Weight Watchers or MyFitnessPal??

Liftng4Lis

MFP works and is free.

crocky64

For me it's MFP for many reasons but the two main ones are it's FREE and you are doing the same as Ww but on here you get ideas for variety of foods from around the world and all healthy GET in !!!!!! I found that my wife when on Ww was eating same food as before but using the points to track her diet on here we both use the tools to find better options with proper foods not mass produced rubbish.

jkal1979

MFP is a lot less complicated, has a better database, and gives a lot more information. I dropped WW after finding this site for those reasons (plus a few more).

vchan000

I'm currently doing both

Started with weight watchers, online only for the tracking. The points system is simple and easy to parse, I find it easy to use 'on the fly' with a quick glance at food labels and the 'free' fruits and veggies is an easy trap to avoid with some common sense.

MFP is free, more accurate and tracks some things that WW doesn't; specifically your carb/fat/protein breakdown. The food database is larger, although I would recommend taking some time to build your own 'favorites' and to examine the items pulled from the database with extra care. There's people out there with a loose grasp on how many calories are in things, or how to measure a portion.

I'll likely graduate entirely to MFP. The free is compelling, and having double tracked for the last few weeks, I'm getting a good grasp on how things translate between the two programs

JSurita2

I personally prefer Weight Watchers to MFP I just can't afford it anymore.

tracie_minus100

I've done both. I loved Weight Watchers but I now prefer MFP. The "free" fruit messes up a lot of people and I think it was a bad idea.
But the reasons I like MFP better are: it's free, and I prefer just looking at the calories/fat/protein, etc rather than pulling out my points calculator to figure it out (call me lazy lol).
The meetings are awesome (if you have a good leader) and that part of Weight Watchers is great. But overall, I think calorie counting and MFP are the better way to go, for me anyway.

scubagram

IMHO:
Either one will work if you follow your plan. However, it's just as easy to count calories as it is points (1 point is equal to 40 calories if I recall correctly); MFP is free and WW is not; MFP's app is superior to WW's.
So I vote MFP.

CObluegrass

I followed WW for 4 years and lost 120 pounds. Their online tools are horrible, so for me the value came from meetings. but then my awesome leader left and they started using canned PowerPoint presentations and talking at us. I stopped meetings so there was no need to use their crappy online tools for however much it costs. MFP gives me waaaay more useful information and I'm eating a lot less. Getting a little more carbs and fat than before, which rocks for me. I feel like WW was a good first start to keeping track of my intake, but they need to make some serious changes to their business model to keep up with free sites/apps like MFP. I still miss that in-person check-in and having to weigh in front of someone else once per week.

when WW moved to the Points Plus system and made fruits/veggies "free", then they reduced your total allotment of points. Before, a banana was 2 points but one of their chocolate bars was 1 point. They were just trying to get people to eat more fruits and veggies but many, like me, went a little nuts. One woman in the forums was talking about eating 7 bananas a day! C'mon. I'm much better off when I'm weighing my fruits and veggies and knowing exactly how much it's costing me in calories and macros.

wizzybeth

It's not that simple. At least with the old point system it was "roughly" 50 calories but the amount of fat and fiber played a part in the points allotted.

Here is the formula for the Flex Points (old system): (C/50) + (F/12) – (R/5). C is calories, F is grams of fat, and R is grams of fiber.

snowflake930

No contest for me. I lost over 160# using MFP and have been maintaining for almost 16 months. There are no foods that have "no" calories, so WW it seems, is kind of misleading people. MFP is free, but I, for one, would pay for using it. That is how well it works for me. Having said this, everyone has to do what works for them to be successful.

gracielynn1011

I did weight watchers years and years ago and was never successful. First of all, I was not self motivated enough. Second, I didnt get the support I needed from the meetings. The workers all told me that I was young and didnt even need to be there, even while they took my money. There was no WW online then.

Once I became self motivated enough to make changes, I found mfp because was free, I have made friends here who do support and check on me, even if our goals are not the same.

And I cannot ever get behind the idea that there are "free" foods. It doesn't matter if you eat 3,000 calories of broccoli and cauliflower just because they are vegetables, you've still ate too many calories over budget. Unless you have a higher calorie goal then I do anyway! :-D

Holly_Roman_Empire

mamapeach910 wrote: »

Drewlssix wrote: »

jnv7594 wrote: »

herrspoons wrote: »

Fruits and veg aren't free. A large apple has over 100 calories.

