Counting Calories Vs Counting WW Points

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  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
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    CC is 'easiest' for me because I understand calories. I'd have to learn a new way to valuate foods if I switched to WW. Kind of like learning a new language? More foods come with calorie information - while only certain foods come with points values attached. Meaning more estimation and guesswork for WW.
  • sviers13
    sviers13 Posts: 109 Member
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    swimmchick87 wrote: »
    I lost about 30 pounds on WW several years ago. Back then, it was the points plus program where 99% of the time, 1 point=40 calories. It took me awhile to figure that out. Before WW, I'd tried MFP several times and never stuck with it for more than a month or two. It took me forever to figure out that the difference with WW was that when I was heavier/starting out, they gave me a lot more points. On MFP I was always choosing "lose 2 pounds a week" and getting stuck with 1200 calories. WW allowed me to eat a lot more, and thus it was much easier to stick to. As I got thinner, I started really struggling on WW too. That's because at that point I was given the minimum number of points and was back to eating really low calories every day. Now that I understand all of this, I've found success with MFP setting my goal to lose only 1 pound per week, so I get a lot more calories and I don't feel like I'm white knuckling it.

    I don't think the current WW system would work for me AT ALL. I understand that they're trying to push you to eat healthier foods, but I need to eat a mix of healthier things and treats every day to stay on track. The idea of "punishing" you for eating something like a small candy bar that easily fits into your calorie day makes no sense to me. That sets people up to fail and get into a cycle where they just say "I've already ruined it, might as well eat whatever I want today and get back on track tomorrow." That cycle was one of the biggest reasons I gained weight in the first place and it took me a really long time to break out of the black and white thinking. Although I do much better now, those thoughts still creep in sometimes.

    It also just seems very imprecise with so many foods being "free" now (back on points plus, only fruits and veggies were "free"). I'd rather just know exactly how many calories I'm eating than try to guess at what is a good balance of "free" and "point" foods and hope for the best. I've also heard they no longer allow you to earn points for exercise/eat back any exercise calories- not totally sure if that's true because I haven't looked into it myself, but if so that's really setting a lot of people up for under eating and then falling off the wagon because they feel so deprived.

  • sviers13
    sviers13 Posts: 109 Member
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    DonnasJourney0805 wrote: »
    swimmchick87 wrote: »
    I lost about 30 pounds on WW several years ago. Back then, it was the points plus program where 99% of the time, 1 point=40 calories. It took me awhile to figure that out. Before WW, I'd tried MFP several times and never stuck with it for more than a month or two. It took me forever to figure out that the difference with WW was that when I was heavier/starting out, they gave me a lot more points. On MFP I was always choosing "lose 2 pounds a week" and getting stuck with 1200 calories. WW allowed me to eat a lot more, and thus it was much easier to stick to. As I got thinner, I started really struggling on WW too. That's because at that point I was given the minimum number of points and was back to eating really low calories every day. Now that I understand all of this, I've found success with MFP setting my goal to lose only 1 pound per week, so I get a lot more calories and I don't feel like I'm white knuckling it.

    I don't think the current WW system would work for me AT ALL. I understand that they're trying to push you to eat healthier foods, but I need to eat a mix of healthier things and treats every day to stay on track. The idea of "punishing" you for eating something like a small candy bar that easily fits into your calorie day makes no sense to me. That sets people up to fail and get into a cycle where they just say "I've already ruined it, might as well eat whatever I want today and get back on track tomorrow." That cycle was one of the biggest reasons I gained weight in the first place and it took me a really long time to break out of the black and white thinking. Although I do much better now, those thoughts still creep in sometimes.

    It also just seems very imprecise with so many foods being "free" now (back on points plus, only fruits and veggies were "free"). I'd rather just know exactly how many calories I'm eating than try to guess at what is a good balance of "free" and "point" foods and hope for the best. I've also heard they no longer allow you to earn points for exercise/eat back any exercise calories- not totally sure if that's true because I haven't looked into it myself, but if so that's really setting a lot of people up for under eating and then falling off the wagon because they feel so deprived.

    That is exactly why I'm not doing it anymore. I was blowing through my points and only having like 1000 calories. They make you feel like your doing something wrong by eating half a avacado and making it 5 points... So you choose not to eat them. Then feel irritation..lol

