Weight Watchers...Whats Your experiences?

WW worked for me before the plan was changed to make most fruits and veggies 0 points. I lost about 30 lbs the first go around. Then I quit because I plateaued. Then, I went back while it was the new Points Plus system and I lost maybe 8 pounds and then leveled out. Fruits and veggies have never been a problem for me so I was eating a ton of fruits and veggies (mainly fruit) which was a bunch of calories but no points. Plus I was eating my regular points. When I did the math, comparing it to MFP, WW just had me eating waaaaaaaaaaay too many calories. I've done a lot better with MFP

In the 90s when I first started having to watch my weight, I lost 35 pounds fairly easily and pretty fast with WW. I attained Life-Time Membership status and maintained my weight for about 6 years. At that time, I injured my back and have slowly gained then lost then gained and now I am here. I am 100% behind WW, because it really does work. I went to the meetings which, I think, helps a lot. Pretty much you go weigh in, then there's a little motivational speech, then Q&A and idea exchange. If it's an option for you, I would definitely go for it!

PS I tried their website and, to me, it's not user friendly so I cancelled that after about a month, then I found MFP, which works very well with the WW concept. It's pretty much the same.

Good luck!

Edit: I was on WW when they had "Quick Start" but I used the WW Exchanges. Also, recently on CBS news they had a blurb where their resident doctor agreed with the study that said WW was the best out of all the popular diet plans. That was because they teach you to make your own healthy meals and live the lifestyle after you reach your goal.

I lost 9stone with weight watchers 27 years ago but the old style one not with the new programme,I personally like and have had success with slimming world.

I incorporate my eating plan with slimming world on here because the calories are worked out for you on here.

It's just a matter of choice and what works best for individuals.

Jenni m
xxx

I lost about 30 pounds on weight watchers, then I plateaued. Did this twice actually, gained it back both time, plus some... I had been going with my mom and aunt, but they started before me and had less to lose... so when they no longer went to meetings, I no longer went... I'm a little anxious in groups of people I don't know. So I prefer MFP, because I can have support EVERY DAY! And I can have it while sitting in my own living room. Plus the app is Great! When I did WW, Smartphones weren't crazy popular yet... 4 years ago. lol

I did weight watchers like 10 years ago and lost a good amount of weight. Then I got sick and such and just could not get back into it. I was recently reconsidering joining again, but everyone told me that MFP is much better than the new points system, and way free'er than WW haha, and so far I do like MFP a lot more. To each their own though.

I tried it once and just wasn't able to get on board. My main problem : "points" aren't real things. The way my brain works, it just doesn't compute for me. However, I have a good friend who lost over 100 lbs on WW, so I know it really works for some people.

Possiby the best "diet" I have ever done!! It is a great way to beable to learn healthy eating with a normal lifestyle!!

Was on WW, but lost more weight on here. Its free, and loads of nice people. Now I wonder why I ever bothered with WW!

I left weight waters when I found MFP. I did not like the new plan that they have. It felt like I was eating a ton of food, I wasn't eating all of my points, because it was too much. I also wasn't losing after a couple weeks. Since I've been on mfp I've lost about 2 lbs a week, plus it's free!

My wife and I worked MFP for awhile, but she stalled out and went back to WW, with which she had some success a few years back.
She is doing great with it. It is very simple, but I think it adds in a lot of "points"on fat calories.
I'm more of a nerd and a tinkerer, so I love MFP. She (and lots of others) do great counting points. It really is easy.

One time with weight watchers I lost 50 pounds - the point system really does work. I don't know why I quit going [2], but I slowly gained all of it back. Luckily, the "bonus" was a very small one.

I tried again a year or two ago, but quit fairly quickly. The problem with WW is the points are easy to game - you can look for the most processed crap to be able to stay within your ranges. I also found that in the meetings I went to there was a lot of inaccurate info given out about nutrition and weight loss.

On a personal preference level, the motivational style of the meetings I went to was not a good fit for me. In the first place, high pitched shrieky women's voices grate on my last nerve - which is what most of the leaders had. Plus, in my area they apparently phased out the "mommy and me" and "50+" meeting types - which meant there were often babies and toddlers interrupting the meetings in the first case, and in the second, the motivational leaders had lost a whopping 20 pounds, which was just annoying. [1]

So yeah, WW wasn't really for me. I like this place though - I can find the right people for motivation and the tracking tools are the best I've found of *many* sites.




[1] Don't string me up, I'm not dissing losing 20 pounds of course - losing and keeping it off is a fantastic accomplishment. It's just that for motivation I need to be able to look at someone who's lost a metric buttload of weight, not something I haul around in my backpack all day.

[2] Now that I think about it, it was probably not being able to relate to the rah rah rah mentality of the meetings. Sometimes I don't play well with others. :laugh:

I started on WW Online before I signed up for MFP. Someone on their forum suggested that we double track using a calorie site if we wanted check how many calories we were eating. I find that the sites are pretty similar actually. Which kind of annoys me that I like this one better and i paid $50 for 3 months of their online program. I started losing a lot of weight when I started using MFP to track vs the WW program. I think once my three month membership is up, I will not renew with WW and continue with MFP instead. Their database is really limited and I find it annoying to have to add every single thing I eat. Where as MFP has pretty much everything I eat in the database. Anyways, its about the same. The only thing is you don't count the fruit and veggie calories on WW and this site is free not $18 a month.

I'm old enough to have done WW pre-computers when each week we weighed and picked up a little booklet and checked off the boxes. The point system never worked for me. I liked the old fashioned paper method (and I like my rotary phone too).

Whether it's WW or MFP the success is as simple as tracking food consumed and stopping when one has reached their limits. That stopping part seems to be the catch.

No matter what the program one must make a commitment to positive lifestyle changes to ensure long term success.

WW worked for me once, but you need to pay for it all the time. You can't figure out point system anymore by ur self, and to hard to track. And the mobile app is crap. I like MFP a ton better.

I have done WW twice (old & new plan). I have had success both times but plateau quickly (20ish pounds). I think many of the concepts are the same--record food, get support from friends, etc. I think MFP pushes exercise more, which is crucial and MFP is free and easier to do, in my opinion.