Does MFP work as well as Weight Watchers?
Replies
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Both teach you to count. Both establish a deficit.
I've seen far more people do WW, lose weight, quit, eat regular food again, gain wait... go back to WW.
While on MFP, I see people fitting real food into their daily lives without the need for meetings, continue to lose, and manage it.
WW, in my opinion, sets you up for failure. Why not just use this?
very well said !!0 -
I've done WW for years! I've lost 65 pounds over the past few years, but the past few years I've used it more for social than weight loss. I liked the Points counting, until I started MFP a few days ago. Now, I'm paying attention to carbs, protein, fats, sodium, and sugar, and I've given up processed food. I bought a few of the WW popped chips and shake products, and dessert bars, and when I looked at the ingredients I realized I was eating a LOT of processed food. Since committing to MFP 2 days ago, I'm "true" to myself and the weight is and will come off. A BIG plus, is I have more energy and feel so much better. Also, WW is $40 a month, MFP is FREE! I love free & I'm ready to lose the rest of my weight! And, I know I will with MFP!0
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I don't understAnd why fruits and veggies are "free" in Weight Watchers. I mean, some can be pretty high in calories.
I have a vague recollection that it had to do with the amount of fiber. The PointsPlus calculation is a fair bit of arithmetic:
pp = max{ round( [ (16×p) + (19×c) + (45×f) - (14×r) ] / 175 ) , 0 }
Where,
pp - Weight watchers pointsplus
p - Protein
c - Carbohydrates
f - Fat
r - Dietary fiber
(from this site: http://easycalculation.com/health/weight-watchers-points-plus.php )
Of course, none of this really answers your question. I managed to find this quote from a WW official blog article:
"The truth, according to Maria Walls, Manager of Program Development for Weight Watchers International, is that "the idea of the zero PointsPlus value food was not created as such; they are the result of the calculation of the proprietary Weight Watchers formula at a particular calorie level." The only true "zero" is a vegetable or fruit that occurs naturally from the earth. They are the only zero that when eaten by the bagful can still be called a zero. According to Maria, the idea of the "free" fruit and vegetable was created to give members a break from counting these very low-calorie foods that "generally did not contribute to weight gain.""
(From this site: http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=40701&sc=3010 )
My opinion is that it's mostly-correct dietary advice that may result in weight loss. While it does work for a lot of people, it didn't suit me because I gorged on fruit and other low points foods. Yes, it's my own fault for not playing their game properly, but I think calories in < calories out will serve me better.0 -
I lost 30 pounds with WW 9 years ago. The weight has very slowly crept back but not quite all of it. It's because I let myself go. Now I have only lost 4 pounds so far with MFP but I really like it a lot. It's similar in that it gets me to know how much I'm eating. Plus WW is so expensive. I don't really want to go to meetings anyway now that I have a chat friends like you.
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I was never very good at maths at school and when I had a look at weight watchers, the points system did not appeal to me, I had no idea how to work out how many points were in my home cooked meals, ready meals might have the points on them, but I want to eat home cooked and raw foods.
Calorie counting is easier for me, I tend to eat a lot of individual snack food items eg 1 banana, 1 boiled egg, these are easy to look up in the MFP database
If I do cook a dinner then I get out the digital scales and weigh everything, if the food was say 20g of mashed potato I can go and look took that up in the MFP database and enter the figures, then MFP fills in the food diary , with how many calories, how much fat, how much protein etc....and it shows it as a running total for the whole day, I can see at a glance if Im a little short on protein or if Im running out of calories, its a visual process, I dont have to do any maths calculations myself.
Whereas with weight watchers I wouldnt be prepared to pay money to attend meetings or use paid for online food logging so I would be left wondering how many points a day I was allowed and how to convert foodstuffs and home cooked meals into points. Pardon the pun but it seems pointless. Calories are printed on most food packaging, if not I weigh the item, so all Ive had to buy is digital food scales and log accurately.
Support is available here on MFP 24 hours a day, not once a week. I dont earn a huge amount of money and MFP being free is like having an online guardian angel, I can take control of my health and its a blessing. Its amazing its free, I dont know who finances this website but they should feel very proud of what they have done for people worldwide. Seriously, they deserve a humanitarian award or something.