  • sviers13
    sviers13 Posts: 109 Member
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    been on WW two different times in my life and lost weight both times . 17lbs the first time and 38 the second. I’ve gained back 18 recently. I am most definitely a binge eater and after the initial success, I stopped losing. I believe it’s because of the 0 points food system. I feel like it encouraged my compulsive eating. As stated above I felt like I was being punished for eating foods that are actually healthy. If I can eat candy for the same amount of points as a healthy food, I’m gonna eat candy! Plus, I would binge on 0 Points foods and then still eat junk food.
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,931 Member
    edited October 2020
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    I actually had a different problem on WW. I didn't like eating enough of the 0 point foods and when I reached my max points for the day I hadn't even had 1100 calories. I discovered the problem, and why I felt like crap, when I tracked both points and calories for a month. Now that I've switched to CC I can monitor it all more thoroughly and have a balance I can keep up. Now I can have my veg with oil or butter and eat more of them the way I actually like them.
  • sviers13
    sviers13 Posts: 109 Member
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    Swimchick87 after reading your post I adjusted my goal to .05 lbs a week and was pleasantly surprised at how much my calorie goal increased. It made a huge difference in my frame of mind. I was able to be satisfied and be under my calorie goal.
  • JoDavo66
    JoDavo66 Posts: 526 Member
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    It worked for me until perimenopause struck.
    As a mainly vegetarian (eat small amount of fish) it worked for me until then. I would stay the same or fluctuate half pounds. Then get fed up and go a little of track & gain so quick.
    Apparently I needed to seriously up protein & reduce carbs. I'm still struggling to loose but by using MFP I can monitor calories & macros- works better.
  • Charlie9613
    Charlie9613 Posts: 2 Member
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    Totally agree with Raegold, I lost a stone with WW in 2011 for my wedding and it was fairly easy. Tried again but they keep changing it and it’s so much harder. I could never stick to my points and go quite a bit over, when I put the same foods into MFP, it would come to about 800 calories!
  • AlexiaC47
    AlexiaC47 Posts: 65 Member
    edited October 2020
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    I am a firm believer that all plans/diets/lifestyle eating changes "work". If you follow them. Some are better for certain people, some are healthier, and some are better long-term. I remember I did Atkins and it was the single most quick extreme loss ever- but completely not maintainable after a couple of weeks.

    I was on and off WW for many years and successfully lost and kept it off. But after many years I got lazy and sloppy with it. But it taught me lessons on how to eat and mentally keep "some" control, even if not tracking.

    For me, MFP is kind of similar, but new and exciting. I have high cholesterol and love that I can track macronutrients. I am already losing weight on MFP in just a few days! (But if I was on mfp for many years, I probably would be excited about switching to ww)
  • domeofstars
    domeofstars Posts: 480 Member
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    I hated counting weight watchers points. It might work for some people, but not for me. Calories are king, always.
  • DonnasJourney0805
    DonnasJourney0805 Posts: 75 Member
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    @Raegold ...just reading this.. I totally agree 100%... I'm finally making the move to calories 🙏
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,398 Member
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    Personally, for me WW would not work. If I had started out with them back then I might have thought: Hey, I could use my points to have a bag of crisps instead of dinner. Not very filling but yummy. And then fight the hunger with apples, bananas, a steamed piece of fish with lemon, ginger and chili. Cool! I guess I can eat a lot of 'free' foods throughout the day - and then use the points for snacks. Of course people who generally don't eat a lot of these foods will benefit from it and maybe learn new habits. Is it necessary though?
  • Kiernla
    Kiernla Posts: 7 Member
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    I've used WW in the past, and have binging issues. It didn't work very well for me, and there were a couple reasons for that. I ate so much in 0 point foods (think 5-10 servings of fruit daily) because based on the plan, I could. Also, the meetings weren't all that helpful for me. I tended to be both on the younger and fatter end in the meetings in my area, and my tastes and habits were clearly different from many others', so advice *I* could use was sparse. Finally, some meeting leaders would push WW products hard. I had no interest, and having them act as salespeople reduced my trust in them as advisors.
  • beautyonthebeach83
    beautyonthebeach83 Posts: 99 Member
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    I lost 90 lbs on WW back in 2004 and kept it off for 5 years til I had back to back pregnancies (the second with modified bed rest.) Even then I didn’t gain it ALL back, but I had a good chunk to lose. I started WW again in early 2013 but I didn’t love spending so much money to feel like I was starving all the time.

    A friend told me about MFP and I joined in May 2013 and haven’t looked back, especially when I inputted my average day of WW eating on MFP to find I was often eating only 1000-1200 cals. 😳 There is a wealth of free information online! No reason to pay for it unless you really, really need the accountability of a program. (I actually did when I was new in ‘04 but everyone is different!)
  • DonnasJourney0805
    DonnasJourney0805 Posts: 75 Member
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    @beautyonthebeach83 ... That is the struggle I'm having on it.. my calories are often below 1200 and I know that's not good for that often. 😩
  • rsj7799
    rsj7799 Posts: 74 Member
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    I'm a lifetime member of weight watchers and their new system isn't that bad, but calorie counting is going to be a lot better if you are going to log accurately and weigh your portions. I think they just assume people will not weigh their portions and eat more than they are supposed to so as others have said your calories can be set too low if you are being accurate and don't go nuts on the zero point foods. Ultimately the problem is 1) you can make yourself nuts trying to figure out exactly how much to eat esp. when you get close to goal and you are in the slowest part of your weight loss and 2) it costs money.
    Weight watchers really only has value if you like the support of the meetings and need the accountability of the weigh ins (which again cost money, and probably aren't even happening due to COVID). Paying to just use the app is imo, a waste. Spend $15 on a digital food scale and that's really all you need to lose weight counting calories.
    The weight watchers social networking feature is also filled with every bit of BS diet "science" you can ever imagine (It is not really moderated for any kind of accuracy). You will get much better advice on these forums, although ironically, I actually learned about MFP from other members of WW.

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