MFP vs Weight Watchers

I recently switched from MFP to weight watchers and I weighed in today and gained 1.5 lbs. Is there any one else who has tried both programs and would suggest one over the other?

Replies

  • Jadu786
    Jadu786 Posts: 141 Member
    That's another worry I had, the free foods, some of them are not very low in calories - I don't understand how they can't count at all. I think the program is good, but not sure if it works for people who have less to lose
  • emmamcgarity
    emmamcgarity Posts: 1,594 Member
    If you like the support at meetings give it some time. Zero point foods are for eating until satisfied which is sometimes a tough signal to gauge.
  • kylara111
    kylara111 Posts: 1 Member
    I also just came over from WW. I’ve lost a good amount of weight on WW over the years with the different programs including the most recent but I’m marathon training right now and just not sure that WW is the best for that. I kinda feel “punished” for having too many carbs and this runner needs carbs right now.
  • alabamaheather
    alabamaheather Posts: 24 Member
    WW gives nothing but points. I was blown away by how few calories I was eating. People who eat a lot of zero point foods are blown away by how many calories they are eating. Some think zero point means free.
  • elsie6hickman
    elsie6hickman Posts: 3,864 Member
    I think that the benefit of WW is the support you get from attending meetings and reinforcing that you are not alone. My sister is doing it and that's what she gets out of it. I stopped doing it, because the group I was in had a lot of ladies that just talked about what (fattening) food they would eat when they got to their goal weight..I think both programs help you focus on what you are eating and encourages healthy eating. I decided to try MFP, because I also need to watch my carbs and I like having to keep a food diary, at this point, to keep me honest. I think it really depends on needing in person support, or just online support. I don't have a WW program here where I am living, so MFP is working the best for me now.
  • rsj7799
    rsj7799 Posts: 74 Member
    I haven't tried WW but I do have a question for you if you don't mind my asking - does WW only do "points" or do they also show you the calorie amount of things? Because I've wondered if when someone moves to MFP from the WW points system, are they blown away by the calorie amount of things/what they've been eating?

    They show you the points on the top of the screen in a big number, and show the nutritional info on the bottom (although vitamins and minerals are not shown). The points are roughly 35 calories and then they are adjusted up or down for fat, protein, and sugar. It makes things like fast food, soda, ice cream cake, etc. very "expensive" points wise (therefore taking up more of your daily budget than a raw calorie count) while in general making healthier and high protein foods "cheaper" points wise than a raw calorie count would suggest.

    On the new Freestyle system, they reduced the number of of points people got and added in more "zero point foods". Zero point foods used to be more or less primarily non-starchy vegetables, now they include lean chicken, turkey, eggs (with yolk), nonfat yogurt, and pretty much all fruits and vegetables (except for a few exceptions like avocados). These are (probably not coincidentally) the top recommended foods from the NIH website.

    The problem with the current plan is some people over eat the zero point foods, don't lose weight because they have consumed too many calories, then avoid them and end up eating too little. It works very well, however, for people who start with very unhealthy eating habits like frequent fast food eaters or people who tend to binge on junk food.
  • Jadu786
    Jadu786 Posts: 141 Member
    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.
    I think I agree with you on this and that's good advice. I wasn't happy that my weight went up...I think maybe I was eating too much thinking that things are 0 points. Today I have only had 709 calories so far and am still full.. I think counting calories makes it a little bit easier to know what to follow.

  • Jadu786
    Jadu786 Posts: 141 Member
    rsj7799 wrote: »
    I haven't tried WW but I do have a question for you if you don't mind my asking - does WW only do "points" or do they also show you the calorie amount of things? Because I've wondered if when someone moves to MFP from the WW points system, are they blown away by the calorie amount of things/what they've been eating?

    They show you the points on the top of the screen in a big number, and show the nutritional info on the bottom (although vitamins and minerals are not shown). The points are roughly 35 calories and then they are adjusted up or down for fat, protein, and sugar. It makes things like fast food, soda, ice cream cake, etc. very "expensive" points wise (therefore taking up more of your daily budget than a raw calorie count) while in general making healthier and high protein foods "cheaper" points wise than a raw calorie count would suggest.

