Sure Slim: Is it a scam, a fad diet in disguise or does it work?

It works guys, it's extreme but the results are great.  It is hard to stay on it you will lose weight dramatically and feel really good when you do it, beside from being hungry!  It does charge your metabolism, once you're into it you can fall off the diet for 2 or 3 days and the weight loss keeps happening.  they test your blood to see the reactions it has with different foods and coem up with a diet filled with foods that are beneficial for you.

Delighted to see Terry Polevoy taking the shit-kicking he deserves. I witnessed firsthand his witless and unqualified use of "alternative medicine" on Claudia Angus, his live-in back, in the early '90's. Polevoy's arrogance and egotism never got in the way of good and rational thinking.

I recently attened a presentation he made at the Toronto chapter of the Center for Inquiry. I think he was at the wrong venue. I think he was looking for the center of Hate, Ignorance and Bigotry.

Slimslim is a money grabbing scam thought up by the devil. You wanna lose weight? Eat 500 less calories 20g carbs 100g of protein and exercise 30 mins a day.

How about changing the mindset and looking at systems that will rebalance the body and have weight loss as one of its side effect...

Have you considered Cleansing the body of its impurities and Replenishing with dynamic nutrients? 

I am surprised that there is no mention from anyone of how clogged our organs are with all the pollution that is around us every day:  the air we breath, the empty food we eat, grown with pesticides and herbecides, the water we drink and the stress brought on by our fast paste lifestyle.  

Cleanse the body, and the emotional outlook toward food changes!!!

Suzanne, Waterloo

Well, only today have I found out Sure Slim has gone bust in Australia.  This has made interesting reading.  I have done it.  Cost me $600 back then.  I stuck to it like glue and lost 25 kg.  Over the ensuing 4 years it is all back on again.

Self responsibility - a BIG call.  Comfort eating, filling the void, then bam!  Big Decision time.   The Sure Slim Recipe Book caught my eye, so in conjunction with realistic thinking and having read about Body Trim and understanding their 70/20/10 ratio.  Life has taken a turn for the better.   Amazing.  Once you line up with what you want, and want it, really, really want it, then nothing and no one can get in your way.  Not even the critic in the mind ( or the negative entries above).

Sure Slim worked for me, yet the staff were useless, critical and even down right rude, when I never achieved my weekly loss of kgs.  It was disheartening.  Now I pay no one.  My mind is made up.  High Protein, simple carbs, and yes I still weigh my protein. 100g being a female for main meals.

The only thing I do that SureSlim would have a fit over is I eat a snack ( protein) between meals.  It is working like a dream.  I love water and drink in excess of 2L a day.

The underlying principles of SureSlim were probably OK. They have stayed with me. I am off sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds for life though.  And love my apple.

Oh for the high life hey?  Sell thousands of courses to people needing a hand up to lose weight, then go broke yourself.  Not surprising really, like most things when you lose sight of the 'soul' of your business and stop inspiring your customers and franchisees - shit happens.

It is all about YOU in the end.  Only YOU can do what is right for YOU.  You either take responsibility for your weight and eating habits or you don't.

Is healthy weight clinic a SCAM?

i keep reading this blog with great interest and find it strange that the owner of this web site has a self serving mission.  why not slam the competition and potray himself as a saviour.  my question to all of you bloggers, is drew harvey a scam artist.  is his mission to allow others to express their bias views while drew harvey can control what goes in and what comes out.  I will be curious on how long it will take for this comment to be taken out.  I live in Waterloo and have heard that this guy is a piece of work and has the nerd complex like his friend Terry Polevoy.  Polevoy was fined over 600,000.00 for his slanderous and outlandish statements but now harvey is trying to manipulate others through his blog.  harvey stop preying on the weak and look in the mirror and ask yourself "where am i going" - these comments will not end.

Does the owner of diettired, drew harvey have anything to do with Terry Polevoy?  We would like to know now!

Just a little north of the US border, in Waterloo/Kitchener, Ontario,  is the home, and acne care business, of Terry Polevoy MD, Canada's number one self styled "quackbuster."   Polevoy, well versed in bigotry and scare tactics, operates a "hate" operation.  His hatred is for those that espouse "alternative medicine," in any form.  His website, healthwatcher.net, is a miasma of crazy talk, odd colors and combinations, and a presentation that seems clearly out of the mind of a seriously disturbed individual.

Polevoy's favorite tactic is "stalking" his intended victims. 

