WW vs calorie counting

If you feel hungry on weight watchers then you'd be setting yourself up for failure. Try out counting calories for a while and compare it to you WW experience. You can always switch back!

I tried them all, C/C is the only one that worked for me

I did WW in the 90s. While WW and MFP both have pros and cons, overall I prefer MFP.

Hi I was a former WW. Have not tried the new program. I lost 44 with them and then 43 with MFP. I GAINED 60 back. Broken shoulder less activity and not watching what I eat. I like MFP the best. I have friends here to support me that I have had for years. My diary is open for accountability. It is free.

I asked on my FB about WW (and Slimming World in the UK) because I had some suspicions about them. I have used neither but have friends who faithfully return to both when needing to lose. WW (and SW) account for activity very poorly so if you are active or exercising a reasonable amount you will inevitably be undereating. For that reason alone I wouldn't do either, it's a recipe for a crash and burn. That and assigning points arbitrarily to some foods in order to demonise them really gets my back up.

I've lost 25kg on ww over 7 months but I've also lost 15kg with mfp too.... And this is free

healthy491 wrote: »

I dont exactly know what WW is , but I literally tried EVERYTHING and usually other methods made me feel miserable and hungry with little to no results. MFP is the only one that worked for me and I am now happier than ever with my weight

WW is Weight Watchers.

Back in 2011-2012 I lost 53 lbs. with the WW Points Plus program. It worked very well for me and was easy to follow as (almost) all fruits and vegetables were 0 points. At that time you could exchange exercise points earned for food and I liked the 49 bonus weekly points you could use (or not) for special occasions (or alcohol, lol). The deaths of both my parents and a cross country move away from family saw me gaining around half of it back. I had still been paying for the monthly online membership and tried the new program but as others mentioned, it's very punishing on foods the plan wants to discourage you from eating. I decided to give MFP a try as it's free. I'm still getting used to having to weight/measure everything vs. the free fruits and veggies on WW though. I think it comes down to whatever you can see yourself doing for the long term.

lizlamarca6843 wrote: »

kschramm7 wrote: »

I lost 80 lbs on the Points Plus plan. I joined MFP recently when I just couldn't take the SmartPoints plan anymore. When 150 calories of chicken breast is 2 SmartPoints and a 150 calorie Skinny Cow ice cream cone is 8 Smart Points (and you only get 30 points a day), there's something wrong.

They so drastically penalize sugar and fats that the program is stupid now. In my opinion, they're setting you up to fail...to cheat, to binge because of how they've structured the new plan.

I'm lifetime. I still go to meetings every week and weigh in once a month, but I calorie count, and I enjoy my Skinny Cow ice cream cones now. I need the accountability of having to get on a scale once a month and be under a certain weight, but I don't need their plan anymore.

I canceled my WW plan this morning and wrote them a long letter saying essentially what you said, that the new plan was basically a waiting game until I binged and a discouragement from exercising. I can't believe how badly they messed up what was once a good program. I hope they change it back or go bankrupt :P

At least now I've finally found something that works!!!

They set my "fit points" at 120 a week! And I couldn't eat any of them! 30 points a day, 27 weeklies, and I couldn't consume any fit points, yet had to do the equivalent of 12k steps a day AND an hour long spin class 5 days a week to meet their goal. Sometimes my 30 points a day was under 1000 calories (with 2 fruits and 5 veggie servings), and I wasn't losing any more weight. I'm betting I crippled my metabolism exercising so much and eating so little. I've spent the last month working on "fixing" that...eating more (1420-1600 calories a day) while maintaining a reasonable exercise routine. I've watched my weight bounce around several pounds, and finally am starting to see a downward trend again.

Points Plus taught me how to eat, there are some really good recipes on the WW website, and I learned portion control (or at least that I need to weigh my food to be sure of portions). The program has some merit, and people with LOTS to lose who are not active seem to be doing well on the new SmartPoints program, probably because they have enough points to burn to have that 8 point ice cream cone and still eat 3 meals.

And you're absolutely right. They took a "lifestyle change" and turned it into a diet. And as we all know, diets fail.

I do both. I agree with the comments about how WW is turning toward low carb, sweets are very high in points, ect. But, in my opinion, I like the structure that WW has. I've been doing MFP on and off for years, lost and gained. With WW, the program steers you in a better direction with choosing what you eat. I don't feel hungry, most of the time, and when I want something sweet or a glass of wine, I need to plan for it. I also agree that the amount of calories you get (around 1200) isn't alot, but again, it depends on what type of calories they are.
I do like how they give you alot of activity points, I use a Fitbit, and I have it synced up, it encourages me to workout. So, I guess it's a personal preference. I use MFP to see my total calories/macros, so I have an idea of how many I'm eating.

I was very happy with Weight Watchers when I was doing Points Plus. When they switched to Smart Points last year, I quit. Until the switch, the WW plan always felt sustainable. The new plan feels like a diet. I quit WW in December and started calorie counting here at MFP. A few weeks ago I decided I needed to shake things up, and I switched back to WW/Points Plus, which I track on iTrackBites. But I'm still tracking calories here.

I find that there's a real correlation between calories and points when you follow Points Plus, but there's no correlation between calories and Smart Points.

I lost weight on WW in my 20s, but at 35 I rejoined and ended up not losing anything. It made me feel really frustrated to be so limited in what I could eat on the new SmartPoints system. I would eat something that would be very low calorie, but due to how WW calculates their points, it would cost me 8 points out of a grand total of only 26 per day. On MFP I can eat an abundance of foods and feel satisfied whilst also losing weight.

ETA: I just saw someone mentioned that they shut down the community. Even though my membership lapsed, I still occasionally sought inspiration from people on the message forums. It saddens me that WW seems to be gearing more toward keeping people overweight and without a support network (besides paying for a diet coach or group meeting) and discouraging people from making balanced choices and giving them tools like learning and motivation from your peers.