Weight Watchers Diet

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CamillaEdwards
CamillaEdwards Posts: 37 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,

How does the weight watchers diet work and is it healthy? Would anyone recommend?

Thank you

Replies

  • tiptoethruthetulips
    tiptoethruthetulips Posts: 3,365 Member
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    WW works by assigning points values to carbs, proteins, fats and fibre. Your daily points allowance is based on age, weight, height and gender. You are provided extra weekly points to use as you wish.

    It is as healthy as you choose it to be. You don't have to purchase any WW foods, though some do for convenience.

    If you like to go to meetings and give and receive support from members it can be beneficial, however, if you are going to use online only you may as well use a free calorie counting app.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    I was a WWer for years. It's not a diet which tells you what to eat, so it is as healthy as you make it. Much like calorie counting, foods are assigned a 'points' value based on fat, protein, carbs and fibre. You have an allowance for the day (much like MFP gives you a calorie allowance). You eat foods to the value of your allowance.

    They encourage you to eat more fruit and veg by saying that don't have points, but this is factors into your points allowance being a little lower than the equivalent calorie allowance.

    I learned to eat intelligently on WW. I don't need it anymore but it taught me a lot.
  • PinkPixiexox
    PinkPixiexox Posts: 4,142 Member
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    Why not take a look at their website? There is lots of information available there :]

    I did Weight Watchers for around 4 months. It's a simplified version of calories in, calories out. Having said that, they allow you to have fruit and vegetable for 'free' which has never made much sense to me but I know it's worked for many.
  • bover145
    bover145 Posts: 119 Member
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    I found it helpful because it changed my relationship with food and the way I approached it.
  • MarcyKirkton
    MarcyKirkton Posts: 507 Member
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    I incorporate most of what I learned in WW today, although I joined and lost 25 lbs many years ago. I attended the weekly meetings, and I found the accountability to be terrific for me. Weighing in worked. The "how to diet" tips were very solid, and the nudges to get into some kind of activity worked for a group of us. We started walking together and still do today.

    It's a very good program. I don't see how the online version is nearly so good, but I haven't tried it, either.
  • Emily3907
    Emily3907 Posts: 1,461 Member
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    I was a WW'er off and on for years. I attended meetings for some time and did the online only program for some time. I got sick of paying for it and came here. I must say, the difference between MFP and WW is not significant. Below are reasons I prefer MFP.

    - On WW you don't get a breakdown of macros in your face like you do here. So, it is harder to eat balanced (IMO). I have found that I have learned more about nutrition since joining MFP because I am paying more attention to my macros and nutrients.
    - MFP basically does the same thing for free. The major difference is points vs. calories. You still have to count regardless.
    - I log more accurately on MFP, to the point of weighing my foods. On WW I never felt the need to weigh things, something about the points system made it not feel as necessary to get an accurate count.
    - On WW fruits and vegetables are "free" meaning you don't have to count them (within reason). I take issue with the fact that a banana has more calories than lettuce, and felt like I was not getting a "true" picture with WW.

    *Hopping off soapbox*
    Ultimately, WW is not a bad program and I did lose weight with them (multiple times). I just felt like MFP gave me the same tools, plus additional insight and cost me zero dollars to do it.
  • idioblast
    idioblast Posts: 114 Member
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    Emily3907 wrote: »
    I was a WW'er off and on for years. I attended meetings for some time and did the online only program for some time. I got sick of paying for it and came here. I must say, the difference between MFP and WW is not significant. Below are reasons I prefer MFP.

    - On WW you don't get a breakdown of macros in your face like you do here. So, it is harder to eat balanced (IMO). I have found that I have learned more about nutrition since joining MFP because I am paying more attention to my macros and nutrients.
    - MFP basically does the same thing for free. The major difference is points vs. calories. You still have to count regardless.
    - I log more accurately on MFP, to the point of weighing my foods. On WW I never felt the need to weigh things, something about the points system made it not feel as necessary to get an accurate count.
    - On WW fruits and vegetables are "free" meaning you don't have to count them (within reason). I take issue with the fact that a banana has more calories than lettuce, and felt like I was not getting a "true" picture with WW.

