To go back to Weight Watchers or not???

levstein

A lot of people I know have done the WW programme. I think the main downside is the weekly meeting for weigh-in and support. It gives people a week to cheat mess-up etc before getting back on track for the weigh-in so they don't focus on the healthy eating and fitness on a daily basis which is the plus-side of MFP. MFP is totally free there's no advertising no selling food recipe books scales etc with the WW logo. If you have followed the WW programme 7 times and you have still not achieved the healthy body inside and out which you desire perhaps it's time to follow the MFP path to achieve success.
WW make money out of people's failure. They make money out of people buying their food with the "points" worked out for them on the packaging making it easier for people to add up their points. They are in the diet industry to make money and they do that very successfully. As for the dieters they lose the weight and then return again and again to lose the weight over and over. Time to try a different approach I think.

67butterfly

I have done ww for 20 plus years. I am a lifetime member. I think we all need a net at some point in our lives ( or several times in our lives) I love weight watchers. It is expensive if you're not at your goal weight, and i was also paying for e-tools. Then i discovered MFP. I was actually curious to see how closely related the two programs were. So for the first 2 weeks i did compare the two. I tracked my points (i was allowed 26 a day.) and i tracked my calories (1200 a day not very active with the exercise part). At the end of the day my calories and points were very close in comparison as to what i had eaten, mind you i did eat rather healthy. As far as tracking through e-tools and tracking with mfp, i found it incredibly easier with mfp. I believe the data base for mfp is quite larger than e-tools, and it is faster. I like mfp a lot better than e-tools. However, as i tracked both points and calories, i could see how fruit and vegetables were putting me over in my calories (most fruit and veggies are free with ww for those who don't know) I was eating up to 3 bananas a day because they were a free food!. I was also eating frozen mangos by the bag. ...Uhm hello? Yes i know, everything in moderation, but if a program tells me it's free, i'm going to eat it. So, my eye opener was MFP. Why have i spent so much on a program (WW) when i can get it for FREE? I have since cancelled e-tools. I have to admit, that i am having a hard time not going to WW meetings. They are fun, and encouraging. It's a nice "me time". I will probably go when i get back down to my goal weight ONLY because it's free for me. If i were you, i'd just do mfp. They are sooo similar. So why not do the program that's free, and have a ton of support from the mfp community on a daily basis instead of once a week? Save your money, and buy a fit bit or body bug. Believe me i would have dropped WW years ago if MFP was available in the first place!

67butterfly

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HurricaneElaine

I've been on WW three times in the past five years or so. I've had much more success with MFP. My wallet thanks me too: I'm not spending $40 a month for meetings that I don't enjoy with a leader that I don't like.

kimothy38

If in doubt don't! If you need to debate with yourself about doing WW then you're not 100% mentally committed to the idea. Knowing that the programme works and actually wanting to do it are 2 different things. Most of us actually how to eat well, it's putting that into practice that's the issue. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Raylea00

Thanks for all the great information and opinions, friends. I keep going back to WWs because I was successful with it the first time, losing 40 pounds. BUT that took me over a year to lose. I lost steam with it then and decided to give it a break. The several times I have went back, I would lose 10 pounds but then get discouraged. I have had no success on the new points plus system. I see people lose with it, so I know it can be done. It just hasn't clicked for me, and I keep hoping by going back it will; but I think a lot of you are right, why spend the money when I have great support here. For me, the biggest thing I was looking for was that person to hold me accountable. To have to look that person in the face when I weigh in and see if I did good or not and either be encouraged by my progress or feel shame that I didn't succeed. In the end, I know that I have to develop my willpower and hold myself accountable. MFP is a GREAT site with GREAT support. I will utilize it as best I can and hope it will click for me as it has all of you. Thanks again for the great advice and encouragement!!

freew67

The best quote Ive seen about dieting is, "Diets are not a sprint but a marathon." Look in the mirror and thats the only face that should matter if you did good or not. Folks can encourage you all they want, but at the end of the day its up to you and ONLY YOU for this to work. Good luck!

http://freew67.blogspot.com/

bwlee716

I just cancelled my WW and decided to use the FitBit Ultra, the Aria Scale and MFP. What I find interesting about points plus is veggies and fruit are zero points. However, the last time I was doing WW, I gained weight. They told me to knock off the fruit for awhile because I may have been eating too much. It's difficult to know how much to eat before it moves out of the zero points category! Interestingly, while I'm using MFP to track, every fruit I eat has calories!!!! Confusing? So I think MFP is way more accurate. You might try using a pedometer and tracking through MFP for a few months before spending anymore $$$.

maureenofojai

I've done WW several times and always found the weigh-ins when I didn't NOT lose weight totally humiliating. I gave up for years and have been getting slowly but surely bigger every year.
I saw how good my daughter was looking and found out about MFP that way. Scanning bar codes for nutritional information and calories looked like so much fun, too! Now it's just me who sees the scale and I consistently record it once a week.
What I find to be a key element of my success with MFP (12 pounds lost in 50 days) is the caloric baseline and getting calories added in for my exercise. With other estimators like WW and Sparkpeople, you get this range of calories. I thought of myself as "moderately active" but, after looking at MFP's definition, I registered as "sedentary". That means I know how much to eat on those no exercise days, and exactly how much to add for the amount of exercise I get. Does the WW etools have the same feature?