Hello, I'm escaping weight watchers!

Hi Sarah. I'm an ex Weightwatcher too. Been here for just over a week and I am loving it so far. Good luck x

I just left WW also. I had been off the wagon for months and was ready to get started again, then I saw the mess that was happening on the WW website and the new program. I had used MFP some in the past and I will commit to using it exclusively now.

I too ditched Weight Watchers for me it was not worth the money. My weight loss is too slow for that sort of plan, I also need portion control and I also take thyroxine all of which does not help!

elwing wrote: »

I've found that if I don't allow myself the little indulgences throughout the day (like a bottle of coca cola), I end up binge eating at night. The new plan made a 20oz bottle of coke go from 7points to 15, and I get a whole 30 points/day. WW has worked for me in the past, and the new plan is all about healthy and clean eating, but my mental state just isn't there for completely clean eating yet.

I agree. I see what they're doing with nudging people towards healthy choices....but I also believe that being over penalized for an indulgence leads to the "good food bad food" dichotomy which I definitely want to avoid.

I have also escaped and canceled my monthly meeting pass subscription last night.
I started WW in April this year and lost 60 lbs so far, but just couldn't see paying any longer for something that essentially quit working about three weeks ago when they started rolling out changes for their new plan. Sadly, the new plan is also much more like a diet than a lifestyle change. The 'punishment' inflated points to near double for some common treats (which I didn't eat very many of to begin with) feel like while this may be steering a total newbie to healthy eating in the right direction and better choices, just won't fit my life now. I essentially switched over to here about two weeks ago and am finding this so much easier, because I can glance at a nutrition label for any packaged food and decide quickly if the food fits for me, or if I put it back on the shelf. Avoiding processed foods as much as possible is still something I am working on, gradually, knowing that more natural is better. On the other hand, not finding foods in the 'extensive' Weight Watcher database and having to key in 7 (!) different values from a nutrition label now, while in the grocery aisle, rather than the previous four, which was already somewhat cumbersome, just to arrive at a points value that is supposed to tell me if it is a good or bad choice (the lower, the better), just won't work for me any longer either.
Exercise has also started to take a larger role and I am creating too much of a deficit now that they don't encourage you to eat back at least some of the calories you burn. I have seen posts on the WW community boards where people are realizing they are eating only between 800 and 1000 calories BEFORE taking into consideration that they also worked out. Nope, just cannot do that any longer - compounded by the enormous technical kerfuffle, I think I'll be fine and happy here, and will continue to take the last 28 pounds off continuing to do what I have been doing and improving further along the way. Here we go!

JE9599 wrote: »

Thanks for your replies, will be weird changing system and counting calories.

You'll get the hang of it. I feel that counting calories is so much better because 3500 calories equals one pound so if you burn 3500 calories in one week that equals 1 pound a week that you can be losing. So if you consume 500 calories less every day you'll lose 1 pound a week and if you burn 500 in addition to that you'll lose 2 pounds every week. This works for me.

I fell out of love with ww way back as they changed the plan and, for me, seemed to promote their junk food over other junk food. Now when I first joined ww I thought that was brilliant. Rubbish food which I liked at the time could be replaced by ww rubbish food but with lower calories and added artificial sweeteners. I did lose weight but was constantly hungry. I felt the leader had little knowledge about good foods. Anyway the community is great on mfp and has a much larger data base of foods than ww.
Hope you have lots of success with mfp Sarah!

WW works for some people. My MIL swears by it. But I checked it out and I just couldn't...understand, figure out, comprehend how ANYTHING worked. Definitely not for me lol. Anyway, welcome! Hope you like it here. I do!

I tried WW twice (very briefly each time). Just when I got the hang of the point counting, they changed to Points Plus. Now they're changing again. I know it has a kind of "cult like" following, but I just found it to be very restrictive and their WW foods full of ingredients I don't want to put in my body. In addition, they push their products (trackers, counters, cookbooks) on you at meetings and you end up with a bunch of "stuff" you don't really need.

Now that Oprah is behind it I'm sure there will be a resurgence in interest as she publicly loses weight on their program (yet again). They try to make something complicated, that is really simple, with their bottom line to make money.

Calories in, calories out. Eat less, move more! It's beautiful in its simplicity!!

Another WW refugee here. Was a bit nervous to leave WW ,but so far really like MFP. Deal breaker for me was the inability to exchange exercise points for food on the new WW plan. I train for half marathons and can't live on 1200 calories and also run 10 miles. New program was not for me.

I did ww a few times several years ago and lost about 30 pounds but got tired of paying for it and sitting through repetitive meetings. I inevitably gained the weight back (and then some) because it was never mentally about a lifestyle change but rather just a period of time that I would sacrifice until I felt good about my body and then back to my old ways. I've been using mfp for a while now and have had success. Someone earlier on this string of posts mentioned how ww just substitutes junk food for different junk food. I feel like that's exactly what I did with ww - they tout it as a way to lose weight eating whatever you want, but I think they miss the point of eating real, whole, clean foods. I think it really has helped me to learn how to eat fresh foods and avoid prepackaged foods. I'm looking for more friends and support on mfp, feel free to add me!

I have been on MFP for about a week now. Signed up a couple years ago and just never did anything with it. I have had a couple health issues lately and need/want to get healthy. I have over 100 lbs to lose which is so overwhelming to me.

I am hoping to get lots of support. I am a foodie that is having the hardest time watching what I eat. I had surgery in October (not weightloss surgery) and the fatty foods really hurt me now, but I still eat them. (how crazy is that?) Any help would be greatly appreciated.