Today, I'm filing a formal criminal complaint against Polevoy for his recent actions against me.  Knowing something of Polevoy's history I fear for my safety, and the safety of my family. I'm basing the complaint on a rash of activities by Polevoy over the last few months.  Polevoy, I believe, has serious mental problems

hi

once read that every diet work, it's only you who fails. all those whose diss sureslim don't have willpower and after they fail they blame the program............you can't expect to feed your body with junk and all the wrong thing and then lose weight and stay trim,,,,,,,,,,,please. sureslim is a healthy eating programme, cause everything on it is healthy. the one thing i love about it the most, it teaches you self disciple and stops you from being a pig (eating the whole day like a cow, but not expecting to look like one)! 

even weight watchers or any other healthy eating program requires the same thing..........disciple and willpower and if you have it you will continue writing such crap because of your failures.

The Melbourne Branch of SureSlim went into liquidation.  I got a call at the end of November from one of the consultants.  I don't think she had time to call everyone because she had just been told and had to leave quickly.  I don't think there are any branches open in Victoria at the moment, although from the website it looks like they may be doing online consultations, which are just not the same in my book.

For all those criticising and praising Sureslim, I think everyone has to remember that we're all different and that what suits one person may not suit another.  It's up to each person to find the method of weight loss that works for them, and as many of know, it can be a long drawn out trial and error system.  So if you've tried it and haven't liked it - fair enough - more on - but some of the comments are totally unwarranted and inaccurate from my experiences.

I've done Sureslim three times - so technically it hasn't worked for me because each time I manage to shed lots of excess weight, I manage to put it back on again, for a variety of emotional reasons.  However I don't blame Sureslim because so far it has been the only weightloss program I have actually be able to lose on.  The food makes me feel great - it's healthy and satisfying.  Once I get past the first couple of weeks, which is like a detox, it's easy to maintain and it's the only diet that I never feel hungry on because my cravings for carbs go away - in fact when I am eating well, walking past a fried food takeaway shop or seeing rich cakes and desserts actually makes me feel sick.  So it is a perfect way of eating for me. 

Unfortunately, I lack the willpower to do it alone, which is where the weekly visits come in - I need the backup of the consultant to go through my week and keep me motivated.  I don't understand why I need some stranger to help me in this way - it doesn't make any sense to me - but that's just the way I am.

If Sureslim was still around I would still be checking in each week and losing weight with them - because until I figure out how to keep the weight off permanently, this is definitely the best, most healthy way for me to be living.

Can someone tell me why Sureslim is removing some of the comments on this page??

This is a general forum and sureslim has no right to take off anyones comments. Keep to your own forums Sureslim!!!

Big lack of support from the consultants so I ended up doing it alone.

I totally agree with the above. You read so many people that have tried other "diets", ie weight watchers and they are constantly eating. They also go off the eating plan and put on weight, then go on the plan again and it seems harder the second time around to lose any. I have read so many people that have gone on diets that offer processed "reduced fat" food, continuing to fail. The fact is that those diets do not teach you to eat healthy, they teach you to continue to eat processed "low fat" biscuits and cakes. Well didn't they get overweight in the first place by eating biscuits and cake? Low fat or not, what does that teach you? Sureslim is amazing because it teaches you to eat well. It's all about making healthy nutritional food choices that will fill you up and stop the cravings.

My mother and I both tried WW and Jenny craig (to name a couple), and once you go off those diets the weight piles back on. I really want to make a point here - you can never understand the freedom of not having to constantly think about bad food and cravings until you do this program.  That is what Sureslim is - freedom from those constant cravings for bad food. I am not going to say that the first few weeks are not hard, they are damn hard. But after your body has got over the bad food cravings, it seems to come to the conclusion that it enjoys this way of healthy eating. And when you notice the changes in yourself and you start to notice the weight dropping away, then no junk food can ever compare to that feeling of complete joy that you are heading towards that goal of looking and feeling great. The other good thing is, if you do slip up (which is only human) you can go on to the many Sureslim forums and read the inspirational stories. It will get you back on track every time.

From being totally depressed and wanting to give up and "hand-in-the-towel" on dieting to four weeks later losing over 7kgs and feeling fantastic, I can not praise Sureslim enough.

