Anyone familiar with both MFP and WW? (and a BFing q)

hilaryhill
hilaryhill Posts: 156 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I started WW a few months ago, didnt last long (we were in the middle of a cross country move), and now I like it but just dont want to pay for it when I can do MFP for free.

First of all, I am exclusively breastfeeding my 6 month old. I know that WW gives you added points for this. On WW I am allotted 47 points a day. On MFP it was 1400cal but I added in 400cal manually to account for the extra calories needed for breastfeeding.

Just because I was curious, I did my food diaries on both MFP and WW today. On MFP, Ive hit my limit for the day, but on WW I still have 7 points left I could eat! (In addition to the 41 flexpoints for the week) I always lost 1-2lbs a week on WW in the past so I know that it works. Why is MFP giving me so fewer calories to eat? Should I up my calories a bit to account for breastfeeding? I am really scared of losing my supply, nursing is very important to me.

Replies

  • michellekicks
    michellekicks Posts: 3,624 Member
    I had the opposite effect when switching from WW to MFP. I can't remember exactly but I ended up with I think about 38 points available to me on a run day (including activity points) but my MFP food day actually was more like 58 points when I added it all up.

    I think it has to do with your goal. WW has the same goal for everyone regardless of what they may choose, right, so here on MFP you can choose from 1/2 to 2 lbs/week weight loss. If you're nursing, I'd set your goal at no more than 1 lb/week loss and continue to add the 400 calories.

    EDIT TO ADD: WW also really penalizes you for choosing less-healthy options. I could choose, say, 300 calories worth of high fiber, low fat food items for the same 5 points as a 150 calorie glass of wine. Same applied to anything that wasn't super clean.
  • hilaryhill
    hilaryhill Posts: 156 Member
    Yeah Im guessing it was lower points because I had a really high fiber day (33g)! haha

    I also just looked up a TDEE calculator and it says my TDEE is 2300cal. I added 400cal to that to account for breastfeeding, so about 2700. You subtract 20% of that, right? So about 2100 would be my goal for the day to lose weight (I have about 50lb to lose) according to the TDEE formula Ive seen posted about here.

    Right now my MFP is set to 1800, should I change it to 2100??
  • michellekicks
    michellekicks Posts: 3,624 Member
    Yeah increase to 2400. If you don't lose after, say, 3 or 4 weeks, drop to 2200 and keep trying. You should be somewhere up there. If you see any decrease in your milk, increase calories and don't worry about dieting.

    I went from 194 lbs to 158 lbs eating an average of 2100 calories daily without nursing.
  • hilaryhill
    hilaryhill Posts: 156 Member
    I cant find where to go to manually change my calorie goals, I keep getting 1800.. ugh
  • herblackwings39
    herblackwings39 Posts: 3,930 Member
    There's a section up above the My Home page that has Goals. Click that and pick custom. You can change your calorie goal and the % for macros that way.
  • happyjenny
    happyjenny Posts: 5 Member
    I signed up for WW just after Christmas and switched too, i like MFP better. But you prob are going to come out quite different because they dont just take into account calories but a bunch of things fiber etc. which is good I guess but and felt I stood in the kitchen trying to find the dang food longer than I do for MFP. It seems like the database isn't as sophisticated as MFP. And I just get along better with it. :)
  • hilaryhill
    hilaryhill Posts: 156 Member
    Oh I also noticed today that I ate a lot of fruit and that was 0 pts and its not on MFP.

    I like MFP for the community and friends you can add and all that. I changed my calories to 2200, lets see if that helps...

Categories