Tips and advice for succeeding on Weight Watchers?
Options
halmsafit
Posts: 47 Member
Who has done it/ what do you wish you had known when you started?
1
Replies
-
I'm a former WWer. What I wish I knew? Their products are no better than anything you can source at the store, often you can find better and cheaper. Don't buy their hype.
I haven't been on the new program, but I know that they have changed the method of calculating Points from (carbs/fat/protein/fibre - the macros) to (sat fat/sugar/calories/protein). The new inclusion of sat fat and sugar instead of total fat and carbs has moved the calculation away from values given for energy intake to more of a "value judgment" - sat fat and sugar are subsets of fat and carbs and its the total fat and total carbs which dictate calories and therefore weight loss. So I must say I think the new calculation is skewed, and punishes certain foods with higher points value than their energy level requires.
Bottom line - the Points system is now punitive beyond what is needed for weight loss. I don't think I'd have stayed long if I'd started now.
9 -
I've done it. The latest plan is too restrictive - unless you like eating nothing but chicken and veggies. The older plans were so much better.4
-
I'm doing the original weight watchers (with the slider) and I have been doing it for about a week and a half!2
-
I stopped once they phased out the first version of Points Plus. Gained everything I lost back and then some.1
-
I love weight watchers. I've been on it 4 years and lost 106 pounds. My advice. Track everything you eat, no matter if you go over points or not. Use your weeklies because as you lose weight you need to decrease calories. It is a marathon not a sprint so don't quit. You fall off, get up and try again. It's not a perfect program. It does need some tweaks. Hence why I am here for my last 15 pounds to goal. If you are a a person who needs accountability and support then WW is a great program. Best!0
-
I am doing WW now and LOVE IT!! The meetings are what make it for me. The points system is just a form of calorie counting, which it what MyFitnessPal does. The support system is invaluable to me. I lost 50 pounds counting calories with the MyFitnessPal app (then gained it back....my fault, no one else's). I have been on WW for 2.5 months and have lost a respectable 25 pounds. My advice if you want to try WW is to attend the meetings! Otherwise, if you just want an online app, do MyFitnessPal cuz it's free.4
-
I am doing WW now and LOVE IT!! The meetings are what make it for me. The points system is just a form of calorie counting, which it what MyFitnessPal does. The support system is invaluable to me. I lost 50 pounds counting calories with the MyFitnessPal app (then gained it back....my fault, no one else's). I have been on WW for 2.5 months and have lost a respectable 25 pounds. My advice if you want to try WW is to attend the meetings! Otherwise, if you just want an online app, do MyFitnessPal cuz it's free.
This used to be true, but now that they only use saturated fat and sugar (rather than total fat and total carbs) for the calculations, it's completely skewed it.
Example:
Krispy Kreme Original:
Calories: 254
Protein: 2.6
Fat: 16.5
Sat fat 8.3
Carbs: 24.4
Sugar 12.3
On a 1200 calorie diet (calculated for a 185lb woman of 5'4, sedentary to lose 2lbs a week), that donut is 21% of your calories for the day.
On WW now, it's 11 smart points. On a smart points allowance of 25 (calculated for a 185lb woman of 5'4, sedentary to lose 2lbs a week), that donut is 44% of your smart points for the day.
WW's new formula punishes you for certain decisions, like eating a donut. In fact, it teaches people that in order to have a donut, you really need to starve yourself for the rest of the day, because you've used up almost half your smart points. Imagine someone has a bit of a splurge at a morning tea, has 2 donuts then only has 4 smart points left for the day - they end up hitting their limit, when arguably, they might only be at 700 calories for the day. That's crazy.
I get what they're *trying* to do, but I feel that their new value judgments on food are utterly unhelpful and will lead to people over-restricting, demonising foods or giving up up.
13 -
I did it a long long time ago. My main takeaway was accountability. I never logged before. The rest? Meh. The points thing was not for me, I like tracking real calories and macros here not 'points'. The meetings were kinda okay but then it basically was a bunch of fat people like me talking about being fat and how they structured their points It seemed like most folks were trading ideas on how to manipulate the system which would be so counter productive. And the public weigh is not needed. Maybe that changed (you step on the scale and the lady writes it down for you verifying what it was). I see no reason why the scale can't be connected to a tablet that you then click to verify the weight. No need for the workers there to see everyone's weight. But like I said, if you're new to accountability and logging it did help me with that. I think this site is really all that is needed as you'll see all your macros and that will help guide you to the right decisions.
