MFP vs Weight Watchers

I've tried both and prefer MFP. WW was a fine option for me in the 90s before sites like MFP were available. Lots of people these days have issues with the "free" foods. WW may not count them, but your body does.

However, that 1.5 pounds could be water weight from a variety of things - ovulation, being premenstrual, a new exercise program, having eaten a high sodium meal, etc.

I lost weight on the points plus program. In the beginning, it was easy because I was heavier and was therefore granted more points. When I had lost a good amount, I was only given the minimum number of points and it was much harder. At some point, I had also realized that points plus was essentially just calorie counting. The only instance where I found that 40 calories didn't equal 1 point was for alcohol. I started tracking my calories as well as points and realized that many days I was actually only netting 800-1,000 calories when I factored in exercise. No wonder I was starving all of the time!

The new program doesn't appeal to me at all. I get that they are trying to gear you towards eating healthier foods, but as someone who had struggled with feeling like it's "all or nothing" in the past, I really don't like how they've deemed certain foods "good" or "bad." For example, there is no reason that eating a candy bar that easily fits into my daily calories should ruin my whole day. Yet WW has decided that since it's a "bad" food, it's going to count as half of my points. I like that mfp allows me to have treats and don't feel that I could do something as restrictive as WW at this time. At some point I also heard they were discouraging people from eating their fit points, so someone who exercises could be severely under eating. That was awhile ago, so maybe they've since corrected that part.

Long story short, I feel like I have a lot more control with mfp than with WW points system, and mfp feels more precise to me, rather than eating "free" foods that definitely still have calories and hoping I'm not overeating, or starving because I chose to have a low calorie treat that used up half of my daily points.

I could see the in person weigh ins being motivational for people. I did the online program, so that part didn't apply. Personally, I've learned over the years that I do best of my own anyway. I tend to buckle under pressure from others.

Five days ago I switched from WW to MFP to see if I can lose while counting calories. As of this morning I am down 1.2 pounds. I am eating more and a larger variety of foods than I was on WW. I don’t like most of the foods on the zero point list. I did lose 40 pounds on WW and am grateful for that. On WW I was only eating about 900-1000 calories and would be over points. I also exercise so the calorie deficit was even greater. There is no clear cut advice on fitpoints. Now I am eating minimum 1500 calories and eating exercise calories on top of that on the days I workout. WW says you can eat what you want but that isn’t necessarily true. It used to be that way. Now a small indulgence could be half of my entire day’s worth of points. I am going to do MFP for a month and see how it goes.