MFP vs Weight Watchers..

georgiag111

Does anyone use both ? Ive heard good thing about weight watchers but it sounds like from reading its basically the same??

chevy88grl

I did WW and was always hungry while on the program. I think MFP is a better way of doing things - track your calories, workout, etc and you'll lose. I like that better than counting point values on food. I'm NEVER hungry now - I was ALWAYS hungry on WW.

CodyD18

I personally don't like weight watchers. I would much rather just use MFP. With that said though, Weight watchers have worked for a lot of people and a lot of people like it. I don't really see any reason to need both though... that's just me personally.

tastigger

I don't follow weight watchers - but I do use skinnytaste.com for recipes which is weight watcher based. If I am going to track points - I might has well just pay attention to the actual calories in my opinion.

georgiag111

Thanks everyone! This is the first time ive done anything like this so am learning alot! I never even been on Weight watchers or even watched what I ate - I think today is a week on my "change" and I found this place just by my cell phone randomly and LUCKILY at that lol!

momtothreegirls

I did WW in the past and think it's pretty much the same thing, but MFP is way cheaper...lol...and to me more realistic. If I have an off day, which I have had a lot of lately, I don't feel as bad as I did with WW. If I gain here I don't feel as bad either, maybe it's because I am not paying for this service and feel more free and not as restricted.

aanaya56

Ive done both before and its going to confuse you... When I was doing WW and MFP I noticed that I was eating about 800 cals a day and started questioning a lot of things.. MFP is more open on what u can eat just as long as u dont go over your program... I really like MFP way better

WWH_AJ

My mom counts her points and has lost 30 lbs in four months. I buy the smart ones and get the ones that are about 6 to 7 points, but I record everything I eat here. Being conscious of the points and everything has gotten me better in tuned with my portion control and has helped me lose a few pounds since I started counting. I feel like WW points are good for when you go into a restaurant and don't know what you should get. A lot of the foods are easy to look up online. Two weeks ago I ate at Chili's for lunch and then went with my boyfriend and his mom to Logan's for dinner and was a pound lighter the next morning because I chose one of those lunch specials at Chili's where they give you half of a sandwich, a small order of fries, and a mini salad and then ate a bun-less burger at Logan's with broccoli. So it just really depends.

gatorgirl7

funny you should post this b/c i've actually done both--separately and together. i lost the bulk of my weight on ww...and then hit a plateau...for months and months. i was down to 20 or 21 points/day which is hardly anything after you get your milks and proteins in. the program DOES work (i lost about 50 lbs) -- but i wanted to lose more and i was training for a half marathon and not losing anything...so i started doing mfp at the same time...and i started eating more...and lost 3 lbs in a week. i wasn't eating enough. even now, my trainer has me on a 1600 calorie diet which i think is way more than i used to have on ww. i have a friend who took a nuitrition class and figured it out, points vs. calories, and her daily points values was accurate for calories. mfp is very similar to ww--there is something to be said for face to face interaction and accountability, i've been back on here for a few months (without ww) and i really like it...but i learned a lot of the basics of weight loss from ww...how to prep your food ahead of time, plan your meals a day in advance so you know what you'll be eating, work in exercise, etc. i like them both--and believe in both. i would try mfp and if it doesn't work, try ww. it can't hurt--if only for a few weeks. good luck

staceyseeger

I followed WW from May 2010 until two weeks ago. I lost about 45 lbs on WW. I totally support WW & the Points Plan. It worked for me. I have met my weight loss goal & now I am using MFP to maintain. It's free & I think its a little easier to track foods than WW is. This might be because I have made a lifestyle change. I am glad that I started with WW because it gave me realization to my eating habits. Good luck to you!

Feddyvon

I just signed up for MFP today, after working on the WW Online plan since March 1st.

