MFP vs Weight Watchers?

busymom557

Hi All-

I've been on WW online since late January and have been doing very well, but I thought I'd check out MFP since it seems pretty similar in concept, it's FREE, and the phone app seems better than the WW one. Wondered if there's anyone who's been on MFP who has also done WW and what your thoughts are about the difference/similarities/benefits?

Thanks!

BIGJIMMYU

Hey, How you doing? I have never done ww but if you hit the search function at the top of your page and type in weight watchers or "ww" there have been loads of ww coments and posts on here in the past. You should get some great info from them! I love mfp and it is free.

coconutbuNZ

I'm guessing WW base their points system on a typical 1200 calorie a day diet anyway. To test this, you can count the calories of what you would eat in a day on the WW plan. I've done WW before and it definitely works but the money I save from not paying for WW is going towards my exercise classes.

tcat2012

I did ww online and liked it, but I think the montly fee is too high for what you're getting. MFP is better in my opinion; I also like that you can track your macros (when I belonged to ww you only tracked points...don't know if that's changed or not). It's also easier to track calories than points (again, just my my opinion). Also, MFP is more fitness-health oriented...I remember on the ww message boards it seemed as if a lot of talk was about low point puddings, cakes, etc. and I never liked the idea of trying to lose weight while eating junk. Finally...I like weighing in daily and tracking my fluctuations (I know most people don't think daily weighing is a good idea) but ww only lets you record yor weight weekly.

BeckySmith44

I tried it briefly but hated the points system.

litatura

I'm guessing WW base their points system on a typical 1200 calorie a day diet anyway. To test this, you can count the calories of what you would eat in a day on the WW plan. I've done WW before and it definitely works but the money I save from not paying for WW is going towards my exercise classes.

I track using WW and MFP and to stay in my daily points range (26) I can typically eat between 1200-1400 calories.

saragato

I've personally never been on Weight Watchers but my mother was some years ago. She lost 100lbs but when her work quit having it for the employees she stopped since she couldn't afford the fees (it was relatively free at her work) and she tried to continue eating well but she was lost as far as calories and what was really going in her body every day. She ended up gaining it all back.

I think if you can incorporate more universal terms to the whole points thing then it's easier to go with even when you've stopped using WW.

Kathkeb

I don't do WW on line, because I am a Lifetime member, and attend in-person meetings for free.
I don't want to pay for something that I have earned for free --- I think that there should be a way for Lifetimer's to access their site (with our memebership number) for free.

So --- I come here to track and use the community boards and I attend WW in person on Saturday mornings.

I will say that the monthly weigh-in helps to keep me accountable.

kaitlynnrogers

honestly, this is much better..weight watchers can have you eating less than 1200 calories a day..you need to NET above your BMR so your body can burn fat instead of getting rid of lean muscle..

see my post for everyone who had success:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/539980-people-who-have-had-success-by-upping-their-calories

MommaTLE

I did Weight Watchers a couple years ago and lost over 25 pounds. I loved it. However, I think MFP much easier to use and love the phone app. It is all about exercise and portion control and love that MFP is free.

coconutbuNZ

I've learnt that the only support and motivation I need is within my own mind. Some people need to go to meetings for people support and that's fine. However, there's heaps of people support in here too. I don't need WW but I do need MFP (or something outside of myself) to make me accountable. So easy to cheat when you don't have a plan.

bcampbell54

It depends on your temperament.
My wife is doing very well with weight watchers, and she had much more modest success here.
On the other hand, the points confuse me, and I would much rather tweak things here.
Burn more, eat less, and however you get there, as long as it's healthy, is fine.

Kahlan_sw

I've done both . I never really loved WW online (I prefered the meetings)... yet for an online system I love MFP by far over WW. I like not having to calculate out points. a calorie is a calorie and therefore it takes less figuring. HOWEVER the thing to keep in mind is that WW scales points values partly to encourage you to eat healthier foods so if you are going to switch to MFP set some fruit, veg and lean protein goals so you continue to consciously make those good decisions

Coco_Puff

I never learned half as much about how to eat healthy at weight watchers as I have here. When I did WW I lost, but the importance of strength training to build muscle was never brought up. I see changes in my body following MFP that wasn't happeing on WW. And I have to say the info I have learned from the the MFP members has been awesome. I learned here more than anything that you must eat to lose and that the muscle I'm building through resistance training will help me burn fat 24/7, this in turn will help me to keep the weight off.

MelissaGraham7

Once you get familiar with Weight Watchers, you can easily follow it here for tracking. You know what you can eat if you've been doing it while and maybe even have some of the books. I spent about 2 years analyzing and over that 2 years it very steadily came out to 40 calories per Weight Watchers point. SO, you can follow Weight Watchers here - eating a reasonable diet with portion control, and you know how much Weight Watchers says for you to eat per day in points, etc. You can do the same thing here.

SafireBleu

weight watchers can have you eating less than 1200 calories a day..you need to NET above your BMR so your body can burn fat instead of getting rid of lean muscle..

