My "take" on Freestyle
beachwoman2006
Posts: 1,214 Member
Last Sunday, I joined WW online for one month. I paid $19.95 which is only $6.95 more than I would pay for one meeting so it wasn't a big hit in the pocketbook. I will be canceling the membership as soon as the one-month subscription is up.
I did this primarily so that I could see what the new program is like AND see the complete list of zero-point foods. I *assumed* the list would be similar to the list of Core foods. Unless I'm missing something, there are several things that were on the Core list that aren't on the zero-point list. The ones that come immediately to mind (because I eat them so frequently) are:
Oatmeal (not the pre-packaged)
Grits
Low-fat beef (steaks, 93/7 ground beef)
Low-fat pork (loin and loin chops)
2 tsp of healthy oil a day (I can't find anywhere in the online materials that mentions this so I'm assuming it's no longer "allowed" **)
Two that are on this list that are not on the Core list are corn and green peas.
I haven't put the two lists side-by-side for comparison yet so there may be other differences that I haven't found yet.
**I have switched my settings between Tracking and Simply Filling and see NO differences in the list.
If I have it set to Tracking, my daily points are much lower than earlier programs (23) and my weekly points are 21 (21??? -- was 35 in the past) When I have it set to Simply Filling, the weekly points are the same -- 21 (down from 35).
I tried tracking online for 3 days (while still tracking with MFP) and I was out of weekly points on the second day because I was eating the same foods that I ate while on Core -- things that I ate without any problem and managed to lose down to 12 pounds below my goal weight. And things that work fine with tracking on MFP with 1200 calories a day.
MY bottom line -- and this is just ME. This new program is much more restrictive than most of the previous versions (I've done almost all of them since the 70's) and isn't one that I would be able to stick with for the long-term. I can't live on fruits and vegetables and grilled fish and chicken; nor do I want to.
I did this primarily so that I could see what the new program is like AND see the complete list of zero-point foods. I *assumed* the list would be similar to the list of Core foods. Unless I'm missing something, there are several things that were on the Core list that aren't on the zero-point list. The ones that come immediately to mind (because I eat them so frequently) are:
Oatmeal (not the pre-packaged)
Grits
Low-fat beef (steaks, 93/7 ground beef)
Low-fat pork (loin and loin chops)
2 tsp of healthy oil a day (I can't find anywhere in the online materials that mentions this so I'm assuming it's no longer "allowed" **)
Two that are on this list that are not on the Core list are corn and green peas.
I haven't put the two lists side-by-side for comparison yet so there may be other differences that I haven't found yet.
**I have switched my settings between Tracking and Simply Filling and see NO differences in the list.
If I have it set to Tracking, my daily points are much lower than earlier programs (23) and my weekly points are 21 (21??? -- was 35 in the past) When I have it set to Simply Filling, the weekly points are the same -- 21 (down from 35).
I tried tracking online for 3 days (while still tracking with MFP) and I was out of weekly points on the second day because I was eating the same foods that I ate while on Core -- things that I ate without any problem and managed to lose down to 12 pounds below my goal weight. And things that work fine with tracking on MFP with 1200 calories a day.
MY bottom line -- and this is just ME. This new program is much more restrictive than most of the previous versions (I've done almost all of them since the 70's) and isn't one that I would be able to stick with for the long-term. I can't live on fruits and vegetables and grilled fish and chicken; nor do I want to.
3
Replies
-
My take is they're aligning themselves with the newer nutritional guidelines. We met with a nutritionist at the hospital after I started cardiac rehab, and she told us "beef OR pork" only once a week. Really restrictive. We've been working the program since it came out. It CAN be "worked".1
-
Interesting @beachwoman2006 , thanks for your comparison and take to date--and yours @Al_Howard .
Cindy, I think 23 dailies is the minimum points assigned on Freestyle. I'm embarrassed to say I don't know about the weeklies. I was eating largely Freestyle (and Smart Points before that) before either of those plans were released and was able to maintain fairly well. That said, both prior to FS and now, I'm up a couple pounds more than I'd like to be and am trying to get that squared away. With FS specifically, I think I've been mindful of not over-eating the 'free' foods but might have to go back to tracking them also.
For the better part of the last year, I've eaten way more pork tenderloin than beef. Al, the guidance in that regard from your nutritionist is a bit shocking to me, especially since pork can be anything from fatty bacon to lean tenderloin.
The other thing that occurs to me with your comparisons Cindy is WW IT. Is it possible their online lists are not up-to-date or wrong in some cases? For what it's worth--which may be nothing--we were told at rollout of Freestyle that nothing outside the zero-point list changed point values up or down.
I'm still working at trying to figure things out, between my introduced 'slop' perhaps and the program changes. I'm also wondering about just bulk of serving size, even if it's vegetables. I sometimes think / wonder whether it's bulking me up in the process. My clothes still fit fine but I'm bumping up on the scale more than I'm entirely comfortable with.
