Flexi syns?

*Sally Cinnamon*

Full Member
I am confused.... how do they work, my group leader hasn't explained these to me. I assumed you could use syns at any time throughout week as long as averaged under 15 per day....

xx
 
This is how I work mine out. I allow myself so many syns for the week. If your using 15 syns a day that's 105 for the week. So if I'm going out at the weekend for a meal I cut my syns down through the week to say about 7 a day. Then the day before the meal I eat mainly free food and on the day of the meal eat only free food until meal time. Then at the restaurant I have what I want. Sometimes I'll also reduce my syns for the next day depending on what I've eaten the night before. This way you can have what you want for your special occasion night but still lose weight at WI and you've been flexible with your syns.
 
thanks

xx
 
As far as I know from all my consultants on SW, and I have had a few, having joined SW 6 times in nearly 7 years, this is how it works, according to them:

You need to use your 10 - 15 syns per day. You cannot "bank" or save them for the week for a special occasion. I know some people here work on 105 syns per week and work from that total, however this is not correct ( I have done it myself but it is not what SW advocate!)

If you have a special occasion, like a wedding, birthday etc you decide beforehand how many syns you will have for that day, be it 20, 50 or 100, and work from that stopping when you hit whatever target you set.

After that you continue your normal eating
plan.

Anyway, that is how it has been explained to me!
 
As far as I know from all my consultants on SW, and I have had a few, having joined SW 6 times in nearly 7 years, this is how it works, according to them:

You need to use your 10 - 15 syns per day. You cannot "bank" or save them for the week for a special occasion. I know some people here work on 105 syns per week and work from that total, however this is not correct ( I have done it myself but it is not what SW advocate!)

If you have a special occasion, like a wedding, birthday etc you decide beforehand how many syns you will have for that day, be it 20, 50 or 100, and work from that stopping when you hit whatever target you set.

After that you continue your normal eating
plan.

Anyway, that is how it has been explained to me!

I'm sorry, but in a lot of circumstances that is just impossible. I'm going out for a meal tonight. I have no idea what is on the menu as I've never been before. But even if I had I probably wouldn't have any idea how to work out the syns because I have no idea how it's been cooked or what many of the ingredients would be.
My consultant agrees with how we do it. We limit our amount of syns before and after the evening out and try to control the amount of syns for the week like that. The one thing my consultant does say though is that syns can't be carried over into subsequent weeks. My WI is on a Tuesday so my syns run from Tuesday to Tuesday.
 
I cant see how the 'decide before hand' thing works, surely thats just saying 'Oh eat what you like'

I know the weekly thing maybe isnt the official SW way to do it but it seems to work for people

I know the weekly thing does work for some people, and personally it makes a lot of sense in my opinion, but I am just going by what I was told. That is sticking to the daily allocations.

The planning beforehand is really just for the odd occasions and not the "norm".
I think it's just there so you know that you can have the odd party "binge" without feeling bad.
If you decide to do (for example) 50 flexi syns that day, you stick to that and stop when you reach that target but you still have the control over how many syns you actually have and know your limit.
I think it's all about self control.
 
I have to admit I prefer using them as a weekly thing. Ive been out a couple of times this week and Im well under my weekly allowance, I think Ill average 11 per day over the week. Had I done it daily Id have been over 3 days this week, albeit by only a few. I suppose its a mindset thing. 3 days failure or a weeks success.....

You're right, that's a good way of looking at it. How many people would just give up their week as a failure if they went over their syns for 3 days instead of thinking they can over come it by balancing out their syns over the week.
 
It's really interesting that this debate is still going on - it was a hot topic of discussion 10 years ago!

When I first joined SW in 1991 you had 10 syns (then still called sins) and if you didn't use them on that day, you lost them - basically tough. On re-joining in 1999, you were told to use between 5 & 15 a day, again you had to use them or lose them effectively.

Now my current consultant has always taught me that you must have between 5 & 15 a day to keep the plan working for you but to utilise 'flexible syns' when you know you have something coming up or even just a good night out at the pub. However, if you happen to have flexible syns that still keep you under your weekly 105, that's even better. I understand the idea is to keep things under your control by putting a limit on things and keep you counting - I find this only really works well when alcohol isn't involved ;) .

For me, if I save them up for a big blow out I don't lose, but a friend will - horses for courses. I wouldn't lose too much sleep over this - if you know you are having a big syn day, really stock up on free food - the worst thing you can do is deprive yourself of the things you CAN have. By doing this, keeping counting and getting back on track the next day, the plan will work.
 
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Virgo, you hit the nail on the head. For some people "banking" works and for others it doesn't. The strict SW way is not to bank but i think if it's good for you then so it. Flexi syns are there for those occasions when you know you're going to go over. It's sometimes imposible to know what will be on the menu and when that happen i plan by saying i will make the best choices i can (over 1, 2 or 3 courses) or i will have no more than 5 alcoholic drinks and i will not feel that i have done anything wrong. it's really about making eating "normal", a thin person won't go oh i can't have x,y and z because it will be a problem and then feel guilty, they will have that special dinner from time to time because it's exactly that, special. One meal or event will not sabotage your weight loss in the long run whether you bank or flexisyn, lots of "events" every week will.
 
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