Weight watchers v Fitness Pal

I lost 50 pounds in 2005 while following Weight Watchers and going to weekly meetings. I really didn't enjoy going to the meetings but I was determined to lose the weight. My personal issue with WW is that they determine your goal weight unless you go to a doctor and get a different goal weight from him/her. I don't necessarily want to go down to the weight the insurance companies want me to be. Because of this, when a crisis in my family that required a months of time and included a lot of stress, I went off the program and of course gained all my weight back. My fault, not WW. I didn't keep my commitment to myself. Now I am just starting MFP, but actually seeing how many calories are in the foods and amounts I eat has been a real eye opener for me. The fact that I could put an APP on my cell phone has been helpful already making tracking what I eat away from home so easy. I get immediate feedback by looking at my goals for the day and what I have already eaten. It makes me think about whether I really want to eat the calories I'm choosing and I make a point of putting the food in the tracker before I eat it in case I want to rethink it. ALL THAT BEING SAID: Any healthy program can work IF you hold yourself accountable to yourself! Get out that food scale and use it! IMHO this is the key to succeeding. Don't lie to yourself about anything you're putting into your mouth. Be honest about how much you are moving and try to move a little more every day. Don't kill yourself or get injured doing exercises. Just do more everyday. Do it for yourself, because you want to feel better, move better and like what you see when you look in the mirror! You are worth it! If you fall off the healthy eating wagon one day, get back up, brush yourself off and start again tomorrow. Everyone has a bad day, just don't defeat yourself by making them all bad days. Again, YOU ARE WORTH THIS EFFORT! ****For the record, before anyone thinks I am being a "beach"*** This is what I am determined to tell myself every day until eating healthy is so ingrained in me that I don't have to think about making the best choices. I may very well have to tell myself this for the rest of my life but I AM worth it! You are too!

I signed up for a free month when I heard about their new program, just to kind of "see" what it was all about (although I've been very happy with the losses I'm seeing just from tracking my food and exercising). I tracked both on there and here, ate entirely whole foods (complex carbs, lean proteins, tons of veggies). I used up all of my daily "Points" and when I came here, and tracked all my food, it didn't even add up to 1,000 calories of food in a day, which is not healthy, especially since I'm weight training 4-5 days a week. Even adding the "weekly points" didn't even add up to 1,200 calories, and I eat a MINIMUM 1,600 on my rest days. It's no wonder that people literally have an on-again-off-again relationship with Weight Watchers. As soon as someone goes off plan they gain all their weight back. Well yeah, because they're starving people!

I think it depends, if you are a people person then the group aspect of WW can be really helpful. If it's a matter of just having an online tool to help you then I would say MFP.

It's been a long time since I tried WW so things have probably changed but I think the MFP database is much better, but if you find a good group and thrive off that type of support I wouldn't necessarily discount WW, but personally I prefer MFP.

I did MFP about 4 years ago and successfully got from 200 to 170... This past October I decided I needed to lose weight again after weighing in at 178 and joined WW online. When I joined they still had the points plus program which I really liked. I got about 28 points a day and 49 weekly flex points that I usually would use only about half of on Fridays and Saturdays. This system worked really well for me. I was able to lose about 10 lbs by December. I liked that i could enter a food and it would basically "score" it for me. Was that bowl of oatmeal really worth the 7 points when I could just eat 2 eggs for 4 points? This really helped me plan out my day, something I wasn't really able to do with calories. Unfortunately, WW decided to change their program just when I was getting comfortable to smart points (or something like that) and it just wasn't for me. It would score foods with sugar at really outrageous point levels that I just didn't think were fair. I understand that they want you to learn how to eat healthy rather than just less, but I want a cookie every once in a while and don't want to have to sacrifice so many points. So I switched to MFP and as of today I've lost another 10 lbs. So basically I think both can work but it just depends on your life style. I should also add that the MFP food database is SO much better than WW. There were times when I'd try to put a non-diet version of a specific soda into WW and they just didn't have it in the database. I hope my rambling was helpful.

