weightwatchers opinions please

Wilhellmina

Never heard of such a bigger rip off in my life. Charge more for smaller portions and hide it under a pro points mask of falseness.

I agree!

spoiledpuppies

I'm not sure if someone already posted this, but look into T.O.P.S. (Taking Off Pounds Sensibly). They're all over the place, and non-profit. The cost is usually agreed upon by the group just to support games and incentives, and it can be extremely minimal. The makeup of the group near me wasn't a good match, so I didn't do it. But if you're missing meetings and in-person support, it might be a nice nearly free complement to MFP.

devil_in_a_blue_dress

I worked for WW and here's what I will tell you -- if you are a person who needs the weekly encouragement/support and/or a planned break from family/job commitments to renew your dedication to your self and your goals -- it's probably worth it just for the meetings alone.

If you don't -- please don't give them your money. It's calorie counting. You likely lost more with WW because you were taking in more fiber (the more fiber something has, the lower the points).

elyelyse

How many apples do you want to eat in a sitting? I can eat about one. It's about using some common sense and normal satiety signals along with the basic math. Fruit fills you up. Lean protein fills you up.

A lot of us are here because we don't respond to "normal satiety signals". If I were uneducated about nutrition, and was told I don't have to track fruits...yeah I could easily eat over 500 calories or more a day in fruit. A large apple, 2 bananas, a grapefruit, 2 cups of berries, and a bowl of grapes over the course of a day. Yup, easily eat that in addition to my meals.

WalkingAlong

How many apples do you want to eat in a sitting? I can eat about one. It's about using some common sense and normal satiety signals along with the basic math. Fruit fills you up. Lean protein fills you up.

A lot of us are here because we don't respond to "normal satiety signals". If I were uneducated about nutrition, and was told I don't have to track fruits...yeah I could easily eat over 500 calories or more a day in fruit. A large apple, 2 bananas, a grapefruit, 2 cups of berries, and a bowl of grapes over the course of a day. Yup, easily eat that in addition to my meals.

But they tell you not to eat more than 2-3 servings a day if you have problems with that. We all have trouble with satiety signals, you relearn to listen to them by having rules like 'unlimited produce'.

eldamiano- In a free market economy, the price of a food item has nothing to do with it's size or nutritional value. It's all supply and demand.

tp20131210

I had been on WW several times in the past and lost a maximum of 20lbs several times using the online tools only. Tried out the meetings and there were some really good tips, but overall it felt like a large group just commiserating over being underfed. The meetings also appeared to be a vehicle to push their own branded snacks and products.

The act of tracking calories in general is a nuisance regardless of the program, and I never really liked the WW online tools. The MFP tools seem to be much more user friendly and flexible with a large food database which is crowdsourced primarily. And since MFP is ad-supported, there is no monthly fee which is a huge plus

The key is to use whatever tool or program of choice and commit to it if it works for you.

eldamiano

eldamiano- In a free market economy, the price of a food item has nothing to do with it's size or nutritional value. It's all supply and demand.

Ok clever clogs. In what economy does a consumer pay more for less unless they are getting swayed by the marketing and/or false perception that branding can give?

If Coca-Cola started to charge double than that of Pepsi, then Coke demand would drop dramatically, as it is plain obvious what they are getting. This is to an extent what Weight Watchers with their products do and get away with because of their misleading branding. All the rip off stuff masked under a friendly brand name and a lovely sounding pro-points plan.

karlajotj

You said you liked their original points system and it had worked for you. Why do you have to use the new system? Do what worked for you. I have a friend that didn't like the new system as she had been in WW years previously and stuck with that system and not the new one. Just a suggestion. Good luck!

larovers

Taubes has largely been discredited.

"Discredited" might largely have to do with to whom one wishes to give credit, however, I would love to see who is discrediting Gary Taubes...

There are already 8 billion MFP posts detailing Taubes's numerous and substantial errors and misunderstanding, I don't think it's necessary to turn this thread into yet another rehash of well covered ground.

