Weight Watchers anyone?

Hi Jean
I signed up for WW this past week. I can't report on weight loss yet since I've only been doing it for a couple of days. Will post on my home page with my progress so you can see......I was having difficulty too with staying on track with foods and decided to try WW again. Years ago was a member.....I'm committed to lose this weight...... No matter how long it takes. If you join post or keep in touch so we can back each other up with support. :flowerforyou:

I belonged to WW about a year ago and kept my membership for a year. At first I did well and then stopped following the program. For a week I tracked here and on the WW site. After that week, I cancelled my WW membership. WW is expensive and this is free. Also, the food data base here is superior to the WW one. I also feel that I wasn't eating enough calories on WW. I find I can eat more here and still stay within my calorie goals. I also didn't like the "hit" for carbs on WW and the way they forced me to count dairy requirements. My daily eating is now more balanced.
There are some members here who also do WW.

I am actually considering joining their online program. I've been struggling for 4.5 months with a 10-14 # weight increase/plateau and I cannot seem to budge past it.

Feel free to friend me, I'm looking for others who use WW and have been successful. The last time I tried it, it didn't do too well so I don't have high hopes...

I followed wwrs on and off for many years, monthly pass and then on-line. I am finding counting calories much easier than when I was counting points and agree the database is much better with MFP as well as when using the scanner on my iphone I am finding more items on MFP than on wwrs which really isn't right considering what weight watchers charges. It could be that I just got tired of counting points and I just needed a change since I am pretty much eating the same foods anyway. Whatever works to lose the pounds, happy losing to all!

for me i cant do WW or any other plan that gives me what food to eat every day.. im just not gonna follow thier plan. i want to eat what i want, easier that way.. so for me, its too disciplined for me. i'd rather just grab fruit, cereal and milk, rather than them tell me I have to eat: 1/2 scrambled egg with 1 tsp butter substitute, and 1/2 cup skim milk, and 1 half tiny banana, and 3/4 cup whole weat cereal. too much work!

I did WW very successfully and lost almost 100 pounds. I kept it off for 7 years until an illness came upon me and medications and a forced sedentary lifestyle added that plus more weight on me. I am a huge fan of WW. They do NOT tell you what to eat- the whole point is to help you navigate the real world in which we live, not living on pre-packaged foods. One the best parts for me was the meetings with the right leader. I needed to connect with the leader, her story and her success. I had to "try" several leaders before I found the right one.

The thing I like the least about MFP and the message boards is so much negativity and so much self-righteousness in people's posts. This is the complete opposite of my experience in WW. WW encouraged many solutions to the same problems- such as foods to eat, small meals versus large, etc. It was not a cookie cutter solution, and we all shared what worked and asked for help with what didn't work. Members would share their successes, and those struggling could gain from all those perspectives.

If I could afford WW and predictably attend meetings, I would be doing that. I prefer the points system to straight counting calories. I also prefer more positive interactions, less overall negativity and far less judgement about my journey compared to someone else. We all walk this path with unique skills and challenges. We make decisions about how to progress that may not be suitable for everyone. When we ask for help, please don't preach and surmise that your journey is the only "correct" journey. Remember folks, this is the one place we should come where everyone understands our struggles!

Now that I took a moment to preach.......I think ultimately, this is far less about food and far more about what's in our heads. My last weight loss journey was so successful because I finally believed I was worth it, I finally believed I could do it, I finally understood it was not a "success only" journey. I finally realized that setbacks will happen, I will never be perfect, but I can continue to make my best effort and every meal or snack is an opportunity to succeed. WW made those beliefs stronger and was the path that worked best for me - it soothed my my psyche, and by default, my body followed right along.

First -- a quick correction to the poster above Re: “..for me i cant do WW or any other plan that gives me what food to eat every day”. WW lays out guidelines on the number of dairy, fruit/veg, water, healthy oils, etc recommended for a healthy diet based on your age/weight/ gender but does not specify the foods that you eat. I have been doing the WW meeting plan since the end of Feb and have lost 46 pounds after using MFP on and off for a couple of years trying to lose weight on my own. Prior to joining the meetings I had signed up for WW online in November 2012 but never even attempted to follow the online plan. I really needed the extra accountability that the meetings provide.

