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Hello Ladies - Just checking things out

#1

michelle127 , 07-14-2008 02:25 AM

Hi I'm Michelle. I'm 39 I've been s.l.o.w.l.y. losing weight over the past year - not cuz it's healthy, but because I have such a horrible relationship with food. I LOVE it!!! I'm working on that.... Anyway, I've been working out 6 days a week and starting to feel better about myself.

Just last week I was working the Medifast Plan. It was VERY difficult to eat just pudding, shakes, and eat "real" food only once a day. I also had a very real concern about my body going into starvation mode and then regaining the weight. Because I just could NOT stay on plan, I "only" lost 30 pounds in 6 months while others were able to stick with it and lose tons.

I'm nervous about starting something different. Medifast was my focus for so long. I'm worried this won't work. I've heard so many stories about how WW is SO SLOW and people only lose 4 pounds a month on it. Someone make me feel better!!!

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#2

swae85 , 07-14-2008 03:08 AM

Welcome! the thing i love about Weight Watchers is that it isnt a diet, its a lifestyle. you can still eat whatever you want (you have to count it though), but it makes you accountable for your choices and teaches you about the impact.

As for being slow... i previously was on WW Points Plan (i think you guys call it Flex) for about 10 weeks and lost 8.4kg (approximately 19 pounds). My mother lost 57 pounds in about 7 months and has managed to keep it off.

Good luck!

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#3

luvmyfam , 07-14-2008 03:12 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by michelle127
Hi I'm Michelle. I'm 39 I've been s.l.o.w.l.y. losing weight over the past year - not cuz it's healthy, but because I have such a horrible relationship with food. I LOVE it!!! I'm working on that.... Anyway, I've been working out 6 days a week and starting to feel better about myself.

Just last week I was working the Medifast Plan. It was VERY difficult to eat just pudding, shakes, and eat "real" food only once a day. I also had a very real concern about my body going into starvation mode and then regaining the weight. Because I just could NOT stay on plan, I "only" lost 30 pounds in 6 months while others were able to stick with it and lose tons.

I'm nervous about starting something different. Medifast was my focus for so long. I'm worried this won't work. I've heard so many stories about how WW is SO SLOW and people only lose 4 pounds a month on it. Someone make me feel better!!!
Hi, Michelle,

Welcome. I hope after you peruse the WW board, that you see what a great, sound plan WW is.

It is true that with WW you will most likely not see a consistent HUGE loss every week. Most people (from what I've seen) seem to lose between .5 and 2 lbs or so a week, though it all varies.

I never tried Medifast, but in the year before I started WW, I tried South Beach THREE times, YOU On a Diet for like one or two days until I started gaining weight on it, and Slim Fast a couple times. Most plans I've tried taught me something new each time. When I did Eating for Life in '06, I learned about sizing up portions without worrying about weighing, and about balancing lean proteins with quality carbs, like brown rice and whole wheat pastas. When I did SBD, I found so very, very many healthy, flavorful, fresh recipes. The recipes I've tried are some of my favorites, and I even went through my cookbook and figured out the points on the recipes to see if I could still use them. When I did Slim Fast (following the new guidelines that include whole foods with the meal replacements, and using the online tools), I gained an understanding of calories, since when you fill your meal info in, it helps you see how many calories you've been eating. But I didn't find something I could stick to, long-term.

I understand the whole "getting into a mindset" thing. That happened for me with departing from South Beach. While SBD is full of healthy recipes and foods, really, that low carb thing in the first couple weeks is what killed me for the whole thing...but it also really stuck in my head, and I admit it was hard to believe I could really have fruit and whole grains from day 1 with Weight Watchers. But I got over it, lol.

Thing about WW is that it has stood the test of time. If you go to meetings, you have terrific live support there. If you do it online or at home and use 3FC for your support (as I do), you have the terrific support in an online venue. In the beginning, if you are using WW Flex, it might be easy to get excited about everything you can have, and the points might be used up on 100-calorie snacks and things...but what happened to me (and I think what happens to most) is that you realize you get the best quality points from whole foods. Lean proteins, reasonable portions of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, etc. I learned fast that I filled up and stayed satisfied better on the "healthy" foods, but I love the flexibility that is there to eat other foods. Whatever route you take, you'll learn that WW is really helping you change your lifestyle, and is a program that you can stick to for life. I couldn't imagine sticking to Slim Fast long-term, even after adding the solid/whole foods to the meal replacement products.

With WW, my loss hasn't been enormous, or fast. At last week's weigh-in, I was almost 9 lbs down from where I was at the beginning of April. So, yeah, a slow loss. But even though it's slow, I've hovered in a certain range, and I haven't gone back up to where I started, even when I've gone off-track for a period of time.

***Jaime brought up an important point about the "slower" weight-loss. Although mine has been on the slower side, it's all my own doing and I am fine owning up to that. We travel to see our families a lot, and whenever TOM comes around, I lose control over what I'm doing. I know if I stayed on-program more consistently, I'd see a more consistent loss. I'm that same way...Routinely go off plan, don't beat myself up over it, and keep going!! Just wanted to comment on that, because my situation is the same. It's not a fault of the plan...It's my own food issues. Important thing, like I said, is that I keep wanting to get back on track every time, rather than just quitting!***

And I keep WANTING to get back on-track with WW. With other plans, I just get tired of them and quit. The longest I made it on SBD was close to a week. I never could do the whole 2 weeks of Phase 1.

