VS Weight watchers. Which is easier? Ive never just done counting calories. I weight 240 and I was told to eat between 1200-1500 calories. I really just want some honest opinions on which one is easier to do. Im not very good with math.haha
I am a calorie counter and I do not find it difficult at all. There are several awesome websites that will aid you in calorie counting. I use http://livestrong.com/thedailyplate I log all my food into the website everyday. It also helps to have a kitchen scale. I measure everything, but if I eat at a friend or family members house, I eyeball as best I can. I have never done WW, so I don't have that to compare it to, but I haven't had any problems with calorie counting.
Ive never done WW but when I first started calorie counting it seemed like it was hard to took to much time, but Im telling you it gets easier as time goes on. Now I eat mainly the same type of foods and I also eat foods that are easier to count ie. single serving/rapped food like string cheese or turkey breast......I love it Im glad that I started it
I also have never done WW and when I first started CC I found it a little overwhelming. But I have the LoseIt! App on my phone and I take literally 2 minutes everymorning to log my plan for the day and it's done! No guessing throughout the day. It does take some meal preparation and some time to get all my recipies stored in the program but it is SO easy now. There are TONS of online websites where you can log your food and find calorie information on almost anything you can imagine. The key is just finding what system works for you. This just my opinion, so take it for what's it's worth, but I'd seriously do some more research on your daily calories needs. Like I said just my opinion, but for your weight and height you should be able to eat more than 1200-1500 cals a day depending on your activity level. Now keep in mind that EVERYONE is different and it is just trial and error to see what calorie level works for you, but starting that low is going to leave you open to plateau and no room to decrease calories as your weight gets lower. The less we weigh the less we need. Not to mention keeping your calories too low for too long can permanantly slow down your metabolism making your maitenance calories lower. Check out freedieting.com, they have a great calorie calculator. Good Luck!
I've done WW, and I just started calorie counting a couple weeks ago, I love it!! WW is simple yes, but by the time you add up your points and add in your activity points and eat your felx points and this that and the other thing - I think counting calories is good and its been working for me so far! I thought it'd be really difficult, however its not, I use sparkpeople to log everything.... big thing to remember - every bite counts! www.freedieting.com is a good site, and sparkpeople is were alot of us calorie counters track our daily intake.
So in my opinion, calorie counting. A calorie is a calorie is a calorie!
I like WW myself because it also gets you to count fat grams and fiber.
It's pretty much like calorie counting though. If you add up your points in one column and then add up your calories in another column, they most likely will be around the same amount (I've experimented!)
If you've never done WW before, calorie counting on its own might be easier at first for you.
There are lots of good and free online tools for calorie tracking, several have been mentioned already and the one I use is Fitday. This is probably similar with the others, but Fitday tracks my total calories plus the amounts and percentages of carbs, fats and protein, as well as fiber and pretty much all the various nutrients that are on a nutrition info label. And the nice thing is that it does all the math for you! WW has online tracking as well, but you have to pay a fee to use their website (I'm not sure if you get access if you go to in person meetings, maybe a current WW person can answer that?)
I am also eating 1200-1500 calories a day and find it to be a reasonable amount of food, esp. if I focus on whole foods (veggies & a little fruit, whole grains, lean protein and lowfat dairy). I also have some healthy fat like avocado every day.
Totally agree with choirgirlhotel that the amount of food you'd get via points in WW would end up being pretty much the same. WW is essentially a calorie counting plan, just using a different form of counting that some people find easier. And some people find going to the meetings in person very motivational and well worth the cost.