I did not realize I started such a big debate, haha! Who is Mr. Taubes anyway, never heard of him?

2boys111

I did it last year under the new program. It is harder to figure out the points--under the old system I found you could guess the points pretty accurately. Now you really need to either buy their calculator or have the phone app. But if you have a smartphone, you have the calculator right there. And just like at the start of anything, there's the learning curve. But I found once you got in the groove, you learn the points for what you typically eat and it isn't a big deal.

I think it's still a great program, definitely encourages F+V and gives great support if you find a good leader.

Sometimes changing it up will help. I think a lot of people trash WW but it's a great program! Good luck!

larovers

I'm not sure if someone already posted this, but look into T.O.P.S. (Taking Off Pounds Sensibly). They're all over the place, and non-profit. The cost is usually agreed upon by the group just to support games and incentives, and it can be extremely minimal. The makeup of the group near me wasn't a good match, so I didn't do it. But if you're missing meetings and in-person support, it might be a nice nearly free complement to MFP.

thank you for this very good suggestion. well, since I posted this question, I went online and joined just for one month to see if anything had changed. Now they have something called "simple start" or something like that. It is all just too confusing to me. I have naturally gravitated real non processed food for the past 3 years so I feel I will just stay with MFP. I also like to track my macros as I like to stay in a 40-30-30 ratio as that works best for my blood sugar. Also trying to convert my exercise calories from my heart rate monitor on there just makes no sense and does not seem accurate. I think it boils down to this.....after analyzing it myself again a few days ago, MFP is just more accurate and you can taylor it for your own needs. I just need some sort of group support so I will look into the TOPS group. I like social interaction and support so I need some sort of meetings.

redversustheblue

eldamiano- In a free market economy, the price of a food item has nothing to do with it's size or nutritional value. It's all supply and demand.

Ok clever clogs. In what economy does a consumer pay more for less unless they are getting swayed by the marketing and/or false perception that branding can give?

If Coca-Cola started to charge double than that of Pepsi, then Coke demand would drop dramatically, as it is plain obvious what they are getting. This is to an extent what Weight Watchers with their products do and get away with because of their misleading branding. All the rip off stuff masked under a friendly brand name and a lovely sounding pro-points plan.

I don't get why you're only questioning weight watchers about this. There are tons of "diet foods" in the supermarket that are twice the price of a regular item. Take Pringles for example, the low-fat chips are double the price per can of just the regular chips.

Plus, like it's been said already, no one is forcing you to buy weight watchers products. Yes, very occasionally (in my meeting at least) they will push them, but they never say "You have to buy this product or you will FAIL and be fat forever!" that's ridiculous. I buy the little snack bars occasionally because they're tasty and they're convenient to carry around. I always buy them on sale and never pay full price, and I'm just fine with that. I don't think they're magic, they're literally just convenient.

stangirl1995

I hit a lower overall weight with weight watchers, however I was flabby all over. Now I weigh a little more but am much more toned. With WW I ate whatever and did not pay attention to nutritional values. Now with MFP I am able to customize my macros so I get a lot more protein than I did with WW. So in my opinion it depends on if you are out only for weight loss or if you want to actually become healthy with a sustainable plan and see muscles you never thought you would see in your body. MFP taught me that I definetely do not have to starve to have the body I want. It also helps me ensure I keep a healthy balance of carbs/fat/protein.

ljoycew

I think that WW is nutritionally sound, but the problem is the hours of data entry you will have to perform. Their database is a joke -- nothing like this site, which has nearly every food you can imagine already entered by members.

For some reason, WW refuses to crowdsource the DE, so I found myself entering really basic things (um, ever heard of Starbucks, WW?) all of the time. It got to be a drag.

Furthermore, that monthly fee really adds up. I can't say that I recommend it over this site.

