Points v Calories

suziecue20

I used Weightwatchers a few years ago and lost weight with their points system where calories are never mentioned. Has anyone else done weightwatchers and if so which is best, calorie counting or point counting?

DeguelloTex

Well, you're at a site that revolves around calorie counting, so you're unlikely to get a random sample of responses.

What is best is what works for you. Did Weight Watchers work for you?

suziecue20

DeguelloTex wrote: »

Well, you're at a site that revolves around calorie counting, so you're unlikely to get a random sample of responses.

What is best is what works for you. Did Weight Watchers work for you?

ForeverSunshine09

I haved used both and they are both basically the same except Weightwatchers gives you freebies with veggies a lot of the time. Mfp does not. I have been more successful on MFP because it is free so I keep at it.

jemhh

I did WW in the past. It was fine but I prefer counting calories. WW used to use an easy formula to determine points so I could do it in my head if I didn't have a points slider or calculator. But then they changed the formula and doing the math in my head was too confusing. Either way, though, I prefer counting calories.

suziecue20

Yes it did work for me, I lost 2 1/2 stone (35lbs) but I think it was due to me realising that just because WW make fruit and veg 'free' foods doesn't mean I could eat umpteen bananas a day and still lose weight. There were people on WW who were doing just that and not making any headway. With calorie counting you know exactly where you are - you've either achieved a calorie deficit or you haven't.

ryanflebbe

I think they are similar if you pay attention to what type of foods you are getting your calories from. I am familiar with weight watchers and my mom has lost 50 lb. since January by counting points.

SeriouslySta

I think the MFP system is better, as it gives you a more rounded and realistic idea of what you are eating, and encourages 'better' choices. (Can't tell you how often I've heard "No way I am going to eat a banana for 2 points, if I can have 2 Kisses instead!" ) To me, MFP is also more sustainable in the long run.

acorsaut89

I've personally never done WW, but I feel like in a way points are calories. Think about it - foods which are higher in points are probably also higher in calories.

WW has recently (started with the Jennifer Hudson advertising campaign I believe) stated you can have anything you want, as long as it fits into your points. And for calories (and weight loss) you can eat any and all types of food, but if you want to lose weight then your total consumed has to be less than you're total expenditure, or CI < CO. If you're looking for a nutrition component too, then it becomes a different story but if you're mostly concerned with weight loss it can be as simple as CI < CO.

A friend of mine signed up for WW about a year ago. At that time she was very large and so her points limit was set pretty high. But someone else who joined only had about 20lbs to lose and her points limit was much lower. With this in mind, it seems to me like the points system is simplifying calorie counting for you. Maybe it is more complex than this - again I've never done it - but from what I've heard and understood from how this program works is that it is counting calories but just in a way that doesn't seem like it.

You're only allowed so many points in a day - and how you fill those points is totally your call. You're really only allowed so many calories in a day before you will start to have a surplus - leading eventually to weight gain if it's continued over a substantial period of time. If you eat more points than you're allowed, you will also gain weight if it's continued over time. Now I'm sure the points you're allowed accounts for some kind of deficit so you're not eating at maintenance necessarily, but the thinking seems to be relatively the same from how I look at it.

Again, maybe it is more complex than I'm making it out to be so if that's the case then my apologies but I just feel like you will be doing the same thing as you did on WW just at a more granular level.

ETA: Although with MFP you're not paying to sit there and have someone tell you how to eat. If you feel it's easier for you to have someone design the program then by all means. But for me, going to meetings to talk about what I ate, how I feel, what my struggles were, etc etc is not the right path and it would not benefit me very much. I feel like MFP is freer in that you can understand what it is you're eating rather than equating foods with points.

I have had so many women look at what I eat for lunch and say do you have any idea how many points that is? I personally don't want to look at food at see 5 points, 7 points, 105473738 points. I want to look at food, understand it's nutritional (or lack there of) value and then make an informed decision on whether I want to eat it. I work out 5-6 days/week, so my nutritional needs are not the same as those who do not work out. Further, I am a runner and recently started cross fit. My nutritional needs are neither the same as someone who is solely a runner or someone who is solely a cross-fit athlete.

