LOVE THIS! I came over from WW and am finally losing again!

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islandlifenc
islandlifenc Posts: 107 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hello, everyone!

I've been using MFP for two weeks now and am finally losing again after having gone 8 weeks on the new WW PointsPlus program without losing a pound!

A little background:

I got to my healthiest weight (around 160 - I was wearing a size 7/8) back in 2000 (a few years before my son was born) with the original WW Points program, and I kept it off until I gave birth. Then I put on pounds, and put on some more, and just never really took them off.

I had ballooned up to 225 lbs about 3 years ago, and by just cutting back in snacks and sodas I had gotten back down around 205 (though it took me 2 years to do it, because I wasn't actively trying).

Well... in January of this year, I decided to take my weight loss seriously again so I signed up for the WW PP program. It went fairly well until April, and then my weight loss just stalled. I think I finally figured out what the problem was: I am a big carb eater -- not necessarily unhealthy carbs, but that is a big chunk of my diet, and yet WW assigned points values to my goto carbs that made them high in points, so in actuality, I wasn't really getting enough calories per day.

Also, I wasn't keeping track of my basic daily activities, so I think I was creating a caloric deficit, throwing myself into starvation mode (which I have realized from THIS site because of some of the posts about how I SHOULD eat my exercise calories).

Anyhow, after eight weeks of the scale not moving (I was stuck at 190!), I decided to try something else and I found this site. I figured, "Hey, it's free, and I can still track everything on my computer and my phone." So I started tracking the calories for everything I ate.

Imagine my surprise to find out that I still had about 300 calories at the end of the day that I needed to eat AFTER eating a full day of food that would have thrown me over my points on WW. On top of that, daily activities like slow walking or light cleaning also created more of a caloric deficit.

So I've been EATING more, recording my exercise, and yet the pounds are finally starting to melt off again. (After nearly two weeks I'm down 2.5 lbs.)

Amazing! And not to mention, there is something about being able to spend nearly 1,500 calories per day on food, rather than 29 pts + weeklies.

I just cannot say enough good things about this site and I am finally feeling like I'm understanding the numbers in getting my weight back under control — and it's nice not to have to be reliant on using a proprietary calculator to determine the points values of foods.

Sorry this is so long, but I am loving this MFP site and just wanted to introduce myself to the community!

Replies

  • Kelly_Wilson1990
    Kelly_Wilson1990 Posts: 3,245 Member
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    Welcome and congratulations on your weight loss so far!
  • Latoyamary
    Latoyamary Posts: 140
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    Hey,

    Congrats on the recent weight loss!!! Welcome to MFP... Everyone is nice and encouraging... You will love it!!!:flowerforyou:
  • beccaclyma2002
    beccaclyma2002 Posts: 12
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    welcome!!! glad you are here.. congrats on your weight loss !! keep up the great work. name is becca if you would like to add me feel free to do so.. much love and lots of luck and good thoughts towards your journey
  • ritafay2011
    ritafay2011 Posts: 85
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    WELCOME!!!!!I :heart: MY MFP'S THEY ARE SO GREAT AND I THINK WE ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE!!!!!!!..GOOD JOB!!!!! WITH YOUR WEIGHT LOSS:drinker:
  • KotyTyler
    KotyTyler Posts: 3,607 Member
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    Welcome and I'm so happy you see the benefits of this site already! So happy for you and what you've done in a short time so far!
    Koty
  • islandlifenc
    islandlifenc Posts: 107 Member
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    Wow! What a friendly bunch! Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone! Glad to already have some new friends here on MFP! :o)
  • BranMuffin21
    BranMuffin21 Posts: 157 Member
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    I could lose on the old system, but the new one. I was the same, only a pound would be lost and gained. It was terrible. But I love mfp, I have lost 9 pounds in 4 weeks! Its fantastic and way easier and a lot more support from people. I never got support by the leaders at the meetings and was left more confused than my actual questions being answered!
  • islandlifenc
    islandlifenc Posts: 107 Member
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    Brandy,

    So nice to know I'm not the only one who was not losing with the PointsPlus program! I am just over the moon to know I can be eating more on this and yet finally losing again.

    I did the online program with PointsPlus (I did the meetings a decade ago when I first went on WW). It was working at first, but as my daily points value allocation went down, my weigh loss just came to a screeching halt.

    I have a feeling they'll modify the program again a few years from now, but no matter. I'm done with paying for WW and am just going to stick with this because it works. :o)

    Sara
  • JDRBT
    JDRBT Posts: 264 Member
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    Welcome "Aboard"! I had a similiar issue w/ WW. I figured out how to use the points, and would always have some left over, but wasn't losing weight.

    Also, I just don't think that "points" make sense in the long run. It's a GREAT marketing tool - you'll always have to buy a new book to stay up to date, etc, or you'll have to know the equation, find out the nutritional information, and then figure out the Point value? It just doesn't seem realistic to live your life every day that way. Logging nutritional information that is already largely provided seems like it cuts out a step and makes daily tracking of everything SO much easier! I did Medifast for a while too, and always lost weight on it, but I found that, for me, it wasn't a maintainable lifestyle.

    Don't get me wrong - almost ANY diet program will work if you follow the instructions to the letter, but this one just seems to make more sense to me when it comes to long term lifestyle changes. :)
    Whatever motivates you! :)
  • bumblebee87
    bumblebee87 Posts: 6 Member
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    I'm back here after a stint on propoints too, althoug it was working for me, I was being very unhealthy about it, a few weeks here and I feel so much better about how I am losing weight, good luck!
  • mrsclc
    mrsclc Posts: 73
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    Yay! I'm happy you found this site!!! I also switched over from WW. MFP is wonderful!! Welcome!!
  • mamasita38
    mamasita38 Posts: 28
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    Wow. How interesting to hear that a lot of you had the same problem on WW.
    On the old system I was able to drop 30 lbs. in a year and I made lifetime. I became pregnant and when I came back, it was the new program. I dropped 15 lbs. pretty quickly but after that I hit a plateau for 7 months!!!! I was between 166 and 170 for months on end. My leader urged me not to quit and I feel badly for having switched to MFP but something had to give. I couldn't waste my money on WW anymore.
    I've lost about 3 lbs. so far and am happy to be below 166, finally!

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