Decline Weight Watchers

Heh heh. Internet killed a lot of things.

I lost 75 lbs of my weight with WW and liked the program, but their customer service, at least for the Canadian market, is crap.

They charge a higher rate for the same things and not all of the extras are available. I had a great deal of difficulty getting responses to emails, was given 1 weeks notice that my local meeting was being closed, and when I asked about issues with switching from the Monthly Pass to online only they just cancelled my subscription a week or so early and refunded the next months payment.

I finally received an email 4 days AFTER the cancellation that did not answer the original questions or explain why they chose to cancel an account period that I'd already paid for and was not refunded. To switch to online only it would have required that I re-register, paying additional registration fees + the online fees. I was already a member, but they saw a way to get an extra $45. So I switched to MFP near the end of March. It works just as well and is free. The database is also better, in my opinion.

One of the biggest problems I had with WW (I just left them last month) was their e-tools. Incorrect points in the database, the scanner often would turn up with a no data found message and even searching manually was difficult. The number one problem that people new to their online program had was just being able to find the program information. The entire site was far from user friendly.

MFP is a lot more accurate, a lot more user friendly and has better features like the multi-add.

I really lost interest after June's meeting topic of how table settings can help you lose weight. I think there are good things about the program, but they have a lot of things they need to fix too.

I wish I could get in the mode of counting calories instead of points, and that MFP gave you a week allotment, like WW does. I'd cancel my Online membership.

Oh well... It's only $18 a month. That said, I find myself coming to MFP to find calorie info, as their database is far superior.

I do think WW has something to offer, support groups. Each of us needs to try to form an MFP support group in our city or town, then MFP would have that benefit too. Just a thought.....

I wish I could get in the mode of counting calories instead of points, and that MFP gave you a week allotment, like WW does. I'd cancel my Online membership.

Oh well... It's only $18 a month. That said, I find myself coming to MFP to find calorie info, as their database is far superior.

I remember seeing something on one of the message boards here about an extension for either firefox or chrome that let you do both on MFP. You might try searching this forum, the nutrition board, or the fitness boards. Those are the 3 I tend to read. If nothing else it gives you another option to keep both in one place.

I, too, recently ended my years-long membership with WW and started tracking on MFP. The meetings didn't work for me. I felt like the issues they went over didn't pertain to me, and they made me feel like my issues were ones I shouldn't complain about. For instance: I have a low appetite, so I find it difficult to eat 1,200 calories a day. At one point, I was eating only one meal a day, and that was forced. When I was skinny, I was the one who forgot to eat. Yep, I actually forgot to eat. Everyone in the meetings always made me feel like I was a pariah because of my low appetite. They would talk about stress / emotional eating, and I couldn't relate. When I get stressed or emotional, I don't eat. I don't feel hungry. Of course, the leaders didn't know how to respond to me, because they didn't have my issues, either. So I didn't feel I was getting much out of the meetings and stopped going.

Their online tools were horrible. It was hard to find the foods you needed, and if you did, the points values were wrong. They claimed some fruits and veggies were "free", but if you plugged a recipe into the recipe tool, it always counted the "free" foods, raising the points value. Even some of the recipes they pushed on the main page had incorrect points values!

Another point of contention for me was the coupons they offered, and the supplements they pushed. All of it was for WW or Smart Ones food, which is all processed. If a question was asked about the WW foods, the leaders would respond that they had no information on that, because the WW name was bought by the company putting out the food. That meant WW was not involved in anything regarding the food - even those sold in their own centers. So in a sense, they were pushing food they couldn't even say followed their own plan. I didn't like that.

Going to the meetings and weighing in, the receptionist always made me feel like a little kid about to get reprimanded. They claim not to judge or make you feel bad, but they really do. If you don't lose each week, they start with questions about what you ate, and what could you have done differently. They also make it seem like gaining .2 (point two) pounds was the end of the world. I don't need to feel stressed over weighing in because I may have gained less than a pound. I'm already anxious about getting on a scale in public!

Finally, the reason I left was financial. Between MFP and Spark, I can get for free what I paid to get at WW. Sure, I can't go to meetings, but I wasn't going anyway. If i'm going to stay home and go online, I may as well do that for free (excluding the cost of the Internet). Plus, while the point system may be beneficial to some, it wasn't for me.

