For slimming world newbies, the terminology used in the plan can be a little overwhelming, from free foods to healthy extras, but what about SYNS? What does this mean?
Slimming world syns refer and mean your naughty foods like chocolate, cakes or anything which isn't free on the slimming world plan. Syns on the SW plan means synergy, so nothing too bad.
Down below in our guide, we will discuss what the word syns means, what syns mean in the slimming world, how many syns you get on the slimming world and how to calculate your syns.
Before we can discuss more the meaning of SYNS on slimming world, let's start with what the word syns means and why it's so controversial.
The word SYNS technically means 'together' and is derived from Greek Latin, it's a word describing the fusion of energy together.
Many slimming worlders who are not keen on the word compare SYNS to sins, which means bad acts, it was argued that by calling foods syns it could make you feel guilty about the food you are eating, however slimming world has argued this is not how the term is meant to be used.
In the slimming world, SYNS mean synergy and shows how foods like healthy extras, syns and free foods work together to help with weight loss in people.
Everyone gets a syn allowance on the slimming world plan which allows you to indulge in any food you want up to a certain allowance, this allows you to lose weight without feeling too restricted keeping a balanced diet.
You will likely be given a syn allowance of 15 syns on the slimming world plan which is up to 300 calories extra per day for snacking on the food you want. This syn allowance can vary however according to your weight if you are over 16 stone you might get a syn allowance of 20 syns a day to stop your diet from being too restrictive.
Syn allowances are also higher or lower depending on your gender (for men higher) and how fast you are looking to lose weight, less syns can mean a faster weight loss but should still be included to stop you from feeling deprived.
You can work out how many SYNS a food has by calculating how many calories it has and going off the rule of 20 calories being one syn, so a packet of crips which are around 150 calories might have 7.5 syns in total which is over half of your syn allowance!
For people using the SW plan, you will be given an easy to use food database tool to search this info or you can look for a syn calculator online. Be careful that some foods like fat-free flavoured yoghurt are not syn free, only fat-free plain yoghurt.
Overall, slimming world SYNS stands for synergy, which relates to the relationship between syns, healthy extra and free foods on the slimming world plan for weight loss, not like the term 'sins' so nothing to feel guilty about on the plan!
Most people get an average of 15 syns to use on the SW plan which allows you to indulge in any kind of food you want up to around 300 calories, allowances can change according to different factors as we mentioned above, however.
A common question we get asked is How Does Slimming World work? Well we have answered it for you right here!
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