More as I learn more in the coming weeks...1 -
@Al_Howard I'm not saying that it CAN'T be "worked". I'm saying that for ME it won't work. As I've said many times, I need to be using a program that works for MY lifestyle. Maybe I'm just not willing to change MY lifestyle to accommodate a program that changes every year. For someone just beginning WW, I'm sure it will work fine. For someone like me who has been at lifetime for 10+ years by following a program I used to LOSE weight, it just won't work.
@minimyzeme I can't speak to what has changed points-wise because I haven't tracked WW points since sometime in 2004 (when Core was introduced) other than non-Core foods.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by not knowing whether it's bulking you up in the process. Maybe I'm just not understanding? Vegetables won't bulk you up -- protein *may* do that. But vegetables DO bulk up your food. For instance, I'm a big fan of macaroni and cheese; but I know it's not the "healthiest" thing for me to eat. So I reduce the portion size of mac and cheese but bulk it up by adding chopped broccoli.0 -
WW stock (WTW) was $80 in May 2011 and under $5 in July 2015. In other words WW got sick and almost died. Resuscitated by Oprah, who I think got in around $7, WW now trades near $60.
I joined in 2006. The biggest change pre Oprah, the point when my meeting went from sparsely attended to SRO, was the rollout of free fruit. Just working from my recollection, the free fruit stock price move was from around $35 to the aforementioned $80.
My observation from attending 10 years of meetings is WW members hate to track. Sounds to me like WW is trying to repeat the membership success of free fruit. Not saying people lose more weight on any particular program but the free food concept really paid off. And I do mean pay as in $$.1 -
Now that I’ve started- I think most folks at my meeting thought they were restricted in every program. Because there was no program that allowed for chocolate cake, cookies, muffins, or banana bread in anything near the quantity that they wanted to eat.3
-
Now that I’ve started- I think most folks at my meeting thought they were restricted in every program. Because there was no program that allowed for chocolate cake, cookies, muffins, or banana bread in anything near the quantity that they wanted to eat.
I've done every program WW has had since the late 60's-late 80's. Those early year? Sucked. And I felt VERY restricted. But when I rejoined in 1992, I didn't find the program restrictive at all -- other than the tracking. This is the first program I've seen in a long time where I felt restricted. I would never expect that the things you mentioned, in massive quantities, would ever be part of a "healthy" weight loss program.
I've just made the decision to continue with what I *know* works for ME. I'm going to continue focusing on eating the way I did with Core. The only difference is that I will track everything using MFP.
1 -
I've been tracking both WW and MFP side by side sort of sporadically on WW but more regularly on MFP. I've mostly been coming up with 37 pts per kcal but when you note take freestyle and divide it now that's blown out of the water. I just tracked my caloric intake so far today. MFP 1088 kcal WW 11 ? What? they really don't compare here. There are 401 kcals so far today that WW isn't counting in their points. The day isn't over but there seems to be a large gap here with freestyle. For now I'm ticking with the kcals in MFP just to be safe. A kcal is a kcal and they do add up even with fruit. Example banana 4.7 oz is 100 kcals and free in WW so adding up so far today it's not coming out to well kcals v pts. I'll keep on following them.
SW 400.8
CW 323.2
Next GW 300.0
Final GW 185.0
77.6 lbs Total lost
1 -
beachwoman2006 wrote: »@minimyzeme I'm not sure exactly what you mean by not knowing whether it's bulking you up in the process. Maybe I'm just not understanding? Vegetables won't bulk you up -- protein *may* do that. But vegetables DO bulk up your food. For instance, I'm a big fan of macaroni and cheese; but I know it's not the "healthiest" thing for me to eat. So I reduce the portion size of mac and cheese but bulk it up by adding chopped broccoli.
Well @beachwoman2006 I'm not saying it too clearly, not wanting to share TMI but let's just say, I'm not a 'regular guy'. Actually just the opposite. I feel no side effects due to my lack of regularity but other than some estimation vs actual measuring of foods, I can't really attribute my weight gain to anything other than more vegetables to bulk up the overall serving size.
This has been an issue for a few months, not just since Freestyle started. I'm pretty careful about tracking my food faithfully and while this isn't resulting in large gains, they're incremental and cumulatively getting closer to more than I'm comfortable with.
0 -
@Cindy. FLORE- Seemed what ended up working for me. The best program never put in place by WW.
Now THERE'S a phrase a lot of people won't understand LOL Core did require that we track points for non-Core foods. We got 35 points to use weekly. FLORE was where people used Core one day and then Flex another day and then went back to Core and so on and so on. When Simply Filling was introduced, it did allow switching back and forth on a daily basis. And, based on what I've seen online the past week, it still does. I can switch back and forth on a daily basis.
0 -
minimyzeme wrote: »Well @beachwoman2006 I'm not saying it too clearly, not wanting to share TMI but let's just say, I'm not a 'regular guy'.
That makes sense because the vegetables provide more fiber in your diet (the noun, not the verb).
1 -
My FLORE was tracking but the only way I could get enough to eat was pick core food.0
This discussion has been closed.