Has Weight Watchers gone insane?
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i could eat a whole pineapple. you people are amateurs.
Me too. I am actually worse with fruit than the protein foods. I found most of the free protein foods just don't taste very good to me. You don't have to eat much to add a lot of calories with free protein, fruit and vegetables like corn and peas. I honestly also hate the paleo or low carb approach WW is taking and demonizing sugar and carbs. Even in the old Points program, if you followed good health guidelines you would limit sugar. A calorie limited diet tends to do that if it is balanced. It seems like now they want you to totally cut it out even in something like bbq sauce. I worked the calories too and my actual calories for pointed good was only about 900. That is really low. Now they also say you can eat like half of your allotted points. That doesn't seem healthy and gives a lot of room for undereating. Free foods can lead to overeating as well and not by eating huge quantities.1 -
newheavensearth wrote: »millcreekr wrote: »I notice Oprah isn't looking too slim in her commercials, and the food they are showing, well, cupcakes? Even though the cupcakes are tiny, tiny, still, I wouldn't recommend eating them every day, empty calories. Really, losing weight and keeping it off is so much a lifestyle change, bottom line. Everything said about lifestyle change is totally right on. A person has to decide, do I really want to go back to eating the way I did that got me fat in the first place, or do I want to give up that instant gratification and still stick to my plan?
Can't the same be said about this plan? How many members eat cookies, desserts, pizza, wine, etc, almost daily, count calories for it, and still lose weight? As for how Oprah looks, she has always looked like that. She lost weight slowly. No dramatic weight loss for her since she signed on with WW. Doesn't mean that she failed or the program didn't work for her.
I actually do some type of dessert every day. That is what keeps me from going crazy and eating 4-5 donuts at a time. I enjoy sweets and I eat at least every night. I do not eat a giant slice of cake and I am still mindful of what I am eating, but it works for me.6 -
My comment on weighing struck a wrong chord and actually didn't make sense in context. In terms of WW they do a lot of mystery behind their points to force you to be in the program to work the magic. So to the poster upthread, completely agree. They do that so you have to pay to access the abikity to count points.
For the weighing thing, in terms of mfp, I do see posts of people insist that you weigh everything even very low calorie vegetables like spinach or shredded carrots of even a clove of garlic. That is what I was referring to, if WW freestyle can give free foods you don't have to weigh, to me that's a plus. One less worry, if you are sensible. Wolf down a carton of eggs and a bunch of bananas, of course you will gain. But the ease in some ways makes it more manageable for people on the go or who don't have time to worry that level of detail.
Having said that, I'm not a fan of WW, I think it's intentionally mysterious to get your money. I just weigh the high calorie stuff, and track veggies roughly, and that seems to work for me, and I don't spend a dIme. I know for some who don't make progress properly weighting everything to figure it out makes sense.2 -
Just so you know, sometimes the weighing of low calorie vegetables isn't all about the calories. I pay attention to iron and protein. If I didn't weigh my vegetables, I'd miss some:
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I just joined MFP yesterday, because of freestyle. It might work for some, but not me. The term “accountability” always came up, but I can be held accountable here too! There’s soooo much more info here, and there’s even a barcode scanner too! Let’s be honest too MFP, is easy on the pocket book.6
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Where is the barcode scanner please? This twit can't find it.KristinaIrisha21 wrote: »I just joined MFP yesterday, because of freestyle. It might work for some, but not me. The term “accountability” always came up, but I can be held accountable here too! There’s soooo much more info here, and there’s even a barcode scanner too! Let’s be honest too MFP, is easy on the pocket book.
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Where is the barcode scanner please? This twit can't find it.KristinaIrisha21 wrote: »I just joined MFP yesterday, because of freestyle. It might work for some, but not me. The term “accountability” always came up, but I can be held accountable here too! There’s soooo much more info here, and there’s even a barcode scanner too! Let’s be honest too MFP, is easy on the pocket book.
In the apps. On the android app, when you are at the screen to pick an item, the scanner is in the top right corner of the screen. Work 90+% of the time for me.0 -
Would you do that consistently while losing weight? Like 3-4 times a week? I'm getting the feeling WW thinks you will self limit on these foods and they can get away with saying you can have all you want knowing you won't have a lot day in day out.0 -
Tacklewasher wrote: »
Would you do that consistently while losing weight? Like 3-4 times a week? I'm getting the feeling WW thinks you will self limit on these foods and they can get away with saying you can have all you want knowing you won't have a lot day in day out.
Yeah, I think it's a combo of - some people will self regulate and succeed, many others won't and will fail but will most likely hang around long enough that we can sell them our next plan in a couple of years.
I don't really understand choosing to pay for a diet plan that forces you to eat mostly free foods, and then says it's your responsibility to not overeat free foods, and in fact to figure out how much of those foods you actually can eat. Why don't I just not pay you and do that anyway? I guess if the meetings are worth the price of admission for a person, that makes sense, but otherwise it seems like a waste of money. Their older programs gave real guidance and direction and you could definitely learn how to eat from them if you wanted to.10 -
Many thanks.Tacklewasher wrote: »
Would you do that consistently while losing weight? Like 3-4 times a week? I'm getting the feeling WW thinks you will self limit on these foods and they can get away with saying you can have all you want knowing you won't have a lot day in day out.
