Comments on Cranky Fitness: Dissin' Weight Watchers

Weight watchers worked really well for me. I used ...

2009-02-12T11:11:00.000-05:00

Weight watchers worked really well for me. I used the core plan, easy peasy.

Of course it's a diet - or should I say a change i...

2008-02-18T16:22:00.000-05:00

Of course it's a diet - or should I say a change in your diet. But it's a diet that hopefully you can tweak to fit your life and lifestyle.

I've maintained a 30+ lb weight loss for almost 20 years after losing it with WW. This afternoon I ate a biscotti. Last night I went out for dinner and had a martini and panecotta to start my meal.

Oh, did I say I've maintained my weight for almost 20 years?

Since the beginning of my "weight-loss journey", m...

2008-01-10T14:26:00.000-05:00

Since the beginning of my "weight-loss journey", my leader has always ended the meeting with "Don't forget! Weight Watchers is not a diet, it's a lifestyle change." You know what? Is it a diet? Sure. But I have changed my eating habits, learned more about portion control (4 servings of pasta? No sweat for the old me.), and enjoyed doing it. Granted, there were definitely weeks where I cheated (you know, it's much easier to order a #1 from Wendy's as opposed to the grilled chicken and a side salad), but always tried to go back with my head held high. Although the woman who weighs us in is a complete slore (yes, mixture of slut and whore), I have always heard down .2 and replied "better than being up!" It's called a positive attitude. I took a vacation from WW for the holidays (my last meeting before last night was December 19th), but went back January 3rd to program. Sure enough, I went down 5.2 lbs! I was so happy (and still am), and I am not cheating anymore. So, that makes a total of 29.6 and I want these last 22 lbs. off before the summer! I want to look good in a bikini! I WANT TO BE A NORMAL TEENAGER AND NOT HIDE AT THE BEACH! So here's hoping. I'm going to start a blog about this, because I'm upgrading from handwriting everything to typing. Here's hoping, and good luck to all the ladies on this diet, scratch that, "Lifestyle Change!"

Isn't portion control a life style change............

2008-01-04T11:31:00.000-05:00

Isn't portion control a life style change..............not a diet?

My point being............Dissing WW is just ANOTH...

2008-01-04T11:29:00.000-05:00

My point being............Dissing WW is just ANOTHER excuse to not lose weight. I get if it is not for you but to discredit it or discovurage someone else is just giving "you" (universal) an excuse not to succeed. I do not go to WW meetings although I have the material and do it at home. Anyone can figure out that it is just a common sense approach to portion control. To diss it is just another excuse for "you" to fail. My opinion right?

Anon-I'm going to leave your comment up for now, b...

2008-01-04T09:45:00.000-05:00

Anon-
I'm going to leave your comment up for now, because I hate to delete comments very often--but honestly, it seems quite mean-spirited.

Lots of people have legitimate opinions about the various different programs. I have no idea why you'd want to disparage people you don't even know just because they don't like the same one you do.

I would bet everyone dissing WW is fat and will st...

2008-01-04T08:48:00.000-05:00

I would bet everyone dissing WW is fat and will stay fat. You see it all the time, the people making excuses and critcizing will never succeed.

Wow, thanks for all the excellent comments about t...

2007-12-29T11:21:00.000-05:00

Wow, thanks for all the excellent comments about this! Especially with the new year coming a lot of people may be wondering about WW and I think this information might really help people decide whether the program is right for them or not.

I've been a WW lifetime member for two years now h...

2007-12-27T11:50:00.000-05:00

I've been a WW lifetime member for two years now having lost 65 lbs. I'm grateful that I've kept it off. Up until now I've been going every month to weigh in. This month I won't because I can't. I'm probably 3 lbs above my goal weight and they'll make me pay!! I've paid enough. I know why I gained the weight....I've been in and out of the hospital. The "pressure" of that scale telling me I'm over my goal sucks. However I do plan to keep the weight off. I just signed up for the National Body Challenge presented by Discovery Health. And I'm fortunate enough that one of the big kick off events will be held right here in NJ. I've already made my weigh in appt and cannot wait. I will get all great tools for FREE and nobody judging me. Woo hoo.