Not knowing how many calories I was eating didn't help me at all. I know every food has calories in it, so the idea of eating "free" foods didn't sit well with me. I know eating an apple can be 55 calories (just using a number for example purposes; I didn't look up the calories in an apple), and I know that if my daily goal is 1,500 calories, 55 of them were used with that apple. Thinking of an apple as 0 points means I still have 37 points (just guessing - I haven't looked at my WW stuff in a long time, so I don't know how many points I had) to use during that day. If I load up on the "free" foods, then I can theoretically go into dinner with the idea that I can have a huge meal. In actuality, I can't, because all the fruits and veggies I ate had calories attached to them, whether WW chooses to acknowledge that or not. As a low appetite person, filling up on fruits and veggies meant I wasn't getting near the number of calories I needed to even fuel my body to do routine things (i.e. breathing), let alone the exercise I was doing. Eating one 'real' meal a day wasn't helping my health. I found out from my doctor that I had low metabolism. She thinks it was because of years of eating too few calories. I could see that, but didn't truly understand it until I learned to focus on calories and not points. Some people can use the point system forever and be okay. I can use the calorie system forever and be okay. It's all about preference.

I don't knock anyone who uses WW. Just because it didn't work for me doesn't mean it won't work for someone else. I was on WW two separate times, and each time I didn't learn the way I needed to eat to change my life permanently. Having to carry around books (before smartphones) was cumbersome and I refused to do it. If the restaurant wasn't in their guide, it was hard to calculate the points for the meal. If the restaurant doesn't put their nutritional information online, there is no way to even calculate the points value using the WW website. Going grocery shopping is near impossible, because the WW scanner doesn't have a lot of food in it. Plus, their apps took up a lot of memory space on my smartphone.

I'm glad I went to WW, because it lead me (inadvertently) to other sites that I've been able to thrive on. I'm now learning that I don't have to drink two glasses of milk each day to lose weight (I HATE dairy, unless it's in chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream). I'm learning to recognize the calories in foods and how many calories my body burns just to function each day. I'm learning I can have a low appetite and still lose weight and raise my metabolism by choosing the right foods and drinking water (but not too much, or I'll be too full to eat). The important thing is I'm learning!

Good luck to everyone in whichever tool they choose to use. I'm only stating MY limitations with WW, so don't let that deter you from using the system if it works for you.

WW life member but haven't gone back as I didn't want to pay.

I buy the magazine for inspiration and recipes, but I've found that some of the sample daily menus (posted in the inspirational stories) look dreadful on a nutritional basis- room for treats but very little protein?

I have been a lifelong member for decades and don't have to pay but I'll never be going back to WW. Firstly they pay their staff (in Australia) almost nothing, I worked for them allowing them to pay me a pitance because I thought it would help me stay on track weight wise. I honestly never really felt a lot of support at any of the meetings. I didn't feel I was taught to avoid packaged processed foods but encouraged to buy their products instead. The thing that put me off the most was when they changed their program last time I was there.. it was not for me at all and was the last straw.

I get tons of support here for free and have learned way more about nutrition/fitness in a year than decades with WW.

Never tried WW, but I watched my aunts, mother and grandmother struggle with their weight all my life, and all of them have at one point joined and lost some and then gained all of it back with WW. After watching all of them, I decided it likely wasn't for me, especially since the whole point system seemed a bit gimmicky to me.

Watching calories and having the community at my fingertips at any given time works for me. It's how I like to do most things, and unless WW is planning on harnessing everything that MFP is and adding something to the top of that, that others cannot and will not do for free, then I can't see it surviving.

You wouldn't believe how close I was to joining WW. I absolutely hate spending money on myself (unless it's fun new electronics, I guess,,,), But I finally got even more sick of being fat, I guess. I confess (just here, not to my boss) that I blew through an entire morning at work one day just reading about WW, how it worked, if people liked the new system, etc. Then in some blog post somewhere someone mentioned MFP, so I burned another hour at work checking this place out, and it seemed like basically the same thing, except more technical and more fun numbers to analyze (I'm a math guy), and very free. 60 pounds later, I'm still here, and I haven't spent a dime.

Weight Watchers is a business plain and simple. If your lose the weight and keep it off they'll lose money. They have a crazy points system and other interesting ways to make sure regain weight and come back.

MFP strips it all down to the basics since its calories in vs out which all you need to lose weight.

My MIL did WW many years ago...... yeah, I don't want to get into how that didn't work from her (not to mention a waste of money) MFP is great!

The most hilarious part of the article is the Dietitian trying to drum up some work

That would be sad. I did WW when I was a teen with my mom, and it taught me a lot about keeping weight off, moderation, making small changes that add up in the end, etc... It's a great starting point for those who know nothing about losing weight.

It is so expensive though. Many people don't have $40-50 a month to spend to lose weight when places like MFP are free and the same system when it comes down to it.