For me, there's been so much more value in understanding what I put into my body rather than entering some information into WW and them spitting out a points value to me. So I think it will come down to what is the right path for you, what is best for you.

fruitsalad15

If you attend meeting WW can give you accountability that you may not find on MFP but they are basically the same, fill up on 'free' foods int he same way that if you eat more veg and log it on MFP you can have a great big plate of food for hardly any Calories. I have done both and both worked but MFP was free!

Kalikel

On MFP, most people will say that calorie counting is better. On WW, most will say that WW is better.

What's really better is the thing you like more. There are many ways to lose weight, so just pick the one you like best and go with that.

If you want to know what you're eating, tracking your food - including the micros! - will help you learn that. You learn a lot about your diet when you track your micros!

Timelordlady85

I prefer knowing how many calories I consume verses the points, where the fruit and some vegetables are free points.

suziecue20

Kalikel wrote: »

On MFP, most people will say that calorie counting is better. On WW, most will say that WW is better.

What's really better is the thing you like more. There are many ways to lose weight, so just pick the one you like best and go with that.

If you want to know what you're eating, tracking your food - including the micros! - will help you learn that. You learn a lot about your diet when you track your micros!

Sorry but what do you mean by micros?

DeguelloTex

Vitamins and minerals.

suziecue20

DeguelloTex wrote: »

Vitamins and minerals.

Ta

Kalikel

suziecue20 wrote: »

Kalikel wrote: »

On MFP, most people will say that calorie counting is better. On WW, most will say that WW is better.

What's really better is the thing you like more. There are many ways to lose weight, so just pick the one you like best and go with that.

If you want to know what you're eating, tracking your food - including the micros! - will help you learn that. You learn a lot about your diet when you track your micros!

Sorry but what do you mean by micros?

Yes, the micronutrients. Every bit as important as macros, just required in smaller amounts.

cindyangotti

I lost 106 pounds on WW and I know several others who lost more than 100 on it so it certainly works if you follow the plan, the same as MFP. I had to quit WW before reaching my goal because of financial reasons even though I was so very close to my goal. I recently found a really awesome app called Ultimate Food Diary and it's WW only this app it better than the WW app. I tend to switch back and forth between WW and MFP. I find I eat way more healthy when I am doing WW. But sometimes it's easier to count calories and other times I want to count points. Again, follow the plan on either program and you will get results!

1shauna1

I have done both. The thing a lot of people like about WW is the banking of points, so you can have a really high day. I dunno, I prefer the calorie counting here. I love how when I exercise, it gives me more calories for the day. And the database is huge, plus I love to import recipes from Pinterest and other sites. The MFP mobile app is really good too (I have it on my phone and my tablet).

kshama2001

I've done both and prefer MFP, but like Tex says, you're not going to get a random sample of responses here on MFP.

My WW group was at my work, a liberal arts college, and I did enjoy the social and accountability aspect of it, but found the nutritional beliefs lame and/or lacking.

suziecue20

1shauna1 wrote: »

I have done both. The thing a lot of people like about WW is the banking of points, so you can have a really high day. I dunno, I prefer the calorie counting here. I love how when I exercise, it gives me more calories for the day. And the database is huge, plus I love to import recipes from Pinterest and other sites. The MFP mobile app is really good too (I have it on my phone and my tablet).

One thing I have noticed on MFP is that I can input my own recipes to know the calories but unlike WW there is no section for accessing loads of healthy recipes but this is a free site and WW were charging me £12 a month so mustn't grumble.

cindyangotti

1shauna1 wrote: »

I have done both. The thing a lot of people like about WW is the banking of points, so you can have a really high day. I dunno, I prefer the calorie counting here. I love how when I exercise, it gives me more calories for the day. And the database is huge, plus I love to import recipes from Pinterest and other sites. The MFP mobile app is really good too (I have it on my phone and my tablet).

Many people do the same thing with MFP. There is no reason you can't bank calories the same as points.

laur357

I lost about 35 lbs on Weight Watchers. It was fine, but there were a number of reasons it wasn't for me. (Money, pushing expensive WW products and their activity tracker constantly, most at my meeting place assuming that eating fat = gaining fat, etc.) I know a few doctors who recommend it because they have patients who have successfully lost weight with WW. WW has a basis in current nutrition science (the WW program, not necessarily the person leading your meeting) and cognitive-behavioral intervention to change habits. Support and face-to-face accountability are also really beneficial for some.

