Weight Watchers

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JillianSawyer
JillianSawyer Posts: 3 Member
in Getting Started
I'm going to try tracking calories this week and I am pretty excited. As I get further into it I will pay closer attention to my macros and the breakdown of it all, but for now I will focus on meeting the calorie number goals. Baby steps!

I've been a believer in WW for most of my adult life, but I am happy to try counting calories at this point because to me it seems more freeing and flexible for every day life.

Have you switched from WW to calories? If so, how did it go?

I do have a few questions and maybe someone out there has some insight for me!

How do you go about tracking your fruit and vegetables that are zero points on WW? Do you track them on MFP but give yourself a slightly higher calorie goal (I know fruits and veggies have such a small amount of calories as is)?

Do you take into consideration weekly points? I have to use them to lose on WW so I am wondering how I might incorporate those weekly points into extra calories in my new path on MFP?

Thanks for any help!

Replies

  • 3rdof7sisters
    3rdof7sisters Posts: 486 Member
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    Calories are tracked here from everything. It all counts, and it adds up. It can definitely make a difference in whether or not you are losing. Weighing, measuring and logging all food and drinks will give you a true measure of exactly how may calories you are consuming.
  • mauvan1029
    mauvan1029 Posts: 3 Member
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    I'm doing the same thing points with WW and also tracking calories to see which works best. I need to be at least 1200 calories to lose the weight so I want to know how that compares to points with WW. So my suggestion is for a while do both and see how many calories are in your 30 points for the day.
  • ptsmiles
    ptsmiles Posts: 511 Member
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    mauvan1029 wrote: »
    I'm doing the same thing points with WW and also tracking calories to see which works best. I need to be at least 1200 calories to lose the weight so I want to know how that compares to points with WW. So my suggestion is for a while do both and see how many calories are in your 30 points for the day.
    I will be interested to see how this goes for you. I am going to be receiving 6 mos. of WW online for free soon and am interesting how many calories I will be "allowed" compared to points. The part that gets me is the "zero point" fruits and veggies. With calorie counting, they aren't free and some have a fair amount of calories. I understand the thought behind making them zero points, but they are still caloric.
  • size102b
    size102b Posts: 1,370 Member
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    Yes I don't like ww now it too restrictive in healthy carbs and I now find it expensive to eat what they promote so I do cals and eat healthy but aren't restricted
    I love ww in the 1990s it was more calorie lead now it's like slimming world and that doesn't work for me

    Life is calories in calories out what ever we do CICO
  • size102b
    size102b Posts: 1,370 Member
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    ptsmiles wrote: »
    mauvan1029 wrote: »
    I'm doing the same thing points with WW and also tracking calories to see which works best. I need to be at least 1200 calories to lose the weight so I want to know how that compares to points with WW. So my suggestion is for a while do both and see how many calories are in your 30 points for the day.
    I will be interested to see how this goes for you. I am going to be receiving 6 mos. of WW online for free soon and am interesting how many calories I will be "allowed" compared to points. The part that gets me is the "zero point" fruits and veggies. With calorie counting, they aren't free and some have a fair amount of calories. I understand the thought behind making them zero points, but they are still caloric.

    Fruit isn't 'free' all leaders say it's free to a point of being sensible 2-3 pieces a day
    Take 5 bananas a day that's 600 calories
  • Nikion901
    Nikion901 Posts: 2,467 Member
    edited February 2017
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    Actually fruit and vegetable calories mount up pretty quickly, depending on which ones you have.

    A standard portion of fruit is about 150 grams for roughly 83 calories ...
    here's what you get for that amount ... ball park figure ... the best way to do it with MFP is to weight the fruit in grams or ounces and find a database entry that has those measures instead of cups or fruit portions ...
    1 medium apple, banana, orange or pear
    2 small apricots, kiwi fruits, plums
    1 cup diced or canned fruit with NO added sugar
    When it comes to dried fruit ... the portioning changes to 1/2 cup (125 ml, or 30 grams) and examples would be 4 dried apricot HALVES, 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of raisins.

