Weight Watchers Points Plus and MFP

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needlework
needlework Posts: 141 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Just need opinions please.

I just purchased the Weight Watchers Plus Point program which includes the points book, the calculator, etc. Now, I have not received it yet so I can always return it if I want without opening it.

I have looked at posts on here and how people are saying they like MFP so much better than WW. My question here is should I keep the WW Points Plus program info that I have ordered to learn more about foods and the choices or just send it back. I have not signed up for WW online, just ordered the info. I am not going to attend the meetings so the only cost will be the information. I was planning on doing the program myself and check in here for the support.

I have seen where people are doing both WW and MFP. I just feel I need something to give me basic information on the foods to eat and am thinking the WW information might be what I am looking for.
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Replies

  • Pooterly
    Pooterly Posts: 61 Member
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    If the information is free, keep it. If it costs money, return it. Information is good. The first step to be healthy is learning about the physics of health. You will get different information from many sources and the more you learn, the more you will be able to distinguish what is right and wrong and what works for you and doesn't.

    Apparently, whatever you are doing right now seems to be working. Your ticker says you have lost 138lbs! Wow! Good job!
  • jaks97
    jaks97 Posts: 179 Member
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    I joined WW a few years back and I lost weight, my problem is why pay someone to weigh me? Here I feel I am more accountable, I log my food daily, even when I eat bad. Here you don't have to do the math to figure out your points, I know before 50 calories is about 1 pt, I knew how many points I need so I guesstamated my calories. If you are going to attend the meetings for support and information, this is free. You also can get recipes and friendship and support from MFP.
    Just my opinion
    Sherry
  • Pooterly
    Pooterly Posts: 61 Member
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    Oh wait. I read that wrong. It says you want to lose 138lbs!
  • pamelad77
    pamelad77 Posts: 292 Member
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    The people I know that have done WW have said it taught them nothing about nutrition, and they learnt more off here. The WW program just encouraged them to eat the ready made stuff from WW so the points were easier to track.
  • needlework
    needlework Posts: 141 Member
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    Thanks for your input. Unforunately, my ticker says I have 138 pounds to go....:happy:
  • dls06
    dls06 Posts: 6,774 Member
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    I would try both together. If you feel WW is not working Cancel or don't renew. MFP is a tracking tool only. It's all up to you. Good Luck.
  • amyllong75
    amyllong75 Posts: 16 Member
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    I am a lifetime member of WW. I have reached my goal twice and am currently working on the third time. Going to WW helped me the first two times tremendously but now I have two kids and less money so I'm trying MFP. I'm new to MFP and only have 20lbs to lose so we'll see how it goes.

    Anyway, my suggestion is to try WW and see if it works for you. Everyone is different but I can tell you that it works if you stick with it and want to do it!!
  • geecee77
    geecee77 Posts: 149 Member
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    Send it back......WW doesn't teach you about nutrition, I have been amazed by the nutritional info available on MFP based on what I eat, and am making much wiser choices because of it:)

    Good luck on your journey:happy:
  • Tubby2Toned
    Tubby2Toned Posts: 130 Member
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    Having done WW online for a while, I have found MFP to be essentially the same thing but for free.
    There's not a lot of difference between the two. No reason to have both, it's redundant.
  • TigersFanHoosierMama
    TigersFanHoosierMama Posts: 44
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    Weight watchers is great to teach you how to eat well. You have to eat a lot of fruits and veggies to be satisfied. The structure of eating that way is great. Here at MFP I feel it's just calories in - calories out and unfortunately for some it's not that simple. I've been at or slightly under my calories for a year so far and haven't lost a pound. But when I eat higher protein with most of my carbs being fruits and veggies I do great and lose weight (and I do eat a lot of fruits) and that's how weight watchers teaches you to eat! Once you have the plan you don't have to pay anything - just come here and weigh and log your exercise :)

    In the long run though - it's which one seems most practical to do day in and day out. If I had a cell phone with apps and all that jazz logging food on MFP would probably be easier and I could do that scan thing everyone talks about - that'd be cool. Since right now I can only use MFP on my desk top and I really just can't be at my desk top all the time, points makes sense! (I can carry my little calculator for it right in my pocket!)
  • Jenny_MSW
    Jenny_MSW Posts: 109 Member
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    I did WW Online a couple years ago and I loved it. Once I got used to the point values of the foods I ate regularly, it was really easy to follow. I lost 35lbs in about 5 months and I have maintained it for 2 years. I did it without any exercise. There is a ton of info about healthy food choices and nutrition on their website, and choosing healthier options allows you to eat more during the day.

    After my weight loss, 5 people at my work joined and all had success. Then I changed jobs and bc of me, 15 ppl at my new job joined and were all losing weight (too bad WW doesn't offer referral incentives, right?!)

    At this point, I'm on here just bc I want to track what I'm eating and get motivation to exercise. The whole calorie thing is definitely more complicated than the points after being used to a formula that took fat, carbs and fiber into account, but this is a good way to hold yourself accountable for everything you eat.

    I def recommend WW to everyone after my experience with it.
  • shenitamo
    shenitamo Posts: 147 Member
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    First, congrats on taking the steps to get healthy!! My suggestion would be to return it---I had the same problem...a number of my friends are doing WW, but I decided to use this website and support instead.
    Since MFP is free (and AWESOME!), I would say try it through here first and if you are not getting the results you are hoping for, then maybe pay for WW. I totally agree with the statements about learning WAY more about nutrition and fitness on here through the forums than anything WW does for you.
    The keys to this site are:
    1) Logging on EVERYDAY and being honest in your food/exercise reporting
    2) Reading the forums to learn about good nutritionals and exercise tips (and just being entertained and motivated!)
    3) Adding friends to help you be accountable and find a source of support and motivation.