I've done both. I think that they are similar and work equally well. I've been more successful long term with MFP simply because I've been more devoted to improving/maintaining my health and weight loss than I was previously.

I did WW back in 2007. I lost 115 pounds in 18 months. When I hit my goal I couldn't maintain and gained it back. I had no idea how to maintain.

Last January I started MFP and lost 160 pounds in 9.5 months. I've been maintaining since September.

I love MFP. I hate the new WW plan.

Lost 30 lbs on Weight Watchers. What helps me is the flex points, I have a hard time understanding how to eat junk in "moderation" and WW flex points helped me do that. I also like that fruit and vegetables are zero points because if I'm hungry and out of calories I get pissed and rebel but with WW i can have fruit or veg if I'm still hungry and out of points. I still lost weight even with the extra produce that was not counted. I think if you have no problem with moderation MFP is better but I like WW for helping me manage how often I should drink wine or eat pizza, etc.

Tricia_ruby wrote: »

I've been on WW since Oct and lost 12lbs. But now I was just thinking about what I am actually paying for. Basically just being able to track since I do all online. I'm figuring I can do the same on MVP for free and still lose weight and eat healthy.
One thing I don't like about tracking on MVP is that you can't change the servings. If something has a serving of 5 pieces I can't change it to let's say 3 pieces. Or am I doing something wrong?
Thanks

When it says "1 serving(s) of 5 pieces", click on the 5 pieces and it should pull up options for other serving sizes, especially, say "1 piece". Then you can log 3 servings of 1 piece

I've lost 40 pounds on WW previously (PointsPlus version) but couldn't afford to continue and had no idea how to eat since points does not teach you calories. Gained it all back and then some.

I've lost 63-64 pounds so far with MFP and am still going strong. Just for kicks I calculated today's food so far with the formula they use for SmartPoints. I've consumed 928 calories. Now, I don't know what my points would be (41yo 5'0.5" 197lb female), of course, but I've had 27 points.

I've had a protein shake for breakfast (not big on breakfast but I have meds to take), an oikos triple zero greek yogurt, a sourdough english muffin w/16g peanut butter & 20g strawberry preserves, and 2 cuties for lunch, and a carb balance wrap with 2.9oz thinly sliced smoked ham and 2 slices low-fat monterey jack cheese for dinner.

Seems to me that I'd starve or go crazy and binge with the new setup. I shall be sticking with MFP. Can't beat the price and the results make me very happy.

They are both the exact same concept except one works with bigger numbers and is free. I think weight watchers is probably the biggest scam in history. People know what to do to lose weight they just took it and made it so people could do the math easier on their fingers

WalkingAlong wrote: »

wrenak wrote: »

Seems to me that I'd starve or go crazy and binge with the new setup.

They expect you to take advantage of produce being free and to eat more fruit and vegetables.

Fresh produce can get pretty pricey in Alaska, especially in the winter. Not always feasible to make up the caloric difference that way. Wouldn't it make more sense to make them cost low points and adjust other things (or allow for higher points) so that people are eating a proper calorie goal?

Interestingly in the last year or so I've had several friends who've had significant success with Slimming World. Seems to be more 'educational' than WW, therefore sustainable. Might just be a UK co though? Not sure.

Personally MFP on its own has been fine for me but I didn't have significant food issues to un/relearn, just to get a handle on moderation and how that looked for me.

WalkingAlong wrote: »

They expect you to take advantage of produce being free and to eat more fruit and vegetables.

This is true. People rarely get overweight/obese because they're eating too many green beans, or even bananas.

Also, recently on the WW boards, someone compared the Smart Points of 5 lbs of shrimp to 9 Lindt Lindor truffles, which were approx the same points. They were complaining ... but what they missed is that very few people can eat 5 lbs of shrimp, but almost everyone can eat 9 small delicious chocolate balls!

I recently switched from MFP to WW, primarily because I liked the fact that I wouldn't have to count veggies and fruit. Those aren't/weren't my problem, so it's very freeing to be able to eat a banana as a snack between meals and not worry about the calories.