1 -
I did it for a while and had great success with it. When they switched to smart points I found it incredibly restrictive and I agree that they demonise certain foods. I am a vegan and found that because I don't eat chicken and fish I struggled to stay within my points whilst getting adequate nutrition.
1 -
I wish I had known how often they "revamp" the program. I liked the program from 2010 pre pointsplus after my first baby. After my second baby n 2012 I never lost much weight with "pointsplus" and the stuff I have heard about the latest iteration makes me glad I left, it sounds like they took all the things about pointsplus that weren't working for me, and made them the central focus of the new plan.
For me the meetings were mostly meh. I stopped going when the leader publicly shamed me for admitting that I was leaving enough points till the end of the day for a treat. I had just had my biggest loss since I switched from online to actually going to the meetings, in a last ditch effort to make the the pointsplus program work for me. I had been indulging with a treat (within my point allowance) in the evenings for weeks and she told me I was sabotaging myself and wouldn't be able to lose anymore if I didn't give up my evening treat habit.
Since that was counterintuitive from everything WW supposedly preaches and the whole reason I went to WW in the first place, I decided not to waste my time and money with them anymore. That and who enjoys being shamed in front of a group of people you went to for support? I was there to lose baby weight, I've had two more children since then and have used MFP with much greater success both times.
Good luck OP I hope it works for you. I didn't hate it at first.5 -
Does WW still consider fruits and veggies as calorie free?
At first I thought that the WW point assignments were based only on calorie totals but one day I gave my MIL a breakfast bar to eat because we were running out and she wanted something she could eat quickly. It was only 200 calories and was a great source of proteins, carbs, and fat - in other words, a reasonable breakfast regardless of one's calorie targets.
After she looked it up in WW, she couldn't eat it because WW assigned it a ton of points and it would totally screw up the rest of her planned meals for the day. That's when my opinion of WW totally went down hill. It seems like they want their members to believe that there's some sort of voodoo involved with the point assignments, so they decrease the transparency and make judgment calls about certain foods that can really screw with their clients' ability to comply with the program.4 -
Does WW still consider fruits and veggies as calorie free?
At first I thought that the WW point assignments were based only on calorie totals but one day I gave my MIL a breakfast bar to eat because we were running out and she wanted something she could eat quickly. It was only 200 calories and was a great source of proteins, carbs, and fat - in other words, a reasonable breakfast regardless of one's calorie targets.
After she looked it up in WW, she couldn't eat it because WW assigned it a ton of points and it would totally screw up the rest of her planned meals for the day. That's when my opinion of WW totally went down hill. It seems like they want their members to believe that there's some sort of voodoo involved with the point assignments, so they decrease the transparency and make judgment calls about certain foods that can really screw with their clients' ability to comply with the program.
And yet, if she had eaten 2 bananas, 1 c strawberries and 1 c mango, it would have been 0 points and far more calories.
You're better off just counting calories. I can understand if you want to attend meetings for the support aspect but I wouldn't follow their food plans.
1 -
Does WW still consider fruits and veggies as calorie free?
At first I thought that the WW point assignments were based only on calorie totals but one day I gave my MIL a breakfast bar to eat because we were running out and she wanted something she could eat quickly. It was only 200 calories and was a great source of proteins, carbs, and fat - in other words, a reasonable breakfast regardless of one's calorie targets.
After she looked it up in WW, she couldn't eat it because WW assigned it a ton of points and it would totally screw up the rest of her planned meals for the day. That's when my opinion of WW totally went down hill. It seems like they want their members to believe that there's some sort of voodoo involved with the point assignments, so they decrease the transparency and make judgment calls about certain foods that can really screw with their clients' ability to comply with the program.
