Does MFP work as well as Weight Watchers?

I did WW 3 times over the span of a few years. Most I lost was 18 pounds. I'm at 23 pounds on MFP and I like it much better. lOn MFP, I am learning to eat clean and make a lifestyle change. WW works, but if you hold yourself accountable and follow the guidelines on MFP, you get FREE results. Just my personal opinion.

I gained weight on weight watchers

I am more successful on MFP than I was on WW.

If you join WW and go to meetings and have a great leader it can be helpful. If you're just doing WW online - then MFP is a much better program.

I did WW 14 years ago, lost 25 pounds and slowly put it back on over the years. I have been doing MFP for a little over 5 months now, lost 23 pounds to date, and now I'm interested to see what happens as far as going back to old habits and putting it all back on. When I was doing WW I was all about whatever food I could eat to keep the points in range. With MFP and following the threads here, I'm much more aware of food values, what's good, what's bad, and I'm eating cleaner and really have made a lifestyle change for the better. I think that MFP is my answer for the long term. Good luck!

I think it's crazy fruits and veggies have no points. I like to acknowledge that they do have calories too. If I ate like two banana smoothies a day, a large apple, and three cups of certain higher calorie vegetables, I'd be racking up close to 500 calories.

Just a note that between the banana smoothies, large apple, and high calorie vegetables (assuming that the poster means things like potatoes, beans, corn, etc), only the apple is zero points. The WW points goal assigned to members takes into account eating fruits and vegetables within the GHC guidelines ( 5- 8). Yes it makes a difference if someone eats 8 bananas or 8 cups of spinach but it's stressed that you should eat a variety of fruits/veg which usually evens out.

For ME it works better. For others WW works better. EVERY diet works, it's just a matter of finding what works for YOU. MFP is free, so it certainly doesn't hurt to try it. You might love it or you might hate it, but only you can figure that out.

I did weight watchers, lost 20lbs, stopped and slowly gained it back over 3 years. Now I'm diong MFP and I'm losing again. I have calculated my "points" for a few random days just for fun and I am usually around 36pts ("old' WW points, not points plus I never used that). When I was on WW I would eat around 26, so I know I am eating a good deal more now and still losing. I do think WW encouraged me to eat a lot of fruits/veggies and I did like the weekly weigh-ins/meetings ... but this is free and it's working

Bump for later

I haven't read all the replies yet, so this may have been covered already. I inadvertently found a fatal flaw in WW while I was on it last year. Basically, it amounts to rounding errors with low and zero points foods. To give an example, bananas are 0 points and I found myself eating three to five a day. While that wasn't contributing to my total points, it was still 330-550 calories that I was not counting. Needless to say, I constantly hit plateaus and even gained weight while remaining well within my points budget.

I won't go back.

I don't understAnd why fruits and veggies are "free" in Weight Watchers. I mean, some can be pretty high in calories.

I am a lifetime WW member. I think WW is great, the meetings and being weighed by another person is very helpful in being accountable. They have online tools that are very similar in tracking here on MFP but the difference to me is the money and the time required to go to those meetings. I lost 100# with WW before baby and I'm now too busy with a toddler who likes to wake early so going to meetings are not an option right now. Will I go back to WW. More than likely yes, as the fundamentals have really changed and are very much in line with what my current MFP goals are.

While there are FREE foods with WW, you do have to use common sense in knowing that 1 piece/serving is FREE, not multiple. You need to keep a very well rounded diet, and I think the new program takes that into account for the most part. I don't really think fruit, with natural sugars or calories, should be free, but do think the veggies should be. I would take out a few point for fruit I ate, based on the old Points system.

Tracking either way comes down to being honest. You can follow WW, and track but if you are not honest, then nothing will work. MFP I have made my diary public so my friends can see it.

You need to do what is right for you. There is never a one size fits all for weight loss.

It's a personal decision.

I tried weight watchers a few times (different incarnations) and despised it. I hate someone else weighing me. I despise the fact they think all weight fluctuations are "real" and not water, totm bloating, ate/didn't eat, different clothes, went potty first, etc. I also hated lying to myself and putting zero for fruits and veggies. Their weekly lessons were also useless. Didn't learn a single thing. I was just throwing my money away so I stopped and saved my money for new clothes instead to celebrate my weight loss.

I have been a lifetime WW member for about 35 years. In those years I've jojo-ed up and down below my goal weight countless times. I've also worked for WW for about 4 years or so. While working for them, you have to maintain your weight - wouldn't look good to have an overweighed receptionist... But I managed to gain weight higher than my goal weight during those years, and nobody knew it exept my best friend there, and I. The trick is, someone else but YOU has to sign off for your weight card, and my friend just didn't want me to have to leave.

ANYHOO....

This summer I decided to start the Peer trainer method, and with that method I have lost 25lbs in 5 months. I read about MFP in a Peer trainer group, looked the MFP pages over and decided I needed to become a member.

And now your question if WW is better than MFP. WW is great (I mean the real WW-ers, NOT the one on line because that sucks). It gives a lot of support, which always worked very well for me (until I stopped going) (which always happened in times I could not control my food cravings).

They give you excellent recipees, and the point counting system is easy. Yes, vegetables and fruits have no points. The theory behind that is 'Who eats 5 bananas a day?', 'Who eats 6lbs of strawberries?' and 'Who eats 4 plates of green beans?' And even if you would do that one day, the next day it wouldn't be that fantastic anymore.

When I looked over these MFP pages I became enthousiastic, with the way you can put together your daily meals, that is a tool WW doesn't have. With the community, all the boards, there is an answer for every question nomatter what it is about.

I guess that both systems work great, but it depends on YOU and on YOUR commitment.

My advize would be: Give MFP a try. Give yourself 2 months, and see how it goes. If it doesn't seem to work after 3 weeks, hang in there, give yourself all the time that you promised to try it. It doesn't cost anything, and with the right mindset, all you can do is succeed.

If after 2 months you don't have any result you can always decide to go to WW.

I wish you good luck, and I hope you'll stick around!!!

MFP was better for me. I am holding myself accountable. I been doing it for twenty days and loss 13 pounds!

Who wants to watch their weight? I'd rather take it off

i wanted to shoot myself when I was on WW... don't know how many calories they had me on.. but I was so starving and hated it. I quit after a few weeks. I love mfp and i'm losing.. so happy.