I definitely would support WW over any of those other plans any day. However, we all have what works or doesn't work for us. And as long as we do what works...whatever it is, it doesn't matter.

I wish everyone a very happy and healthy new year!!

I definitely lost weight on WW for the bazillionty...

2007-12-27T09:56:00.000-05:00

I definitely lost weight on WW for the bazillionty times I joined it - gave it all my non-existent money and went out for pizza after a good weigh-in. :)

Sorry I'm late jumping in here, but I wanted to ad...

2007-12-27T07:40:00.000-05:00

Sorry I'm late jumping in here, but I wanted to add my two cents. I have tried WW several times, each time swearing to myself that "this will be the time I succeed". "This time" never comes. I recently had a revalation of sorts though. I realized that WW will never work for me, because I have too many ways to "cheat" legally. I also eat way too many processed foods while "on plan" and I tend to forget about things that are healthy, yet higher in points. All that being said, I'm a person who is just bad at diets (yes, I believe WW is absolutely a diet). I have failed at MANY diets and I believe that my impulsive/compulsive personality has a lot to do with it. I'm now looking into the South Beach Diet (yes, another diet), but I honestly don't know that I'll even go that route. I need to really sit down with myself and figure out a way to navigate my disordered relationship with food.

I have been on WW on and off for 4 years. The bigg...

2007-12-26T23:31:00.000-05:00

I have been on WW on and off for 4 years. The biggest revelation came when I was getting one of those fancy basal metabolic rates readings and my results came in waaay too low for my weight and activity level. The lady told me that the number is either genetic or is a result of long-term caloric deprivation typical for Weight Watchers clients (she didn't know I was with WW). I quit the program shortly thereafter.

Crabby I'm going to answer you in a post soon. Th...

2007-12-26T14:32:00.000-05:00

Crabby I'm going to answer you in a post soon. This is a great topic!

I've never done WW, so I can't give a honest opini...

2007-12-22T03:33:00.000-05:00

I've never done WW, so I can't give a honest opinion. From what I know of it, it seems like you can treat it like a diet, or give yourself some more leeway and adapt it into a lifestyle -- at least, it probably has ore potential to become a lifestyle than other kinds of officially-labelled diets around there.

On the other hand, I wouldn't want to pay for something that, all in all, is only common sense (common sense is the hardest thing to apply to one's life, don't you think so? ;)). And the meetings/weigh-in stuff probably isn't adapted to everyone, though I find a support part IS important in any long-term weight loss success.

This is a tough one... if you could just look at t...

2007-12-21T18:34:00.000-05:00

This is a tough one... if you could just look at the program itself at face value - there's sound thinking behind it - lifestyle changes, healthy food pyramids, etc etc.

They do have good stuff in the literature about nutrition: making sure you get your recommended serves of veggies in, plenty of calcium, whole foods, etc etc. but for so many, all that seems to fade into the background with all the scale/meetings bullshit.

my personal experience: i lost 100lb in a year with WW and reminded myself of what a reasonable portion of food looked like. but the rest of it screwed with my head: desperately squeezing in another bathroom trip before facing the scale, all that tsk-tsking from the staff if you Only lost half a pound, hearing myself pathetically justify a tiny gain... not to mention the endless pimping of crappy WW snacks full of artificial sweeteners.

at the end of the day its a business and they make their money with the snacks and the weekly weigh-in fee... if you can remember that you could just make use of the good bits. but i couldn't keep it up without going Scale Bonkers.

Thanks so much Holly, Javachick, and LilyT--I love...

2007-12-21T14:09:00.000-05:00

Thanks so much Holly, Javachick, and LilyT--I love these really thoughtful responses!

I think Weight Watchers is great, but not for me. ...