When I do earn a little money there is no doubt I would rather spend it on quality foodstuffs and smaller clothes or a pair of running shoes and not membership fees.0 -
well
i dont know anything about weight watchers but if people can lose 100 lbs without paying money to a program why cant others.
secondly MFP doesnot count calories for me because its database doesnot include foods from my country so i do it myself.
thirdly MFP cummunity can guide you, motivate you and u can learn from others experiences.
it is the people on mfp and their bright ideas which make mfp great.0 -
I did WW and lost 50 pounds. I had to quit because of some financial difficulties. I kept the materials and still use them. I have found it much easier to lose weight at WW than MFP. I think you have a better support system at WW. The accountability of weighing each week was important to me, plus I like the reward system. Both work well if you follow the plans. Good luck in whatever you choose.0
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I used to be religiously addicted to Weight Watchers and then my doctor recommended MFP to me. It has been just as effective and I've actually almost figured out the formula that Weight Watchers uses to figure out what my "points" would be for the day though I've adjusted it to count my grams of sugar instead of fiber. Basically though, for me I was on a 1200 calorie diet, MFP has me on 1290 so not much of a difference.0
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Im thinking about joining soon and id love some opinions. Thanks!
IMO both programs are equally effective as they both require significant levels of motivation and perseverance. WW might be better suited for people who want a laid out plan, MFP might be better suited for those who like to micromanage their own habits.
Neither is a silver bullet - success on either path requires serious commitment from the individual.0 -
I did Weight Watchers online on and off for several years and always loved it. It was like a game to me. And I hated counting calories. Points were easier for me. For the last year or so I've been going between WW and MFP and losing and gaining the same 3-5 pounds because I wasn't sticking with anything.
When I was honestly doing WW and sticking with the GHGs I would lose 1-2 pounds a week and at one point lost 16 pounds in total but I also got to the point where I would use my weekly points on crap. I got into the habit of eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's every week because, hey, it was only 28 weekly points and I had 49 and I totally fell into that trap.
This was NOT WW's fault. It was absolutely my fault. For the last few months I would do WW, eat all my weekly points, decide MFP was better, do that for a few days, go back to WW and "start fresh" and eat my weekly points again. As you may be able to tell, that didn't work for me.
This last time that I started WW a couple of weeks ago I hated it. I hated counting points. It became a pain and an annoyance so I am on MFP full time and happy with it.
Once again, this is not WW's fault. Something in my head changed and I found that now I prefer to count calories and track macros. Yes, MFP is free but I was willing to pay WW's online fee's.
I think things may have been different if I was going to meetings instead of online but that wasn't affordable to me.
So basically WW works if you follow the plan. MFP works of you follow it. You just need to find the one you would like to do and stick with it.0 -
I'm sure this has probably been covered but with WW they do have all their own products. So you will go to group once a week and they will have a "shop" of which they have everything with how many points etc, even there own scales and things! This makes for an easy life as the points are worked out for you, but if I didn't want to eat their ready meals then I used to struggle to work out the points in a homemade meal.
Depending on what way you want to look it as well, I personally feel that MFP is about changing your lifestyle in the long term, whereas WW screams diet but that is my personal feelings. There was a program in the UK called 'the men who made us thin' about all different diet brands and WW was included and the former director admitted that a significant factor in their profits being so high is because people loose the weight, stop going and come back at square 1.
Good luck with whatever you choose to do!0 -
I've gone to WW meetings. They didn't fit my personality at all. I was chastised for losing more than two pounds in a week. I was very obese at the time. I felt uncomfortable when they gave rewards for losing weight and they clapped. I hated the attention. Like I said, it really didn't work for my personality.
I tried WW online and I wasn't consistent. Maybe I just wasn't ready to make a personal commitment to lose weight. I'm just not sure. All together, I lost about 20 pounds on WW.
I have lost more weight on MFP. It's also free.
Do what works for you. I wish you the best.0 -
Better, although the local support of weight watchers makes a big difference for some people.0
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I've seen far more people do WW, lose weight, quit, eat regular food again, gain wait... go back to WW.
You're supposed to eat regular food on WW. What do you think people were eating that wasn't regular food?