You can eat more than 1200 calories if you make the right food choices. I have been doing both WW and MFP for a while. I eat around 1600 calories sometimes more. I make healthy lower point choices, fruits and veggies are free, and I eat back my activity points and my weekly points. You can also do simply filling which will have you making good healthy food choices and netting over 1200 calories. That said, I think you can be just as effective here if you don't stick with a 1200 calorie diet, but exercise and eat at least your BMR. I like WW for the community. I have made good friends there so I have not left. I log in both places and I like doing that. At the end of the day it is all about making good healthy food choices and burning more calories than you eat. IMO you should use which ever forum you think is easier to use and offers you the type of support you need.

chrishgt4

From what I know of it, the difference basically comes down to:

On weight watchers, they have all the information, and use it to create a set of rules for their clients to stick by.

On MFP, you get your own knowledge and create your own rules (with the aid of MFPs calculations) on how to progress.

I really disagree with organisations like WW if I'm honest. I don't believe in the way they work and I think they charge a lot of money for information that is readily available if people were only to look.

Also, I don't like that success is measured at 'weigh ins'. As most people on here, I'm sure, know, weight isn't the necessarily best judge of progress.

It's comparable to always having used a calculator and so not knowing how to add up yourself. One day the calculator isn't going to work and you will be totally lost. Get the information to make your own informed choices.

Travelfixer

Yes done WW twice, didn't lose a thing, since being on MFP lost 14 lbs, love it!

UrbanRunner81

I discovered MFP after using WW for 3 months. I dropped it and started using this. it is same concept and it is free.

busymom557

Thanks for all the replies! I think I'll try tracking both places for a while how see how it goes. So far it's a bit confusing; e.g. right now I am under my daily WW pts by 2, but on MFP I am over my allotted calories by 289 even when my activity for the day was added in. I'm not sure how I'd be able to succeed that way. I've lost steadily on WW (online only, no meetings) but I know when I reach goal I'll have to keep on paying to use the tools and I'm not happy about that. So we'll see how it goes I guess!

busymom557

I discovered MFP after using WW for 3 months. I dropped it and started using this. it is same concept and it is free.

Wow I just looked at your profile and see how successful you've been! That is encouraging, given what you said above. Thanks for the input!

LReneeWalker

I just switched because this is free. The only thing I dont like is counting the fruit and veggie calories where on WW those are 0 pp. I loved WW PP but not the cost. I have only been doing this a few days. I do like it. I wondered about just logging the calories from the other foods and not the fruits and veggies but not sure how that will work on here.

beckajw

The MFP phone app is a lot better than the WW phone app.

The basic concept of the two plans is pretty close--eat whatever you want as long as you stay within the points/calories allotted to you, and eat back your exercise calories (although WW only allows you to eat back 1/2 of your exercise calories). The main difference is you don't get to roll over extra calories to use for the week with MFP.

I would do both for a month and decide whether you really feel the need to keep paying for WW.

bfmcfade

Was doing WW until they changed the program recently. Fruits and vegetables that were no points made no sense. They still had calories, but no points. I really wasn't happy with WW after the program change. Weight wasn't really dropping. MFP has helped me drop 15 pounds in four weeks.

LWriter

I think you learn a lot more about NUTRITION with MFP. And it's FREE!


I may not have lost some random weeks on WW because of high sodium days or high carb days, for example, but I never knew why because there was no way to really track that on WW. It was just about points. You really didn't get to learn about food.


I had gone to meetings and been online but I feel like I get much more support here, too.

MAZMcCormick

The one thing I liked about WW is I lost weight consistently and so far I'm struggling since I started MFP, but overall I like MFP better.

busymom557

So is there a way, and does it make sense, to modify the calorie count that is set for you? One thing that has worked for me on WW is having the flexibility of the "weekly points." I almost always stick to my daily points only, but those extra points allow me to eat out, for example, and go a bit over on one meal. I've been losing steadily. How would I account for that on MFP? Eating the exact same calories every day seems like it might be harder.

beckajw

So is there a way, and does it make sense, to modify the calorie count that is set for you? One thing that has worked for me on WW is having the flexibility of the "weekly points." I almost always stick to my daily points only, but those extra points allow me to eat out, for example, and go a bit over on one meal. I've been losing steadily. How would I account for that on MFP? Eating the exact same calories every day seems like it might be harder.

There is really no way to do it on MFP the way it happens on WW. That is, you don't have any extra calories set aside for the week and the exercise calories don't go into a bank that can be used on a different day.

What you can do though, is intentionally eat less during the week and then on the weekend, add up all those "remainder calories" so you can eat more. In that context, it's not nice and simple like WW.

MammaC66

I just switched from Weight Watchers and I think WW and MFP are very similar. They are both based on good nutrition and learning new, better eating habits so that you can also keep the weight off. I think WW is a good plan, but I can do the same thing here for free, and I think MFP data base is much, much better. I haven't found a food that is not in it, and not everything I ate was in the WW data base.

amyy902

weight watchers make nice ice cream, mfp is yet to offer me this.....


i dont know the differnence. im not even here for the wieght thing. but i think ww uses a point system so you can save calories and stufff.

ttnozawa

I was on Weight Watchers for about a year and lost 12lbs and am looking to lose about 5 more. Based on a recommendation of a coworker, I started using MFP because it is free (instead of $18/month for WW).

My biggest issue with switching from WW to MFP is compensating for the fruit. On WW, they are 0 points but here I have to accommodate for the calories, which tends to be around 40% of my daily allowance. So far, it has not been going well, I seem to go over my calories almost every day. Any suggestions on how to compensate for this? Maybe I should be looking for fruit with less calories? I'm in the habit of eat two bananas per day but that is like 214 calories...