I've been on the SS plan for about 8 months and have lost 70 lbs.  Personally some of the negative claims made are pure bunk and do not represent my experiences with the program.  The blood test at the beginning shows how my body is functioning...it showed that I am overly sensitive to carbs..therfore, carbs in the form of bread/crackers were limited. Every meal consists of a specific ratio of protein to veggie with 2 fruit servings a day.  I drink at least 2L of water a day along with a few cups of either black or green tea.  No snacking, which is not a big deal if you're feeding your body correctly during your 3 meals. I feel healthy, I look great and I have energy to spare.

When I reached my goal, I was given a maintenance program which teaches about mixing proteins among other things. If I don't pay attention to what I eat and I gain abit of weight then I go back to the original plan, drop the gain and go back to maintenance.

It's all about being aware what you stuff in your gob and paying attention to your body...frankly, for myself, it was money and time well spent.

I can understand about looking at what you are eating and finding out what foods make your body increase in weight and descrease. I have been on Sureslim for a little over 3 weeks and have lost about 6kgs, which I think is amazing. The one thing I noticed is how much my body can no longer stand bread and high starches and  how I no longer crave them. Before, I could never could understand why my body felt horrible after eating bread (didn't matter if it was wholemeal). The effects on my stomach were bad. When I started sureslim, I switched the bread for mountain bread and cut out all high starch products, and the difference was amazing.

What sureslim teaches you is simple and really back to what our grandparents were doing - cooking simple nutritious meals at home. When I was little, friday night was our 'fish and chips treat night', the rest of the time it was home cooked meals. These days greasy takeaways have taken over and they are the "easy" way to get food into our bodies. In fact I think this recession is a real blessing. People are starting to go back to basics - vegetable gardens, planting fruit trees and picking lean meat at the meat store because we can no longer afford the takeaways. If we can all start cooking good homecooked meals (at the right portion sizes) then of course we are all going to lose weight and become healthier.

So if people want to put Sureslim down, just because it teaches the exact same principles that our gradparents were raised on, then there has to be something wrong with them. It is our society today that is teaching our children of tomorrow that eating "super-sizes" and "fast-food" is delicious and filling. It is the negative people on this blog who are obviously jumping from diet to diet, still looking for the "miracle" cure that will make them slim and healthy by tomorrow and will still be looking for it in 10 years time. Frankly I have had 10 years of being overweight and nothing worked until I bumped into an old friend of mine who had lost 50kg's on this diet and still two years later had kept it off. She looked amazing. She is my inspiration, as are so many others on Sureslim who have achieved this goal. And guess what, that will also be me.

I had felt like I was coming to the end of the road in diets and that there was no hope left. Just when I had resigned myself to being overweight I decided to give this a try. And every morning since, I now wake up feeling great and excited, and every week when I see that scale going down, I remember what it was like literally praying every time when I stood on one, that it would stop climbing. For the first time in 10 years I can't wait to step on that scale every week. That person could also be you. What have you got to lose?

This is amazing.

What it seems very few people who are posting seem to realize is that no diet, life change, system, plan etc...will work if you aren't prepared to make the sacrifices and changes necessary to change. 

My mother joined a group called Food Addicts Anonymous.  It helped her lose her weight and deal with the underlying emotional root to her eating.  I am not an emotional eater and wasn't about to join that sort of program.  I joined Sure Slim.  I am down 100 lbs so far and I feel great.  I feel great because I made the decision to change my life to make this a permanent loss.  Sure Slim could have been any program, but I found that the structure that this program had fit what I needed to succeed. 

Guess what...I still have drinks on the weekend when I want to.  I still have a couple of slices of pizza if I want to.  It is my life.  I am not on a diet.  People talk about going back to 'eating normal' but what you don't get is that if you are obese, you never were eating normal.  Processed carbs are not normal.  Two plates of pasta is not normal.  6-8 slices of pizza is not normal.  5 cokes a day is not normal. Eating on this program is normal.  The carbs you receive are through vegetables, which are easier to break down and better for you, plus contain more other nutritional value than any complex carb out there.  The meat is nearly 8 ounces right now.  On the final step it is like 6.5 oz roughly...guess what, THAT IS NORMAL.  I get 3 fruit a day, one of which has to be an apple. 

If you think this is not right, then look at the Canada Food Guide.  It recommends the following:

8-10 veggie/fruit servings, 6-7 grain, 2 dairy/alternatives, 2 meat/alternatives.

125ml = 1 veggie/fruit.  1 slice of bread = 1 grain, 2.5 oz = 1 meat.

