MFP vs. Weight Watchers

bsdavidoff

My (14yrd) daughter wants to do weight watchers and I'm doing this. Is there a difference?

robinso5

besides this is free??? and probably an easier LIFE choice.......... Ithink with your hard work and dedication, YOU will be her motivator so WW nor MFP will matter!

lrmall01

Yes and No.

Both encourage calorie counting if you consider that Weight Watchers does it through a "points" method.

IIRC Weight Watchers tries to influence your macros by their "points" formula. For example calories from Fat generate more points that calories from protein.

Either approach is viable IMHO.

candicane38

Yes $$$$$$$$.......My daughter and I did WW in the past online and it was great. She was also 14 and the doctor said it was o.k..
The main difference I see is being able to physically go into a WW meeting if you would like to. Depending on the person the social aspect of the meetings are often useful.

SweetJoanne

I too was thinking of going back to weightwatchers. My motivation when I went was that I was going to get weighed by someone every week so I tried extra hard to loose. I am on my fitness pal have been for a long time and I really like it. I have recently started back at the gym too and hoping for some results soon. I found weightwatchers expensive believe it is almost $20 per week now and that I can use towards my gym membership or to do an aquasize class

iRun_Butterfly

I've done WW and been successful with it. However that being said, I think MFP teaches you how to eat properly and healthfully better than WW did. I find I'm more motivated to learn and stick with a healthy lifestyle now than I ever was on WW. Also, double check me, but I think for someone that young, WW will require Dr. permission for your daughter to do their program.

lovelayla

If you are preparing all of her meal then MFP would be best. You can make recipes in the builder for your family. If she eats school breakfast/lunch then WW may be better for her because she is there to see her portions. Whatever you decide I think that both of you should do the same plan and support each other.

If you don't already you can do active things like bowling, skating, and hiking together. You could even do a family karate class. Those are fun!

giggitygoo

I did WW for a while. It was an easier to grasp method for someone who was completely clueless (me.) Once I had a better grasp of food values I moved on to MFP where I could track my diet with more detail.

The weight watchers cook books are amazing though. I still use them.

dreawest

I too was thinking of going back to weightwatchers. My motivation when I went was that I was going to get weighed by someone every week so I tried extra hard to loose. I am on my fitness pal have been for a long time and I really like it. I have recently started back at the gym too and hoping for some results soon. I found weightwatchers expensive believe it is almost $20 per week now and that I can use towards my gym membership or to do an aquasize class

I too like to get weighed elsewhere and as a Curves member I can weigh myself whenever but they also weigh and measure to track progress so gym likely could do as well.

TrekkerCynthia

Having done both, I find MFP much more livable. It has a much more extensive database which makes dining out SO much easier. Calories are just easier to figure out than points. However, Weight Watchers did help my sister learn to eat in a more nutritious manner and that habit has stuck with her. She never had to lose much, but the woman definitely needed to learn to vary her diet! If you feel confident on providing nutrition advice to your daughter, then I say use MFP. If you think you both need guidance in that area, then perhaps do WW for a while.

Hearts_2015

My (14yrd) daughter wants to do weight watchers and I'm doing this. Is there a difference?

Sparkteens.com would be good for her. She's way too young to be on this site, it's set up for adults over 18.

I went to weight watchers when I 15... bad move to have my Mom allow me to do that (but she didn't know the damage it did, she was just trying to help, I think actually I was the one who brought it up originally). Kids can learn more from their parents or classes in the school or the community on healthy choices and activities to get active.

WW? for kids, please be careful, I'm where I am now because of the early dieting .... I don't believe anyone should diet but kids counting calories.... please just be careful.. Sometimes ED's are started out with young girls who feel they aren't good enough.

Being active in fun ways with her, that'll be great for you both & cooking fun healthy meals together but make it fun, and perhaps don't even use the word excercise.

Mygsds

I also did Weight Watchers but fruits and vegetables up to a certain amount are not counted, whereas this has the ability to count ALL calories which for some reason I am losing more steadily by logging and being more accountable

neashamoore

I personally don't like weight watchers, for the fact that it's less points to eat a piece of chocolate cake then an avocado. Its less points for a candy cane then eating an orange. That doesn't teach anyone to eat healthy and make healthy choices, it teaches them to make a food choice based on some point system. I think that if someone is really trying to live a healthy lifestyle then I think being educated on healthy foods is the way to go.

