Weight Watchers and MFP and Calories and Points

fitOsaurus_Rex_we_changed · April 2013

I'm going to start this off by saying that I posted this same blog on Weight Watchers and only had one response...the response was to add veggies and fruits to up my calories. While that is a helpful response, it doesn't help me with the whole reason why I joined WW which was to stop focusing on calories.

Here's my delemia copied and pasted from my WW blog:

"So Sunday was the start of a new week for me. I WI and had lost 0.4lbs which puts me at 0.4 loss my first week, and 10.2lbs overall since I lost a little prior to joining WW. I'm pretty excited. I'm finally firmly planted in the 140's at 148.4. I'm a little bloated from bad weekend choices and eating all of my points and my weekly points already, but I know that if I continue to do well this week I will be fine and have a loss to post.

I had been calculating my calories on MyFitnessPal but switch to WW because I was becoming obsessive with calories and needed a break. I'm seeing on here though that I have to change my eating to stay within my points. Like on MFP I would be under my calories, but on here I'd be over my points. It's definitely about choices and I get that. But I didnt eat anything yesterday and then came dinner. 1/2 cup of rice, homemade strir fry, 12 oz of pepsi, and 2 cups buttered popcorn...BAM! Whole day's worth of points gone! But when I calculate out my calories I'm only at 850 calories, 124 carbs, 24gm fat, and 37 gm protein. That really doesn't sound like enough food. Now I'm not trying to get obsessive about calories. But I came to WW to make sure I was eating enough and count points over calories but now I am a little discouraged to see that so little calories made up the amount of points that I ate; I get 26 total.

I also juice a lot for my gastroparesis. I juiced 1 beet, 5 carrots, and 1 sweet potato and it was 8 points! That's lot of points for juice! Now I know most fruits and veggies are 0 points, but I also know that WW calculates things that are 0 points as more than that if you have more in one sitting or multiple 0 point items at a time....but 8 points?!? really? That's 2 more points than my low carb wrap with a piece of cheese and chicken on it. So you're telling me that this healthy stuff is more than that? Not really sure what to think about WW at this point....If anyone has some guidence I'd love it. But with the way things are right now I feel like I'd be better off sticking with MyFitnessPal and saving the money. "

Now I know the whole thing about the juice and all is stretching it a little and i'm really not that obsessive over calculating points for fresh fruit and veggie juice, but I was trying to prove my point. Someone suggested only counting the sweet potato...well that's still 6 points so it only saves me 2. I'm not trying to nit pick over numbers, but i'm trying to be healthy and lose weight without being so focused on calories. It's so discouraging to see that the one thing I thought would help might actually cause me to be eating too little. I know there are weekly points that you can eat and activity points that you can eat, but I DONT eat that stuff, just like I dont eat back exercise calories when I count calories. I just dont want to have found this out and be using WW as an excuse to eat low calorie but justify it by saying "i had all my points!" Thinking I might just ask for a refund and be done with WW since it seems like I'll have to log in both places to make sure I'm eating enough and that's only going to make me more obsessive about it.

What do you all think I should do? Please mind that this is a post about making sure i am eating ENOUGH. Please do not run with this and turn it into some post about ED's and things like that because it isn't helpful.

mrsfoster102613 · April 2013

I have to be honest and admit upfront I have never done WW. My close friend is doing it, though, so I’ve heard a lot about it from her. One of the things I disagree with regarding both WW and counting calories (each in its simplest form) is it neither seem to put enough emphasis on nutrition.

I use MFP, and yes I am aware of my calories. However, the main reasons I use MFP are:

1. I have come to love the community aspect.
2. I like having a basic way to track my exercise. I don’t feel I need any fancy equipment for that at this point.
3. I like that I can easily monitor items like: potassium, protein, carbs etc. I like the detailed break-down.

All that being said, as you know, I like to juice, too! When my friend who does WW came to visit, she plugged in one of my drinks to WW and said, “Oh, no girl, that’s too many points.”

Then she proceeded to order a slice of lemon pound cake and a creamy, sugary drink from Starbuck’s not 30 minutes later. There is no doubt in my mind that my freshly-made juice (with mostly green veggies and very little fruit) was a healthier choice in MANY ways. But because the points scared her, she wouldn’t even try it. That is just mind-boggling and sad to me. She’s in great shape because she works out, but I do not believe WW has helped her in achieving success.

Ultimately, it all comes down to what you need from either/both programs. For me, I like the topics I mentioned above. When I am eating a mostly clean, fresh and natural diet, I’m not really concerned with calories (and definitely not points). Just my two cents. Good luck, girl!

