Former weight watchers?

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Good morning,

I'm curious if anyone here is a former Weight Watcher that is having success with my fitness pal? After having my son I lost some weight with weight watchers but am very frustrated with the new smart points plan/ changes made in December. I feel like I blow through the points now, with not eating very much. Also with PCOS, I always struggled with the all fruit being free concept of WW. For those of you who came over from weight watchers what do you do now for your own accountability? This is what I feel concerned about when you are used to going to a weekly weigh in with others.

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  • leahcollett1
    leahcollett1 Posts: 807 Member
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    i did try ww after having my 2nd child - i couldnt understand the weekly points along with also your daily points.. i losta bit but not much - im also a slimming world member.. this is only so i try and make healthier choices between food..
    i count the calories on here and after 6 months of stalling the scales are going down again...
    so before in my head i had 1600 calories for the day - its very easy to incorporate a hot cross bun into that allowance for 180 cals.. with sw, its 9 sysn - totally not worth it, im only allowed 15 a day!, so i opt for fruit and yogurt instead.
    there. a healthier better choice.
    same with the meals - all sw meals are cooked from scratch again a much healthier way.
    i lost my way a bit with free foods too, so its why i still count calories here, the way i see it, is i could have 10 free yogurts a day but wait.. thats 1000 calories???? so in some things sw doesnt teach you..
  • Sparklydiamond21
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    I get where you are coming from with the new smart points, it's not for me either. I'm successfully PP on my own using a basic spreadsheet, I think some people may use the ultimate food diary app. I also log my foods into MFP as I like to see the balance of macros.
  • tessharper419
    tessharper419 Posts: 2 Member
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    Hi I am in the same boat with you. I have done both my fitness pal and WW and have lost weight successfully with both in my past. I was just starting to get serious about my WW effort then they switched programs and I feel the exact same way you do. So I just switched to MFP on Sat. I have 2 neighbors losing weight also -one who is on WW and the other using MFP. We checkin once a week with our progress which has kicked my butt into gear because I had not been as disciplined, but don't want to be left behind now that they are down 10-13lbs compared to my 3. I am also 45 with a 13 and 6 yo so losing weight is much harder for me now that I am officially in menopause so I think seeing the calories and nutrition composition of what I eat will help me more. I was not happy with the new point system ---I was failing every week. So if you want someone to Ck in with I am more than happy to add another person to the list of people I have to be accountable to and for.
  • KitchyWitchy
    KitchyWitchy Posts: 57 Member
    edited February 2016
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    I've had success in the past when I have followed Weight Watchers. I really don't like their new Smart Points plan so I came over to MFP and I love it so much more. Never going back to WW.
    I only ever used WW online and never attended in person meetings.
  • suziecue20
    suziecue20 Posts: 567 Member
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    I've done WW. I started going to meetings and absolutely hated them - lining up to be weighed felt like a cattle market, so I did it online. I lost weight but it cost me money! I do MFP online for FREE and have lost 33lbs since last September. I also eat more nutritionally doing CICO because I can see how the food is made up, whereas with WW all you know is how many points you are eating.
  • prettygirlstorm1
    prettygirlstorm1 Posts: 722 Member
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    Hi I am a current WW members and the new smart points did take some getting used to. I still log my food here. Although I love this site the accountability was not there, which is sad to say. I needed the accountability to the WW scale. WW has always worked for me. I would lose the weight, but would stop going when I reached my personal goal but it came back on. This time I plan to stick with it and use this site as well. Good luck to all of you!!!
  • emdeesea
    emdeesea Posts: 1,823 Member
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    I used to do WW and lost my first 20 with them, but I did not like how your success was only measured by the scale, and that if I was PMSing or had eaten something with high sodium, my weight would be up for that weigh-in and would feel like a complete failure.

    I also did not like the Points thing, because it did not teach me about basic calorie control. Once I quit WW (because it was just too expensive and I didn't like running out to those stupid meetings every week), and got hooked up with MFP, got a food scale, etc., is when I really started to lose the weight.
  • laur357
    laur357 Posts: 896 Member
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    First 30 on WW, another 25 on MFP. I also have PCOS. I prefer MFP because 1) it's free 2) I try to pay attention to things like fiber and protein intake, which gets muddled up when converting to points 3) all the people in my meetings were older ladies trying to "diet" with extremely low-fat, processed foods
    If you're concerned about accountability, some of the other boards have challenge threads and check in regularly with each other for motivation. Also, try to find some friends so you can message one another and follow progress. And maybe a real life buddy to meet with once a week for exercise or a walk?
  • Ladybird1103
    Ladybird1103 Posts: 36 Member
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    Hi, I'm a former WW member. I lost weight with WW 3 years ago, and the only thing I really liked was that accountability of weighing in at the meetings once a week, and the accountability of tracking everything I ate.
    The actual meetings were useless. I didn't like the emphasis on non-fat dairy, processed sugary/high carb snacks. Also you are completely unaware of your nutrition. As someone mentioned above, the points hide where you calories are coming from in terms of macros. I struggled with fruit being free as well. Biggest pet peeve was how many points were in alcohol. I would use 11 points on TWO glasses of wine, and that was almost half my day's worth of points. This led to a lot of binging on weekends, because I felt deprived of food.

