Why Weight Watchers Didn't Work for Me!

tlo23

I agree with you 100%!

SHernandez391

And I thought I was the only one x] It didn't work for me either!
And as far as changing eating habits, I think this works sooooo much better

csi4us

I agree with you. I am canceling my online to ww subscription which I pay $18 a month for .Dont get me wrong ww works I just prefer to use mfp. I am new to mfp and love it. Not just cause its free., but I love reading about other peoples successes. Hearing the struggles and mistakes as well as victories from real people will help me stay motivated. However I understand I am accountable for my own sucess in this life style journey. Add me as a friend if u are a positive person who is truly motivated to be healthier and lose weight!

meli_loses_it

10 years ago, a nutritionist told me I had to lose weight. DUH! As if I didn't know that! Anyway, she told me the 3 keys to lasting weight loss, as supported by some studies (I forget the names) were: 1) keeping a food diary, 2) exercise 3-5X per week, even if it was only 10 minutes at a time to start with, and 3) support system/support group.

I have lost all my weight on WW. It has worked for me because I already understand nutrition. The MOST important part for me is the support group. It's convenient that we have WW meetings at my work. Then I have a built-in, day in, day out support group, even when we're not having meetings. WW got me accustomed to tracking my food and has helped me with picking out light exercises to start with. I use MFP in conjunction to get more detailed data. No matter what you do, you will either be focused on points or calories. They are both numbers, just different numbers. With the WW Points Plus reshuffle, fattier foods having the same calories than a bigger plate of better-for-you foods have a higher point value. They have done this to help people make healthier/better choices. Remember, not everyone is as savvy as we MFP users.

What can I say? I'm a tools/data-junkie. I track my food on MFP, I go to my WW meetings and get weighed there. I use mapmywalk.com to track my walks with the GPS in my phone. I use calendar reminders to plan my workouts and to remind me to take my vitamins and cozi.com to plan my meals. I use Groupon and LivingSocial to get active and try new things like Bikram Yoga, CardioBarre, Boot Camp classes, etc.

No matter what, you have to be focused. If you need tools to help you stay focused, do it. It doens't matter what tool(s) you use, as long as they help you get focused on your goals. :happy:

Good luck everyone!

I wish I had been educated about nutrition before joining. I love the recipes and still go back to them, but at the time my focus was solely on weight loss and not nutrition. The data MFP gives me has helped me to understand nutrition better and that why I like it I'm glad you are having success on your journey and good luck to you

kellimr

I lost about 80 lbs on WW online 3 years ago. I made healthy choices and followed my points and lost about 12-14lbs/month. My points started out in the 30's but after all the weight lost they were down to about 23 and I just couldn't maintain on so few points. So now I have gained most of it back (completely my fault & I don't blame WW for it) and am having success here. The only thing I don't like about MFP is them subtracting the exercise points from my daily total so I don't log exercise points. If I eat exercise points I don't lose as quickly. Both are good tools but MFP is better for nutrition tracking and it's FREE!

lulaloops

If you do it properly, focus on eating a varied balanced nutritious diet - the word for food not what people perceive WW to be, it will definitely work!!! Its all about balanced meals, healthy portions and healthy minds.

I have been doing it for 20months and have lost 62.5lb so far, i use MFP alongside, more for curiousity than anything.
It works for some, not for others. simple as. If you do it right and properly then yes it wil work.

As long as you are all finding something that suits you then so be it. Good on You.

brendaj39

great job on your weight loss already, feel free to add me if you'd like..keep it up!

MAngel128

I have tried doing Weight Watchers four times in the past. Each time I have lost weight and think the program works if you stick to it and are able to correctly calculate exercise and portion sizes... However, I have quit each time and never reached my goal weight on the program. I think that was a little discouraging to me. I am quite active and I was never truly able to determine my needed number of points based on what I was burning. I would plateau. And stay there. After a week or so of that I would quit because I could not figure the system out. I am now trying this site and so far it seems pretty easy to use and makes calculating exercise into my daily totals much easier.

Great job to all of you who have already done so well with reaching your goals! Your stories are very inspiring, thank you!