P.S. One thing I will say, in regards to the juice you made, the sweet potato (while very good for you in many ways) is considered to be a starch. That is probably why it was so many points. I’m not knocking it; just trying to explain why it might have been higher in points than the rest of the juice ingredients.

melsinct · April 2013

Stop using two different programs, especially if you don't want to become obsessive. A point is not a calorie and vice versa. You can't combine the two and not get confused or mixed messages. Pick either WW or MFP, stick with it a bit, and see what happens.

Calories to me make sense, points do not. They are even listed on the side of packaged foods. Points are a system made up my WW that periodically change when they change up their program so you have to re-buy their materials. MFP is free, WW is not. That is the thinking anyway that led me to MFP as opposed to WW. Use whatever program works for you but only use one program.

fitOsaurus_Rex_we_changed · April 2013

^^^ thank you for your input. i wanted to point out that i have been active on MFP since November and that's how I have lost most of my weight. but when i becamse obsessive about calories i started to look elsewhere for something that could help. that being said, i am not using two programs, but i was curious as to why so little food made so many points so i added the foods into MFP to find out.

backpacker44 · April 2013

How many points do you get?

A can of pepsi is 5 points. You had BUTTERED popcorn. Butter is 1 point per tsp... A medium popcorn at the theatre with butter on it is THIRTY THREE points... Did you have white rice or brown? What was in the stirfry sauce? If I added up those things the way I would eat them it would be 16 points MAX. Maybe you're doing it wrong? I was on WW for 6 months and lost lots.. Never felt hungry either.

CM9178 · April 2013

I have a very similar experience to you so I wanted to share what I have gone through.

10 years ago, I weighed 190 lbs and started Weight Watchers (it wasn't the Points Plus back then).
I quickly lost 72 lbs and hit my goal weight of 118 lbs in less than 1 year. (I was about 24 yrs old at the time).
I thought Weight Watchers was the best program in the world and was so happy with my weight loss! Back then, there was no MFP or anything like this, and I had absolutely no clue how many calories I was actually consuming.

I kept that weight off for about 2 years, but I found that I seemed to gain weight very very easily and I still had to be very careful about what I was eating. Slowly, all of the weight came back, plus more. 10 years later, I weighed 217 lbs. That is almost 100 lbs that I gained!!!

Once again, I decided that I would do Weight Watchers again, because it had worked so great in the past! I started the program in March 2012, and was losing weight pretty quickly once again. Around that time, I also discovered MFP, so I decided to start logging all of my food on here, so I could see my calories and macros, just to get an idea where I was.

Well was I in for a huge surprise. Even when I ate at my max points, most times I was still under 1200 calories. On days where I 'saved' a point or two, I could be under 1000 calories. I knew that this wasn't healthy, and something wasn't right.
Over the last year, I too became a little obessisve with tracking my calories, verses my points, and gradually, my weight loss started slowing down more and more. I had lost 40 lbs by the end of 2012 though, and I was happy with that.

Since December 2012, I hit a plateau. I would lose a pound, then gain two, then lost 2, then gain 1, then lose 1/2.
I played with the same 2 or 3 lbs for like 3 months, and two weeks ago, I was basically the same weight I was in January 2013!

I decided that it was time for a change. I started researching the TDEE method for weight loss. I was keeping a spreadsheet of my daily points and daily calories, average calories for the week, and how much I lost, etc. I started noticing that on weeks where I ate MORE, I had actually lost MORE than weeks where I ate at my points goal, or under it.

The TDEE calculators were saying I should be eating around 1500 calories. I finally gave in and decided to try increasing my points. (I still prefer to count points instead of calories - it is just easier for me).
So two weeks ago, I increased my points from 24 to 28. That first week, I was up a pound, but it was also time of the month.
This week (Friday), I increased from 28 to about 29 or 30 points. It has only been 4 days and I'm already down 2.2 lbs. I finally broke my 3 month plateau - and I proved to myself that I can actually lose weight by eating MORE.

My advice to you would be to increase your points and/or make sure to eat all of your weekly points allowance as well.
Or, calculate your TDEE - 20% and try increasing to that number of calories (100 per week). I can pretty much guarantee you will see results. Just give it time, and trust it.

Good luck!!

SPeffer1 · April 2013

I have a similar but opposite problem as you with the WW vs Calories. On mfp I always eat my daily net calories (around 1400). But because the majority of my diet is fruits and veggies I never get anywhere close to the 32 points I get a day for maintenance. I just don't think the programs mix well. I actuall do think that WW teaches better eating habits, but that's just been my experience. If WW works for you and helps you not focus on calories as much, then stick with that! But yeah - the points of the "less healthy" options will likely ding you on WW. An example I have is when I run half marathons I'll sometimes have a Cliffs bar at the end if I'm not feeling well. It is north of 200 calories (can't remember exactly what) but seven to nine points in WW! It's just the way they figure things!

I get free WW but actually spend the majority of my time tracking here.

Weight Watchers and MFP and Calories and Points

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