Question on Calorie Counting
 

I am very new and have a question:

If we are calorie counting why don't we go to Weight Watchers?

Gosh knows we all have been there and done that. I was wondering. Thanks for your replys.

Melanie in Colorado

Personally, I'd rather count calories than to translate them into a point system and then follow that. I like more direct. And I had no interest in the meetings. But it works very well for many people. We're all different.

Well calorie counting is free and Weight Watchers cost money so I prefer the free and if you have to know the calories in what you are eating anyway, then why make it ore complicated? That's just my opinion. Some people need the accountability of the meetings though and I can understand that.

I have to agree with Willow. Calorie counting is free and in my opinion easier to do.

Yup! Don't have the money for WW

Definitely like the free. Plus I don't know about other people but the WW group at my office says that you're required to eat only their food for the first X weeks. I like having more control over my choices than that! Also sooner or later you're going to stop WW and if you don't watch watch what you eat you'll gain it back anyway. Sooner or later WW will mean counting calories.

I think calorie counting is way easier. You have to know the calories to calculate the WW points in something - so why not just deal with calories?

I get the appeal of WW for accountability, but I'm not just losing weight, I want to keep it off. Since I don't plan on doing WW for the next 70 years, I'll end up calorie counting eventually anyway. May as well start it how you're gonna end it. Plus, my grocery bill to feed fresh, healthy foods to three people tops six hundred dollars a month. It's amazing how much cheaper food is when you aren't worried about eating processed stuff. I can't imagine devoting anymore of our househole income to weight maintenance then that.

I've done both. I think weight watchers was good for me to start out on. I learned a lot about how to eat right and what sizes I should be eating. Or you can pick up some books to learn how to eat in a healthy way. I find it easier to do calorie counting than do weight watchers. It's so expensive, too.

WW does NOT ask you to eat their food; you can eat what you want. I tried it for a few weeks a while back, but as everyone has pointed out, you have to know the calories and fiber to get the WW point value, so why not just count calories?

When I did WW, I was always counting the calories, too, because that's what I'm used to and comfortable with. The difference is that in WW items that are high in fiber and low in calories (like veggies) are 0 points; the idea is to eat more of them to fill you up. I didn't find the meetings useful and didn't have time for them. I find coming online to post as motivating, and it fits into my schedule better.

Also, I found some discrepancy in WW. For example, if I ate a Wasa cracker, and it's 35 calories and 2 grams fiber, it would come up as 0 points, but two Wasa crackers would have a point value. So if I eat one at noon and then another at 6 p.m., I would log them as 0 points each according to WW, but really I'm eating 70 calories. It didn't make sense to me.

For me the weight loss is ALL about me. I don't want anything, anything external. I do not want the meetings. I do not want to pay something for a program. On the same note, I do not want meals delivered to my door. I do not want to pay for a personal trainer. I don't want a gym membership.

All I need to make my LIFE work and this weightloss to work is ME--of course being guided by the Almighty.


Plus, all the answers and support one could ever need really is here at the 3FC. OKAY--SO I DO NEED 3FC.

gaarmy wife, I would have written this post myself if I would have thought of it..YES, YES, YES!

I count calories and go to WW! :) I don't use their points system, I only go for the weekly encouragement and focus I get from the meetings, and to get my "real" weigh-in (they use fancy accurate scales, and my bathroom scale sucks). Plus they give me stickers and a round of applause for every 5 pounds I lose. :D I love that stuff.

It's about $40/mo, but once I reach goal and maintain for a few weeks, I'll be a "lifetime member", and from then on I'll get to attend meetings for free. I do think it's something I'm going to have to keep doing for the rest of my life (or at least the foreseeable future), cause without it I just lose focus and forget why I need to eat healthy.

I need more freedom than what WW can give. I don't have time for meetings (or the money) Instead of eating their foods I have found healthy ways to cook what I like. I keep a few WW foods in the freezer for those days when I am starved and in a hurry at lunch time. Somehow it seems more like "real" food when I decide what I am going to eat and cook it myself.

I belonged to WW years ago, and lost weight successfully. I skipped out at maintenance, much to my own regret later. I think WW is a great program for those who need support and encouragement, as well as accountability as they go.

These days I use calorie counting. I don't really need the support component the way I did long ago, and I didn't want to have to pay. But, if I needed the support component, I would definitely do it again and pay.

Jay

When I already know that it's:

If Calories expended > Calories consumed
Then weight loss

paying a company to help me never even occurred to me.

