Weight Watchers!? Who's done it!?

Oh my husband started WW Online in January - he's down 20 lbs so far.

My mom lost 65 lbs on WW Points Plus at the same time I did - she's still at goal as well.

So yes it works.

Did it, and actually still have a couple months left on WWonline that are pre-paid. It's not a bad program and you can lose weight. The pluses were how it promoted healthy choices because fruits and veggies were 'free' so they were always a good snack choice instead of packaged snacks, and how it promoted getting your servings of produce, water, and healthy fats. The support is nice too, but honestly if you are just going to do online, you are better off saving your money and using the MFP trackers and online community. It's free and more accurate because it actually tracks your caloric intake which is the true determination of weight loss. I also in the past week (which is how long I've been on MFP) have learnt A LOT about how important fat and protein are in your metabolism and why it's important to make sure you have a caloric deficit to lose, but not too large of one. That part was missing with my online WW experience. Maybe the inperson meetings have more value.

I did it recently and did lose weight on it, but like other members here said, the whole point thing didn't make any sense. They had free foods which you could eat and it didn't count as any points, but fruit and vegetables do have calorie value. Weight watchers wanted you to eat the healthy fruits and vegetables and not use points so you feel full and make better choices, but it was like I wasn't counting my fruits especially because they had no point value. The meetings I did not like at all, they were a waste of time except to get you weighed and informational meeting. If you have a smartphone, they have a great app, but it is 14.95 a month, and you can quit the membership and do it on your own and drop to etools which is what you get for the 14.95 a month. So, I dropped that after a while. Also, my main reason for dropping it, was the online fior weight watchers was terrible, there was no support like there is here on MFP. I am not bashing Weight watchers because it does work depending on the type of person you are and what you like. Me personally, I like to interact with people, like here on MFP, and weight watchers it was like I was the only one on it and no support or motivation from your peers. That is my opinion. Hope it helps! Good luck!

Alright guys, I was contemplating doing weight watchers because, well, who DOESN'T wan't Jennifer Hudson's awesome slammin' body? Anyhoo....it was just a THOUGHT so was going to ask who all has;

Done it?
Is doing it?
What did you like the most?
What DON'T you like about it?
Do you notice you have problems with anything?
Is it easy?
What's the hardest thing about it?
How successful are you?
How many lbs per week do you estimate you lose?


And if you guys can think of anything more please please feel free to share!


Thanks!
Sarah

Done it? Yes. Four times as a paying member. Three times in meetings and once online only. I'm a pro. LOL

Is doing it? Nope

What did you like the most? The recipe builder. Seriously it calculated my meals which I thought to be awesome. MFP has it too, and free!

What DON'T you like about it? #1 Cost. But lets face it we would all pay anything to lose the weight so who cares about that. #2 Meetings would totally get off track and was a bit like high school cliches #3 I could not keep the weight off and found myself saving points for crap food.

Do you notice you have problems with anything? I think that I ate more processed foods because they were lower points. Lots and lots of 1 and 2 point snacks just so I could eat more throughout the day. In the end that actually makes you hungrier. The new 360 program gives you free fruit. Which is crazy and made me GAIN weight. When I first did WW in 2007 a banana was 3pts and now its 0pts. Explain that to me please.

Is it easy? It is because there are tons of phone apps including ones made by weight watchers. But they push you to buy lots of books and gadgets to make it easier. I would spend $40 a month on my membership and another $20 easily on "stuff" at meetings.

What's the hardest thing about it? Sticking to it afterwards. Because its all points you get used to never having a clue what food really has in it. You see a can of green beans and know they are zero points so you can eat ten cans if you want. I think MFP or any calorie based program is better, because its calories that make us or break us.

How successful are you? I struggle.... a lot, but I always get back at it. I have a long journey ahead of me. I lost 40lbs on weight watchers and gained every bit of it back plus another 40! So what's that tell ya!

How many lbs per week do you estimate you lose? 1-3

***** Good luck in whatever you do! Feel free to add me if you'd like. If you can find a good meeting its great to go in and be held accountable which is what truly worked about WW for me. I do love MFP and will never pay to be on WW again!

