Mfp vs weight watchers

I am doing WW but also tracking on mfp to really see what the carbs are. Some things are interesting. I like to make the comparison to learn better about which foods are high carbs even though they are low points.

I have just switched and started my own journal here. W W is a very program to build habits to track and eat healthier but I stopped losing weight.I ate too much. We will see how it goes on MFP.

What's the difference between WW and MFP? Don't they both track calories?

I've lost weight with WW in the past but always put it back and more, as it takes me too low calorie to be sustainable longer term, so once I reached goal the bad habits came back too quickly (and "free foods" can be dangerous!). Whereas on MFP I've lost weight and kept (most of) it off for over 5 years - occasionally a few extra lbs creep on, so I just cut back my calories and up the exercise until its back where I need to be. I rarely qweigh now but measure every couple of weeks, then if the inches creep up that's when I weigh myself and reduce the calories.
I still log all food and drink (using a food scale of course) and use all exercise calories if not on that day then at the weekend.

That too I've only done WW using my mum's discarded WW guidelinesas I don't need to pay someone to tell me I eat too much.

And I think it is a helpful program to learn new habits. I tend to navigate towards "free foods" but many of these foods are calorie rich.

I am a WW member (lifetime) but I prefer to track on this app. I think the primary value of WW is the meetings and weekly weigh-ins. Many people like the WW connect social app which is far more positive and active than the forums here (although you will hear a ton of nonsense diet theories there).

TBH the freestyle system (and the "zero point" foods) doesn't make a lot of sense to many people without the group leader explaining how to use it as intended. Having said that I know countless people who have successfully lost weight on the freestyle program.

The irony is people getting closer to goal complain about only losing .5 to 1 pound a week on WW, then they come here and every one tells them to set MFP to "a safe sustainable weight loss of .5 to 1 pound a week."

The big problem with WW is it costs money. Then again people tend to take things more seriously when they pay for it. I find being a lifetime member very motivating because I refuse to give them another 15 bucks for not being under goal lol.

As for keeping weight off long term, if you stop watching what you eat you will probably gain weight. This is true of any program including MFP.

FitAndLean_5738 wrote: »

What's the difference between WW and MFP? Don't they both track calories?

Not exactly. MFP tracks calories, WW tracks points which loosely represent calories, but not always. Free foods have calories, but they aren't tracked. Some lower calorie items have higher points because they don't fit their definition of healthy. Basically, on WW you could be overeating, undereating, or being in an appropriate calorie deficit and not know exactly what you're doing until you establish a weight trend, and even that can change if something changes about the way you eat. MFP is what you see is what you get. No hidden calculations or free/bloated points foods.

I did WW a few times since it was free through work and they came to the office.
They did nothing to teach me how to eat healthy. They might have talked about how to read a label a few times, but mostly they talked about their food products and recipes.

Nothing about developing sustainable lifelong habits.

I bought the hype and thought it really might be different now. I found I was looking at a screen designed for a 7 year old who likes to read picture books. No way to make screen smaller (tech help said). Very slow to scroll down if putting in dinner meal. Also data base is slow and inadequate compared to this data base. Glad I got a 3 mos. special - I will be gone, gone, gone in 3 mos.

WW is too restrictive when people do not have a lot of weight to use, it's sort of like training wheels in that it's great for many to start with but eventually the freedom is more the point than the hand holding. WW's points are set up to guide you to certain foods, counting your calories yourself puts the choices back with you.