    On the new Freestyle system, they reduced the number of of points people got and added in more "zero point foods". Zero point foods used to be more or less primarily non-starchy vegetables, now they include lean chicken, turkey, eggs (with yolk), nonfat yogurt, and pretty much all fruits and vegetables (except for a few exceptions like avocados). These are (probably not coincidentally) the top recommended foods from the NIH website.

    The problem with the current plan is some people over eat the zero point foods, don't lose weight because they have consumed too many calories, then avoid them and end up eating too little. It works very well, however, for people who start with very unhealthy eating habits like frequent fast food eaters or people who tend to binge on junk food.

    I definitely agree with this. I think this program would work great for anyone who has super unhealthy habits or who doesn't know much about healthy eating. I've decided to stick to my fitness pal until October and see how it goes.
  • ladybug4233
    ladybug4233 Posts: 217 Member
    WW did nothing for me. I lost 30 pounds with MFP.
  • 1BlueAurora
    1BlueAurora Posts: 439 Member
    My sister-in-law has been doing Weight Watchers for 15 years, and I've watched her weight go up and down 30 pounds at a time throughout that time period. She swears it works, then falls silent when she packs on the pounds again. I will say that she was successful (again) two years ago, and gained back a lot when they made a bunch of foods zero points. Zero points does not equal zero calories, so that makes sense to me. I've reached my goal weight with MFP, so I'll stick with it!
  • Jadu786
    Jadu786 Posts: 141 Member
    Thanks everyone! I have decided to stick with my fitness pal
  • AnitaKundu
    AnitaKundu Posts: 73 Member
    I did weight watchers when they had pro points, around 2011. I did quite well on that programme, but in hindsight I think I would have lost even more weight had I just counted calories like MFP, because it is more accurate. Now that WW have introduced even more free foods, I think my weight loss journey would be even slower on that programme and harder to maintain. I think it's not a bad diet, especially if you have quite a bit of weight to lose and have developed bad eating habits that you want to break out of. But if you have a special diet or condition like me (I have type 2 diabetes and avoid all sugar) it won't work so well, for example, fruit most definitely isn't free as it contains sugar, which I need to watch. I don't think eggs should be free, you need to watch how many you eat because of cholesterol. It's early days yet but after two weeks on MFP I managed to lose 3.1 kg. I am eating above the minimum and doing what I feel is a normal amount of exercise considering I'm training up for a 10k run series which begins in spring. In a way, the two are not so different, I believe that back in the day, WW used to be based on counting calories but it has evolved over the years to a points system. Now that I've done both, I must say I find the points system artificial and think it's better to take into consideration calories, plus carb, protein, fat, sugar etc content of foods. I did enjoy the group WW meetings though and there was a lot of support.
  • Xx_Christie_xX
    Xx_Christie_xX Posts: 21 Member
    The only thing I like about WW is not having to count fruit and veg - I find it a bit tedious measuring it all. When I did WW years ago I lost weight consistently- however on the new plan I was hungry - found it faffy with the free/not free foods and never lost much weight. At least with MFP you know where you stand.
  • jrochest
    jrochest Posts: 119 Member
    I have been relentlessly bashing WW's new program for ages (well, okay, for 175 days) on this board. I was a WW person from 2005 until February of this year. I got to goal on the original points system, back in 05, and I really really loved the earlier programs, which were much closer to raw calorie counting. The more they tweaked the points system the less effective it got for me, and when I went back to WW this past February I took one look at Freestyle and knew that it wasn't going to work -- much too restrictive and not informative enough. So I decided to use MFP and try just counting calories. It's working beautifully (I'm down 50 pounds at this point) and we'll see how it works once I'm at at healthy BMI and am trying to maintain -- I suspect it might actually be effective. More information is better. More flexibility is better. I'm a convert.