With WW you'll always have variety, lots of choices, flexibility. Check out Core as well, just in case it's something you feel you'll be better at sticking to. Lots of healthy, healthy foods there, and you can eat your fill of Core foods. No portion control or anything that I know of.

But Flex does allow the most flexibility! You just have to shuffle your points around if you decide to indulge in something that's higher in points.

GOOD weightloss isn't always going to mean FAST weightloss. I had a little saying last year sometime, after I decided to finally just give up on SBD (which is wonderful for a lot of people, but wasn't for me).

"Regarding weightloss:
Slow and steady rather than fast and fluctuating!!"

I want something I can stick to long-term, something that doesn't make me feel like a failure if I get off-program. On WW I haven't felt like a dieting failure, even though I get off-track every time we go out of town or when it's TOM. I haven't felt discouraged or depressed. I just pull myself up by my bootstraps and try again.

I don't like being highly restricted, having to cut out foods and food groups, the way I've had to with some past plans. It causes me to fail. It causes me to go into that psychological "starvation mode" thing, where after a little while of not having something, not being allowed to have a particular thing, I break down and go all crazy on whatever food it is, and then can't get back on track. I love that I'm truly not restricted with Flex...like I said, I just have to watch what else I eat if I indulge in NOT so good choices!

I wish you the best in your decision about this. It might take a little while to get out of the Medifast mindset, but you will. You could always give it a try for a few weeks and see if you think it suits you.

Good luck!

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#4

suitejudyblueeyes , 07-14-2008 09:50 AM

Hard to follow the wonderful post by Jenn.

I am a slow loser - not because I think the program is designed to keep your loss slow, but because I, like you, have weird food issues. So I routinely go off plan, don't beat myself up over it, and keep going forward. I have learned to be happy with small losses, as I think I'm managing to maintain my sanity this way.

I think people who claim the program offers slow weight loss either a) have unrealistic expectations or b) are cheating themselves. Sometimes a person can claim to be 100% following the program while living on 100 calorie packs and Fruit Loops. Sure, they're counting points, but they aren't eating healthfully - and I think that has just as much to do with what you lose than how much you eat does.

Point is, WW will help you lose weight - and that's the bottom line. You want to lose? WW works. So what if it takes you an extra 2 months? Maybe it won't, anyway - everyone is so different, there is no way to base your expected experience off of someone else's. You know?

WW is a wonderful, sustainable way of eating that you can follow for life. You eat normal food. Points are easy to count, and if you get tired of counting, you can switch to Core. You can modify your diet in any way you need to and still be working the program. There is no need for processed, pre-packaged, expensive "diet" food.

Okay, so I'm biased But I love the program and would never go anywhere else.

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#5

michelle127 , 07-14-2008 02:58 PM

Wow! Thanks for responding girls!

Jen hit it right on the head. I had oatmeal and an english muffin (with jelly!!) and I feel so weird about it. Bread? Really???? No rules? Don't I need to balance it with eggs or something?

Medifast taught me to binge when I fell off because I couldn't have it on program.

Jaime, I saw your pictures. That's quite a difference for just 20 pounds - way to go!

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#6

Chey , 07-14-2008 05:35 PM

I would like to respond to this, but I need to formulate my narrative so it isn't hard to follow.. lol. In other words, I don't have a lot of time at the moment, but I will be back!

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#7

philadelphiab , 07-15-2008 10:35 AM

Weight watchers is slow but if you do the program you can learn how to eat and get healthy all the while.

Sometimes I get discouraged because is going to take so long to get to goal and sometimes I lose my focus because of it but then I remind myself of a mantra I used when I went back to college when I was 30 yrs old.
At that time I told myself that I was going to be 5 years older regardless of whether or not I went to school so I might as well be 5 years smarter. Now, 15 years later I am doing what I love for work and training the newbies.

So when I get discouraged about how slowly the weight comes off and when I can't see my goal I remind myself......I am going to be 5 years older...I might as well be 5 years thinner.

Good luck on your journey!

-Phil

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#8

Chey , 07-15-2008 05:01 PM

Well, after thinking about this and then coming back to post, I find that I really can't add too much more than what has been said already.

But, being a rambler.. lol, I can add a little bit of my own perspective.

I have tried so many diets in my life. I was the plump person in a skinny family. I realize now, that I wasn't fat, I was curvy and well endowed while the rest of the family was actually to skinny. My sister was a size 0. I was an 8 and I thought I was fat. Oh well...

Regarding WW. This is the only diet that I have done that I can live with for the rest of my life. I HAVE to live with this way of consuming food for the rest of my life. I CAN have what I want without any major restrictions other than portions (pretty much). That is MY control. Instead of a whole small pizza I can have 2 slices with a very nice salad and be ok.

As far as losing weight slowly. There are many nutritional and weight loss studies out there that recommend that weight loss be slow for long term success. Two pounds per week is recommend. I figure that it took me 6 years to get to this point, if it takes me a year or two to get back to where I want to be then so be it. Throughout my weight loss journey I am going to learn how to eat, cook, and exercise in healthful ways. I have already been able to determine how to plan meals without having to figure out the points until after I am done. (I experimented one day).

I picked WW for those reasons. I couldn't see buying pre-made meals or consuming a liquid diet, or concentrating totally on proteins, etc. The only other way I could see myself succeeding would be to count calories & fats. WW is easier.

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