Today my meal is such: 280g yogurt with seeds (as mentioned in another post) and coffee.  Lunch I will have a garden salad with balsamic dressing and a turkey sandwich (the meat of which will be about 160g cooked) and an apple.  For supper I will have a 7 oz sirloin with steamed veggies and a pear or apple or such.

So, the salad and steamed veggies are about 3 and 2 servings, plus the 3 fruit = 8 servings.  The yougurt takes care of the dairy, and is actually a little over.  The meat is about 4 servings, not 2 as reccomended, but the grains I have = 3, not six, as the program reccomends lower carb, so the meat replaces. 

I'll also drink about 2L of water. I fail to see how the meal day is unhealthy.  My doctor loves the program.  It has also afforded me to since quit smoking, go on a few dates with a girl from work as I now have the confidence back that I had when I was 20 (33 now).  I am also starting up playing hockey again.

Oh, that reminds me, I have to dispell one of the biggest lies I had read...THE PROGRAM DOES NOT TELL YOU NOT TO EXERCISE.  THEY ALSO DO NOT EXPECT YOU TO LOSE DRAMATIC WEIGHT.

On the weight, I was told each week as I was dropping 6 lbs, that it was amazing, but don't expect it forever...that a healthy weight loss program might range from 2-6 a month, which is a pretty common statement and where I am now, and happy with it

They also said exercise was encouraged, but not as a weight loss activity, but for a healthier living.  The key was that if you were to have prolonged elevated heart rate:

45mins-1hr: eat 1.5 times your regular portion in the previous meal

1-1.5hr: 1.75 times normal portion on previous meal. 

1.5-2hr: 2x normal portion on regular meal.

The reason is that the body can be tricked into thinking it is in flight mode and will find the need to conserve fat in case the extra exercise is prolonged as compared to the amount of calories taken in.  If the body gets too fewer calories in than out, your body will shut down its metabolism to conserve for the long haul.

Now onto the math of the program.

Including taxes and all other that I had to pay for the program, it worked out to about $65 bucks a month (CAD).

Weight watchers is 48 bucks a month ($12 a week).

Nutrisystem: averaged at about $350 a month including food.  My grocery bills are about $200 a month in comparison.

LA weightloss: There is no right answer I can find, but I have seen over 1000 up front to 8 bucks a day and everything inbetween.

There are others, but when you look at the price of getting a structured, well balanced meal guide, the costs are not so different.  As I have proven and witnessed, if we could all lose weight from a book, none of us would be fat.  Many of us need this kind of structure.  Most of all, if it works, then who is anyone to argue?

My advice to any obese people reading any of this.  Seriously consider if you want to make an impactful change in your life that will be FOREVER.  It won't just be a year, I don't care who's plan you are on.  This is about giving you the tools to succeed in your new life.  If you go back to what you think 'normal' eating is, you'll go back to where you were because you've never been able to eat 'normal'. 

Finally, If you think you can do it yourself, I recomend the following books, as they were helpful for me in understaning what I needed to do, SureSlim was there for the structure and routine that made it possible.

The South Beach Diet - Don't let the name fool you, it is a diet designed for cardiac patients.  It is an insulin regulated diet like SureSlim, which means it aims to keep your sugar and insulin levels at a certain value.

http://www.jillianmichaels.com - Biggest Loser trainer has a great plan if you can follow on your own using the people around you for support instead of a clinic or that sort of thing.

http://www.glycemicindex.com/  The Glycemic Index.  There are thousands of references on it, but it is the basis for any regulating style diet such as SureSlim and South Beach Diet.  It explains how complex carbs spike insulin levels which reduce fat burning and weight loss.

I am not from Sure Slim.  I don't care if you join them.  I can only say what worked for me.  In the end, you need to find out what works for you.  The key as I have said already is that you are ready and willing to accept perminent changes in your lifestyle that will promote a healthier way of life.  Eat to Live, not Live to Eat.

I Have been on the sureslim diet for the past three weeks and it has been great. I have found it quite easy. I think we all have to realise that it is not a 'diet' but a lifestyle change we have to make when we want to decrease our weight and increase our health. The one thing I have noticed is that my cravings have gone. I no longer have that urge to get up after dinner and raid the cupboard, which I have found very weird. I am a sweet tooth person and would bake my kids biscuits and cakes and then nearly eat the whole lot within two days. Well today I did some baking for them and tried out a biscuit to see what it tasted like. I took one bite and threw the rest in the bin. Don't get me wrong, the biscuit was great but my sweet tooth has gone!! I really found it like eating a pound of butter - gross. So if anything I am just so amazed that my cravings have gone and I am no longer plagued by that urge to devour everything. I also get around that sweet tooth by having my apple for dessert. I think that to all the doubtfull people our there, if it can control your temptations so dramatically, then it has got to be good for you.

