Any new weight watchers people? I'm considering trying it and never have

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  • Carlos_421
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
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    dubird wrote: »
    KnittingSoo wrote: »
    Regarding the 'free fruit' thing - WW points are set assuming 200-300 calories of fruit /veg will be consumed on average. They do say you should use fruit and veg to help keep you satisfied - not that you should just eat tons of it for free. I used WW for a while and double tracked out of interest and my calorie intake following WW was in line with the MFP, fitbit recommendations.

    Thank you for clarifying, but that makes it even more confusing to me. Is WW really geared toward teaching you better eating habits, or are they banking someone to keep coming back when they stop and gain weight again? My guess is the latter, but that's based on what people have said about how it works, which may be off. If that's the case, I wouldn't want to use WW as I can't eat a lot of the 'prepped' foods, and trying to count points in what I make seems to be much harder. Does that make sense?

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  • RetroPolkaDot
    RetroPolkaDot Posts: 83 Member
    edited January 2016
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    dubird wrote: »
    KnittingSoo wrote: »
    Regarding the 'free fruit' thing - WW points are set assuming 200-300 calories of fruit /veg will be consumed on average. They do say you should use fruit and veg to help keep you satisfied - not that you should just eat tons of it for free. I used WW for a while and double tracked out of interest and my calorie intake following WW was in line with the MFP, fitbit recommendations.

    Thank you for clarifying, but that makes it even more confusing to me. Is WW really geared toward teaching you better eating habits, or are they banking someone to keep coming back when they stop and gain weight again? My guess is the latter, but that's based on what people have said about how it works, which may be off. If that's the case, I wouldn't want to use WW as I can't eat a lot of the 'prepped' foods, and trying to count points in what I make seems to be much harder. Does that make sense?

    WW members don't have to eat prepped food. I don't eat any prepped foods. I cook all my own meals. It's no harder to count points in home cooked foods than it is to count calories in the same food.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    dubird wrote: »
    TRC64 wrote: »
    I was using MFP, and switched to WW recently. It is calorie counting, but basically WW figures the calories and you just count points. You are given a certain number of daily points, and a weekly "bonus" that you can use however you like.

    I like the fact that fruits and most veggies are zero points. If I'm starving between meals, I can grab a piece of fruit (zero points) without having to worry about logging calories/going over calories. The new Smart Points program also heavily penalizes sugar and saturated fats (high points), and protein is fairly low in points, which steers you towards healthier choices. If you feel that you need help kicking a sugar habit, this may be what you need.

    It definitely is more expensive. The online only version (what I use) is $19.95 a month, twice the MFP premium. If you want meetings and online, that's more. I don't do meetings, but I know that many people find the public accountability very helpful.

    Ultimately, you need to find what fits your personality and budget.

    Actually, I have no idea why they started counting fruits as 0 points. Fruit has plenty of calories, and if you're swapping out cookies for fruit, yeah, less calories but you're still getting a significant amount. I mean, a medium apple is around 100 calories. Say you have three of them during the day as snacks because they're healthier and keep you full. That's 300 extra calories you're not taking into effect for your daily calorie goal. So yeah, WW can help and many people find counting points a lot easier, but from what I've seen, it has some holes.

    Points are not calories. They don't claim they are.

    Imagine you want to encourage yourself to get in your 5 servings of produce per day and you estimate that's 300 calories. So you make your eating goal those 5 servings PLUS 1200 calories of other foods, to equal your desired 1500. That's all they're doing.

    They don't encourage people to eat 5 bananas a day or skip meals and have a 6-cup fruit salad. It's explained to people who care to understand. You might eat three apples as snacks in a day but you're not going to eat 6 or 12 apples, unlike cookies. The fiber and water content make it highly unlikely.

  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    Some people benefit from the face-to-face weekly meetings.
  • lyssa1210
    lyssa1210 Posts: 96 Member
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    Thank you for your support and thoughts. My friend sent me the WW print outs. I am looking it over and doing MFP I just hurt my back again (it gets tweaked by just getting up from a chair too fast) so need to heal again before any big exercise . Let's be friends !?

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