Weight watchers
Vampire81
Posts: 27 Member
Sorry guys i dont know where to put this!
I just wanting to know how many of you did weight watchers? Ive been doing it since jan and they have put me on a 12,00 calories and ive only lost 5lb, but i workout 5/6 days a wk between spinning classes and lifting weight also swimming and goi g to the gym.
Can anyone give me their storys i would b most greatfull as im thinking of cancelling my membership
I just wanting to know how many of you did weight watchers? Ive been doing it since jan and they have put me on a 12,00 calories and ive only lost 5lb, but i workout 5/6 days a wk between spinning classes and lifting weight also swimming and goi g to the gym.
Can anyone give me their storys i would b most greatfull as im thinking of cancelling my membership
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Replies
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I did WW about 6 years ago, with ProPoints. I lost 2 stone that had crept on slowly, even though I exercised. WW really helped me with accountability, I learned to measure & track everything, & the weight came off pretty quickly. My portions were really the problem. I came over to MFP when I got to goal, as I didn't need WW & didn't want to pay to track, but the habit is ingrained now to measure & track, & be very aware of what I eat. I work out 6 days a week. Feel great. I think WW can be a really great tool, but I think it has gotten a bit more complicated since ProPoints. But if you follow the program & work it, you will lose.2
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I used Weight Watchers many years ago but I've been on MyFitnessPal more recently, which I prefer. WW did work for me, but I think for some the 'free' fruit and veg can end up with them eating more calories. If you like WW other than the slow weight loss, why not try logging calories here as well, just for a week or so, and just check that you aren't going overboard with 'free' foods?5
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I thought WW did points and not calories - where are you getting the calorie goal from?3
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I agree with the other posters. I had excellent success with WW old points system, but not with their new Point+ because I tend to eat healthier anyway. Since the "healthier" foods have lower (or no!) points but still have calories, I was eating way too many calories. That's when I switched to calorie counting on MFP. I like the suggestion to try doing both for a couple of weeks to see how much you're really eating.3
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I am in the middle of the same thing. I am on ww now ( my health insurance pays 6 months for all employees so I don't have to pay). Ive logged on mfp before and lost weight. I really think I like mfp better. I really don't know now though bc I have been looking into the keto diet and not sure which is best. I don't care for ww.1
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Don't even get me started about WW. I just quit after 2 months. I did lose weight, but I was constantly starving!! So I started tracking in both WW and MFP to see what was going wrong.
1.) WW does not take your normal daily activity level into consideration when allotting daily points.
2.) The WW community does not encourage eating the Fit Points (which would be the equivalent of eating back exercise calories here).
3.) There is a weekly pool of points, but with the "blue dots" there is a large percentage of the people who won't touch those either.
4.) WW penalizes certain foods to gear you towards making certain food choices (which made me feel like a child). Two slices of whole grain bread (140 cal - 4 points) vs. 1/4 c dried cherries (140 cal - 8 points). If someone actually splurged on one or two of these penalized foods they might end up under calories for the day. Also, banana (90 cal - 0 points) vs. corn on the cob (80-90 cal - 3 points). What?? So you'll really try to tell me that a banana is a significantly healthier choice than corn?
5.) Because of the sugar penalty, people are more apt to choose fake foods laden with artificial sweeteners and sodium rather than a small portion of real food. Velveeta slices vs. real cheese? So high in sodium and gross tasting. A Dove mini bar vs. Enlightened bars? No contest.
6.) They do not offer consolidated nutritional breakdowns of the food you tracked, so short of taking a calculator and adding it all manually, it was so hard to make sure I was staying under sodium levels or getting enough fiber.
MFP for the win!!9 -
I feel like WW is filled with so much Woo now. I'm on it and will probably end up back here. Just not knowing any nutritional information outside of points is making me crazy. It doesn't promote a healthy balanced lifestyle in my opinion. They say you can eat anything, but they really punish you for it with high points. If you eat a piece of cake you better be willing to eat just veggies the rest of the day. If you're not careful you can end up coming severely under calories (I've had a 900 calorie day). And they really don't like for you to eat your fit points.
That said...I do eat more veggies now!7 -
MommaGem2017 wrote: »Don't even get me started about WW. I just quit after 2 months. I did lose weight, but I was constantly starving!! So I started tracking in both WW and MFP to see what was going wrong.
1.) WW does not take your normal daily activity level into consideration when allotting daily points.
2.) The WW community does not encourage eating the Fit Points (which would be the equivalent of eating back exercise calories here).
3.) There is a weekly pool of points, but with the "blue dots" there is a large percentage of the people who won't touch those either.
4.) WW penalizes certain foods to gear you towards making certain food choices (which made me feel like a child). Two slices of whole grain bread (140 cal - 4 points) vs. 1/4 c dried cherries (140 cal - 8 points). If someone actually splurged on one or two of these penalized foods they might end up under calories for the day. Also, banana (90 cal - 0 points) vs. corn on the cob (80-90 cal - 3 points). What?? So you'll really try to tell me that a banana is a significantly healthier choice than corn?
