Weight watchers

I have done weight watchers as well. Love the program it just got too expensive. The weekly weigh-ins really kept me accountable. I still follow the plan on my own.

I was disappointed with WW last time I tried it. It seemed like our local one just peddled their processed packaged products. Meetings were all about cheating the system and people were very negative towards one another. It was not a positive place. I was looking to learn to eat healthily, NOT out of a box. I have no interest in ridiculing others or being ridiculed. I hope your local WW is a more positive place and wish you luck! XOXO

I used WW a couple of times. The first time I did it I did really good. But I thought it was more of a "click" there. Then I tried the moblie WW. Waste of money I thought. Then WW has their own equipment which is spendy. I have been using this app for about a wk and a half. I have a co-worker who uses this app. I need the encouragement and help from others. Feel free to add me. Good Luck though.

HealthyFit23 wrote: »

Weight watchers work great, but it cost. My advice is to record everything in myfitnesspal. Make sure you are in the correct range between calories, fat, fiber, protein, carbs. If you are pre-diabetic, sugar too. Heart or high blood pressure issues, check your sodium range. Read the boards daily. I find there are more people on this board than weight watchers. Exercise 3 - 5 times a week. Find out what work best for you. Don't be afraid to take people's advice. If their advice don't sound correct, ignore it.

Great advice!!!

I had success on the older program, but the new one didn't do it for me. I find this easier than counting points. Plus I'm not eating a lot of processed crap.

Hang in

lnxjenn wrote: »

I've been pondering going back to Weight Watchers. My main motivation is the accountability and support. I do have some here, (Don't get me wrong my lovely MFPeers) but having some more "live" support would be helpful. The new WW program is very selective now I guess. It has various types of diets? Anyone seen the new programs? I am not terribly sure what they are doing anymore.

Over thinking, I still just think I will stay on MFP! I need to do more myself I guess! I do miss my motivational Leader at my US WW place... He was awesome during some tough spells and my 50 pounds I lost way back then (10 years now?? Holy cow!) I can't seem to lose. Even when I am good! hah. Anyways. i'm rambling. sorry

Hang in there. Don't give up. I enjoy this app. I understand the visual support.

I did WW in the past, successfully. Have only myself to blame for gaining the weight back - I do think MFP is a superior program as it tracks everything for you, not just keeping in check with points based on calories, fat, & fiber. The points system doesn't help you keep track of other important nutrients.

Plus they change the system every few years. I have only heard a few positive reviews of the newest incarnation. The old FlexPoints (I think that's what it was when I did it) was really good and easy to do and made sense. Of course I haven't tried the new system first hand, so who knows....

All I know is MFP is FREE and it is always the same - calories in, calories out. No need to upgrade to new points calculators or buy new materials. And I honestly didn't get much out of the rah-rah meetings - just not my thing.

I did WW for about four months last year. I lost 9 pounds. I've been using MFP for a month and lost 7 so I think this method works better for me at least.

I left WW for good when the leader had us chant "nothing tastes as good as thin feels, nothing tastes as good as thin feels, nothing tastes as good, nothing tastes as good, nothing tastes as good as thin feels." With clapping.

I log everything here and then "convert" the info to points at WW.

It seems like the calculator on MFP gives you less food than WW does. BUT the thing I like about MFP's site is that you know how much protein, carbs, fat, fiber, sodium you're getting. WW doesn't break it down like that. (They used to MANY years ago, but haven't done that since they started doing "points".)

The thing that constantly aggravates me about WW though is that (at least where I am) most of the leaders are these little peppy things "Hi I'm Brittany, and I lost 15 pounds in 5 weeks to reach my goal and ate nothing but frozen grapes!" Yeah - bite me.

There were two leaders in Louisville that I LOVED - Margie and Joyce. Both had lost at least 100 pounds, and I just really felt a connection there. That was over 30 years ago though. (Ugh, I feel old!).

I've done WW before but I like using MFP better. It's free, for one thing. And I feel like it's easier and more "real world" (for me) to think of foods in terms of their calories than in terms of point values. I plan to keep up with tracking indefinitely, but I don't know that I could keep up with the points long-term (I ended up quitting, and re-gaining, with WW before, so I guess that's a pretty accurate assumption).

erinbuckler92 wrote: »

I'm finishing up my 3rd week in Weight Watchers and so far I love it. I'm only doing the WW Online, it's only $20 a month and seems to be well worth it, for me anyway. So far I've lost 5.2 pounds and I weigh in again tomorrow. Feel free to add me as a friend, on here and WW. Good Luck!

What's the big difference between mfp and ww online?? I tried the online ww wasn't a fan.

I lost about 80lbs on WW online about 10 years ago. Gained it all back when I was pregnant with my now 5 and 3 year olds, and have spent the last 3 years on MFP with very little success (down maybe 20 pounds during that time, have another about 60 to go). That doesn't mean MFP doesn't work, that just means that it hasn't worked for ME. So, a couple weeks ago I re-joined WW online, and I'm really really glad I did - I just needed a change, and I'm already seeing the scale move again and feeling a lot more positive about getting to my goal weight.