MauxFaux

I did join WW over 10 years ago and never regained all the weight (other than with my 2 pregnancies). It did teach me some good things about food choices and thinking about things before I ate them. Unfortunately I also developed an unhealthy relationship with restricting my calorie intake as much as possible while overexercising towards the end of my time on WW. But that was more of a problem with me and my competitive nature than a problem with the program it's self. (For the record there was a time period since coming off of WW that I was about 10 pounds over my goal but being that I had lost 40 to begin with and had 2 children along the way that's not so bad.)

tapirfrog

I loved WW while I was on it -- I lost my first 25 pounds that way, not eating their branded processed crap, never going to meetings, just making food myself that fit within my points. I even did fine with the new points that required a calculator to figure out; those made me make even better choices. Then two disruptions happened at once: (1) I moved to another city, so everything was new and weird and I had to rebuild all my routines and (2) they made fruit 0 points.

Therefore, my previous good framework of mental habits was replaced with EAT ALL THE KIWIS. And I have been chipping away at the rest of my weight at the blazing speed of like three pounds a year with MFP, but by golly, my weight is going down, not up.

I think making fruit 0 points was incredibly dumb. It might have guided the people who eat potato chips for snacks into better habits, but for those of us who already know what's healthy and need boundaries around quantities, it was a disaster. Not their fault -- but no more WW for me.

CarolineMMyers

EXACTLY RIGHT! WW is WONDERFUL! I did weight watchers and just recently stopped. They have made things so easy to count points... The iphone app is the best. There is even an Ipad app now that has a recipe builder! You put in the ingredients to a recipe and how many servings it is and it calculates points for you! Fruits are ZERO points now and almost all vegetables are zero points! Alos there is a new pedometer that you can get to wear all the time. It calculates how much you move in a day and translates that into activity points! The pedometer will sync to WW online! It's a really great motivating tool The new systems is a lot better compared to a couple of years ago. Good luck to you and if you are thinking about joining WW again, maybe it is the right option for you :happy:

eldamiano

I don't get why you're only questioning weight watchers about this. There are tons of "diet foods" in the supermarket that are twice the price of a regular item. Take Pringles for example, the low-fat chips are double the price per can of just the regular chips.

Dunno. Perhaps it because its a forum about Weight Watchers and if I went on identifying all of the organisations that I thought rip off I might miss Xmas lunch..... Imagine all the pro-points I would have missed from not eating that turkey.

No-one might be forcing me buy their products but I am allowed to have an opinion.

eldamiano

EXACTLY RIGHT! WW is WONDERFUL! I did weight watchers and just recently stopped. They have made things so easy to count points... The iphone app is the best. There is even an Ipad app now that has a recipe builder! You put in the ingredients to a recipe and how many servings it is and it calculates points for you! Fruits are ZERO points now and almost all vegetables are zero points! Alos there is a new pedometer that you can get to wear all the time. It calcuates how much you move in a day and translates that into activity points! The pedometer will sync to WW online! It's a really great motivating tool The new systems is a lot better compared to a couple of years ago. Good luck to you and if you are thinking about joining WW again, maybe it is the right option for you :happy:

What?!?! Fruits are NOW zero points. Only now?! Does that mean that they are low calorie and low in fat and that eating lots of it is NOW good for you? Well blow me, thank goodness for Weight Watchers.

WalkingAlong

The 'free fruit' thing has been a part of various plans of theirs for 10 years or so, so they must not consider it a disaster. Though it certainly does stir up strong opinions!

I wonder how many of the people who think it's a scam are British. I couldn't believe there was a 1-hour documentary on it being a scam here in the US so I googled it and it seems to have been a British show.

It's reputation here is really pretty good. A scam would be those weight loss clinics that charge you $250/month for HCG injections, without telling you that you lose weight on their HCG plan because you follow an 800 calorie diet.

WW has its faults, for sure. It used to be very low cal. The food products are overpriced (though I wouldn't call that a scam). Some meetings push WW products. Some meetings are just stupid. I haven't paid them in 10 years because I agree that it's pretty easy to just monitor calories as long as you're counting something. But it's not a scam. Beachbody is a scam. :laugh: