the new weightwatchers?

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laralosingit42
laralosingit42 Posts: 84 Member
in Getting Started
I did WW years ago (back in 2004) and loved it but I did end up eating junk most of the time with points. I am 14 years older now and do want to push myself to eat more veggies and things which I totally never crave.
I see people talking terrier about WW all the time here which I get, the smartpoints system was totally confusing to me and made no sense. But now they rolled out the new freestyle program which to me, makes more sense. I am sure most people here do not use it, but for those who have been on it, do you like it so far?

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  • laralosingit42
    laralosingit42 Posts: 84 Member
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    well I guess nobody likes weightwatchers, lol
  • HellYeahItsKriss
    HellYeahItsKriss Posts: 906 Member
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    I think its an awful idea.. The premise that people don't over eat on chicken so its 0 points.. Its a failed program, weight watchers needs to stop trying to delude people.. its bad enough people think fruit and veggies are free food even when they aren't doing weight watchers, cause weight watchers said they were.
  • fitdaisygrrl
    fitdaisygrrl Posts: 139 Member
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    I know that WW isn't a popular thing here as well, but I joined up last week and love the new program! I find that a lot of the good habits I've picked up via MFP and even the 21 day fix (eating a lot more veggies basically) go well with the program and while I'm a vegetarian and won't enjoy the 0 point chicken, I love that beans are 0, as well as eggs and fat free plain yogurt. I tried smartpoints last year and was miserable after a couple of days, so thing program is much more enjoyable and I'm trying not to focus on the calories but did check and average between 1300 and 1600- so that's good.
    I know people hate the idea of "0 point foods" and that's ok, everyone has to find what works for them. I digress, love it so far and it gave me the push I needed at this time of year.

    PS- I wish they brought back the old Community on the WW site, hate the new Connect and find myself coming back to MFP and Reddit for touching base with people. If you know of a good forum, let me know!
  • aaronagostini
    aaronagostini Posts: 72 Member
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    They're latest switch is what brought me back here. In their defense, I kinda see what they're going for, in that if you eat primarily lean chicken (which is what they're counting as 0), fish, fruits and vegetables, you'll generally weight less. But honestly, that's not much of a program in my estimation, and for an ongoing 20 bucks a month just wasn't worth it to me. I won't knock what works for others, and the points is an easy target, but I think if you know what WW is generally going for, you can implement that same eating plan here. Now, when I signed up, they had an offer where you got to talk to a coach, which I really liked, and that kept me on track and motivated. And I didn't go to meetings, so that's another motivation/social component that might really click for people. So there are a number of factors. I had lost 30+ pounds while following the previous program, so it does work, and long as people don't try to cheat by overdoing eggs and other free foods (fruit would be more dangerous than chicken breasts) it will still work for people. I just think that once you get into your groove, you can move on to MFP completely, which saves money and gives you increased accuracy/insight into your overall nutrition.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    I don't understand zero point food...I eat a lot of what they'd deem to be zero points and I eat around 2800-3000 calories per day. Knowing what I actually know from calorie counting, it wouldn't make a difference for me...but someone off the street who doesn't really know or understand...I could see them just eating a ton of zero point food and never losing weight.
  • aaronagostini
    aaronagostini Posts: 72 Member
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    They cranked the daily points (and therefore calories) down by like 25%. So for me, I went from 41 points (roughly 1200 calories, with the assumption I'd be eating free fruits and vegetables to bring that up) to 31 points (which is again assuming I'd be making it up with the now free lean protein and fruits and vegetables). So basically they're giving folks 300 calories or so of protein rich food and calling it free. So if an average person made to change to eating more of these things, I could see them losing weight. But yes, if you factor in not necessarily measuring foods, being inaccurate on what you're eating (a skinless chicken breast is "free", an entire rotisserie chicken with the skin is not), etc., might screw somebody up. They're counter would be that a lot of that is covered in ongoing education at the meetings. Which I think has merit. But, for people just using the app, and counting less items, there just doesn't seem to be much point to me.
  • ladyhusker39
    ladyhusker39 Posts: 1,406 Member
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    aaronagostini wrote: »
    They cranked the daily points (and therefore calories) down by like 25%. So for me, I went from 41 points (roughly 1200 calories, with the assumption I'd be eating free fruits and vegetables to bring that up) to 31 points (which is again assuming I'd be making it up with the now free lean protein and fruits and vegetables). So basically they're giving folks 300 calories or so of protein rich food and calling it free. So if an average person made to change to eating more of these things, I could see them losing weight. But yes, if you factor in not necessarily measuring foods, being inaccurate on what you're eating (a skinless chicken breast is "free", an entire rotisserie chicken with the skin is not), etc., might screw somebody up. They're counter would be that a lot of that is covered in ongoing education at the meetings. Which I think has merit. But, for people just using the app, and counting less items, there just doesn't seem to be much point to me.

    That's interesting. I've been trying to figure out WW's thinking for this new strategy. What you're saying makes me think maybe it's an effort to push more members to the higher membership levels that are more profitable for them.