    *Hopping off soapbox*
    Ultimately, WW is not a bad program and I did lose weight with them (multiple times). I just felt like MFP gave me the same tools, plus additional insight and cost me zero dollars to do it.

    I agree with all of this. I'm lucky enough to be able to do WW@Work for free, but I still prefer to use MFP over their app and points. I did some parallel logging for a bit and the results were very similar. Like above, I find MFP easier to use and more informative.
  • gerfbrady
    gerfbrady Posts: 14 Member
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    I go to WW. I don't follow their plan, I use MFP.

    For me though it is not about the eating plan, it is about going to the same place, at the same time, every week and being weighed. If i'm up I can draw a line under a bad week and start again. If I'm down it gives me the encouragement to carry on.

    It is what you make of it though and like MFP, it is sustainable.
  • gerfbrady
    gerfbrady Posts: 14 Member
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    Forget to mention, being weighed on the same scales every week...very important
  • Gidgitgoescrazy
    Gidgitgoescrazy Posts: 636 Member
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    I did WW in 2000, lost 40lbs and made lifetime, kept it off for 5-6 years, then life changes happened and it slowly crept back on, I don't like their new system at all, tried several times to go back to it on my own, but it never stuck. Just started and like the MFP platform better as it's easier to keep track, I still calculate my calories, fat and fiber into points at the end of each day ( I use old points), just because I'm weird like that, and I like statistics. It's kinda neat to see how much fat and fiber can make a difference in your points.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    They encourage a wide range of foods, and weight loss is achieved by maintaining a deficit. It's a very conservative weight loss program and frankly the only one I trusted before MFP. There's lots of encouragement and coaching that goes along with the program. If you decide to join, take full advantage of the meetings.
  • blkandwhite77
    blkandwhite77 Posts: 281 Member
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    I lost 65 lbs on WW in 2 years only gained 5 lbs back however I stalled and no matter what I couldn't lose more weight so I switched to here and I've lost almost 9 pounds this month. WW was a great plan for me as it was simple and and it taught me a lot about about food and how to understand it personally.
    I enjoy this app more though because number 1 it's free! Lol and number 2 it makes me think about everything I put in my mouth in easy terms of calories. Not points that are some formula I will never keep track of unless I have the app in front of my face. I can manually track calories much more simply.
  • lms43101
    lms43101 Posts: 4 Member
    edited November 2015
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    I am a lifetime member of weight watchers. I prefer the older program where fruit was not free. I found another link on here that showed me how to add a point column to my diary by adding a ww script to google chrome. MFP calculates my points for me. I use the script that gives points to fruit but there is a way to change the script to make fruit zero. So now I use both for free. I see how many calories and I see how many points I use everyday on mfp.
  • lms43101
    lms43101 Posts: 4 Member
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    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/822197/how-to-track-weight-watchers-points-on-mfp/p19
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    edited November 2015
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    CamillaEdwards wrote: »
    Hi,

    How does the weight watchers diet work and is it healthy? Would anyone recommend?

    Thank you

    Weight watchers works on a point system for foods, which all add up to a certain amount of calories. I believe fruits and veggies do not have points.

    If you eat at a calorie deficit, you will lose weight on this program. If you don't eat at a calorie deficit while on this program, you won't lose weight.

    Therefore, to lose weight, it does not matter what program you choose, because the only weight loss requirement is to eat less calories than you burn.

    I would not recommend it because it costs extra money.

    My cousin would recommend it because she says it works for her every time she gains the weight back and wants to lose it again.
  • MarcyKirkton
    MarcyKirkton Posts: 507 Member
    edited November 2015
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    I did WW years ago, under a different program than today. I really learned a lot about basics, and I appreciated the goodwill and authentic support. I haven't ever heard of fruit being "free." But in any case, it was through WW that I learned about how to lose steadily....1 to 2 lbs a week....and how to fit lifetime exercise in so that I actually would keep it up and do it. The meetings really were inspiring. I saw many cases where people were so successful and how it affected their health.

    Online is just not nearly as effective for that. As for a diet, it's same as here. You can eat whatever you want, provided it's within your daily point allowance.

    I still use my Weight Watcher cookbooks.

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