For me the structure and in-person support work. My meeting has a lot of lifetime members who are in good shape and share a lot of great advice. There is also the usual number of people who just like to hear themselves talk but I have never walked out thinking that I have wasted my time. All of my tracking is now done in etools but I occasionally cross track in MFP to get a general idea of the number of calories, fat, sodium, etc I am consuming. The forums here on MFP are also a lot more lively and cover a wider variety of weight loss topics so when I hit a brief plateau right after Easter I searched the forums here first. I agree that MFP has a more extensive food database but on the other hand in etools there isn’t as much conflicting, sometimes inaccurate info to be sorted through before finding what you need. This is not my 1st time through WW but this current program with it’s increased emphasis on the importance of physical activity and changing things other than food seems to be resonating with me.

At this point I could probably go back to WW online or just track in MFP but don’t want to mess with what has been working for me so far. Ultimately you should go with whatever you think will be the best fit for your personality and lifestyle. The main thing is to treat this as a permanent lifestyle change and not a short term diet. Best of luck!

Sorry, that is what i remember, the leader gave us these sample diets to eat for the day. thats what i was talking about.. they dont do that anymore?

First -- a quick correction to the poster above Re: “..for me i cant do WW or any other plan that gives me what food to eat every day”. WW lays out guidelines on the number of dairy, fruit/veg, water, healthy oils, etc recommended for a healthy diet based on your age/weight/ gender but does not specify the foods that you eat. I have been doing the WW meeting plan since the end of Feb and have lost 46 pounds after using MFP on and off for a couple of years trying to lose weight on my own. Prior to joining the meetings I had signed up for WW online in November 2012 but never even attempted to follow the online plan. I really needed the extra accountability that the meetings provide.

For me the structure and in-person support work. My meeting has a lot of lifetime members who are in good shape and share a lot of great advice. There is also the usual number of people who just like to hear themselves talk but I have never walked out thinking that I have wasted my time. All of my tracking is now done in etools but I occasionally cross track in MFP to get a general idea of the number of calories, fat, sodium, etc I am consuming. The forums here on MFP are also a lot more lively and cover a wider variety of weight loss topics so when I hit a brief plateau right after Easter I searched the forums here first. I agree that MFP has a more extensive food database but on the other hand in etools there isn’t as much conflicting, sometimes inaccurate info to be sorted through before finding what you need. This is not my 1st time through WW but this current program with it’s increased emphasis on the importance of physical activity and changing things other than food seems to be resonating with me.

At this point I could probably go back to WW online or just track in MFP but don’t want to mess with what has been working for me so far. Ultimately you should go with whatever you think will be the best fit for your personality and lifestyle. The main thing is to treat this as a permanent lifestyle change and not a short term diet. Best of luck!

Sorry, that is what i remember, the leader gave us these sample diets to eat for the day. thats what i was talking about.. they dont do that anymore?

I have done WW three times, quite successfully and loved it! Now that I am done having children, I am on the weight loss train again. I have never had them give me a meal plan, only a guideline or sample plans in case we needed it.

I love WW. So feel free to add me!

I've been a ww member since 2007, achieved goal weight, and became a lifetime member. Then I moved to another state, and getting to the meetings because less convenient. Gained 10 pounds, and ultimately went back to ww online to get back on track, and lost the 10 pounds. Yes, it does work. I did not purchase any of the ww foods since I prefer to be able to do it on "real" non ww foods that was more compatible with my family's habits.

The benefits of ww for me are:
1. Learning portion control. Knowing what a 4 oz slab (ok, sliver) of steak, a Tbsp of nuts, or 1/2 cup of chickpeas looks like by eyeballing is huge.
2. Learning what makes up a balanced diet. Those check off lists of veges, dairy, water, vitamin, etc are so ingrained in me now they are second nature. While I'm tracking my food in mfp, I am still making sure that I get all those components in there.

My thoughts about ww vs mfp tracking (disclaimer: I'm a new member of mfp because I want to test out a free food tracking application) are as follows:
1. As far as tracking points versus calories, it's 6 of one and 1/2 dozen of another. As long as I track. MFP is pretty easy to track, and I like that I can also keep track of my macros (particulary protein intake, since I'm doing chalene extreme and am trying to shift over to less fat and more muscle). ww does not allow me to track my protein intake, which I don't like.
2. Better food database in mfp
3. logging in exercises in mfp is a bit clumsy, but that may just be because I'm still not quite familiar with that component. I like the simplicity of logging in activity points in ww.
4. At this point in my fitness level, I'm hitting a weight loss plateau (It's always those last few pounds that are the toughest to shed), and I suspect it might be because of those "free" fruits and veges that are considered zero points.

For the next two weeks I'm going to track on mfp and if I continue to lose (or at least not gain), then I may consider canceling ww.