    I'm certain that anytime they launch a new program the number of new customers they acquire including those who come back to give it a try far outnumber the ones who don't like it and decide to leave.

    Therefore, a program change is always a win for them. That's really why they change every couple of years.
  • aaronagostini
    aaronagostini Posts: 72 Member
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    Oh, I absolutely think they make changes from a profit motive. That's not entirely bad (businesses should always try to improve), but they do get boosts just from changing. And the recurring fees are a lot higher when you factor in meetings or online coaching. I am starting to sound a little too cynical, and I really don't mean to; I think WW can be a great starting place for people to learn. But cost is a real factor, as is learning what could be a considered a bit "dumbed down" version of nutrition.
  • Trevorwatkins
    Trevorwatkins Posts: 8 Member
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    I have done WW twice the first original points system was very good straight forward and every food had a points value.
    Then joined awhile back and it was the pro pionts. To me it had a lot of flaws i could eat a kilo of grapes and that didn't count?
    I'm finding it interesting that they now have launched a new system.
    To me there going backwards they had a great system it was easy and worked.
    One thing with WW you have to attend the meetings face the scales every week that was good motivation and you do get great support and learn so much from the meetings.
  • HellYeahItsKriss
    HellYeahItsKriss Posts: 906 Member
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    300 calories of chicken is only 250g.. thats about 1 breast.. or less lol.. If i thought chicken was free... i would eat... 2 or 3 lol
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
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    laralosingit42 wrote: »
    I did WW years ago (back in 2004) and loved it but I did end up eating junk most of the time with points. I am 14 years older now and do want to push myself to eat more veggies and things which I totally never crave.
    I see people talking terrier about WW all the time here which I get, the smartpoints system was totally confusing to me and made no sense. But now they rolled out the new freestyle program which to me, makes more sense. I am sure most people here do not use it, but for those who have been on it, do you like it so far?

    The problem is that a lot of medium-high calorie density foods are now on the 0-points list - such as meat, fruit, beans. It's hard to eat hundreds of calories of non-starchy veggies in 1 sitting (100 calories would fill your whole plate for most of them, so 0 points for those makes sense)...but it is really easy to eat hundreds of calories of fruit and chicken in 1 sitting. I understand trying to steer people towards replacing cake/pastry/etc with fiber-containing fruit and increasing protein consumption...but this implementation of that is not going to end well for lots of folks following this plan (people don't wind up on weight watchers because of their excellent food moderation skills and knowledge of appropriate portion sizes).
  • mockchoc
    mockchoc Posts: 6,573 Member
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    I don't understand why anyone would bother spending the money on it. I did on and off for decades. Yes I lost weight but gained after I stopped of course. I never felt as supported there as I do here. I even tried to start up a walking group and the leader didn't seem to want me doing that. MFP is free and works. I did it and won't spend money on something that is free ever again. I even worked for them for a while to get free classes. I don't like the way they change things all the time. Never going back.
  • kissijohnson
    kissijohnson Posts: 3 Member
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    I’m here because I left WW and the new Freestyle program. The knocked my daily points down to 23 but I don’t eat any of the new zero point foods except beans. It was hard enough managing the points when they were at 30 per day. I also don’t like that clean, whole food like nuts and avocados are too high in points but you can pack your day full of highly processed, chemical “food” for little to no points.
  • littlenarwhal
    littlenarwhal Posts: 2 Member
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    kissijohnson wrote: »
    I’m here because I left WW and the new Freestyle program. The knocked my daily points down to 23 but I don’t eat any of the new zero point foods except beans. It was hard enough managing the points when they were at 30 per day. I also don’t like that clean, whole food like nuts and avocados are too high in points but you can pack your day full of highly processed, chemical “food” for little to no points.

    Exact same story for me!! I just joined MFP because the new program sucked so bad. I hate chicken breast, fish and beans and I hate having 7 precious points taken away. I wish they hadn't done this or had least made it an option that you can switch off. They've lost my money!
  • GBO323
    GBO323 Posts: 336 Member
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    I did WW when they had the FlexPOINTS and if I may be candid...I'm a guy. I like simple. The POINTS weren't simple and if I lost my POINTS slider, I was in trouble...as this was before their app. With Calories, I just count them as they are everywhere. POINTS you have to take extra steps and it's not worth it to me.

    If...and just if...WW would have a COUNTER program for us Calorie Counters....I would pay each week to go into a meeting and get good information and enjoy the weigh-in accountability...
  • Johnnyloman
    Johnnyloman Posts: 2 Member
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    I left WW because of the new program. I lost 9 points per day and my only option was to eat foods I don’t like such as boneless, skinless chicken breasts, fish or beans. For me also the expense was not worth staying with the plan change. MFP seemed to be a much better option although I did really enjoy the Connect family.
  • DebLaBounty
    DebLaBounty Posts: 1,172 Member
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    My sister-in-law gained weight on the new WW program because it's silly to think that 0 points means zero calories. Meanwhile, I lost about 30 pounds using MFP.

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