What is your opinion of Weight Watchers?

jbrown2339

It is like the South Beach diet book, which eliminated some foods and allowed others. They said not to worry about how much, but then inside the book it would say be careful to eat too many avocados or nuts because they are high calorie. So which is it, unlimited or limited?

At one point in time I just figured eating the right foods = good, and bad food = fat, and it was that simple. I've learned it's about calories and portions, so if I tried freestyle now I'd be reasonable. But the old me wouldnt think that way, and I think that is the danger of the freestyle program. Not that I would eat a carton of eggs, at least the free food list I saw isn't too crazy.

Cbean08

Out of curiosity, what do the meetings consist of? I find it irresponsible of WW to not discuss portion control. If they are trying to adopt this new "healthy, balanced lifestyle," then they must talk about eating foods in the proper portions.

healthy2700mfp

I just left Ww freestyle for mfp. A lot of people in my class are not losing weight or very slow 1/4 lb a week. I was undereating 950 cal a day for 23 points, some people are overindulge on zero points food imo mfp is better I do better eating balanced meals and watching my portions.

jenialynn

I preferred the old ww point system and do not like the new points system. I basically wasted 120$ to attend a weekly meeting. It's too hard to stay under my points and I wasn't eating enough calories on ww

Dame_sans_merci

I left WW in January and started MFP in February. I am enjoying calorie counting far more than tracking points on WW. I know that I can eat what I want on MFP and just need to keep the calorie deficit whereas I found that I actually under-ate on WW and had much slower losses. I am on MFP with a goal of 1lb loss per week which gives me 1750 cals per day to play with. I eat well for this, never feel hungry, and have lost 15lb in 6/7 weeks. Definitely feel happier than I did on WW. Oh and their community forum was infuriating! People would post pictures of 2 stalks of broccoli, 8 oven chips and 2 skinny low fat sausages as if that was a meal to be proud of. I think the variety of eating lifestyles you could follow on here is more informative and interesting

hoops1888

Hey Remoore

Listen, I totally understand your pain, I was in the same situation as you about a month ago! Let me tell you my story.

I came across MFP about 7 years ago and decided to use it to help me lose weight by counting calories and exercising (to allow myself to eat MORE calories). This was great for me and I lost 2 stones for the first time ever in my life. I maintained this for about a year then became complacent (as one sometimes does), then the weight started creeping steadily, as I lost my sense of perseverance. At this point, I thought it’d be a great idea to try a shake diet (Cambridge). This involved having 3 shakes a day and promised losses of about 1 stone a month. I lost a couple of stones, yet felt tired, dizzy, hair thinned out etc, but of course as I lost it quickly, I gained it even more quickly. I was caught in this money burning rigmarole for 3 years! 3 years, essentially, chucking money into a fire pit. I then quit as I realised I was about 1.5 stones heavier than what I started.

Then I did slimming world which seemed like the most amazing diet on the planet after Cambridge. Again, I lost about 1.5 stone on it but began to struggle as I found myself eating the same foods, and actually a lot of processed food which was ‘free’. I always wanted to come back to calorie counting but worried about the slow pace of weight loss (1lb a week). I decided to also ditch slimming world about a month ago, as, to be frank, I felt bloody awful and just had to admit this fact to myself. I felt like I was depriving myself of fat, as slimming world is engineered to be very low fat and high carb. I can honestly say that the best thing I ever did was move to calorie counting again and re join mfp. It is SO flexible; no restrictions, just a very reasonable calorie limit, and you know what? As slow as you might feel the losses, be happy in the knowledge that it’s an extremely sustainable way to manage your weight and that your weight won’t shoot up like on other diets. I don’t like judging people for going on other diets but having been through the mill myself and been caught out by even reasonable sounding diets like slimming world, I know what I’m talking about and just want to warn you, for your own sake and happiness.

I have never tried weight watchers but I do understand how it works and it is still restrictive. I truly don’t feel that this is necessary or even good for your body. As you’ve probably guessed, my recommendation would be to do the calorie counting and exercise if you wish. This mfp community is fantastic as you get support from everybody and lots of great advice. In my view, its a happy place and makes you feel like you’re going to be successful. Good luck remoore!

galvanmarie579

I did it on and off for years. I don't like the new change. I don't agree with free chicken eggs etc points.... Some people love it. I chose this app to just count my calories. Also there is support online here to. Difference is meetings.....

healthy2700mfp

I am leaving Ww after my subscription runs out in a couple of weeks the meetings are supportive but the meeting focuses on fat free aspartame foods halo ice cream and their members are losing weight very slow 1/4 lb per week. I have been tracking with mfp app and have been losing 1 lb a week on ww Iit took me 10 weeks to lose 5 lbs, I was under eating by 300 cal. also Ww does not talk about balanced eating how to balance your macros i it is a collosial waste of money imo

kljfo

I'm a bit late to this....but I joined WW 3 weeks ago and so far I'm really getting on well with it. WW is a bit different in that the points are now geared towards healthier foods. For example, at lunch I have a chicken soup which is 140 calories - it's 2 pts on WW. A can of full fat coke is also 140 calories but on WW it's 8pts!

I like being held accountable at meetings and the social aspect of meeting real people in the flesh at meetings and the encouragement you get on their app from 'connect' is great.

On MFP alot of people are very healthy and fit already and use the app for training purposes - which is wonderful but on WW it's everyone starting a journey to lose weight - some having loads to lose, some maybe only a small amount but there's a common ground in that everyone is sharing the same experience people with the highs and lows of us all doing the same diet.

I still use MFP as I like to get a general overview of my calories and it's still a great tool but WW really isn't that expensive- say the same price as one or two take out coffees per week.

For me the biggest attraction is the social media side, people share receipe and photos of their result - it's very encouraging and at times hilarious as there's a lot of good humour there and easy to uses as the app mimics a sort of Instagram style approach (although with far less features).

Of course you will always get the negative ppl - which is the same everywhere including here but overall the positvity on connect really stands out and I'm glad I signed up.

I've lost a stone in under a month (likely I'm not going to continue losing at that rate but it's working for me so I'm sticking!)