Crossover from weight watchers....help???

krcarneal89
krcarneal89 Posts: 3 Member
edited January 27 in Food and Nutrition
I am starting myfitnesspal in combination with weight watchers because my membership with ww is expiring in august and I am looking for a cheaper alternative. I have a few questions I was hoping I could have answered.

First a slight background......I started weight watchers on labor day last year (2012) and have since then lost 62 pounds......yay me!
I am 23 and this is my first time in my life that I have ever been at a healthy weight and I grew up in an unhealthy household. I started weight watchers with an idea in my mind that I was learning how to eat right since I never had that growing up. Yes, yes I also had a goal of losing weight but my main focus was learning what to eat and how much to eat at one time.

My few questions are:

In ww, we don’t track most fruits and vegetables. Can I keep this idea with myfitnesspal? On a normal day I have 1 medium banana, an apple with my lunch and a cup of broccoli with dinner. I usually have a leaf of lettuce on my sandwich at lunch too. The only vegetable I normally have to track that I eat is potatoes, and I would continue to track those on myfitness pal.

Also, this one kind of relates to that above.....can I ignore the sugar intake on the tracker. I notice that by the time I eat the banana and the apple, I have already gone into the negative. I can understand watching artificial sugar intake but natural???? Natural just doesn't seem bad to me.

In the last few days that I have used myfitnesspal, I have noticed that I go significantly over in protein and a little over in fiber, but stay within the calories....is this ok? I know protein keeps you full longer, that is why I incorporate it into every meal.

Thanks for all your help!!!

Replies

  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    First, congrats on your weight loss! And welcome to MFP!

    1) You should track everything on here. WW goals are set low to give room for fruit/veg calories and they allow them "unlimited" to encourage members to make healthier choices. MFP goals are set based on you logging everything you eat including fruits and veg.

    2) Yes, unless you have a health issue that requires you to track sugar intake, you can remove the sugar category and track something else instead. I would personally recommend tracking sodium as high sodium days can contribute to water weight so it's a good reason behind the occassional spikes in weight. Thankfully they go away quickly though! :)

    3) The number in the protein category is a minimum goal. For most people, especially if you're active, it's good to go over. Most of the active members on here aim for 1gram per 50-80 percent of body weight (so if you weigh 150, shoot for 75-120 grams per day). I'm not sure on the fiber goal but I would think that's ok too as long as you're not eating so much fiber that you're having digestive issues. :)
  • krcarneal89
    krcarneal89 Posts: 3 Member
    Thank you!
  • Shoechick5
    Shoechick5 Posts: 221 Member
    Congratulations on your loss! From a former WWer, yes, definitely track your fruits and veg. MFP's calorie allowance includes everything. WW sets your points low to make up for free fruit and veg. I was always over on my sugar and as long as it was reasonable and coming from fruit I didn't really care. I did eventually drop it as a column and added fiber instead. Welcome to MFP.
  • jenns1964
    jenns1964 Posts: 384 Member
    First, congrats on your weight loss! And welcome to MFP!

    1) You should track everything on here. WW goals are set low to give room for fruit/veg calories and they allow them "unlimited" to encourage members to make healthier choices. MFP goals are set based on you logging everything you eat including fruits and veg.

    2) Yes, unless you have a health issue that requires you to track sugar intake, you can remove the sugar category and track something else instead. I would personally recommend tracking sodium as high sodium days can contribute to water weight so it's a good reason behind the occasional spikes in weight. Thankfully they go away quickly though! :)



    3) The number in the protein category is a minimum goal. For most people, especially if you're active, it's good to go over. Most of the active members on here aim for 1gram per 50-80 percent of body weight (so if you weigh 150, shoot for 75-120 grams per day). I'm not sure on the fiber goal but I would think that's ok too as long as you're not eating so much fiber that you're having digestive issues. :)

    This is the best explanation EVER!

    I've done WW numerous times and MFP is much easier and better for me to track everything.
  • krcarneal89
    krcarneal89 Posts: 3 Member
    Thanks everyone!

    This journey has certainly been a huge accomplishment for me!

    I did just notice after logging everything into myfitnesspal as well as my WW tracker I have 4 points left for the day in WW but only 13 calories remaining in myfitnesspal......I just dont know what to think about this. Which one do i go with??? If I go with ww, i'd be consuming more than 13 calories in 4 points.

    My weight loss goal is only set for loosing 1 pound per week.
  • herblackwings39
    herblackwings39 Posts: 4,025 Member
    If you're transitioning over to using MFP exclusively I'd go with the 13 calories. WW was great. I lost 75 lbs doing it before my meeting was cancelled the the customer service went to crap, but I find it easier to do the calorie counting.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    The difference may be that something in your profile isn't set up right. Looks like you don't have a whole lot left to lose (going by your ticker) so you should probably go with 1/2 a pound a week, 1 pound at the most. 1.5 or 2 pounds per week isn't healthy or reasonable for you at this point. Is your activity level correct? Many go with sedentary if they have desk jobs but their lives outside of work may actually be very active - in which case lightly active may be more reasonable.

    Point is, changing these may put you more in line so the calorie goal more closely matches what WW is giving you for points. It used to be a lot easier as the old Momemtum points were about 50 cal each so you could do a quick calc and figure out how many calories you got per day. The new Points + is much more complex!

    Good luck!
  • AutumnRed84
    AutumnRed84 Posts: 26 Member
    I also used to use WW. To save money I switched to MFP. I lost a lot of weight on WW. I do track everything!! I did however find that what MFP gave me for calories was too low. I manually calculate my calorie goals by using TDEE calculations. For the calculations I use sedetary/no exercise, because I work a desk job and I might not always get in my exercise session. Then I subtract 20% from my TDEE calorie goal, that is my daily calorie goal. I use a heart rate monitor to track how many calories I burn when I exercise and I eat most of those calories. You can manually adjust your goals on MFP. I adjust the calories and percentage for protein, fat, and carbs. For me I like carbs 40%, protein 30% and fat 30%. I am thinking of changing that up as I have started lifting weights and would like more protein in my diet. If you google TDEE there are tons of calcuations on it and it explains it very well. You can also search on for TDEE as well. There are a lot of MFP users who use this method and believe that what MFP sets you up with is a little low. MFP also estimates the calories burned too high, which is why I use a heart rate monitor. MFP is a great tracking tool, but you might have to adjust the settings to work for you. Trial and error!
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