Years ago, I did it and reached goal, so I'm a lifetime member. I returned when the weight came back--three times.
The third time I reached a plateau that I couldn't break, began slowly regaining the weight, and received no help from meeting facilitators despite waiting numerous times after meetings to get help. They left the meeting as soon as it broke up, or talked to one or two people and left the rest of us standing in line as they walked out the door.
I agree with the comment that all the freebies add up--they may have been my problem.
The people attending the meetings were helpful with tips and recipes, but I needed more than their help.

I did Weight Watchers between February 23, 2012 and the end of March 2013. I liked it and found the program fairly easy to follow. I did limit my fruits to 2 a day and the rest of my free things from veggies though. It helped keep my blood sugar in check too. I found the program fairly easy to follow and lost 79 lbs in the time I followed it.

My main complaint is with their customer service, at least for the .ca part. My meeting was in Minnesota since I live on the border and it was less than five minutes away, but they closed it with one week notice and I was forced to drive an hour to finish out the month on my monthly pass. It became inconvenient to attend and added a lot more money to the already expensive costs.

I emailed the company to switch from the monthly pass to e-tools/on-line only, including some questions I needed answered before I made the switch. When I logged in the next day all my stuff was gone. I was paid through the end of March, but they just cancelled it without notice or answering the questions asked. I finally got an email from them 4 days later, after cancellation, telling me they'd credited my account for the April pass that went out and to follow a link to get etools set up. Which ended up requiring me to pay a $40 sign up fee....ffs I was already a member and now they expect me to re-register? Um, no.

Weight Watchers is a good program, but I get the feeling people are just money to them outside of the meeting leaders/members. They don't reply in a timely manner to questions and concerns. It's expensive. I was paying almost $60 a month for 4 meetings and the ability to track online. MFP is free and you can do the same basic thing.

Since switching over I track my fruit and veggies and I'm still losing weight. This week I'm down 1.8lbs.

I did it for three months. It just wasn't me. I was entering my recipes in MFP to calculate points and wanted to see my macros so I was double logging. As for the "free points", from my readings on it- they calculated an estimated amount a typical peron would/should eat and it is a part of the calculations. So as long as a person doesn't eat a huge amount, then they will be fine. From the website:


"Are there situations when I need to count PointsPlus values for fruit?
No, not for fresh fruit. Yes, fruit does have calories, and it contains fiber and other nutrients. But we’re assuming that you’ll eat a certain amount of fresh and other unsweetened fruit (veggies, too) each day, and have taken that into account when giving you your daily PointsPlus Target."


I even calculated my points and my TDEE 15%- and they were very close calorie wise. I just like more information about my food. Plus, their database sucks! I am healthier from MFP.

Yes, I did it (more times than i care to think about)
Not doing it now, as of late it was 2010 when I was last on the program
I loved the meetings.i would cry sometimes just knowing, omg im not the only person in the world who does that! Our leader was very inspirational and funny.
I did not like loggin my food as points. I tried to still do it and MFP but it wasnt working out.
No major problems..
I didnt think it was hard but none of this is that easy. Now i think it has become easier with scanning options and everything being more accessible.
The hardest thing for me was changing the way i thought about things to stay on program. But that had little to do with WW.
I had lost 37.5 lbs during my time on the program. It was the most weight i ever lost in my lifetime of dieting. I do not do the program now but do not hesitate to credit it with changing things for me to be able to keep pushing ahead!

All the best to you!

Alright guys, I was contemplating doing weight watchers because, well, who DOESN'T wan't Jennifer Hudson's awesome slammin' body? Anyhoo....it was just a THOUGHT so was going to ask who all has;

Done it?
Is doing it?
What did you like the most?
What DON'T you like about it?
Do you notice you have problems with anything?
Is it easy?
What's the hardest thing about it?
How successful are you?
How many lbs per week do you estimate you lose?


And if you guys can think of anything more please please feel free to share!


Thanks!
Sarah

I did it for a while. I liked it because i lost weight and it tought me how to eat even when i was out. I didnt like all the points counting and calculating. HATED THAT.

I find it was like a Pre Req Class to MFP. It helped me alot because once i started MFP it was kind of stuff i already knew but i find that MFP is much better for me personally because it doesnt require me doing all the calculations and adding the points. Its simple, easy and i can see what i ate.

I would rather stick to MFP.

Done it THREE (or more) times - they change it constantly and I think I have tried every one!!

