Counting Calories vs Weight Watchers - opinions please!

Doesn't 0.1 of a weight watcher point = 10 calories. Whilst they peddle you to buy their sugar loaded crap?

So effectively you're still counting calories. and being sold crap.

"Sugar loaded crap?"



:laugh: :laugh:

I'm currently doing both. I started MFP in March and lost 25 pounds till August when I just stopped losing. I tried playing with my calories and changing my workouts and nothing was seeming to work. I joined WW a few weeks ago and the weight is slowing starting to go down again. I'm continuing to track my calories so that I can see where I should be at. One thing that opened my eyes is that some days I would go to Mcdonalds for breakfast because it fit in my calories, at about 600 for the meal... but when I looked up the points it was 21 (out of my daily 26)... made me realize that by doing WW it could help me make better choices for my calories.

Hope it continues to work for me... but I plan to track both ways until I reach my goal weight.

I keep a lookout on my points for this very reason. Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages. I think there has to be a strategy to your method but whatever you choose to do, the premise is the same: burn more calories than you eat but don't starve yourself either.

I've done WW for years since Winning Points I believe around 2001. I lost all my pregnancy weight and kept it off for years even through a pregnancy. I survived it. I bounced right back. This time around I wasn't so lucky but I'm also dealing with thyroid issues and find that my metabolism is slower. this may also be a combination with the fact that I have a desk job so my life is very sedentary.

I battled for a while torn between Momentum and MFP. MFP is just so easy to log your foods and maintain a diary but I felt I always needed to know how many points I had consumed. Planning how many points per meal keeps me focused and gives me a game plan if you will on my use of points throughout the day so that I don't exceed myself too early in the day. You got to leave some calories for dinner.

I also have a fitbit and I enjoy it very much. I have it setup to give me a deficit number on MFP. -500 calorie deficit = 1 lb in a week. So I'm focusing on a daily deficit of 1000-500 calories daily. My strategy will also be to cycle my calories up and down but not to exceed 1300 (based on my TDEE of 1532). You always want a calorie deficit from food but the remainder of your calorie deficit should come from exercise. In addition I can view points on the website with a plugin I installed so I started adding on the notes section how many points I ate that day. I plan to use that information so when I'm on maintenance I can "play" around with the flex points a bit more for special occassions and ball park how much I'm eating. Points is great at estimating and portioning your foods on special events. It's much easier for me to think in smaller numbers rather than hundreds.

You have to play around with it and find your strategy. Once you find your strategy stick with it and you won't bounce back and forth.