been thinking about mixing up my lunch by taking pasta salad to work. my ex used to eat pasta when he wanted bulk up before training. how can pasta really be syn free? is eating pasta every day good for losign weight?

It is syn free on slimming world, only you are encouraged to split your plate into thirds, so 1 third of pasta, one third of protein and one third of superfree foods (fruit and vegetables in general, there are a couple which aren't like peas).

I am also not sure if you would lose eating it every day, I think the trick is not having the same kind of food all the time but mixing it up and there are lots of recipes to try on SW which encourage you to do that. We have it once a week because of all the free foods on slimming world it is the one I am not sure is great for weight loss. But they do say you can have whatever free food you like whenever you like (balanced out with superfree)

Hope that helps.

Everything in moderation I say. Slimming world say pasta is free but I don't agree with that. A friend of mine I started with ate pasta all week and wondered why she didn't lose weight.

I have spag bol now and then (I am tomorrow actually) and have been adding pasta to salads occasionally. I don't eat it often but I eat other carbs daily such a potatoes Mix the carbs up and in moderation IMO and always have more veg/salad than the carbs on your plate!

I couldn't understand that when I started SW too. The flour in pasta would be syned if you used it in another recipe. Doesn't make much sense to me either

I always eat pasta with something else. If you were to to eat a plate full of pasta each day then I would imagine you wouldn't lose any weight.

What SW (and most of those other franchise type weight loss businesses) fail to consider is:

• Some people are less tolerant to carbs than others.
  
• If you don't deplete glycogen in your muscles and liver, carbs will spill over into fat storage.
  
• There is no physiological requirement to eat carbohydrate.

If you like it, eat it, but at the end of the day, those highly processed carbs should really be the domain of the athlete or intense exerciser. The sedentary would do a lot better getting all their carbs from starchy vegetables, a little fruit, and leave it at that for the most part.

So you would recommend that the average dieter steer clear of pasta all together? I can't think of any starchy vegetables other than potatoes.

Not saying that, but, starchy carbs really should be the domain of the exerciser, to replenish glycogen stores. Problem is, most dieters (and people in general) always have their glycogen stores topped up from carb based diets, so excess glucose has to spill over into fat storage, to maintain blood sugar within safe limits.

In reality, as long as you keep calories in check, you should be ok, but some people, particularly those who are pretty heavy, do better for a while with carbs just coming from veggies like carrots, a little sweet potato perhaps, some fruit etc. Combine this with some exercise, and insulin sensitivity improves, and many people can then eat more carbs than before.

I think the reality is, that carbs (and wheat in particular) can be problematic, but most people aren't losing the fat they want to because they are not planning their diet right, not having the support mechanisms in place to keep them on track, and are victims of the shoddy nutrition and diet advice that we have been subjected to for the last 30 years.

I spoke to a GP friend yesterday, and she was very much of the opinion 'fat people just need to stick to the plan', but it is a lot more complicated than that. Psychology is at the route of most of this, I need to be more of a friend and life coach rather than a nutrition coach, or at least a combination of the two.

Sorry, off topic. :-)