I'm getting married in may 2007, and I want to lose 20-30 pounds which i think is pretty reasonable. I'm having a hard time stayimng motivated and eat right. No one in my house (I live with my parents, little brother, and my fiance is over a lot) tries to eat healthy at all! I'm thinking the weekly meetings and camraderie of WW would be good for me. Plus I'm a college student pretty close to graduating, and this looks like an affordable plan. I like eating things off a set list, but I don't want the burden of counting calories, etc. I could easily live with weighing my food and making it the night before, though. What do you guys think? I want to here from you guys who do WW--is core or flex better for me, you think?

By the way, I'm 6 feet tall and 203 pounds. I drink lots of water and my pedometer (a very accurate one) says I get anywhere from 7000 to 10000 steps a day. Also, due to a digestive disorder (IBS) I can not have any artificial sweeteners, so Splenda, nutrasweet, etc, is out. I didn't know if you guys needed that extra info.

Weight Watchers is great! Like any diet, you just have to stick with it. It's wonderful for me because I hate restrictions. I do flex points.

being a student you should try the e-tools on WW site. It is about $13 a month and you can track, and look up foods, and track your activity. They also explain the two plans...core or flex. I like flex because I can eat a variety of foods. Seeing that you are in school the flex would be good for you because it will give you the freedom, and save up your points and eat out with your fiance.

You can also track your progress and all on the site. It calculates your ideal body weight and stuff like that.

Cool site...love the etools so much I am going to stop going to the meetings when I run out of passes and just do etools

T

welcome!
im in the same boat-no support round me id love to buddy up if yre interested. esp since i need the meetings too ive failed miserably on my own too many times so i intend to attend the 7-8 meeting. i wanna lose lots! i think core is better if yoiu dont wanna count things....

Andrea is right..core sounds more like your things if you like to eat from a list. Core basically is eating from a list of foods (mostly lowfat, whole foods..fruist, veggies, lean protien) to a point of being satisfied. Flex involves counting...LOTS of counting Core gives you room to indulge with your 35 points weekly as well as any activity points you earn. For me flex is the way to go, but I can see where core might be the fit for you.

I've done online more than once, meeting more than once and I am back to doing it on my own. I think e-tools and ww online sucks. I have a loooong list of very rational thoughts on this (which you can find discussions on this topic if you search the forum; one was very recent). But in short in my opinion it sucks. Some peole love it though.

Meetings are well worth the price in my opinion. They are very motivating if you have a great leader and a good group.

So, flex involves counting points, which i could live with. I'm still able to eat moderately in resturuants? Also, I heard that I get extra points if i work out. Is thsi true? Thanks for the help guys!

yes to all of the above ?'s.
hi misty!!!

Like Andrea said yep!

Flex gives you a daily points target (mine is 26), and 35 flex points to use how you like them (I save mine for eating out on weekends). You have to count everything you eat with flex...just like calorie counting. Core gives you the list of stuff you eat from as well as the 35 points...so you can still eat out. But with core often I found I was using my flex points on stuff like 1 Tbs of margarine.

You can eat out on both core and flex. The key is like you said moderation! Many restuarnts have nutrional information on thier websites so if you know where you are going you can plan ahead. Planning ahead is a BIG help for me.

You can earn activity points. AP's are calculated on your weight, the duration of exercise and the intensity. At a moderate intensity I earn 1 point every 15 minutes for my weight. Ap's have to be used the day they are earned I think. WW recommends that you earn an average of 4 a day. But they don't want you to earn them just to eat more, they are there b/c your body needs the extra fuel when you workout.

I hope this helps