday, I still managed 4.5 lbs for my first week so I'm dead chuffed

 

[monkeychops1819]

Excellent weight loss, well done! My first week too, lost 3lbs and well chuffed, just had a curly wurly to celebrate as only 6 syns! ;-))))

 

[Sharloid]

Well done.

 

[FatOllie]

Thanks all for encouragement.

 

[kingleds]

Despite my little hiccup on Saturday, I still managed 4.5 lbs for my first week so I'm dead chuffed

Thats great hun! Just remember this week next time you are faced with a similar situation & relax about it all a bit!

 

[Shirleen]

Well I KNOW the jackets my friend and I had were both covered in oil, not only could you see it but touching it left my finger covered in grease! personally I reckon they'd sat there for hours and were oiled to look better! Mind I didn't complain just ate the inside only.

My fave carvery has butter on the new potatoes and the green beans and the peas, the cauli comes in cheese sauce! So a 'free roast' isn't!

 

[kingleds]

Well I KNOW the jackets my friend and I had were both covered in oil, not only could you see it but touching it left my finger covered in grease! personally I reckon they'd sat there for hours and were oiled to look better! Mind I didn't complain just ate the inside only.

My fave carvery has butter on the new potatoes and the green beans and the peas, the cauli comes in cheese sauce! So a 'free roast' isn't!

Don't let Starlight catch you reviving the hidden fats in Weatherspoons Jackets debate!!

 

[Shirleen]

I'm not reviving anything, I'm just relaying what happened to me, chances are it was peculiar to that particular pub/chef

 

[kingleds]

I'm not reviving anything, I'm just relaying what happened to me, chances are it was peculiar to that particular pub/chef

'twas joking!!

 

[Shirleen]

Sorry I'm a bit pooped not thinking straight lol

 

[tink2011]

I have worked in a few pubs and iv seen all sorts of ways that food is cooked deep fried steaks etc so b carful eatin out he he!

 

[Jade_123]

Spoons isnt THAT bad guys

Sorry but ive worked in Wetherspoons and it's not that bad lol! Jacket potatoes have nothing on them.. they are just spuds! Steak is just oiled and seasoned like any steak should be then its set to relax before cooking and then gets cooked on the grill.. nothing else!