All the WW low calorie stuff0 -
Plus I like how most fruits and veggies are 0 points instead of eating a huge bag of veggies and it says 250cals. 0 just sounds better to me.
And that is why I am never going back to WW - cos you know those veggies DO have calories................0 -
I have not looked into Weight Watchers recently, but from what I understand -
MFP is less expensive;
I disagree about WW "free foods" as no foods are "free" - everything has calories and macro/micronutrients
and I believe they need to be counted;
I can come to meetings here on the message boards on line and do just as much good for me;
Weight Watchers meals sometimes tastes not too good;
I tried WW a while back and I didn't stick with the diet; i guess I felt like I was on a diet.
I have a wall calendar right next to my scale. I write in my weight each morning. So every Monday I can see how much weight I am. So its just like a Weight Watchers meeting. kinda exciting when i can congratulate myself. sometimes a friend will pop in and i can show him how i did. so for those of you who like the weight watcher weigh ins, get your own calendar and mark your weight and do your own celebration, bring in a friend or two, and voila! 0 -
I love MFP! I have done WW and it is another roller coaster diet plan for me because when I stopped I was right back to my weight within no time at all. MFP teaches you how to eat properly on normal food and change to better eating habits. MFP is not a diet it is a lifestyle.0
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I did WW a few times and really liked the Points Plus program when it came out since it wasn't so carb-based and focused on non-foods.
However, I was also on medication that was making me gain weight and despite the fact that my leader was fabulous, I got sick of the "look" from the receptionist every week when I didn't lose. I don't think they believed me when I said it was the medication (no matter, my docs didn't believe me either...until I proved them wrong by listening to my body and stopping the meds).
Therefore, I stopped going to WW; over 5 years, I listened to my body and the weight slowly came off. Once I lost the weight the meds put on and wanted to lose some more, I started tracking again with SP and MFP. At first SP was better for me because of the range of calories and macros since I would always feel like a failure at WW if I went over for the day or used my weeklies early in the week. Now the single number for weight or macros doesn't bother me because I know MFP has my calorie total a bit too low for me so I know I'll eat over it most days. It doesn't freak me out anymore.
WW was fine for me outside of the medication thing, but I had a great leader. One thing I didn't like is the constant revamping of the program requiring purchasing of new materials and such regularly. With calorie-counting, most things stay the same over the years. Is this more boring? Sure. Is it more cost-effective and less complicated? Definitely.
I do want to add a quick note about the "free" fruits/veggies on WW. A few people have commented that their daily allowance was too low on WW when they converted it into calories or logged here and saw how many calories WW allowed. It was my understanding that even though most fruits/veggies were "free" on WW, the program allowed for a certain number per day, so that was figured into your calorie/points allowance. Sure, your points on WW may have converted to 1,100 calories, but the 300 (maybe more or less) you ate in fruits/veggies may not have been counted. I hope that makes sense.0 -
I was on weight watchers for about 4 months, paid monthly and lost about 5 lbs. As soon as I started MFP, the weight just came off. This site is free and consistent, I will never waste my money on WW (given its a great program works for some people, but not me.) Same concept, but MFP just works better for me. 0
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Ill do mfp its free and no annoying celebrities singing and hollering!
Exercise, eat less, and make good choices! Free advice!!!0 -
The biggest challenge I faced when doing WW was that I thought about food CONSTANTLY. Somehow, on MFP I am able to think about food at food time and then go about my day. The benefit from WW was the personal support I got from the meetings, but today I have two good friends at work who are all on this journey with me and we support each other every day. And in the evenings and on weekends my family is my Super Support Team.
Also, so many of the recipes they handed out at WW meetings involved artificial sweeteners, fat free cheese, fat free sour cream, whatever. I love the huge database here at MFP so I can budget my calories and try to limit use of artificial sugar or fats. I still use them occasionally but at least now I can find my balance my own way.0 -
Personally, WW did work for me and the only reason it stopped working was because of pure laziness on my part. I did not buy into the hype of purchasing their products either and I used their online tool which was cheaper than attending meetings in person. I switched to MPF because it's free and I was tired of paying WW when I wasn't using it. To be honest, since I've been here on MPF, I can't seem to figure out the right amount of calories to use. I started with 1200 and ate back some of my exercise calories and then I played around with the whole eating more, weighing less concept. I've been on here for a couple of months now and keeping going back and forth the same couple of pounds. Advice is welcomed!0
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I've been on WW more times than I care to admit since 2005. I would lose weight, maintain, sometimes gain a little back, sometimes gain a lot back.
