Hi everyone. I am really wanting to be involved in weight watchers but I cannot afford the start up fee and monthly fees. Is there a way to do it without actually being on their website? Like how to find out how many points I'm allowed and things like that? Any help would be appreciated.

When I was in university, I joined just for a month to learn the program, get a good start, then I just continued on with the plan by myself. I was living in residence (so not a ton of healthy food choices, nor control) and I didn't even own a scale. But I continued with the points counting to the best of my ability, and went I went home for Christmas 3 months later, found out that I'd lost 35 pounds!

So my suggestion is to pay for a month. go to the meetings, get weighed in, get really used to the plan.. then just quit and do it yourself.

GL!

There are some other groups that are free, like Overeaters Anonymous and Food Addicts, although I think that kirsteng's suggestions above is a good one. They give you a copy of the Point Plus book with food values that you can refer to after canceling your membership and that should get you a good start. You could also try meetup.com to see if there are any free regular get togethers for people losing weight. There is also a WW thread here where you might find some great information and friendship.

Thank you. My main thing is wanting to know how many points I am allowed. Thats the biggie. I love this website. It seems very helpful and supportive with everything, which is good.

When you join WW you get all the materials. If you go a few times, to learn the program,, you can easily continue on your own. They sell a 3 month journal, and if you own a scale you can weigh yourself once a week. The group support is nice, but cost certainly is an issue for me too, so when they discontinued my regular meeting, I decided I would do it on my own. So far, so good.....

Okay great! Thank you so much! I will look more into it.

Or you can do calorie counting which is 100% free.

I was too cheap to join WW, so this is what I did

Little did I know it worked out for the best

This is my story, too.

Ditto!!!!!

I couldn't afford to do it either, so I'm doing calorie counting. I find it to be much easier to fit into my lifestyle. I did WW a couple years ago, and lost weight, but couldn't continue my membership and wasn't smart enough to stick to the plan to keep the weight off lol.

Now I calorie count, have adjusted it to my lifestyle, and get the group support from 3FC...all for free!!!!

I did this. Lost 50 pounds. yo-yo ever since. At some point I spent the $200+ and joined weight watchers. I think I lost 2 pounds in 5 months or however long I went. Absolute waste of money. I went back to calorie count, got back down to my initial low of the 50 pounds I had lost with no problem.

Except I have gained it back again, lol.

I say do calorie counting, it is free - lots of awesome free websites and phone apps. And a great support group here on 3FC.

I actually did WW for most of this year and then switched to calorie counting in August. Not because of the fees but because it is more accurate.
Can you go to a WW meeting and check it out? I like their health guidelines (I still stick to those!) but the points are very "interpretable".
Calorie counting is a no fail concept if you are honest and stick to general healthy options (like the WW guidelines).
Check out MyFitnessPal (free). It has a good community and a great food database.
You can always get help and advise here on 3FC too!

Another happy calorie counter here.

Meanwhile, you can pick up the WW book/starter kit on eBay.

These guys are right, calorie counting is more accurate. They assign zero points for many foods which do really add up calorie-wise. To play devil's advocate, depending on the meeting (whether the check-in is at the door or more casual, size of meeting, etc) you can probably pop in to a meeting for the companionship without anyone realizing you're not a member. In fact, they might have an offer where you can go to a meeting or a week for free? You might not like it anyway -- or you might like it so much you sign up for a month.

Haha I'm glad I'm not the only one!

I really couldn't afford it either when I was starting out. I was finishing graduate school and in May when I started back up I hadn't been working more than a few hours a week because I was student teaching + taking 9 credits on top of that. I did work full time the semester before so that I could save up money, but I hadn't allotted for Weight Watchers or anything like that.

Calorie counting was free and the information was right there at my fingertips. Plus, I could work in whatever food was in the house (lived with my folks) because I didn't have the money to spend on that either.

Now I work full time so I could technically afford WW, but I'm almost done at this point and I've been so successful calorie counting that it would be silly of me to join.

Although I do have people at the gym telling me to join, saying it would teach me to eat properly. Um... I think I'm doing that now? I guess they're not used to seeing me smaller. I've been going to the same gym for six years so they've seen me at my SW.