LailaB123

Hello. I just joined MFP today, after years of WW ups and downs. I would very much appreciate being a friend to someone who has gone thru the same challenges, and would be willing to offer advice. I'm a TERRIFIC cheerleader! Thank you for your time.

bohonomad

Totally agree! I lost a lot of weight on WW but realised it was only because I was starving mysekf and avoiding good foods like almonds and avocado because they were high in points plus values. No diet should make you avoid healthy food!

jenluvsushi

I was a WW person for years....I lost some but nothing like since joining MFP. Although they claim to be pro whole foods, it's kinda hard to believe it when they are pimping every low calorie pre packaged snack at their meetings as well as the other processed food they endorse. Sometimes, not all calories are created equal and whoever wants to argue about that can bite me....what I do know is while on WW, I had the highest cholesterol of my life and I ate much less animal products then than I do today. I weighed quite a bit less than I do now too. I did cardio then too so I know it is not totally from exercise alone although now I am much more into lifting heavy over cardio. Eating 100 calorie packs of fake food filled with trace amounts of trans fat is just bad....period. end. I did it a lot...because it fit into my points allowance. I never considered sodium, fat or most importantly---protein! If WW works for you, great....I am so glad I found MFP and that I don’t have to figure out the new points+ system..lol!

Raylea00

I was on Weight Watchers for several years. The first time around, I had good results losing about 35 pounds and then I got stuck in a rut and gave up. I went back and as I was starting to see results again, they changed to the new Points Plus system. I stopped seeing results immediately and got discouraged. I started MFP several months ago and didn't stick with it because I mentally was not there, which I feel any lifestyle change will not work if your heart isn't into it. So now I am back, mentally prepared, and hope to get all the amazing results I have seen people get from this site and develop encouraging and positive friendships all of which will inspire me with my goals. Good luck to all and please feel free to add me as a friend!

Angie_1991

I also did WW. This is much better! Congrats!!!!

specialemy

I had joined Weight Watchers at 4 separate times, and I was the same as you, obsessing about not going over my points and not caring was it was that I ate. It's great that you have a more positive experience in tracking your food on here and plus it's free, here's to wishing you great success!

tvanhooser

Every lab result letter I get from my doctor recommends losing weight (which I finally got motivated enough to pay attention too...another story) by joining Weight Watchers. Never mind that paying out for anything like that no matter how good it may be just ain't in the budget cards....I just can't see or justify to myself paying someone else money to do something for me that I should be able to do for myself through discipline, exercise (no matter how much I hate it!) and healthier food choices. I'm nearly halfway (57.3 down) to my goal (114 down) and over half of that (about 29 down) is just since May when I got serious about this and joined MFP in early June. So I am a big fan of doing this myself with my support buddies from church than throwing money down a hole that may or may not actually work....especially since I know how to plan lifestyle diets, my husband being diabetic and all! Took the nutrition class, still have the notes and materials so I have no excuse not to apply it to myself!

mesdancer

The Weight Watchers meeting I went to focused a lot on nutrition - She had been a leader for 30 years and was great at her job!

However, I did not like paying for it and it was too much about the scale. I would always quit because I couldn't afford to keep paying for it.

LovelyLibra79

I have a different story..
I just joined WW ls monday..went to weigh in and lost 6.6 lbs in one week! AMAZING!
I've logged on MFP faithfully for 245 days! I've lost 29lbs using MFP and exercise but stalled and even gained 4 lbs in the past 2 months. I needed something different , so i followed my friend's advice and joined WW.
I can't believe MFP for my 4lb gain + stall and I'm not saying WW is a miracle..it's as simple as "different strokes for different folks", not to mention dieting is a rollercoaster..it's up and down at times.
There's nothing wrong with using more than one system to help you achieve your goal. I am still using MFP with WW etools and I log in both..yes its time consuming but they both offer different options.

FluffyToFab

WW didn't work for me.. I also felt starved and was only allowed 26pts..

This is only my second day.. I'm a mother to six (9,7,6,4, and 2 year old twins). I started my weight loss journey at the beginning of the year and got off track.. got back on track at the beginning of August and then found this site! I can say in just two days I have found great motivation and even greater inspiration.. If you (anyone) don't mind a lot of updating and lots of encouragement feel free to add me!!

Today for example.. I wanted a cupcake.. I mean really wanted one.. There are 4 sitting on my counter top in the kitchen.. With just a few comments on my "Tell me not to eat that cupcake" post I was able to not eat it! There are still 4 cupcakes in my kitchen.. Not eating a cupcake is huge for me as 1)I was really sick today and just wanted some comfort food and 2) It's TOM for me and chocolate is what I WANTED! But I resisted all thanks to my new huge circle of friends I made!

sherri321

I am on WW now. I was stalled in my progress. Instead of losing, I have been merely maintaining for most of this year--pretty much since they lowered the minimum points plus daily total from 29 to 26. Not all WW fault though. I was getting lax with tracking points. One thing to keep in mind about the WW point values is that carbs, fat, fiber, and protein are all taken into consideration when assigning points plus value.
I like MFP because I can see where I am at in all those areas for the day--not just if I ate more than my allotted 26 points. I have been tracking on here for I think about a month. I started so that I could see just how many calories my 26 points were and to see that I am getting the right amount of carbs, fiber, etc.