Im on SS and I love it.  Have been for 6 months.  I lost my weight in the first 4 and am slowly introducing restricted foods back.  I have not gained it back but then I have not reverted to my old eating habits.   I keep on with the healthy habits I learned. I don't think that every diet program can work for ever person.  You have to select the one that is right for your.  For me??? SS is great and was worth the money to finally be down 40lbs and happy. 

I'm so confused from reading all the 'for' and 'against' comments. There are relevant comments from both sides which makes it hard to decide. Before reading all of this I went to their website and signed up for a free info session tomorrow but if I had read this first I wouldn't of bothered. My deciding factor: it's a lot of money to risk, money I don't have.

Beware. Australian Sure_Slim is in liquidation.

Further, the only losers in this franchise system in New Zealand were the 17 of the 21 diet clinics who closed their doors last year.

http://www.bluemaumau.org/sure_slim_zees_head_court_new_zealand

At the same time legal proceedings were starting in Austrialia against Sure Slim and their company's directors and Sure Slim Franchisors, Petro and Calvin Tulloch.  (The oringinal Sure Slim Austrialia is in the process of liquidation.)

I think if you're on the Sureslime diet, and its working for you - then that is fantastic. But I would like to know, how many people have been on Sureslime and kept it off for long term. I'm not talking about people currently on the program, but those who have completed it and have been living independently of the program for years.

I'm curious because one of my friends told me that a program like SureSlime's is set up for failure because its extreme restrictive measures... and that in reality, it is a fad diet. That's why people lose weight, feel great, go back to eating normally, put the weight back on and a bit more, then go back to SureSlime. Surely, they would be making quite a profit from this. 

It is so sad that people have to bash something that has helped so many people, including myself..Being on the SureSlime Program has helped me to  learn to eat healthy and to loose and keep my weight off for life..I can only tell you from my point of view...its one of the best things I have done in my life...I will never regret it..ThankYou SureSlime..Ruth

I tried SureSlime when I was a uni student and it cost $900 back then! I thought it must be a fab program if I'm spending that much dosh on it, but in the end it did not work for me. Personally, I found it incredibly hard to maintain - eat every 5 or so hours exactly, eat all my grains or whatever they were...it was just too much. After about a few weeks, I slowly lost the drive to continue (although my payments continued, $50 every fortnight) and I stopped going to the weekly meeting with my consultant. I never heard from them after that - not a phone call, no letter, nothing. Basically, I found the support to be lacking and the consultants are very quick to pitch the sale and get you signed up. Initially, I called the 1800 hotline to find out more about the program and they would not give me any further info until I attended one of ther "info nights". This is basically you in a room with another few people watching a DVD on TV about the program. It sounded great, but when you're actually "doing" the program, its a lot harder.

At the end, I just couldn't handle the headaches and the nausea anymore, so I went back to normal eating.

Also, one of my friends' husband signed up a few months later and he received the same program as me! I'm female, he's male, he was heavier and had high cholesterol and blood pressure issue, I didn't - yet we received the same program! Surely the male and female biochemistry is different! LOL
Needless to say, the poor guy didn't last.

removed at the request of sureslime

I think the main problem with Sureslim is that it is difficult to do long term. Any diet will be. The reason that Sureslim is so popular is because people are looking for a quick way to lose weight - with fast results. However, losing weight is simply not that easy. Basically, if you cut out your carbs, you'll drop the weight. But as soon as you start eating carbs again, not only will you pile on the weight you had before but a little more to boot.

Everyone knows how to lose weight. Eat less, exercise more and eat healthy with everything in moderation. If you just stick to this, not only will you lose the weight but keep it off as well. My doctor and dietician also agree to - the quicker you lose the weight, the harder it is to keep it off. I've stopped going to the dietician because she wasn't telling me anything new... but I've lost 7kg on my own and have kept it off whilst indulging even in fast food on the weekend.

The thing is, self-control and discipline. Start with small goals, say 5kg at a time. Eat healthy most of the time, reduce carbs (but have some!), cut out sugar and carbonated drinks, eat lots of veges (because they're good for you), eat fruits, drink water and you can even occasionally have dessert or chocolate if you wish and STILL lose weight. :D