MFP is awesome. It gives you all the tools you need, and it's free. For me, just for my personality and lifestyle, there were two major drawbacks: I need more flexibility to deal with day-to-day variances in what and how much I'm eating (just due to my life, that's not something I've been able to change), and I was getting WAY too stressed about macros, to the point I wasn't meeting my calorie goals and it was negatively impacting my mental health. WW is perfect to address both of those issues. But, again, let me stress, that's ME. You just need to figure out what will work for you. I still love the MFP community, and I'm 100% sure that down the road I'll be back here when I need another change (or I've lost enough weight that I need to go back to being a little more exact, or I'm sick of paying for WW). But for now, for me, WW is the best choice. (Online, that is. You couldn't pay me to go and get weighed in front of other people and then sit around and listen to people try to "motivate" me - and pay money for it, no less. Gag me with a spoon.)

tol5667 wrote: »

Yeah, I lost 55 lbs a few years ago using MFP but I wasn't deeply connected at the time so I just counted calories and exercise so I didn't really get support or anything as a struggled while gaining it back so I'm finding it easier to stay committed now with a larger community WW appealed to me because of the in person stuff, weigh ins, ease of finding foods to plan for points, and plus I can stay connected with folks on campus going through the same thing

Oh, I didn't mean that I thought the community aspect was BAD or anything. It works really, really well for a LOT of people. I just personally tend to generally dislike people, especially peppy people, lol. I much prefer the internet where I can pick and choose with whom to interact a lot easier . Again, it's what works for YOU that's the most important thing, not what someone else thinks is better .

daphnee456 wrote: »

I am doing ww online for over a year now and lost a good 2 stones. I just switched to mfp to get a better view of the nutrients I consume. Now here comes my confusion. I always have my ww on lose weight as that is mostly who ugh food to fill me up. What confuses me is that lately with being more active at the gym (3/4 X a week intense training) I'm obviously more hungry. When I use ww to track I go over my daily limit (without tracking fruit and vegs). Tracking on mfp (losing weight) I consume too less calories with tracking my fruit and vegetables. Does anyone has a view on why this is?

They take entirely different things into account. Weight Watchers points are calculated from grams of fat, carbs, protein, and fiber and MFP is counting calories.

fevrale wrote: »

daphnee456 wrote: »

I am doing ww online for over a year now and lost a good 2 stones. I just switched to mfp to get a better view of the nutrients I consume. Now here comes my confusion. I always have my ww on lose weight as that is mostly who ugh food to fill me up. What confuses me is that lately with being more active at the gym (3/4 X a week intense training) I'm obviously more hungry. When I use ww to track I go over my daily limit (without tracking fruit and vegs). Tracking on mfp (losing weight) I consume too less calories with tracking my fruit and vegetables. Does anyone has a view on why this is?

They take entirely different things into account. Weight Watchers points are calculated from grams of fat, carbs, protein, and fiber and MFP is counting calories.

Calories = Carbs X 4 + Protein X 4 + Fat X 9. Grams of fat/carbs/protein/fiber are the same as calories. It's just maths. They're counting the EXACT same thing, just getting there a different way.

WW assigns slightly different weights to certain types of macros and allows you some credit for fiber, but it takes a significant swing between macros before two foods with the same number of calories are assigned different points values, especially since they only use whole numbers. 100 calories of pure fat or pure carbs would each be 3 points; 100 calories of pure protein is 2. 200 calories of pure fat are 6 points, while 200 calories of pure carbs or protein would each be 5 (yes, this time the macro that's different has changed, that's accurate). With the average user being allotted around 250 points per week plus activity, not a major swing. It's still basically calories.

daphnee456 wrote: »

I am doing ww online for over a year now and lost a good 2 stones. I just switched to mfp to get a better view of the nutrients I consume. Now here comes my confusion. I always have my ww on lose weight as that is mostly who ugh food to fill me up. What confuses me is that lately with being more active at the gym (3/4 X a week intense training) I'm obviously more hungry. When I use ww to track I go over my daily limit (without tracking fruit and vegs). Tracking on mfp (losing weight) I consume too less calories with tracking my fruit and vegetables. Does anyone has a view on why this is?

WW does not give as much credit for activity as MFP does. On WW, it takes burning about 100 calories to earn one activity point, which when translated to food is about 40 calories, give or take a couple. On MFP, it's a straight one-to-one relationship where you're credited ALL of the calories you burn as available to eat. When you're burning lots of calories through activity, it adds up and is going to create a noticeable difference between the 2 plans. Plus, the initial goals are set slightly differently - I find WW to be closest to a 1.5 pound per week goal for me if I stay only in my daily points, but that's going to be different for everyone. I don't know what formulas WW uses to come up with their daily points goals.