^^^This. I don't understand the idea that some foods are free. I tried weight watchers in the past without much luck. I've lost 75 pounds on MFP, and for the first time ever, I feel like I have found a sustainable eating plan.

I consider a few things like broccoli to be "free" in that the calorie hit is tiny while the good stuff is significant. In stregnth circles the common line is "eat as much broccoli as you want". My wife did WW a few years ago and did well but couldn't justify sticking with it and dealing with the contorted diet it produces. Eating good stuff in a deficit beats picking random items from a list and being unhappy.

You know? Saying that really depends on your calorie allowance. I get 1280 calories a day. I've eaten 120 calories worth of microwave steamed broccoli at a meal. I weighed my portion so I know the exact calories. That's 1/10 of my daily intake. Not counting that over time would really add up. Were I a 6'2" man, it might not matter as much. If I didn't eat as much broccoli, it might not matter as much.

Don't make blanket statements about vegetables. They have calories. People can eat them in quantity, and the calories in those quantities can add up.

Excellent explanation.

slucki01

I've done both and I prefer MFP. When I was on WW I lost weight but I felt like I was eating a lot of processed foods.

gracielynn1011

countrylove12 wrote: »

Thanks for all the responses so far - great suggestions/comments!

Those who are more experienced with MFP, is it really calorie in/calorie out? I have a fitbit and it is linked to MFP, so it tells me throughout the day how many more calories I can eat, should I choose to.

I'm also looking for some new friend requests for continued support!

Calories in vs. Out is definitely the recipe for weight loss. But if you have more specific goals in mind, such as a specific body fat %, or building muscle, or anything else, then you may need to focus on more specific macros.

For my self, I have found that I can eat my daily allowance in junk food and still lose weight, but I end up feeling bad (lack of energy, muscle soreness, etc). If I eat my daily allowance in protein and nutritional rich foods, I feel better, and my body looks better with the weight loss.

Samquentin1

jellybelly803 wrote: »

I think the old WW was great. I liked that the points gently steered you toward healthier foods. But once they changed it (like 4 years ago?) and made fruit free, it just didn't work for me. As other have said, fruit is NOT free and if you eat too much of it, you won't lose (ask me how I know

Ditto on this! I lost on the old system, then when they changed it, I wasn't losing.... I just recently got rid of my old "slider". I'm much happier on MFP, and have made quite a few friends, and it doesn't cost me any $$.

And now, instead of knowing the points for foods, I know the calories (right around the calories) and can teach my kiddo to make better food choices, without having to have him figure out the points. I know 150 calories is 150 calories, and it matches up to the nutrition facts.

ancassell

I've done both before. Took a break when I had a baby and signed up to WW (online only) again a month or so ago just to get me back into the habit of paying attention to what I'm eating. But I started logging on MFP as well a couple of weeks ago, as I was constantly hungry on WW. Basically WW wants to steer you towards low fat, low carb choices, which do nothing for my satiety, and I've found I can eat much more of what I want on MFP as long as I stick to the calorie deficit. I only have a few pounds to lose, but I've been losing much more steadily following MFP even though i've been over my WW points limit almost every day.

Plus: MFP is free; I find counting calories much easier than calculating points - the information is all there; no restrictions on the types of food I can eat following MFP so long as they're tracked and don't put me over my calorie limit (so I feel much less inclined to binge on 'forbidden' foods); WW doesn't encourage any accountability for the 'free' fruit and veg - I found that just being able to up my fats and protein levels means I don't feel the need to constantly snack on fruit; and finally, the WW app is awful, very few foods actually on their database and impossible to customise macros etc, and their exercise points calculations are a wild stab in the dark...

manda72g

I've download ultimate value diary app it's £2.50 one off and it's got a scanner and pro points are same as ww calculator. And there's a community like on here. But I'm also thinking of doing this I've tried Ww and Sw . Good luck in what you decide x

claresmith804

countrylove12 wrote: »

Thanks for all the responses so far - great suggestions/comments!

Those who are more experienced with MFP, is it really calorie in/calorie out? I have a fitbit and it is linked to MFP, so it tells me throughout the day how many more calories I can eat, should I choose to.