5.) Because of the sugar penalty, people are more apt to choose fake foods laden with artificial sweeteners and sodium rather than a small portion of real food. Velveeta slices vs. real cheese? So high in sodium and gross tasting. A Dove mini bar vs. Enlightened bars? No contest.
6.) They do not offer consolidated nutritional breakdowns of the food you tracked, so short of taking a calculator and adding it all manually, it was so hard to make sure I was staying under sodium levels or getting enough fiber.
MFP for the win!!
Seriously!? Good grief.
I did WW back in 2005 when it was the 1-2-3 Success program, and you were definitely encouraged to eat back your exercise points (60 minutes at a high intensity level gave you 6.5 points).
Looking at my WW cardboard calculator (I can't believe I actually still have this thing), the points value was worked out from the number of calories and grams of saturated fat in food. And fruit and veg (apart from bananas and potatoes IIRC) were 'free'.
Nothing about sugar, fiber, or carbs.
Yeah, I'll stick with MFP - 25lbs down and counting.5 -
BruinsGal_91 wrote: »MommaGem2017 wrote: »Don't even get me started about WW. I just quit after 2 months. I did lose weight, but I was constantly starving!! So I started tracking in both WW and MFP to see what was going wrong.
1.) WW does not take your normal daily activity level into consideration when allotting daily points.
2.) The WW community does not encourage eating the Fit Points (which would be the equivalent of eating back exercise calories here).
3.) There is a weekly pool of points, but with the "blue dots" there is a large percentage of the people who won't touch those either.
4.) WW penalizes certain foods to gear you towards making certain food choices (which made me feel like a child). Two slices of whole grain bread (140 cal - 4 points) vs. 1/4 c dried cherries (140 cal - 8 points). If someone actually splurged on one or two of these penalized foods they might end up under calories for the day. Also, banana (90 cal - 0 points) vs. corn on the cob (80-90 cal - 3 points). What?? So you'll really try to tell me that a banana is a significantly healthier choice than corn?
5.) Because of the sugar penalty, people are more apt to choose fake foods laden with artificial sweeteners and sodium rather than a small portion of real food. Velveeta slices vs. real cheese? So high in sodium and gross tasting. A Dove mini bar vs. Enlightened bars? No contest.
6.) They do not offer consolidated nutritional breakdowns of the food you tracked, so short of taking a calculator and adding it all manually, it was so hard to make sure I was staying under sodium levels or getting enough fiber.
MFP for the win!!
Seriously!? Good grief.
I did WW back in 2005 when it was the 1-2-3 Success program, and you were definitely encouraged to eat back your exercise points (60 minutes at a high intensity level gave you 6.5 points).
Looking at my WW cardboard calculator (I can't believe I actually still have this thing), the points value was worked out from the number of calories and grams of saturated fat in food. And fruit and veg (apart from bananas and potatoes IIRC) were 'free'.
Nothing about sugar, fiber, or carbs.
Yeah, I'll stick with MFP - 25lbs down and counting.
WW still encourages you to eat back you activity points and your weekly extra points. Plus they make all fruits and veggies free. So its not that hard to add 200-400 calories of green veggies and fresh fruit to your day to up your calories.2 -
I lost 60 pounds last year on WW, got to goal. I have maintained my weight for 8 months. However, I just started working out 4x/week and like many posters said, WW does not really promote eating your fitpoints so I have been SO hungry on my 'normal points'. I have been double tracking on MFP and there are days I am only eating 900 - 1000 calories which is way too low for my activity level. No wonder why I was so hungry! I am tracking on MFP but still attend WW meetings for accountability. As a Lifetime member, I am now free.6
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tashygolean730 wrote: »BruinsGal_91 wrote: »MommaGem2017 wrote: »Don't even get me started about WW. I just quit after 2 months. I did lose weight, but I was constantly starving!! So I started tracking in both WW and MFP to see what was going wrong.
1.) WW does not take your normal daily activity level into consideration when allotting daily points.
2.) The WW community does not encourage eating the Fit Points (which would be the equivalent of eating back exercise calories here).
3.) There is a weekly pool of points, but with the "blue dots" there is a large percentage of the people who won't touch those either.
4.) WW penalizes certain foods to gear you towards making certain food choices (which made me feel like a child). Two slices of whole grain bread (140 cal - 4 points) vs. 1/4 c dried cherries (140 cal - 8 points). If someone actually splurged on one or two of these penalized foods they might end up under calories for the day. Also, banana (90 cal - 0 points) vs. corn on the cob (80-90 cal - 3 points). What?? So you'll really try to tell me that a banana is a significantly healthier choice than corn?
5.) Because of the sugar penalty, people are more apt to choose fake foods laden with artificial sweeteners and sodium rather than a small portion of real food. Velveeta slices vs. real cheese? So high in sodium and gross tasting. A Dove mini bar vs. Enlightened bars? No contest.
