I need honest opinions about Weight Watchers

My personal experience with WW was positive. I had good success in losing weight. I quit once I got pregnant. But the meetings were enjoyable. I don't have anything bad to say about them. Your list:

lauractemple85 wrote: »

- The point system in general: It’s based on calories, so why not just count calories?

The points are based on calories, fat, and fiber, from my memory. Yes, you can just count calories. The points are meant to simply calorie and macro counting. Comes down to personal preference.

- You don’t count “points” for fruit: Fruit is worth 0 points. This is odd to me considering a banana can be 150 calories

Fruit is not supposed to be a free for all. If you go through the literature there is a limit to the number of free servings each day. The calories for "free" foods are built into your daily points allowance.

- You RECEIVE extra points if you consume lean proteins: Maybe I misunderstood this, but it seems to me that you gain points for eating chicken?

Not sure about this. Possibly a change since I did WW.

- Weight Watcher brand foods are garbage: The ingredients are nothing but processed junk and empty calories.

Personal preference. The foods are not required in order to follow WW so I'm not sure why it matters. I'm sure I eat stuff that others think is junk and others eat stuff I think is junk.

I tried weight watchers years ago, but didn't like it. Though one problem I had back then was that fruit juice was fewer points than the corresponding fruit, for instance orange juice was fewer pointed than an orange. It appears they've corrected that kind of thing. It might be better now.

Okay, firstly-
Let's tackle the issue of the bonus-
Accept the 'challenge', in the week leading upto 'weigh in day' - up your salt intake (unless there's a medical reason why you shouldn't).
After each salt enriched meal, drink water (be sure it's soon after to get the most retention!).
On weigh in day, you'll be a fair few lb up!
Artificially raising you're 'weigh in'.
Step two- in the weeks after your 'weigh in', reduce salt intake to a safe minimum. Full hydrate whilst doing so.
On day of next 'weigh in' pull water intake to an average.
I can almost guarantee that you'll have reduced your 'weight' (not body-fat, WW aren't generally trained to give this advice) by more than 8%.

Get bonus!

(Here's to hoping people don't take this advice seriously, although... It would work lol)


Next.

Forget planned diets that you're told how to eat and learn to ingest the foods and drinks you like whilst keeping within your daily calories.

I see no benefit to paying an organisation to tell me what to eat.

There is a lot of poo-poo'ing WW here but I will speak in favor of it. I am a current WW member have been for a over year. I lost 16lbs and 2 dress sizes. It works for a lot of people and is a nice change from MFP. I say give it a shot and if you don't like it, you just stop. I say to everyone don't knock it until you try it.

I was an on again off again WW member for almost 20 years. I've been through pretty much every program they have, with differing successes. I finally broke free of them a few years ago, for very much reasons you've pointed out.

1 - Point counting is kind of like calorie counting, but they've slowly skewed the counts over time to be a lower carb plan too. They shave points off some things and add them to others in ways that don't really add up.

2 - the free fruit and veg this is a mechanism to have people reach for an apple instead of a cookie, when the calories in the 2 might be the same. They give you a lower Points allocation than you would the equivalent calories on the assumption that you will top it up with fruit and veg. It's clever, and generally does encourage people to go to fruit and veg, but ultimately its a marketing ploy and has resulted in SO MANY people starting threads on here astounded that their fruit and veg actually have calories.

3 - The meetings were great at the start but after a while, they stop teaching you anything and become repetitive. Same old, same old. They need to cater to newbies every week, so its understandable, but it loses that motivational side and becomes a grind.

4 - its pretty damn expensive when you think that its free to count calories.

5 - They keep flippin' changing the program! And with every new one I had slightly less success. I've heard the same from many others.

In short it was a great tool to educate me when I knew nothing about nutrition. It gave me a solid foundation to go out and learn more myself. But now I know I don't need it and can certainly spend that money better elsewhere.

I had a similar program through work, so I joined. It was about a year ago, when they released their new Smart Points system. I hated it, and it wasn't worth the work bonus. I was STARVING. If you do any sort of exercise, you are definitely not eating enough to satisfy you. Also, the "free fruit and vegetables" is not entirely true. If you read the informational booklet you get very carefully, you only get five servings for free...which if you eat a lot of vegetables really isn't much. When I'd say things about having major hunger after a lifting session, I'd get told to "just eat some fruit or veggies!" but at that point I'd already consumed my five "free" servings. I started tracking everything I ate both through them and on MFP, and discovered that most days I wasn't even breaking 1000 calories...no wonder I was so hungry and could feel my strength disappearing when I lifted! They say the more "whole" foods you eat, the less the point value, but as someone who doesn't even purchase convenience food, I can tell you this isn't true at all. I wasn't losing any weight, was constantly fatigued and had turned into a hangry crab. I started tracking more for a calorie and macros goal through MFP (while still tracking on their site and being about 10-15 points over every single day) and the weight started falling off - go figure. It definitely wasn't worth it to me.

I had great success with the old WW, when it was points plus (PP). I lost weight and didn't feel deprived. I rejoined this year but I hated the new WW with the Smart Points (SP). I tracked both SP and calories and found that with the same number of SP, I would some days be at 900 calories, and some days be at 1800. This didn't seem to make much sense to me. I have a friend who does WW and eats 1/2 a watermelon every day because it's "free" points...but it's still an awful lot of a good thing. I also felt that it pretty much threw activity points at me. For a normal day of walking and not working out, but just counting FitBit steps, it would try and give me like 16 activity points...which if I ate them would be half

For me, it just wasn't a lifestyle I could sustain. I try and make better choices and track my calories on MFP, that seems to work.

I was a member years ago (2005/06) when it was 1-2-3 Success, or something like that. It was OK. I lost 14lbs, but very slowly probably because I ate a ton of 'free' fruit and veg, and saved up all my exercise points for beer at the weekend. I liked the meetings because the leader was very motivational and was interested in figuring out what was best for each individual in the group, and she never tried to sell us the WW products. Sadly, she had to give up as she was badly injured in a car accident (please, never text and drive) and we got a new leader, and she rubbed everyone up the wrong way from day 1. Pretty much called us all losers, and would spend the entire meeting trying to get us to buy some nasty cookies. I stuck with it for a while, but eventually gave up when the program changed.

Counting calories is much easier.

I had a lot of success online when it was old system in 2007/2008. But smart points seem to slow your progress (fruit just isn't free. Fact!). I think they wanted people to keep paying, so new improved is only way to get someone like me who had a points counter and note book to come back. I hated new system. I've had amazing success with writing it down, in a notebook. Calories, carbs, fat, and protein totals daily. I use a planner to document my status. I'd today do it if I was getting paid to drop 8% because I'm already on my way