They allow me TOO many calories and usually HIGH carbs. I had A LOT of success on it in 2000 - after that not so much. I was just on it a few month ago and I stopped...it DOES work for a ton of people - for me it just was not what I needed. You can not go anywhere without a calculator (theirs) to calculate points. And now with free veggie / fruits it ups your calories even more. Was too much work for me!

I highly recommend to try it as alot of what I do now is based on WW - my friend lost 100 lbs last year (one year) on it!!

Done it? Yep, but stopped when I started MFP

Is doing it? No.

What did you like the most? If you stick to it, you lose weight. I had an amazing leader too- she made me look forward to going to meetings. The weigh-in accountability helped

What DON'T you like about it? Although they encourage healthy choices, you can stay under your points eating nothing but crap, so I never got out of the habit of eating crap, which led to falling off the wagon a lot.

Do you notice you have problems with anything? Same as what I didn't like about it. It encouraged healthy eating and exercise but there wasn't any accountability in that regard.

Is it easy? It's a simple plan but I had a hard time sticking with it.

What's the hardest thing about it? Sticking with it. No one called me out if I slacked and missed meetings, and making healthy choices and exercising were basically optional. It was mostly about calorie deficit- nothing more, nothing less.

How successful are you? I lost and gained 20 lbs twice.

How many lbs per week do you estimate you lose? I was told to expect 1-2 lbs a week. When I stuck with it, I lost 1-4 lbs a week.


MFP is basically the same thing but without meetings and it tracks calories and macros instead of points. I started Curves Complete a month ago and THAT I love! I'm expected to get a certain number of steps per day and do the circuit 3-4 times a week. I also have a meal plan to help guide my eating and to make sure I eat HEALTHY, not just at a calorie deficit. I weigh-in weekly and get measured (inches and BF %) monthly, and I meet with a coach weekly so go over how I did that week, any struggles/successes, etc. Plus everyone is very friendly- it's a fun, positive place to go with a TON of support.

I tried one meeting. In it, we were lectured for 25 minutes about how cheese was the Devil. And then got told how easy it was to buy WW branded microwave meals instead.

I wasn't impressed.

I tried one meeting. In it, we were lectured for 25 minutes about how cheese was the Devil. And then got told how easy it was to buy WW branded microwave meals instead.

I wasn't impressed.

Precisely why I'm Online only, and don't go to meetings. That would annoy the heck out of me.

I like how the plan is so flexible and you can tailor it to fit what you like, as long as you get in the good health guidelines (proteins, fruits/veggies, healthy oil, etc.)

I also eat cleaner than I have in my whole life. You can eat the microwave meals if you want to, but you absolutely do not have to.

I was always curious about the points to calories equivalency so when I started back on WW again this week, I also tracked on MFP and you are correct - 29 pts is roughly 1400 calories. With MFP I was limiting myself to 1200 calories. I will see next week how my body responds.

The minimum WW will take a woman to is 26 points. This is roughly 1200 calories if you include the free fruit and veggies.

I know there are MANY people on here who will tell you 1200 is not enough, and I am one of them. When I was losing weight, the lowest I went was 29, which was about 1400.

So no, WW does NOT give you too many calories.

I was on WW a couple of years ago and lost a substantial amount of weight. I lost about .5 to 1 pound a week. The leader was very motivational and gave a lot of really good health and fitness information. But i didn't find any really "support" at the meetings. The new WW points plan does have most fruits and veggies "free." However, that doesn't meant that they are unaccounted for. With the new plan you have to find your points on their points calculator. Apparently, they have developed a calculation that includes fruits and veggies in your numbers automatically, whether you eat them or not. I understand that the thinking is that if they are free more people will choose the healtier foods. However, it means that you are tied to WW forever, because you need the calculator.

I didn't like that WW was so expensive and I didn't like that your decisions are made by arbitrary numbers assigned by WW, not numbers that are used in general. However, what I did learn by having to do those calculations is to really analyze the food lable, because not all calories are the same. For instance, a high fiber, low fat food choice is better than a high carb, high fat food choice even if the calories are the same. But, MFP offers the bigger picture of being able to look at your choices over a full day to see how they stack up. I really like that much better than WW.

I'm new to MFP, but I think it gives me the same sort of information. And it seems like I'm able to make better choices and stay in a my calorie count without trouble so I'm very happy so far. Hopefully, I'll have the same sort of weight loss.