6.) They do not offer consolidated nutritional breakdowns of the food you tracked, so short of taking a calculator and adding it all manually, it was so hard to make sure I was staying under sodium levels or getting enough fiber.
MFP for the win!!
Seriously!? Good grief.
I did WW back in 2005 when it was the 1-2-3 Success program, and you were definitely encouraged to eat back your exercise points (60 minutes at a high intensity level gave you 6.5 points).
Looking at my WW cardboard calculator (I can't believe I actually still have this thing), the points value was worked out from the number of calories and grams of saturated fat in food. And fruit and veg (apart from bananas and potatoes IIRC) were 'free'.
Nothing about sugar, fiber, or carbs.
Yeah, I'll stick with MFP - 25lbs down and counting.
WW still encourages you to eat back you activity points and your weekly extra points. Plus they make all fruits and veggies free. So its not that hard to add 200-400 calories of green veggies and fresh fruit to your day to up your calories.
Do they "officially" encourage you to eat FitPoints, sure, but anyone using the C
WW Connect app regularly finds that very few people eat their FitPoints. Also, there is The Who,e Sprengel movement that is just trying to convince people to eat their weeklies, so as a Community - eating outside of the Blue dot range is not encouraged.
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They definitely do not want you to eat your fitpoints. Hence the blue dots, if you divide your weeklies by 7 and add them to your day you will fall in the blue dot range (30-37).
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tashygolean730 wrote: »WW still encourages you to eat back you activity points and your weekly extra points. Plus they make all fruits and veggies free. So its not that hard to add 200-400 calories of green veggies and fresh fruit to your day to up your calories.
WW does not encourage eating Fit Points - in fact, they openly discourage it for most people & refer to it as a last resort after suggesting people increase their protein intake when hungry, drink more water or eat more fruits & veggies.
OP, I did WW last year, lost 55# & made lifetime in October. I've kept it off. I switched to MFP in March so I would know my macros & calories. I don't feel like WW is the best option (for me) for long-term maintenance. I think they're great for weight loss & their entire program is targeted for weight loss...they're a business after all, & they don't make money off those who maintain their losses.4 -
MommaGem2017 wrote: »Also, there is The Who,e Sprengel movement that is just trying to convince people to eat their weeklies, so as a Community - eating outside of the Blue dot range is not encouraged.
Exactly. Their smart point allotment system is incredibly odd. It's strictly weight, height & age-based...it does not take activity into account. So my relatively sedentary 68 year old, 5'4"140# mother got the same 30 daily SP as me - at 38, 5'8" 140#, and I lift weights 4 times a week. Our extra weekly points were different by only 7 SP. So while the weight was melting off me at those SP levels (I averaged 3# a week), she was averaging 0.5-1# a week. And yes - they still discouraged eating Fit Points.
Needless to say, that's part of why I'm now on MFP.2 -
It has definitely changed a lot since I was successful with it (back in 2009/2010)! Then, the points were heavily driven by calories with some adjustments for fat (up) and fiber (down) and they did encourage you to eat your fitness and weeklies. Fruit was not free and only some veggies were. When I first started, I tracked my calories and I averaged between 1200-1500, depending on activity. We weren't online then, though, so I don't know what these blue dots are, but they sound aweful!
Even back then, though, I didn't like that the points didn't take into account protein and penalized fat. This ended up driving towards more carby/processed foods. So, I was initially happy that the new system focused on all the macros. The downside is that they really messed up the algorithms. I GAINED weight when I was following the new program for loss. I've heard that they've adjusted it since then, but I haven't bothered going back.0 -
I know this post is old, but I'm going to add to it
... Weight watchers does "allow" you to eat your fit points, but it was strongly discouraged by my leader. I still do my lifetime weigh ins to remain "free" but each month I feel like I have to diet down to make sure my goal weight is within the 2# range. Funny thing though is that I'm actually thinner than all of the leaders at my place. So that always frustrates me. But since I paid so much to become lifetime I just keep doing it 
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I’ve been doing weight watchers since January and have lost 46lbs. I don’t understand all the complaining. Last I checked we all have our own brain and free will. If you feel like you need to eat fit points then do it. Blue dots? I don’t let some stupid dot on an app control my eating habits. The Sprengel movement? Sprengel WHGAF? Are you sheep? I don’t care about some stupid popularity contest or being part of the “in” group. I do what I want, I’m an adult and not in High School.
Is the program designed to gear you towards certain foods? Yes, healthy ones. I don’t see that as a bad thing. The program works if you work it. Yes, it’s a lot different than it was last time I did it in 2001 but it’s changed multiple times since then. It worked then and it works now. You get out of it what you put into it.
Is the program perfect? No, I also wish it gave more nutrition info so I can track sodium, sugar, etc. but it is what it is.0 -
Still on WW and it works for me.1
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I am only using weight watchers for accountability. Im only allotted 24 points a day and with my morning coffee with 3 cream..1 sugar its 15 points do by lunch time my points pretty much gone. Im tracking through mfp and its 150 calories for my coffee. Anyway Im down 4.8 pounds in 4 weeks. Whoo2
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