2007-12-21T11:33:00.000-05:00

I think Weight Watchers is great, but not for me. It depends on the person. And I may not be the one to give an opinion, being that I only attended one meeting, but I’ve had friends and family on Weight Watchers and this is what I’ve gathered with what’s good and not so good about it. What’s good is that it’s structured and tells you how to lose weight. It’s daunting trying to learn it yourself and a lot of people need help. Additionally, there’s a lot of face-to-face support (which is suppose to be a very effective) and it’s not as expensive as other means. What I don’t like about it is that although it isn’t expensive, I wasn’t ready to spend that kind of money. Also it’s commercialized. I have an issue with that. It makes me feel that they’re trying to get you to spend even MORE money than you set out to spend.

If WW is trying to pass itself of as NOT a diet, I say whatever. Technically it is a diet, but then most people associate the word “diet” with drastic change in eating that you stop eventually. WW doesn’t want you to stop, ever, so they’re probably pushing the diet vs. lifestyle change route.

Of course WW is a diet - but a diet can translate ...

2007-12-21T08:20:00.000-05:00

Of course WW is a diet - but a diet can translate into a lifestyle for many people. Which would seem to match up with all those people who have lost weight and kept it off on the plan.

WW does include a maintenance phase, and my understanding is once you reach goal weight and stay there for a certain amount of time, you can attend meetings for free.

I have never attended meetings, but I am giving the online version a try. From what I can see on the site, they do encourage healthy food choices and exercise.

Whether this will work for me, I don't know. I have used tools like fitday and sparkpeople before and done ok with them, but lately I've been feeling like I needed something a bit more structured to help me focus, so I decided to try WW. Problem is, I know what I need to do, but I have a hard time sticking to it.

So far, I haven't found that WW is a huge change from what I have tried before. Probably the best thing for me so far has been the online community at the WW site. I found a group on a particular board that are really encouraging. Which I guess is sort of like attending virtual meetings.

Anyway, enough rambling from me...Bottom line: They are in business to make money, so I don't see the point in getting worked up over a new marketing campaign. For some people, it does work and it does become a way of life. For others, it obviously is not the right fit. We are all different and each of us has to find the solution that is right for us.

I know I am kind of late jumping in to this discus...

2007-12-20T23:30:00.000-05:00

I know I am kind of late jumping in to this discussion, but I am so surprised that no one has mentioned the WW stars. REALLY!

I have never had anyone give me the evil eye over my weight. I LOVE it when they ask who lost .2 lbs and then give them a star and everyone cheers. It just goes on from there. The stars make me happy.

I think the location and leader that you use are key. You have to find someone that has your outlook on things. I had a leader that ate out all of the time and every recipe she ever posted for the group had artificial EVERYTHING in it. YUCK!

I had another leader that stressed whole foods and exercise. I got lots more out of that!

I like WW because I can have a dish of ice cream and not feel like a failure.

Wow, these personal observations are so interestin...

2007-12-20T22:59:00.000-05:00

Wow, these personal observations are so interesting--I bet a lot of people who are thinking about whether to do WW or some other program would find this really helpful. Thank you all for sharing what works for you and what doesn't!

Um... anyone know how many points in a medium to large sized cupcake?

I've been on WW for 8 months and I've lost 50 lbs ...

2007-12-20T21:22:00.000-05:00

I've been on WW for 8 months and I've lost 50 lbs so far. I really needed to take a hard look at the portions that I was eating. I was NOT a veggie eater before WW, but all that has changed. I have found lots of vegetables and fruits that I enjoy now, instead of junk food.

WW also encourages you to drink at least 6 8 oz glasses of water per day. I decided to give up my diet drinks and replaced them with water. I can really tell a difference in my skin. Since I rarely drank water before, this was definitely a good move for me.

I had been a member of WW before...and always the first week you lose several pounds, but after that, the pounds come off more slowly. I tended to give up too easily. This time, I decided to hang in there and realized that 1-2 pounds per week was actually a good thing.

