Anyone try the new Weight Watchers?

[Kae]

Right!! It is a once in a blue moon thing for me now. I do love Hibachi too. One of my favorite things though is that Sushi is pretty low in points so I get that when my fiance gets his General Tsos and then I just get a bite.

My previous go to was steamed pot stickers and some kinda of soup. Now 3 pot stickers 13 sp.

Love your Screen Name my Grandma was a Vernie

 

[Dentam]

I also have flip flopped between MFP and WW for quite some time before firmly committing to WW about a year ago. I have lost close to 20 pounds since college but the real win was how WW taught me WHAT to eat. With MFP you could just track calories (as you could with old WW points, in my opinion) worth of junk food. A lot of people follow IIFYM (If It Fits your Macros) which is designed to give you flexibility while trying to eat exactly a certain amount of Carbs/Protein/Fat each day. I tried that - couldn't do it - it made me obsessive over the numbers. That's exactly what I'm trying to get away from.

I like WW because it's somewhat mindless to me. Tracking and staying within my points has become second nature. I hope you can all find the balance that works for you, WW does for me!

That being said I don't know if I want to keep paying for it. I'm thinking about switching to one of the apps that are like $3.99 (one time) instead.

I think that any program you follow needs get you into the habit of eating healthy and understanding how different foods affect your body. The old WW didn't really do that and neither does just counting calories as you said. I think that both sites do offer a lot of education though about what is best to eat, it just takes a little more work to pay attention to that. It sounds like WW has definitely improved since I tried it years ago, I just don't want to spend the extra money on it right now. And I don't know many people who would want to pay monthly for their entire lives, unless they still offer the lifetime memberships... can't remember exactly how those worked.

 

[goofy4prez]

And I don't know many people who would want to pay monthly for their entire lives, unless they still offer the lifetime memberships... can't remember exactly how those worked.

WW's still offers lifetime memberships. If you weigh in at least once a calendar month and are at your target weight (leeway of 2 pounds) you are not charged any fees. I have not paid a fee to WW since June 2012.

 

[Dentam]

WW's still offers lifetime memberships. If you weigh in at least once a calendar month and are at your target weight (leeway of 2 pounds) you are not charged any fees. I have not paid a fee to WW since June 2012.

That's great! I'm glad they still offer that. Might have to check it out once I have more money to spare. Right now MFP is working pretty well for me though. Congrats again on your success!

 

[Vernie822]

As I'm making my grocery list for this week, we are trying out a few new recipes.
We really like EmilyBites.com and Drizzlemeskinny.com. Of course my all time fave is Skinnytaste but just thought I'd throw those two in there in case anyone needs some new WW friendly recipe ideas!!

 

[Christine]

I've seen skinnytaste mentioned here quite a few times. That's one recipe site where, when I actually read the recipes, they just don't appeal to me. I must be the only person on earth who feels that way.

 

[Vernie822]

I've seen skinnytaste mentioned here quite a few times. That's one recipe site where, when I actually read the recipes, they just don't appeal to me. I must be the only person on earth who feels that way.

There are plenty of things on there that don't appeal to me as well. I do like a lot of her stuff though. Her crockpot stuff is my favorite but I find that a lot of her recipes are too labor-intensive for a weeknight meal.

 

[pigletgirl]

Yep, I'm using it now for baby weight loss. It seems like the best for us (DH and I) right now.

 

[loveshak22]

Why not just count calories and exercise? That's free.

My Fitness Pal offers pretty much the same online tools for free. You can also sync it with your Fitbit to track your activity/exercise.

I don't do the free calorie counting anymore. I did that for a year and lost minimally, even staying within calories. WW is designed to discourage sugar and fat. On MFP I ate a lot of stuff I don't eat now because the calories were ok but the points are too high.

I'm doing MFP now, but am going to try WW's later in the year. The one thing that I'm interested in seeing with the two are that on MFP I can stay within calories but often go over in sugar and fat. It sounds like WW's account for the total nutritional value of foods. I've always been hesitant to try WW's because it seems like another way to count calories, but I'm going to try 12 different eating plans this year and see what seems to work for me and how I feel!

 

[StephMK]

The posters I follow on Instagram have great looking lower point foods from Traders Joes. I know I saw mini pot stickers that someone cooked. Just a thought if anyone lives near one. I want to travel to the one in our city to try some new things.

