Hi there,

As you can see, I'm new to this forum (still don't have a cool weight-tracking thingy at the bottom, need to figure that one out) and I'm already ranting. I am 40 and have been at odds with my weight about half-of my life. I started gaining as a pre-med student (lots of stress), then in medical school, I lost 83-lb and kept it off 4 years. Residency was bad for me (cheap free conference food, long hours, overnight calls, little sleep, etc), and I gained back about 30 of it. I'm now moving on to fellowship soon, and need to start getting back in shape, both for myself and to set a good role model for my patients. Don't want to be in a "pot-kettle" situation.

My previous success in med school was with South Beach diet, and I still follow most of the basics (good carbs, healthy fats, whole grains), but recently I did join the online WW program. I've been doing the online tools for almost 4 mos, but still trying to eat South Beach-type foods. I'm stuck with a weight that goes between 161.5-165, up and down, constantly. Just one big plateau despite some form of exercise (30-60 min) 6 days/week and keeping in my 26 points per day, except with 1 dinner out a week with my hubby (still not overdoing it). What gives? Am I really just chronically stressed and sleep-deprived (ie, all the non-food things I can't fix that lead to weight gain?)

On the flip side, I do feel my clothes fitting looser, although no real scale victories in almost 4 mos. I'm starting to think that even though on WW I get to eat all the zero point fruit/veggies, that's what's catching up with me? I mean, I can't magically make the calories in them vanish, and 7 servings a day does NOT really equal zero?

SO my question as a newbie on this forum is if there's anyone out there who previously used South Beach or something similar, and now is doing WW. Did you find similar success with WW? Or is it about time to switch back to the system that worked for me before? Ideally I would like to combine the South Beach principles with a simple tracking system to keep me on target during my crazy busy schedule in the hospital, and I like the ability to track since I'm on a computer, phone, or iPad all the time. What other apps have been helpful, outside of the WW franchise? I feel that the WW app is so well-designed, there isn't another good one to compare it too.

Your input is appreciated

Welcome!

You might like Sparkpeople, it's a calorie tracker and has an iPhone App. And its free. You can eat whatever foods you like on it within the calorie range set for you. It will also track exercise calories burned, but it doesn't give you "extra" calories to eat when you exercise like Daily Plate and some of the other do. It accounts for your exercise within your calorie range for the day.

I have done both Sparkpeople and Weight Watchers and I like Sparkpeople better. It also tracks the fruit & veggie calories so you don't have to worry if you are eating too many.

You might also want to add in weight lifting as that can build muscle and help shed pounds.

And this will make you more empathic to your patients who are struggling with weight. You'll be able to remember that it's much more than "just eat less."

Welcome! I had some trouble with the new ww system after some success with the old one. After posting here, a couple of people commented they didn't think I was eating enough. I downloaded the sparkpeople app and input my menu for the previous week and learned I was consistently eating under 1000 calories a day! I set a target of 1350 and have seen much more consistent losses eating more.

If you care to post your menus for a few days I'm happy to do some calculations to see if you're in the same boat. Another regular here swears she can't lose weight without proper sleep so that could be a contributing factor as well.

Good luck on your journey, this has gotta be tough with the schedule you keep!