For me, starting on WW first was the right way to go because I felt more disciplined and tied to the program because I was paying for it. It worked very well too, I lost a lot of weight fast, and actually had to make an effort to reach my points daily. It helped me build the healthy eating habits that I use now daily, so I've cancelled that account, and will not be counting points any longer. I've joined MFP to track calories and progress, and these online tools are wonderful.

I don't think MFP alone would have worked well for me from the start though. The Free pricing would have made it hard to focus and track my entries as much as needed I believe. Now that I've laid the groundwork and am more than halfway to my goal weight, I think it will accomplish exactly what I need.

kamoira23

I'm actually (kind of) doing both now.

I have been doing WW online since December. I lost pretty rapidly in the beginning because I was really following the plan perfectly. After a few months, I started gaining just because I wasn't motivated anymore. I would stop tracking for a few days at a time, then halfway track what I felt like tracking. In total, I lost about 30lbs on WW. As you lose weight, your target point goal gets significantly smaller, and it's pretty small to begin with. I got back to seriously doing WW in May, but found that I wasn't losing any weight anymore while tracking everything and staying below my point goal. I lost maybe 1lb the entire month, and was constantly hungry and cranky. I'm not much fun to be around when I'm hungry and cranky! Especially in a NC summer where it's hot!! :]

I found MFP on my cell phone and started to do it a few weeks ago. Since then, I've lost 6lbs. I started out tracking with both WW and MFP just to see the difference, and I was always WAY over in my WW points, but under in my MFP calories. This week I've decided not to track with WW during the week, and instead just go by MFP. I find when I track with both, I would always pay more attention to WW... so if I were over in points, I would stop eating, regardless of how many calories I had left on MFP. At the end of the week, I'll track everything on WW to see what my point total was. I weighed myself this morning, and I've already lost 2lbs since Sunday morning's weigh in solely using MFP.

So: why I think MFP is a better program -
1)Tracking food: the MFP food catalog is FULL of brands, restaurants, etc. where the WW food catalog is much, much smaller. This also accounted for my lack of motivation to track some foods. If you eat at a restaurant, when you use WW, you have to figure out all the nutritional values yourself and add them in manually (which is REALLY more of a pain than it seems considering a lot of restaurants don't even put their nutritional info where it's easy to find). But I've yet to run into a restaurant that I've eaten at that I can't find in the MFP food catalog.
2)Hungry (all.the.time): I realized, while doing both WW and MFP that WW severely limits your caloric intake, so if you exercise on top of eating your small allotment of points, your body is severely malnourished. Which just leads to me being cranky!
3)Convenience: I love the MFP phone app. I have an android phone, and the WW app was just released for android. It's slow and buggy still, making it a pain to actually need to be on your computer to track most foods. MFP's android app is good for tracking... although I wish that it did more than JUST track (but that's for another post!).
4)Cost: When I signed up for WW, I got some deal with some months free or something (I can't remember that long ago). I just saw on my credit card statement that now, my monthly fee is less than $20. I don't remember the exact amount, maybe $16-17? That's only for online access... to a tracker, blogs, recipes, etc. but no face-to-face meetings. It's not too bad of a deal, but why pay when MFP is free!?! :]

Anyway, I didn't intend on writing a book here, sorry! I can update you with my total weight loss using MFP after I compare the WW points this week if anyone would like to hear the difference. I might actually cancel my WW membership after this week if I end up losing a lot only using MFP (which looks like it might be the case).

Good luck!

stephrawrrr

I used to be a regular member of WW since I was 15 and I lost 25 lbs the first time around. Then I gained it back, went on again, etc etc. Then once I found MFP, I realized that I liked it a lot better. There are a lot more food options since members can put in their own stuff and it has a better mobile app. The only thing that I don't really care for is that a lot of good, fat-burning exercises aren't on the MFP database but hey, what are you gonna do? I think doing both at the same time isn't a good idea--since WW goes by points and takes into account your carbs, fiber, protein and fat content, MFP is better for people who just want to stick to calorie counting and MFP have limits set for each day. I dunno, I like this site much better!