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jbrown2339 wrote: »My comment on weighing struck a wrong chord and actually didn't make sense in context. In terms of WW they do a lot of mystery behind their points to force you to be in the program to work the magic. So to the poster upthread, completely agree. They do that so you have to pay to access the abikity to count points.
For the weighing thing, in terms of mfp, I do see posts of people insist that you weigh everything even very low calorie vegetables like spinach or shredded carrots of even a clove of garlic. That is what I was referring to, if WW freestyle can give free foods you don't have to weigh, to me that's a plus. One less worry, if you are sensible. Wolf down a carton of eggs and a bunch of bananas, of course you will gain. But the ease in some ways makes it more manageable for people on the go or who don't have time to worry that level of detail.
Having said that, I'm not a fan of WW, I think it's intentionally mysterious to get your money. I just weigh the high calorie stuff, and track veggies roughly, and that seems to work for me, and I don't spend a dIme. I know for some who don't make progress properly weighting everything to figure it out makes sense.
People who choose to weigh things like spinach, carrots, and garlic generally do so because they actually *prefer* the specificity (either because they prefer to optimize accuracy in calorie logging or because they like knowing their nutrient breakdown). So weighing those is a plus for those people. There are tons of successful people who estimate their intake of low calorie vegetables and even some people who don't track them at all. So to use that as a minus for calorie counting doesn't make sense to me.
I don't know of a single MFPer who feels compelled to weigh low calorie vegetables over a long period of time. Anyone who is doing this that I know of is doing it because it is their genuine preference (I would fall into this camp) or they're doing it over a shorter period of time to ensure accuracy before moving to a strategy (estimating/not-logging low calorie vegetables) that meets their preferences.
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Tacklewasher wrote: »
Would you do that consistently while losing weight? Like 3-4 times a week? I'm getting the feeling WW thinks you will self limit on these foods and they can get away with saying you can have all you want knowing you won't have a lot day in day out.
I think assuming *anyone* with excess weight will enter a program with solid strategies or rationale for self-regulation is tricky. Would I eat an entire pineapple *today* while trying to lose weight and assume it wouldn't impact me along with all my other regular food? No, because I have a solid understanding of how calories work, how many my body needs, etc.
Would yo-yo weight Jane of the past start a diet plan and hear that something like pineapple or chickpeas were "free" and process to regularly eat enough of those, combined with other foods, to cancel out a deficit? Absolutely. Stuffing myself with a "free" food is something I've done before. When I was yo-yoing, I just didn't have good strategies for self-regulating, especially when I didn't have a good understanding of why such regulation was necessary or how weight loss actually worked.5 -
Yes - they have gone insane. It's ridiculous, I had to leave them after 6 straight weeks of gaining weight and following the program. Cheers to MFP for helping me be accountable!7
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I'm still debating whether or not to go back. I wouldn't be following the freestyle program though.0
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I joined WW in 2006 after years and years of failed weight loss attempts. I sat in meetings surrounded by amazing, inspiring people who lost hundreds of pounds or were on their way. I lost 70 pounds "on program" and loved thinking about food in a more simple, quick way than counting calories. I advocated for that program wherever I went. I kept the weight off, too, And then I joined again recently (mostly just hoping to find like-minded fitness friends. I only had a few pounds I wanted to lose). The whole system had changed. Everything had gotten so complicated, rules for this, exceptions for that. You couldn't figure anything out without the app. Counting calories would be easier. I sat in meetings with despondent members who spent years on the program and were nowhere near their goal. It sounds like it's changed again, and is failing worse.
However. I succeeded when their whole premise was based around the filling effect of fiber. In recent years "carbs" have been so demonized they probably lost membership due to masses of people afraid to eat a carb. They are trying to keep up with the times while holding on to their design structure. I LOVED having "free" food. It saved me. I have a lot of hunger and grew up eating in volume. I literally ate 6 cups of vegetable soup a day for 6 months. It was "free" and it helped fill me up. I lost 2 pounds a week. No way I'd succeed eating 6 chicken breasts a day.
This is exactly my experience - well, I only had 50 pounds to lose, not 70, but I LOVED that old points program. It made it possible to eat anything you really wanted, as long as it fit and you counted it. And you learned how to eat a healthy, balanced basic meal plan. I lost, I got to goal, I maintained for years, and then circumstances shifted and by the time I went back to WW I'd gained 30 pounds. Points Plus was now the program and everyone in my WW meeting started losing and re-gaining the same 5 pounds, and then Smart Points made calories from 'bad foods' punatively expensive...so I kept going but lied about what I was eating. This last horribly stupid program got me to cancel my membership. They just keep F-ing with what was, originally, a good, supportive program.2 -
I never had any success on WW but I do love my WW food scale. I wonder if they will quit selling those?1
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