Greetings, everyone!

BamaKevinT

Greetings, everyone! My name is Kevin, as you can see, and I am originally from Montgomery, Alabama (Roll Tide!)

I am currently stationed in Houston, Texas as a Marine Science Technician in the United States Coast Guard, and I am 23 years old. I suppose I will start with a back story:

I was relatively fit in Junior High and High School, and I never really considered myself overweight until an injury I sustained while in training in the Coast Guard. I herniated a disc in my back, specifically the L5-S1, and it was pinching my sciatic nerve running down my right leg. It took the military a year to finally properly diagnose me, and another 7 months to recover from surgery. I was pretty much out of the picture, and eating whatever I could get my hands on because of the pain medication. I blame it on the medication, but it was likely due to severe boredome.

I am 5'9" and as a result of the injury, I found myself at 220 lbs. I was not very happy with myself, and decided I needed to change. I joined WeightWatchers, and eventually dropped all the way to 179, which is about 19 pounds away from my goal weight.

Fast forward to present day, and I'll tell you that I completely fell off of my WeightWatchers plan while I was on leave because it was too difficult to keep up with while I was visiting family and going out to eat a lot. I got back on the program about a month ago, and I am at a steady 180, but I haven't really lost much considering that I've been doing more physical activity. I decided to look into calorie counting rather than carbohydrates/fat/protein/fiber. Through research, I found that you need to have a deficit of roughly 3,500 calories to burn a pound of fat. Because of this, I'm not really sure how WeightWatchers works. I like "MyFitnessPal," because it counts fruit, and it makes sense. Fruits have natural sugars and calories, and to me, if you eat 3,000 calories of fruit, and don't work out, you aren't going to lose any weight. Although you may be eating healthier, you are still not getting a calorie deficit at the end of the week.

MyFitnessPal seems to be a better fit for my wife and I, as she has already lost some weight using it, and I am making steady progress. I hope to be around 170 in 5 weeks, so I'll keep my fingers crossed and keeping working hard for it!

Anyhow, I figure I'd introduce myself here. I'll ask around in here, and in another forum for better results, but while I'm here:

Has anyone had MORE success using MyFitnessPal over WeightWatchers? Does anyone have any feelings on way or another on the two diets? Thanks, and I look forward to meeting you all!