I'm not trying to say that you're weak or stupid or any of that. What works for you is what works for you and that it works is what's important just like any other support group. My father stopped drinking 20 years ago, cut off all ties with his drinking buddies and still goes to 2 AA meetings a day. When he stopped smoking he stopped cold turkey with no group meetings and hangs out with smokers all the time. For the cigarettes he didn't need the group support for the alcohol he does.

Personally I'm not very social. I would rather spend my time after work going bike riding or playing with my nephew than attending meetings but that's me. I find more motivation in those actions.

Plus you have to realized that my own experience with WW is what I've seen my coworkers go through in the work club they started which included several team mates coming back from meetings upset because they were chastised infront of the group for cooking their own meals even if the used WW recipes as "It's not time for you to be cooking yet". While apparently that's not standard this group seems to be primarily focused on selling their products. If we had a different group that met at work and so I could attend without having to cut into my family time then I probably would. If calorie counting stops working for me and I need more support than I might. If I move somewhere where I don't get the understanding and support I need from my family and friends I might.

But for right now this is working for me. And that's what's important for me.

I like the free also!!
I personally wouldn't like meetings That WW has~or the point system.
Calorie counting is easy to me and works Great.
Plus I Wouldn't wanna use any of WW food~it's all expensive.
I am teaching myself to eat what I can afford in smaller healthier portions~if there was never a WW~Or any other diet~Or surgeries ~This is what everyone losing weight would have to do~Learn to eat what they have properly. I have heard WW Is similiar to calorie counting But see no since in spending money.

Personally, I prefer to count calories instead of subscribing to a manufactured diet such as Weight Watchers. I don't need a diet, a plan, or a programme that comes with a trademark, to get me to do something as normal and natural as living healthily and altering my body weight as a result.

That's just me. As this thread shows, it's different strokes for different folks.

Easier and free!
Also, when I did ww I found myself eating crappier food. My thinking then was as long as it fell within the points it was all good, but not so much. Eating healthier foods is truly key.

I would NEVER knock WW. I lost 60 pounds on the program and would recommend it to ANYONE looking to lose weight. The program and meeting taught me about nutrition and proper portion sizes as well as the importance of activity for weight loss. These stories of bad experiences in WW meeting are unfortunate and I want to think they are the minority, I had a GREAT WW meeting leader, and if it wasn't for the whining, talkative (but not helpful) members in the meeting I would have continued to go to the meetings... the leader was great, the members of the meeting I went were annoying at best. If it wasn't for WW I would still be 226 pounds and depressed.



That being said, I eventually did research and educated myself further about proper nutrition and health and fitness and decided to leave WW and try something else when I hit a plateau with WW and got frustrated. I like calorie counting for many of the reasons posted here. It's free for one, and I actually feel like I can eat more, and have a wider variety of foods because I'm no longer "hoarding my points" as I call it. I never wanted to eat the flex points and so I was pretty much starving all the time and the weight losses were slow. With calorie counting I feel like I can eat more, and I'm never hungry. Right now this is working for me, so I'm gonna stick with it. But I will forever be grateful to WW and for my meeting leader for the support and encouragement that I needed at that time.

This doesn't sound like Weight Watcher's at all. Are you sure it isn't another program? There are many programs which start you off on "their" food, but Weight Watcher's has NEVER been one of them. Also since the Weight Watcher's brand of foods in the grocery store are from a separate company from the weight loss program (who have only signed a contract with the Weight loss program, to use the name as long as they calculate the Weight Watcher's points and include the information on the label). The weight loss program has no reason to endorse the Weight Watcher's brand. The foods that are offered by the program have always been only snacks that you couldn't live on.

It's possible that Weight Watcher's is starting a new program and is experimenting in your area, but I find it very difficult to believe that Weight Watcher's would endorse such an extreme detour from their program (which for over 50 years has never required buying prepackaged meals or any food products).

In fact, it's so drastically different, that if the group is calling itself Weight Watcher's, I would wonder if the leaders aren't illegally using the Weight Watcher's name to push their own products. Or if someone hasn't developed an "off-shoot" without corporate authorization or knowledge (I believe Weight Watcher's is a franchise, so if the owner is deviating from the official procedures, he or she could lose the franchise if corporate finds out).

I agree! This is definitely NOT a WW meeting if they were telling members that they shouldn't be cooking. WW members aren't forced to eat any WW foods, in fact my meeting leader encouraged cooking and often handed out recipes during meetings...