New and possibly switching from weight watchers

I did well on WW Smart Points. Lost 54 lbs. I had been struggling with staying within the points allotment, then my doctor told me I wasn’t eating enough good, healthy fat. I had always hated that WW shunned pretty much all fats and carbs by giving them higher points values. So, I quit WW and went it my own on MFP.

I’ve always been on-off with MFP. I was stagnating a little on my own, so I tried to go back again to WW when they began Freestyle. I didn’t even last a week. Freestyle is TERRIBLE. How are you going to try to roll out a new program without any update to the science of why fat is not bad and carbs are okay, AND take points away from everyone? They thought that giving all of those free foods to you would give you more options, but there’s only so much of the free foods you can eat. Plus, you can’t just gorge on free foods and expect to lose weight! I saw so many posts on Connect about people not being able to lose and hating it. I doubled tracked here to figure out why I was so hungry all the time and saw that with all of the new point restrictions and even with all the free food, I wasn’t even netting 800 kcal a day! I quit again.

Came back to MFP and stagnated again. I think I’m a person that needs structure. It’s too “free” to eat whatever I want. I tend to go over more frequently. I had slowly lost another 15 lbs in my own, gained 10 lbs, then did keto for a couple months. Lost those 10 lbs plus 6. I started an intensive workout program and realized I needed the glycogen to perform, so I quit keto to focus on timed nutrition and macros.

I know there’s no real science behind meal timing, but it helps me focus on macros and getting enough of what I need so it works for me.

TLDR: WW needs to hire some dietitians and rework the program entirely.

I lost ten pound of the twenty five I wanted to lose on weight watchers then plateaued for five. Yes five. Months. So I came here.

After my first week I randomly took a day and put everything in my ww app and it turned out to be 35 points!!! I am worried. That wasn’t including the banana and the orange I ate either as they were free.

I am giving myself two weeks (which is next Friday) to weigh in. I am nervous. I just hope I didn’t gain.

Five days left until weight in.

I did WW when I was in high school (I remember having to track everything in a booklet lmao). I just signed back up recently - I'm still planning on using MFP tracking and maybe not be as faithful to the WW points but I think I just need the accountability of going to meetings and having a coach or whatever, because I'm super bad at sticking to tracking (I lost 60lbs a few years ago using MFP and it all came back 😭).

julieplummer875 wrote: »

@swimmchick87 I agree with you! I mean I’ve loved weight watchers and the new freestyle program seemed/is pretty flexible with all the zero point foods.... but it KILLED me with the no sweets thing. When a candy bar is 11 points and you only get 23/day it makes you feel kind of deprived. So I started not tracking those foods because it made me feel guilty. Haha counterproductive I know... 🙄. 23 points left me feeling pretty hungry, especially on my work out days. I always went over and pretty soon just stopped tracking. 🙁 Miraculously in the 6 weeks of pretty much not tracking I’ve managed to stay the same weight. Now with this app I’m right back to tracking and it feels awesome! I had a candy bar this past week and still lost 1 lb with no shame! 😎 this app also seems WAY less glitchy too. I also already use a good scale so it’s been a pretty smooth transition for me.

Thank you for your insight!

TessMickens wrote: »

I haven't made the complete transition, only because I paid three months up front on a special and I'm going to get my money's worth out of it by going to all the meetings. But while I see people raving about it, Weight Watchers just isn't sustainable to me. I was dual tracking every day for the last 8 days and while I lose weight, my total calories for the day very rarely got above 1000. It was more often around the 700/800 mark and I was miserable. I was crying, and just plain temperamental because I wasn't giving my body what it needed.

I did learn a couple things during the last week that I will take with me when I fully transition back to MFP, but not enough to consider spending more money than I already have. My relationship with food is complicated enough without being shamed for wanting some french fries, or a small coolata from Dunkin Donuts.

I'll take solid calorie and nutrition facts over the abstract idea of allotted points any day.

TessMickens wrote: »

I haven't made the complete transition, only because I paid three months up front on a special and I'm going to get my money's worth out of it by going to all the meetings. But while I see people raving about it, Weight Watchers just isn't sustainable to me. I was dual tracking every day for the last 8 days and while I lose weight, my total calories for the day very rarely got above 1000. It was more often around the 700/800 mark and I was miserable. I was crying, and just plain temperamental because I wasn't giving my body what it needed.

I did learn a couple things during the last week that I will take with me when I fully transition back to MFP, but not enough to consider spending more money than I already have. My relationship with food is complicated enough without being shamed for wanting some french fries, or a small coolata from Dunkin Donuts.

I'll take solid calorie and nutrition facts over the abstract idea of allotted points any day.

I like WW for the meetings and accountability, but their program doesn't do anything for me. I feel some loyalty to them based on old success (got to my goal weight and stayed there for years before a big life change). I use MFP for tracking.

Maybe a mix of the two would work for you? It is a little weird going to the meetings and never fully admitting that I don't count points, but points always seemed gimmicky to me and I'd much rather see the real numbers of my calories and macros.