Jump to: The basics | Pricing | Meet the members | Convenience | Support | Challenges | Best bits | Value for money | Weight loss | Take home message It’s worth stating upfront in this article: Second Nature exists because we really disagree with both Weight Watcher’s (WW) and Slimming World’s approach to losing weight.
Why? Because calorie counting and reducing food down to whether they are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is the absolute basic ‘textbook psychology 101’ of what not to do if you don’t want to set people up with unhealthy relationships with food.
Labelling foods as ‘syns’, like Slimming world does, further reinforces this negative relationship.
Ultimately, diets like those on WW & Slimming World repeatedly fail because they tell you what to eat, rather than teaching you why you eat and how to change your eating habits.
We started Second Nature because we were frustrated with the status quo of the weight-loss industry: calorie/point counting, fad diets, and misleading nutrition advice.
However, we know from years of research that losing weight doesn’t need to be hard, boring, or restrictive. We’ve found a way to make it feel easier.
Second Nature combines personalised nutrition advice with behavioural science to automatically retrain your mind to make healthy choices, so these stick in the long run.
We don’t believe in calorie counting or banning entire food groups. We encourage a healthy relationship with food where you’ll never have to count what you eat or feel guilty for enjoying food.
Food is a part of life, celebrations, and experiences!
Through clinical research, we’ve shown that 9 out of 10 people lose weight and keep it off, even after 12 months. All through building healthier habits that become second nature.
We have the most success with people who have tried things like WW for 5/10/20 years and have repeatedly oscillated with their weight. Ultimately, they often blame themselves – when it’s really not their fault.
If you want to give us a go, instead of Slimming World and WW, then the first step is to complete our health quiz .
Otherwise, we’ve included a more descriptive comparison of the three companies below, if helpful.
We also spoke to two Second Nature members, who have all previously tried WW and Slimming World, to get an idea of how they compare from the point of view of a user.
The basics
Trustpilot score
Trustpilot is a platform where consumers can leave reviews and scores reflect overall customer satisfaction.
Here’s what someone who has tried all 3 programmes had to say:
Nutrition
WW SW Second Nature
Dietary approach Low calorie Low fat Lower carb
Caters to vegetarian ✓ ✓ ✓
Caters to vegan ✓ ✓ ✓
Signing up
(If cancelling within 14-day trial, otherwise you have to call customer support) ✓ ✓
WW SW Second Nature
Pay what you like for the first 2 weeks ✗ ✗ ✓
Clear breakdown of costs ✓ ✓ ✓
Clear cancellation policy ✗ ✗ ✓
Length of programme All plans ongoing. Meetings: ongoingDigital: Core plan 3 months + automatic renewal for ongoing subscription.
Ongoing subscription
Easy to cancel ✓
Refer-a-friend scheme ✓ ✗ ✓
Easy to include family ✗ ✗ ✓
Support
WW SW Second Nature
Tailors the plan around diabetes ✗ ✓ ✓
Tailors the plan around other health issues ✗ ✓ ✓
Face-to-face meetings ✓ (for meeting / meeting + digital plan) ✓ (for meeting plan) ✗
Private chat with a registered dietitian or nutritionist ✗ ✗ ✓
Developed by dietitians, nutritionists, and health psychologists ✗ ✗ ✓
Programme features
WW SW Second Nature
App ✓ ✓ ✓
Award/prize system ✓ ✓ ✗
Recipe videos in app ✓ ✗ ✓
Exercise videos in app ✓ ✗ ✓
Weighing scales provided ✗ ✗ ✓ (on tech plan)
Tracks sleep ✓ ✗ ✓
Tracks steps ✓ ✗ ✓
Education of nutrition science ✗ Coaches provide nutritional videos on the app but are not qualified nutritionists ✗ ✓
Counting/point system ✓ (PersonalPoints™) ✓ (Free Foods®, Healthy Extras®, and Syns®) ✗
Food diary feature ✓ ✓ ✓
Pricing
When programmes provide price plans in different formats, it can be hard to accurately compare prices. To make this easier, we have calculated the price of monthly digital basic price plans on each programme to show you how costs compare between programmes (as of Sept 2022). All admin fees are included in these prices.
Weight Watchers is marginally cheaper than Slimming World, and they provide a similar service in terms of support and programme features. On the surface, Second Nature seems slightly more expensive, however, your personal coach is a registered dietitian or nutritionist, rather than a previous member or customer service representative. You also have the same coach throughout the whole Second Nature programme that you can build a relationship with, rather than an ad-hoc response from a different coach each time (Weight Watchers and Slimming World).
Registration to a professional body requires a nationally recognised nutrition or dietetics degree. With Second Nature, you’ll have one-to-one support from a registered dietitian or nutritionist. Ask questions, get advice on your meal plan, and tailor the plan to your lifestyle.
Alternatively, weekly face-to-face sessions with a registered dietitian or nutritionist can be very expensive (£40-£100/hour). We have added a column representing this to compare costs (Weekly Nutritionist – WN).
Monthly (basic) digital subscriptions:
WW SW Second Nature WN
Private chat with a registered dietitian or nutritionist coach ✗ ✗ ✓ ✓
The same, personal coach throughout the programme ✗ ✗ ✓ ✓
Price £17/month £20/month $60/month £300/month
If you were to opt for the Weight Watchers® or Slimming World® face-to-face group meeting plans it would work out to be more expensive.
Meet the members
What motivated you to lose weight?
Did you have fears about losing weight?
How convenient was each programme?
Weight Watchers®:
Slimming World®:
Second Nature:
What support was available?
Weight Watchers®:
Slimming World®:
Second Nature:
What were the main challenges?
Weight Watchers:
Slimming World:
Second Nature:
What was your favourite aspect?
Weight Watchers:
Slimming World:
Second Nature:
Which was the best value for money?
Did you lose weight and keep it off?
Weight Watchers:
Slimming World:
Second Nature:
Take home message
We really disagree with WW and Slimming World’s approach to losing weight, which we would argue is psychologically unsafe and risk setting people up with a very negative relationship with food.
WW and Slimming World seem to primarily focus on diet, whereas Second Nature tackles weight loss from all angles (exercise, nutrition, sleep, mindset).
Second Nature members seem confident that they have been given the tools to stay on track with their healthy habits in the long term, not just during the programme.
Face-to-face meetings (provided by Weight Watchers and Slimming World) work for some people more than others, depending on how you’re motivated.
Second Nature is totally online and app-based, which makes it easier to fit into daily life for some people.
Second Nature is the only programme that offers one-to-one support which can help with motivation