This is EXACTLY what I'm talking about above. The current iteration of WW penalises you for foods it deems "unhealthy" and basically forces you to have a very low calorie day to atone for it, which is so wrong on so many levels.1 -
Alatariel75 wrote: »On a smart points allowance of 25 (calculated for a 185lb woman of 5'4, sedentary to lose 2lbs a week), that donut is 44% of your smart points for the day
No one gets less than 30 smart points per day, and then they have their additional weekly points (which vary depending on weight, age, sex, etc).
That being said, it's still a deficient program. I lost over 50# last year on the new program, but I never stayed within my daily & weekly points allowance. And maintenance/lifetime is - in my opinion - a joke on WW. There's little to no support for lifetime members, including at meetings. No one wants to hear "I'm struggling with finding the right smart points value for me to stop losing weight." Because it's not calorie-based, it's a pain in the *kitten* experimenting with different daily point targets in a shot-in-the-dark attempt to set a daily target...especially if you eat fats (which are penalized like sugar is). I also don't like having to check everything for points values. Long-term that's not realistic for me. WW will change their program again & points will likely change, again, but calories will always be calories.
But hey, if it works for you (general you), go for it.
0 -
Alatariel75 wrote: »On a smart points allowance of 25 (calculated for a 185lb woman of 5'4, sedentary to lose 2lbs a week), that donut is 44% of your smart points for the day
No one gets less than 30 smart points per day, and then they have their additional weekly points (which vary depending on weight, age, sex, etc).
That being said, it's still a deficient program. I lost over 50# last year on the new program, but I never stayed within my daily & weekly points allowance. And maintenance/lifetime is - in my opinion - a joke on WW. There's little to no support for lifetime members, including at meetings. No one wants to hear "I'm struggling with finding the right smart points value for me to stop losing weight." Because it's not calorie-based, it's a pain in the *kitten* experimenting with different daily point targets in a shot-in-the-dark attempt to set a daily target...especially if you eat fats (which are penalized like sugar is). I also don't like having to check everything for points values. Long-term that's not realistic for me. WW will change their program again & points will likely change, again, but calories will always be calories.
But hey, if it works for you (general you), go for it.
I used a free (and therefore not-WW endorsed) calculator to get the 25 on the stats I put in, so I conceed it could be wrong.0 -
Alatariel75 wrote: »On a smart points allowance of 25 (calculated for a 185lb woman of 5'4, sedentary to lose 2lbs a week), that donut is 44% of your smart points for the day
No one gets less than 30 smart points per day, and then they have their additional weekly points (which vary depending on weight, age, sex, etc).
That being said, it's still a deficient program. I lost over 50# last year on the new program, but I never stayed within my daily & weekly points allowance. And maintenance/lifetime is - in my opinion - a joke on WW. There's little to no support for lifetime members, including at meetings. No one wants to hear "I'm struggling with finding the right smart points value for me to stop losing weight." Because it's not calorie-based, it's a pain in the *kitten* experimenting with different daily point targets in a shot-in-the-dark attempt to set a daily target...especially if you eat fats (which are penalized like sugar is). I also don't like having to check everything for points values. Long-term that's not realistic for me. WW will change their program again & points will likely change, again, but calories will always be calories.
But hey, if it works for you (general you), go for it.
I have the opposite problem on maintenance- I gain weight as soon as I raise my points to maintenance levels, or else I have to stay at 30 and live off of salad. Very little support for Lifetime members. I have said this so many times online and at meetings, and I got accused of ditching the program as soon as I hit goal. Very frustrating.0 -
I am giving the winning points (2001 I believe?) another try. My mom used it when I was a kid and lost a ton of weight on it! I think if I can just go slow and not overwhelm myself (and develop self control) I will succeed- will keep you updated1
-
I have done all of the different WW programs over the years and lost successfully on every one EXCEPT smartpoints. I agree it's too restrictive and punitive against certain foods. I do love the accountability of weighing in once a week and the support at meetings (if you get a good leader). I find tracking calories is much more flexible.0
-
I did WW years ago when you had two plans to choose from (flex and core I believe). Never tried core but flex worked great for me. I quit when they came out with points plus but I know a lot of people liked that plan. I haven't done it but from what I've read about I don't think I would like smart points.
I'm not sure if they had all this at the time, but now there are sites that have points calculators for multiple plans so that u can figure your points for free.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.6K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 393 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.3K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 931 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions