Welcome to the world of weight loss

Oh, had I known this earlier I would've checked it out. We get BBC2, but unfortunately the iplayer is only available in the UK.

I'm a former WW-member. I went to my first meeting about decade ago. The program was easy to use and yes, the weight came off. I lost 15kg/33lbs. Unfortunately I never reached a healthy BMI let alone my goal weight. Two years later, I had gained most of it back, so I went back on program and lost the weight again. I disliked the meetings so I joined the online program and was a paying member for about 4 years, in which I had been on and off program several times.

Back when I started WW it was the only tool that I knew of. I didn't want to do fad diets or pills, I wanted to lose it in a healthy way. I didn't know any other alternatives. It was easy to use, and it was easy getting back into it after a period of falling of the wagon. I liked that I could eat whatever I wanted, I would still cook like I used to but take smaller portions. However, it was hard to stay on program for several months, because I did feel hungry often.

That said, I THOUGHT I was losing weight the healthy way. Now I know that I had been eating way too little calories for long periods of time. Because I'm short I got the minimum amount of points (26) which equals about 1000-1100 calories per day. I tried to stick with that 3-4 days a week and eat a little bit more using some of my weekly points the rest of the days.

Then I found MFP. I logged here and on WW simultaneously for a week. I averaged 1500 cals on MFP, but on WW I had spent my entire weekly budget within 5 days and more. It was quite an eye-opener for me.

I did my TDEE calculations and found that my BMR is 1300. I now eat at a 15-20% deficit average 1500cals. I'm losing weight, and more importantly, I feel like I'm eating normal amounts of food. I still eat whatever I want, when it's something high in calories I'll eat a bit less of it.

Sometimes when I cook dinner it crosses my mind how many points that would be. For example I love to make chicken fajitas. It's such an easy and healthy meal in my opinion, simple bake some chicken with veggies and spices, and put it in a tortilla wrap with a little bit of sour cream. On WW, that dinner would be super high in points, around half my daily allowance. So I'd have to eat a very meager breakfast/lunch to make up for that. Now I make the same dish and sheesh it's only 560 calories! That's a perfectly normal amount for a dinner, even a bit on the low end for me (have probably 500-800 cals for dinner). On WW I'd be chewing on a cucumber for lunch to 'save points'! :grumble:

WW did help me keep my weight more or less under control, because it was a tool I could fall back on every time I gained a little bit. I'm saying more or less because I never gained all of my initial weight back, overall my trendline has been going down slowly over the years I was a paying member. However, I never did reach that healthy BMI on WW. That happened when I went off program but started exercising. Now that I've found MFP I've lost more, I'm at my lowest weight in over 13 years.

What I did notice on the WW forums in my country, is that a lot of women are afraid to use their weekly points. So they'll stick to their minimum, often between 26 and 29 points per day. A lot of them when they exercise they don't eat calories back, because again, they are afraid to use the extra points they get for exercising. A lot of women don't even exercise on WW because the weight is coming off without 'needing' to exercise. I was the same way. Exercise is not really encouraged by WW. Yeah of course they'll say it's better if you do, but their focus is 99% on food.

Personally, now that I know better, I wouldn't recommend WW to anyone. MFP is free. I eat more, I exercise more, I'm not hungry, and I'm still losing weight. I just wish I had found this years earlier!