    For vegetables, including legumes or beans ... a standard portion is about 76 grams for anywhere from 14 - 84 cals.
    Examples are
    1/2 cup cooked green or orange vegetable (like broccoli, spinach, carrots or pumpkin)
    1/2 cup cooded dried or canned beans, peas, or lentils
    1 cup green leafy or raw salad vegetables (lettuces, cabbage, raw spinach, etc)
    1/2 cup sweet corn
    1/2 medium sized potato or other starchy vegetable such as sweet potato/yam
    1 medium tomato

    When you consider that healthy diet menues recommend getting in up to 11 standard portion servings of vegetables and fruits (roughly 4-5 a day each if not a diabetic) that can end up being close to 1000 calories a day just from fruits and vegetables.
  • terbusha
    terbusha Posts: 1,483 Member
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    You are right. Tracking calories, and then macros, will give you a ton more flexibility in setting up a sustainable diet plan. It's the best way to make progress.

    Track everything into MFP. Fruit and veggies are great, but they still have calories and macros that need to be accounted for. If you eat 3000 cal/day of fruits, you won't make any progress (hyperbole intended, but you get my point).
  • maryann7734
    maryann7734 Posts: 7 Member
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    I have done weight watchers for years and now I would like a change , I feel I'm not loosing the way I used to. I am a fruit eater and I believe that is my problem because fruit is free and I believe I need to count it. I'm looking forward to seeing results with this program. Hopefully it'll work for me. :#:#
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    JillianSawyer wrote: »

    Have you switched from WW to calories? If so, how did it go?

    How do you go about tracking your fruit and vegetables that are zero points on WW? Do you track them on MFP but give yourself a slightly higher calorie goal (I know fruits and veggies have such a small amount of calories as is)?

    Do you take into consideration weekly points? I have to use them to lose on WW so I am wondering how I might incorporate those weekly points into extra calories in my new path on MFP?

    I have done both. The latest WW program really didn't work for me. I like MFP because there's no mystery like the points...

    With MFP you log EVERYTHING that goes in your mouth. You do not need to add extra calories - MFP gives you a calorie goal that will include all the food you eat - it doesn't treat some foods differently than others.

    Weekly points are not a thing on MFP - but you can look at your calorie goal over the course of a week and eat less one day if you want to eat more on another. Or you can exercise to earn more calories.

    It can be tough at first to go from logging only certain foods and just logging loosely to going to logging everything you consume and using actual measurements and accuracy, but the more you do it the easier it gets. And you get better results in my opinion. Good luck!
  • HappyBlues
    HappyBlues Posts: 94 Member
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    I did Weight Watchers back in 2006 when they had the Flex Program. I don't do weekly flex points or anything like that now with MFP. However I do allow myself one "splurge" meal a month. One meal a month where I can eat whatever I like without having to worry about what the calories are. Usually it's a meal out with my husband where I can order whatever I like on the menu, calories be damned! ;) And I think you have to be realistic. This is not a diet I am on, this is a lifestyle and my lifestyle includes being able to go out and enjoy a meal with my husband. This has worked well for me. I have lost 95 pounds over the past 16 months. Weight Watchers can be a great program, but I feel like they don't really teach you how to know and understand foods. I think you have to understand calories as a base.... and Weight Watchers is all about the ambiguous points system.
  • Sally4Change
    Sally4Change Posts: 21 Member
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    I am with Weight Watchers right now and have been for over a year (this time around)and find it very difficult to stay on track.
  • crammar
    crammar Posts: 15 Member
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    Never tried ww but counting calories works for me. Over 3 years using MFP and I'm down 30kgs. Been fat all my life and now, at the age of 55, I have my first ever 6pack. I need to be accountable to myself. Track everything, it's easy. I'd suggest if you find it too hard, you may be eating too frequently (or too much). Make the effort. It's so worth it.
  • maryann7734
    maryann7734 Posts: 7 Member
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    I found the new weight watchers hard to figure out , that's what I was looking for something new to try. I find this fairly easy to use.

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