The thing I like about MFP is that it shows calories. Often times, on WW, if I was over by a few points on the week or day, I'd think, 'to heck with it, I've blown it. Where's the wine?'
On MFP, I know that even if I'm over my designated weight loss calories for the day, there's still a lot of calories left before I would hit my 'maintain level' calories.
I'm also eating a lot healthier on MFP than I ever did on WW, in any of its iterations.
I know a lot of people on WW that would try to stick to the "Daily Points" during the week, then go on binges on the weekend, using their exercise and weekly flex points. Personally, that kind of mentality always set me back.
So, here I am, back on MFP after a 15 lb weight gain in the last year. I knew WW wasn't going to be the right solution for me, so I'm hoping that MFP can be the key to sustaining a healthy weight once I lose it this time.
Oh - and I have no desire to pay WW for the rest of my life so that I can track points once I'm at my goal weight. So, why not learn to do it using a free tool?0 -
I don't know when you joined, but they don't have meals to purchase in the meetings. Homemade meals are encouraged. They have an online site where you can figure out the point values of any recipe you have. They do still have food scales, and snacks to purchase, but I rarely saw people purchasing them.I'm sure this has probably been covered but with WW they do have all their own products. So you will go to group once a week and they will have a "shop" of which they have everything with how many points etc, even there own scales and things! This makes for an easy life as the points are worked out for you, but if I didn't want to eat their ready meals then I used to struggle to work out the points in a homemade meal.
Depending on what way you want to look it as well, I personally feel that MFP is about changing your lifestyle in the long term, whereas WW screams diet but that is my personal feelings. There was a program in the UK called 'the men who made us thin' about all different diet brands and WW was included and the former director admitted that a significant factor in their profits being so high is because people loose the weight, stop going and come back at square 1.
Good luck with whatever you choose to do!0 -
I joined WW yesterday. I need the accountability of weekly meetings. Support on MFP is good but I need face to face interaction. If you compare both the online version of MFP vs WW then they are definitely about the same besides the price. I'm a meetings type member and that IMO is what makes WW better IMO. I don't have WW online or etools. I have the WW calculator that I carry around in my purse and it keeps track of how many points I use and have left. Having the calculator saves me money from having to pay to log my points online and it was only $7. In the end it depends on the personality of the person. I guess i compare it to online college classes vs in person classes. I do a lot better when in class because it's face to face. Meetings match my personality and as much as I try to do it alone, I'm way more successful with weekly meetings. Good Luck with whatever you decide.0
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I have found success with both weight watchers and MFP. I like MFP better because it has given me more options and I have been introduced to so many different workout styles, activities, eating choices because everyone is focused on what works for them.
With Weight Watchers, I did like the point system but I found myself not focusing on the quality of the food going in but finding ways to budget in the crap I wanted to eat. I did think that weight watchers had some great recipes and was an awesome support network if you attend meetings. I also love that if you get to your goal weight and maintain it you receive that support for free. For me, my switch to MFP was purely a financial decision, but now that I have been here for 3 years, I would never go back to WW
Good luck with your journey and whatever decision you make!0 -
I suggest you look into getting a personal trainer with the money you are thinking to spend on WW and continue on MFP. This is working very well for me. My personal trainer is also on mfp and she checks my diary etc... that's accountability and it is customized to me.0
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I do not get how WW gives no points to veggies and certain fruits. It seems very misleading. Those calories can really add up.0
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WW kick started me but it got expensive and the points thing drove me nuts. But it was a good starting point. I love free and sometimes I do need to see encouragement daily. And I need to see ppl who care daily. Even if they dont , they are supportive here. So I'm die hard MFP0
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MFP works for me because it allows flexibility to eat as long as you are honest with yourself. I tired SureSlim, WW and many others. Always gained back the lbs because the programs were very restrictive. Thank you MFP.:)0
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