Suznd75

I am doing both right now...mostly to make sure I am getting enough calories. I am finding that I can be within my WW "points" yet only be hitting 1000 calories.

I think WW is a good starting place as they are encouraging fruits and veggies (0 points) and helping you monitor portion sizes. Once you get a good foundation going, you could definitely switch over to MFP. I find both of the sites very helpful.

FYI-there are some apps out there for a small one time fee that let you do the WW program without having to pay the continuous monthly fee of WW online. I might switch to that in bit (right now my employer is paying for WW)

Laughter_Girl

I find I'm more motivated to learn and stick with a healthy lifestyle now than I ever was on WW.

^^THIS

Although I was successful with WW in the past, I did not actually change my lifestyle, which is what led me eventually to MFP. WW was still just a diet to me, and I only measured success by what the scale indicated weekly. Being on MFP has taught me to really appreciate the NSVs, the importance of measurements, the benefits of before & after pics, and what it means to be committed/dedicated to a healthier lifestyle overall. Finally, MFP confirmed that sometimes the best things in life really are FREE.

Is there a difference between MFP and WW? For me, the answer is yes.

Wishing you and your daughter much success.

EreborsPrincess

I did WW several years ago and lost about 20 lbs over the course of six months. To be honest, I much prefer MFP and think that in the long run, it is something sustainable (at least for me).

I didn't like figuring out "points" for everything. I don't mind logging in my food, but having to carry around my special little points calculator (in the days before apps and smartphones) was something that I found terribly annoying.

I also didn't like that they pushed their food items/snacks at the meetings. The few things I tried were not that good and I thought were expensive, not to mention full of ingredients I can't pronounce. Teach me to make better choices, don't just shove a box of WW food in my hand and tell me it's what I need. It was almost like cattle going through the chutes at a livestock sale - pay your weekly fee, get weighed, and oh - by the way, our Choco-Minty cardboard sticks are on sale this week. They taste *just like* thin mints but only have 3 points per bar.

Support-wise, I've found the forums and my friends here on MFP to be FAR superior to any meeting I went to. I've been a member here since the beginning of February, and I've learned so much about nutrition and exercise.

Plus MFP is free.

GMStb10

I have done weight watchers in the past, the meetings are a good motivator. It is hugely expensive and very prescriptive, I lost 38lb with but then hit plateau for a month didnt find the support I needed so left. Never got to goal and put it all back on.
Here I find very empowering to eat healthy, not diet and find solutions and strategies to my heathly eating challenges but you do have to be more accountable for your choices and research what is right for you.
I agree if your making family meals for both of you the same programme would be best.
And I still use my fav weight watchers recipes, low cal tricks the weight scales and measures.
Theres good and not so good in both

wamydia

They are different methods to basically accomplish the same thing. MFP counts calories and makes you responsible for determining your own macros. WW counts calories through a points system that has already been weighted to have certain macros (like carbs) "count more" than others (like protein). I've had good success on both systems. Both simply come down to personal responsibility and willingness to follow your plan and make adjustments based on how well you are succeeding. Both websites have similar tools (although I personally think the MFP food database is more extensive). Your success on either plan is dependent on adherence and what lifestyle changes you are willing to make.

The big thing that WW offers than MFP does not are in-person support group meetings. Some people find them very helpful and important for continued success. Personally, I never even considered going as having to attend a cheerleading/ sales pitch session each week would have just annoyed me into quitting. Also, WW costs money. It is more to do meetings than just online and even more to both go to meetings and have access to online tools. I found WW online to be a good way to get my weight loss started, but after a while I decided it was dumb to continue paying for it when I could just switch to MFP and track calories and macros without their help for free.

dwoodmanjr

I track my food here, but use WW PointsPlus to give me the "one number" to look at each day. I just make sure that every Point I use under WW has as much protein grams as possible

Having the one number to track does make life a little easier to deal with

tabbyblack13

I was on WW and ended up looseing 65 lbs. I went off of tracking and gained 40 lbs back and now I'm trying MFP.