    I like MFP much better. I have created my own ways to be accountable. I have to clear jars sitting in my bedroom, one full of marbles representing pounds left to lose, and I put a marble in the other jar representing pounds lost every time I lose weight. Also I diligently track my weight in both MFP and another app called Libra.

    I also have a select group of friends that know I'm trying to lose weight, and I tell them when I've lost. It's good to have that support.

    Lastly, my Fitbit keeps me accountable. It tells me when I am over budget on calories in/calories out for the day, or under budget. I like the feeling of ending a day having hit all of my fitbit goals and balancing calories in/calories out.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,988 Member
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    laur357 wrote: »
    First 30 on WW, another 25 on MFP. I also have PCOS. I prefer MFP because 1) it's free 2) I try to pay attention to things like fiber and protein intake, which gets muddled up when converting to points 3) all the people in my meetings were older ladies trying to "diet" with extremely low-fat, processed foods
    If you're concerned about accountability, some of the other boards have challenge threads and check in regularly with each other for motivation. Also, try to find some friends so you can message one another and follow progress. And maybe a real life buddy to meet with once a week for exercise or a walk?

    Good ideas about accountability ^

    I get a weekly message from fitbit that tells me how I did, which I find helpful.

    I did WW in the 90s. Our meetings were at work, and we had a good group. I'd intended to rejoin in 2012 but found MFP and like it better.
  • Shells918
    Shells918 Posts: 1,070 Member
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    I lost almost 80 pounds on WW OVER 10 years ago. I became a lifetime member and even a leader. I've never put all of it back on but this summer I was getting a little bit too close. I'd gone back to WW last fall, and although I like the program, it wasn't working for me this time.
    Due to medical issues I have to eat differently, and finding MFP was great. I can still track my foods, my exercise and have the support I need. I see a dr and dietitian regularly as well and although I lose slowly, I'm losing. It is different to measure the "free" or "0 point" foods, but for my particular situation, I can't eat all the anything I want.
  • jlfag05
    jlfag05 Posts: 7 Member
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    Thank y'all for all of these great viewpoints... I am curious do any of you just use the calorie counting feature or did everyone pay for the premium/ upgrade? Thanks!!
  • suziecue20
    suziecue20 Posts: 567 Member
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    I don't pay for the 'premium'. I have MFP friends who have upgraded and said they wish they had stayed 'free'.
  • jlfag05
    jlfag05 Posts: 7 Member
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    Good to know! I'm free as of now.
  • emdeesea
    emdeesea Posts: 1,823 Member
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    I don't pay for anything that I don't have to and this free site works just fine for me.
  • Jlynn913
    Jlynn913 Posts: 1 Member
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    I'm glad somebody actually asked this. I was considering using WW to drop the last pesky 20 pounds and get off this plateau I've been on. I've heard great things from numerous people, but after reading reviews now I'm hesitant. I guess everybody liked the last version of it but since the new one came out people are canceling left and right. I use MFP religiously, but I figured something new would be good. So I'm assuming nobody likes the new program enough to stick with it and/or try it?
  • mabinethin
    mabinethin Posts: 93 Member
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    My job offered WW free for the year to all employee's. I tried it for 4 weeks and I hated it!!!! I did not like the point system. There were days I would use all my points but only ate about 700-800 calories. Back on MFP so far I have lost 16lb with MFP.
  • cuppsc
    cuppsc Posts: 5 Member
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    I just canceled my ww. I didn't like the new plan at all.
  • Lindsay375
    Lindsay375 Posts: 49 Member
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    I did WW for about 9 months. My company reimbursed us for 2 out of 3 at work sessions, and the meetings were also at our office around lunch time once a week. I did it for the social aspect of it. I found the points to be too simplistic of a view of food. I also stopped losing because if I was hungry I'd eat fruit which was zero points but could quickly add up in actual calories. I rather look at the composition of the food and macros to decide the best thing to eat rather than points.

    MFP is a good way to track and I found I don't need the accountability of other people. I have my daily weigh in here and a weekly weigh in I track off line and it works for me.
  • SingRunTing
    SingRunTing Posts: 2,604 Member
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    If you are looking for accountability, try any of the challenge groups here on MFP. They are all structured differently and have different rules, but most include daily threads where you can chat with other members and weekly (or another regularly scheduled) weigh ins.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/categories/challenges