I prefer MFP because I can easily track fiber and protein. I also lose more consistently with MFP because I'm aware of the calories contained in fruits and vegetables, and I can see where I'm inconsistent. MFP doesn't cost $50+ a month to use and it works with a variety of other apps and products. No one reprimands me because I prefer to skip breakfast and eat two larger meals a day instead of the standard three meals plus snacks. The knowledgebase of food and nutrition info is way more extensive than WWs so tracking is faster. This is more likely to help me long-term, as I can change my goals as I see fit. I don't have to stay within 2 pounds of an assigned goal.

It was also difficult for me to attend meetings for weeks on end with the same people who came in with a thousand excuses every time and whined because their weight went up or got angry because other people where losing ("I did so well this week, except we went out to eat four times and I didn't track it" and "I wasn't tracking my mashed potatoes because they're a vegetable") - kind of demotivating. I'm sure this really depends on your meeting and group though.

JeanMBK

I have done both more than once and have been more successful with MFP this time around.

sherbear702

I was successful losing weight with WW. Even though WW calls itself a points system, it is still calorie counting. They've just converted it into a handy dandy number system for easy use. If you make something easy, people will be more likely to stick with it.

Having said that, I prefer MFP over WW. It's basically the same thing. You still log and track all your foods, the community on MFP is way better than the WW community, you're still learning portion control and best of all it's FREE!

bpetrosky

WW points were originally designed as a way to make it easier to manage portions without direct calorie counting back when large food databases were not easily available. The databases that did exist were pay-to-use and very limited, and the food logging abilities were crude.

That system replaced the older exchange based system but they're fundamentally similar. It simply relies on the idea that certain categories of foods are going to fall in a certain range of calories (starches, proteins, etc). It works ok as far as that goes, and a lot of people can lose weight that way.

Somewhere along the line WW decided to encourage their users to eat more fruits and vegetables by categorizing those as 'zero points'. It's not well communicated that there is a limit of 'zero point' servings one should have, however. WW has also been slow to evolve from the old 'fat is bad' advice.

Now that online food databases like MFP are easier (and free) to access and use to calorie count, WW doesn't have much advantage. I think there's a place for it for people who just aren't inclined to count calories, but that's about it.

jemhh

I think that the big advantage of WW is the availability of in-person support via the weekly meetings. They are not for everybody, for sure, but a lot of people benefit from them.

tephanies1234

WW is calorie counting in the end. I did it for a couple months and believe I calculated each point to be 40-50 calories. It's fine if you have quite a bit to lose. It won't work too well if you're already at a healthy weigh trying to get leaner. Exact numbers are better than general estimations in the latter case.

kshama2001

suziecue20 wrote: »

1shauna1 wrote: »

I have done both. The thing a lot of people like about WW is the banking of points, so you can have a really high day. I dunno, I prefer the calorie counting here. I love how when I exercise, it gives me more calories for the day. And the database is huge, plus I love to import recipes from Pinterest and other sites. The MFP mobile app is really good too (I have it on my phone and my tablet).

One thing I have noticed on MFP is that I can input my own recipes to know the calories but unlike WW there is no section for accessing loads of healthy recipes but this is a free site and WW were charging me £12 a month so mustn't grumble.

Here are the recipes, complete with a Log It button: https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/category/eat/recipes/

If you subscribe, you'll get them via email once or twice per week.

suziecue20

Oh kshama, you angel, thanks sweetheart

Shells918

I was a devoted weight watcher follower, and even a weight watcher leader. I think that it can be a successful diet for people who have never diet before and may need help learning how to eat healthy. I lost 80 pounds in 18 months. It can definitely work. However, you may wonder why or how I put the weight back on. Well, life happens, illnesses happen and here I am trying to lose weight. Now, weight mwatchers will not work for me. It is what I would call a straight on diet where you could eat a little bit of everything if you would like to. The trainers you go through a pretty extensive amount of training, and I really enjoyed learning everything. However now I need to do a different type of diet, and doing a low-carb one instead. When I tried we watchers several months ago, I lost 1 pound. I have now lost around 15 pounds in the last two months. That doesn't mean that we watchers is bad it just means it's not for me. Everybody has to find their comfort level, and everybody has to do what makes them happy while they are dieting. I found the meetings very helpful, because everybody would talk about what they were cooking what they were doing for exercise and how they were handling their new bodies when they lost weight. So it's actually, similar to this group where everybody is talking about very similar things.