I'm also looking for some new friend requests for continued support!

shroodle88

Agree with all of the above. Did online WW for a while, but the "free" fruit and vegetable threw me and 4 points for a glass of wine seemed just punitive. I appreciate the principles behind the program and that it has worked for many people but find the tracking on MFP much easier and the daily nutrition breakdown made me realize that I never eat enough protein. Somehow MFP is the first thing that actually works for me!

pattyjoshockley

I've done both. I prefer MFP over WW. For what it's worth I did have initial success with WW and it is pretty easy to follow their plan. MFP works so much better for me and it doesn't have that monthly bill.

runsmallx

I signed up for WW in August and had little success with it, I lost about 5lbs but I was always hungry, I don't think I was eating enough in general, the free fruits and veggies made me snack a lot more than I was doing previously and while I'm just starting MFP again, I like it much better, counting calories makes more sense to me.

I was only doing the online though and it was about $19.95 a month and it just didn't seem worth it. MFP is free!

MindySaysWhaaat

I prefer MFP. I'm not a huge extrovert and I always felt uncomfortable at the meetings. Also, to be honest it seemed like the ones I went to were geared towards middle aged ladies, and I was always the youngest person there and the meetings didn't really apply to me at the time. I like MFP because if you want to learn about a specific topic, you can just put it into the search bar and you can find a thread about what you'd like to discuss.

The reason weight watchers is supposed to work is because a point is roughly 40ish calories. The lowest a person can get on points values is 26 I believe, but that's only 1040 calories. I think they give such a low amount because they assume a person won't eat more than a few hundred calories in fruits/vegetables. When I was on it, and following the plan "perfectly" I wasn't losing weight after a while, and the leader told me to stop eating my bonus points and the "free" foods. I felt really restricted, and I think that coupled with the anxiety problems I already had turned into a really bad binge eating situation.

tanowicki

I've done both. I'm currently on MFP because it's cheaper. I did WW online with the Points Plus system and the free* fruit/veggies worked for me. I liked their counting tools better and appreciate the cleaner database. Sure MFP has more stuff but how much of that is 100 entries for skim milk? I also liked the forums better and still visit them, some of the MFP forum tools are a PITA.

*free in the sense that you only get X servings per day. Above X, you have to log them and count points. I think X is 5.

LoupGarouTFTs

[quote="ancassell;31488261" . . . Basically WW wants to steer you towards low fat, low carb choices, which do nothing for my satiety, and I've found I can eat much more of what I want on MFP as long as I stick to the calorie deficit.[/quote]

I found I had the same problem on the WW Points Plus system. I was constantly hungry and miserable because I cannot feel satisfied on fruit and veggies. I do eat a salad almost every day and like to add veggies to my meals, but MFP allows me to have the higher protein values that I need to feel satisfied. I lasted about two months on WW and lost about a pound. I've been on MFP for 330 days or so and have lost about 57 pounds. I don't plan to go anywhere for a while.

jagbug2014

I have a wheat and dairy intolerance. When I told them at WW the doctor said they we not necessary in my diet, I excluded them. I'm eating clean, Paleoish, and when I told them that at WW, I was told I need grains and dairy. Hmmmmm, doctor's advice or WW? I'm following the doctor. Tracking through MFP is so much more precise. I prefer it over WW. Good luck with whatever you choose.

nikkib0103

I did WW several times over the years and got to experience a variety of their programs. My success was mixed. I actually like MFP better. For one thing I feel like I have a better grasp on what I am eating. For another their food that you can buy at the meetings or in the grocery store are skimpy and highly processed. I just feel I do better here tracking food and exercise. I am having better success with MFP. I know WW has worked wonders for thousands and I had some great leaders over the years who were informative and motivating. But I am finding that there is a wide breadth of information here and I am learning all kinds of things from the other members.

happiegolucky100

I did weight watchers for 1year and lost 60 pounds however like some of the cons you listed I had the same cons towards the end of me stoping WW aNd hear is why as my fitness activity went up and I built muscle I needed more nutrition for my body and the points I was on was starving my body I didn't really notice untill I was fatigue a lot my body was in starvation Mode WW served its purpose however my goal was to be healthy weight loss was great but WW taught me nothing about Macros which I so badly need I had to myself can I keep WW for my lifetime my answer no ! I feel more satisfied with my food intake with MFP again this was for me

runmama411

I lost over 30 pounds on WW on the old points system (2009?) I couldn't lose on the new system and have gained all my losses back. I've been on MFP for 36 days and I like it and the support from other users. Plus, Free!!!!