So, with all this said, I think WW encourages a healthy lifestyle. I intend to keep this philosophy for a lifetime. Since I have never felt deprived, it doesn't feel like a diet to me.

Oh, by the way, I have never attended a meeting. I just joined online. :) I'm only accountable to myself, no ladies giving me the evil eye if it's not such a good week on the scale!

I've known a lot of people who have been successfu...

2007-12-20T21:01:00.000-05:00

I've known a lot of people who have been successful on WW. (Marie being the first person to come to mind)

That said, I SUCK at math. My husband and I were teasing each other the other day because it took both of us WAAAAY too long to come up with an answer for a really simple multiplication problem (Is it 2,000 or 20,000?) I can barely keep track of calories, so I'm not so sure I'd be any better at points.

I did Body For Life a long time ago and lost some weight. When I go into weight loss mode, I pretty much revert to that basic plan. It's really simple. But as a general rule I stay away from "programs," and if I don't think I could do it for the rest of my life I stay away.

(that was a really funny post at elastic waist though. And I loved marie's comment about making excuses!)

I'm with Baggie on this one. I won't pay to diet. ...

2007-12-20T19:11:00.000-05:00

I'm with Baggie on this one. I won't pay to diet. I do know what I should and shouldn't eat, and when I follow my own set rules, I'm successful, though I suppose keeping on track is one aspect of WW that I could benefit from.

I did Weight Watchers around 8 years ago. The poi...

2007-12-20T18:56:00.000-05:00

I did Weight Watchers around 8 years ago. The points system was really helpful for me at the time and I lost around 15kg. However, one of the main attractions was our group leader, and she never followed the typical meeting format. I was around 3kg off my goal weight when she decided to organise for some personal trainers to come and talk to us about fitness and exercise. Weight Watchers told her that it wasn't part of their programme, and refused permission for her to have the trainers come to our meeting. She was so disgusted by Weight Watchers' attitude that she quit. Most of the members of that group left with her. Some of us stayed for a little longer, but the standard meetings were so formulaic that we quickly lost interest. I didn't lose that last three kilos until I developed a running habit two years ago, and then I lost five more on top of those three!

I think things may have changed now, but Weight Watchers always used to allocate more points to fat than sugar, even though the fat might be healthier.

IThe points system did teach me about portion sizes, but in the end Weight Watchers is a marketing machine just like any other weight loss company. There was more emphasis on eating low-point Weight Watchers sweets and desserts and 'getting away' with poor food choices, than there ever was on actually following a proper balanced diet.

And yes, WW is still a diet!

I sort-of tried Weight Watchers once -- a friend w...

2007-12-20T17:23:00.000-05:00

I sort-of tried Weight Watchers once -- a friend who was on the program gave me the quiz for how many points you get, and it worked out to 19 a day for me. She also gave me the points formula, which is public, by the way:

Points = (calories/50) + (fat grams/12) - (min(fiber grams, 4)/5) -- That is, one point for every 50 calories and every 12 fat grams, minus up to 4/5 of a point for the first 4 grams of fiber.

She never told me anything about any "Flex" points (I don't know if the version of the plan she was on includes them) and if you do a little math, you should see a fairly big problem: following this plan would have me eating less than 1000 calories per day.

Obviously, that nonsense did not last very long.

Even if you take "Flex" points into account, though, the Weight Watchers plan in itself really doesn't do anything to encourage healthy food choices, and it didn't do anything to get me to reduce my sugar intake, which I feel was the key to finally being able to lose any weight.

I got on the Richard Simmons plan shortly afterwards; he emphasizes (and the plan, in fact, enforces) a balanced diet. I started eating (*cough* drinking) vegetables and had to eliminate most sugary stuff from my diet. And, of course, Richard requires you to exercise as well (it's one of the windows you have to close every day).

Guess what happened? :)

So, in conclusion: Counting points bad, sparkly tank-tops good. (At least for Chicken Girls.)