    Good luck and feel free to add me as a friend! :-)
  • JenLaPointe
    JenLaPointe Posts: 37
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    I did weight watchers for many years. I learned alot from them and lost weight. But recently I wasn't losing weight doing WW so I joined MFP and LOVE it. I get 24/7 support. All I have to do is log on. I also learn alot from all the people here on this site. I like that my food and exercise journal are visable for my friends to see. That keeps me accountable. I would keep the WW info read though it and decide for yourself which will work best for you. Good luck to you!
  • modernmom70
    modernmom70 Posts: 373 Member
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    I lost all of my weight on weight watchers.However that said I also gave up all processed foods. I prefer mfp for my maintanence because I can see all of the nutrition values. With weight watchers it is a point calculation, I like to see my carbs, sugars, protien etc. I did it online so there was none of this pushing of the crap over processed ww food at meetings. I do think ww is a good way for people to start learning portion control. And with fruit and veggies being "free" it really encourages you to eat lots of those!
  • coquette87
    coquette87 Posts: 114
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    Everyone is different. I tried MFP by itself off and on for over a year with no results. I just wouldn't stick to it. I was way too hung up on calories and not enough on choosing filling foods. So I'd pick the 100 kcal cookie over the 100 kcal banana, even though the banana would keep me full longer. I joined WW Online on Jan 9 and love it so far and the weight is coming off. I'm making much better decisions food-wise (the fact that fruits and vegetables are 0 points encouraged me to choose them in the beginning before I started to form better habits). I don't find it complicated to log my points. If I get hung up on a specific item while shopping, I've got a points calculator on my Blackberry. No big deal. I dual log on WW Online and MFP, mostly just to make sure I'm getting enough protein and fibre on MFP, but that's about it. I prefer the MFP boards as well, they're more active. To me, I get something valuable out of both sites.
  • Tmrice721
    Tmrice721 Posts: 86 Member
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    I learned a lot from WW and lost over 50 lbs with their program. I attended meetings for a full year and received a lot of nutritional information. I had a wonderful leader and learned a lot, so much so that when I stopped the program for about 10 months I was amazed that I only gained 15 pounds back... but I think that came from stress eating. WW actually taught me how to make healthier food choices. I very rarely bought the WW meals because they teach you how to grocery shop. But I actually like MFP better now, because I can track specific nutitional information. Also, the community on MFP is way way better!!!

    I just cancelled my monthly subscription with them... I did dual tracking just to see the number of calories I was consuming in a day and I would meet my points plus total for the day but I would be way over my calorie intake by more than 500 calories. As you know WW points plus counts most fresh fruits and veggies as 0 points but they do contain calories and I try to fill up on fruits and veggies. For me WW was a good starting point in my weightloss journey. Good luck!!
  • needlework
    needlework Posts: 141 Member
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    This sounds like a silly question, but if eating fruits and veggies are considered to be zero points, and they do contain calories, is there a way to figure out how many points they should be so that no one goes over their calories? There has to be a way to find out what the point value would be for fruits and veggies, right?
  • needlework
    needlework Posts: 141 Member
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    bump
  • bjfrezell
    bjfrezell Posts: 241
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    Weight Watchers considers MOST fruits and vegetables (not all) 0 points to encourage more people to eat them as they are a healthy choice. Fruit and vegetables do have calories though and some (not all) people on Weight Watchers eat so much fruits and vegetables that they stall their weight loss. It happens.

    I used to do WW but I found MFP worked better for me. Of course, I had to educate myself on making healthy food choices such as eating more protein, fiber, and healthy oils/fats. I find MFP works better for me because I have an iPod touch that I can use at work to track my calories, there are more foods in MFP's database than WW, I hated going to WW meetings, I find the forums on MFP more supportive /informative, and MFP is FREE! My husband likes MFP better than tracking WW points as well. In addition, we're better at making food choices now and we've both lost weight quickly.

    My advice though is to do the program you feel most comfortable in doing.
  • joanthemom8
    joanthemom8 Posts: 375 Member
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    This is what I wrote about WW when I started on MFP about 80 days ago:

    I lost 30 lbs on the old WW plan a couple of years ago - made a mistake and didn't stick to the lifetime plan.... When I came back to WW in January 2011, the PP seemed great - more daily points allowed (29!). After losing 5 lbs initially, I couldn't lose anymore weight ... even when I had really good weeks of strickly by the book - no weight loss! Very discouraging. This last week I decided I was going to just reduce my daily point allowance on my own by about two points/day. Then, their new 2012 plan came out today and - guess what? WW automatically reduced my daily points allowance by three (down to 26). Then tonight I surfed the web to see if anyone else had issues with WW PP and I found a lot of people did. So, I am going to track calories and exercise on this website (and still track on WW - I do it online) and see how I do. If this website works, then I'll cancel my WW subscription.

    I have cancelled my WW subscription (I was doing it online) and I have been following MFP faithfully. I really think WW worked for me the first time - I think now that I'm older, and I don't have as much weight to lose, it's harder for me to lose, so I rather just do it for free - and this site seems easier to me than WW on line.

    Good luck!!!

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