I could never make it to a meeting because the closest one was 1.5 hrs away so I did the online and it did work but I noticed something. A lot of food with WW points on the box have the artifical sweetners. That throws me for a loop because I started to get hungery. When I stopped my hunger stayed the same. After having a billing problem I switch to MFP. I just started so I really can't say which is better but I like the fact I get to see, in numbers, the break down of what I am eating. Plus if I have to go to the doctors and descuss my meal plans this is a lot easier to pull put and show them.

suejoker

I did WW before MFP and I think they can both be helpful. I think of WW as dieting with training wheels. You count points instead of actual calories, so you don't have to deal with real numbers. MFP also helps you track your nutrients, which has been very edifying for me. I really like that MFP is free, too!

AstorMiles

In general, I think that whether WW or MFP is a better fit ultimately depends on one's understanding of nutrition and ability to self-motivate and set realistic, healthy goals.

WW, in my view, is pretty good for those who don't really know where to begin and need a bit of structure/direction. Furthermore, the in-person meetings are a great motivator (nothing sucks more than doing the walk of shame to the scale when you know you've gained weight over the week) and there is some decent evidence out there to suggest that face-to-face support keeps most folks accountable better than an online forum. Another important point about WW is that the program has gone through fairly extensive scientific evaluation over the years (including clinical trials comparing the efficacy of various popular weight loss programs) and in its present form it's a fairly sane, safe diet built on valid nutrition research. Having said that, when I attended WW meetings I was fairly surprised to see that they were not led by a qualified Registered Dietitian - given the membership fee, I would have expected an actual health care professional to be involved. I also didn't love the "black box" of the points - I agree with others who have commented that the points system sometimes leads to poor choices based on calories alone, rather than nutritional quality. Still, the advice we received at the meetings was reasonably sound and I suspect (but don't know for sure) that in-person meetings may allow a good group leader to identify individuals who may need a more carefully supervised diet, in order to then refer them to the best professional sources for help.

Now, MFP is free and the degree of online involvement I've seen since joining has been pretty impressive. It seems like people join and take it seriously, although those who stick around and do their daily logging may be a self-selected group of innately motivated individuals (i.e., it may be that MFP seems to work because the people logging are those for whom it works, and we don't know how many other people have joined and left just a few days later without leaving a trace). I agree that the database is much larger than the WW one, which makes it easy to log in food - and tracking is important because it gives awareness of what one is eating. It's also good that the tracking is done in actual calories and various nutrients - you are more likely to learn lifelong habits by seeing what things actually contain than by counting points, which are a very abstract concept. I sum, I think that, for those who already know a fair bit about nutrition, physical activity and health, are able to set REALISTIC (can't stress this enough!) goals, and can self-discipline, MFP is probably a better fit. But for those who may need a bit of help getting started, I would recommend giving WW a try first and coming to MFP after learning the ropes.

Good luck!

mlauster

I have done both but prefer MFP. I am usually a very private person and never really got into the group meetings. Paying to weigh in weekly wasn't beneficial or practical for me. I am in this for the rest of my lifetime and I find it is much easier to just log without all the points value research.

I have lost weight with both programs. I have found that MPF is much easier and I feel it's something that I can stick with for the long haul.

MFP has taught me how to eat healthier, exercise, it has an awesome support group and if I have a question about anything I have access to thousands and thousands of brains that I can pick 24/7.

WW does have a support group, and some good tools. The leader that was at the location I went to was not very motivating and had a hard time getting the members engaged so getting through the meeting was like a bad tooth ache. I found myself going to get weighed in and then skipping the meetings. It got awful expensive.

I'm 100% for MFP. It's free, the people are awesome and I don't have to pay for a brand.

brian_the_student

Hi everybody,

I am also trying to figure out the pros and cons of WW vs MyFitnessPal. The issues seem to be price and features, but its also important that WW has worked for so many people over the years.

After thinking about it, I actually decided to do a study on Weightwatchers for a class in my university.

Can you please fill out my super-quick survey on Weightwatchers versus MyFitnessPal?

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RRMG73S

I promise it will take less than a minute and I will share the results when I get enough replies!

Thanks so much!
Brian