So far, I really like the new plan. I definitely worked the old one to eat too much sugar and not enough healthy items. Now that I am eating less sugar, my cravings for it have really gone down. Plus filling up on more protein and drinking water.

Thanks for the recipe sites! I desperately need some new dinner ideas.

Is it possible to become lifetime if I'm an online only member? How would they know my weights are correct for start and finish? I'm going in with the attitude I will make it this year.

 

[pocomom]

I have a question. Does anyone know how it would work for a vegetarian and someone who mostly cooks from scratch? I had a lot of success on MFP back in the day , and was considering WW because my motivation level is not high right now and I actually thought paying for it would make me more accountable. The one area that was difficult is I make a lot of soups/stews etc. at home I'm wondering how difficult it is to track homemade dishes with lots of ingredients? My friend who is very successful on WW eats out a lot and I'm worried it is more geared for that?

 

[dotfurio]

I have a question. Does anyone know how it would work for a vegetarian and someone who mostly cooks from scratch? I had a lot of success on MFP back in the day , and was considering WW because my motivation level is not high right now and I actually thought paying for it would make me more accountable. The one area that was difficult is I make a lot of soups/stews etc. at home I'm wondering how difficult it is to track homemade dishes with lots of ingredients? My friend who is very successful on WW eats out a lot and I'm worried it is more geared for that?

They have a recipe builder feature so you can input your ingredients and number of servings and it'll calculate a point value. It can be a pain for a lot of ingredients, but you can save the recipe in your account. They also have a lot of recipes available with a variety of search features, including vegetarian.

 

[HeatherC]

I think it is much easier if you cook from scratch because you can control the ingredients. Eating out on the new program is a bit harder now IMO because the points seem to have gone way up.

For me it is much easier to stay on the program when I cook at home. Plus, fruits and veggies are 0 points so eating vegetarian fits in well.

 

[Christine]

They have a recipe builder feature so you can input your ingredients and number of servings and it'll calculate a point value. It can be a pain for a lot of ingredients, but you can save the recipe in your account. They also have a lot of recipes available with a variety of search features, including vegetarian.

I cook a lot at home too (not doing WW, though) and I agree that recipe builders can be a PAIN. I'm using MFP now and I've noticed that their database has gotten a lot better over the years. Some of the recipes that I pulled off Eating Well and All Recipes have been loaded in the database already. So even though I already had the nutritional value from the sites I got the recipes from, I didn't even have to load that.

But, yeah, if you're cooking Grandma's Chicken Soup, it's like not going to be in there and you will have to build it for any of the trackers. But once it's in, it's there.

 

[Vernie822]

I have a question. Does anyone know how it would work for a vegetarian and someone who mostly cooks from scratch? I had a lot of success on MFP back in the day , and was considering WW because my motivation level is not high right now and I actually thought paying for it would make me more accountable. The one area that was difficult is I make a lot of soups/stews etc. at home I'm wondering how difficult it is to track homemade dishes with lots of ingredients? My friend who is very successful on WW eats out a lot and I'm worried it is more geared for that?

Like the above people have said, the Recipe builder is pretty easy to use and you can definitely just log your homemade stuff. I cook a lot from scratch and I've never had any problems.

As far as being a vegetarian, I'm not sure what you eat for proteins but things such as eggs, fish, beans, etc., are all pretty low in points. Most lean proteins are. I think you can have a piece of fish or some shrimp for a few points. Not bad at all since you'd be eating those instead of chicken, beef, etc.

Eating out has become more difficult w/ the new SmartPoints plan since it takes into account Sugar and Saturated Fat (so a lot of things at restaurants are now higher in SmartPoints than they were before using PointsPlus). I definitely don't think it's more "geared towards eating out" at all. But if you are eating out and it's somewhere that doesn't have nutritional info, like say a local place, you can usually look up the dish you're having and find something comparable.

 

[loveshak22]

I cook a lot at home too (not doing WW, though) and I agree that recipe builders can be a PAIN. I'm using MFP now and I've noticed that their database has gotten a lot better over the years. Some of the recipes that I pulled off Eating Well and All Recipes have been loaded in the database already. So even though I already had the nutritional value from the sites I got the recipes from, I didn't even have to load that.

But, yeah, if you're cooking Grandma's Chicken Soup, it's like not going to be in there and you will have to build it for any of the trackers. But once it's in, it's there.

I agree that MFP's database is pretty comprehensive, which is nice! It is frustrating sometimes to calculate recipes that have a lot of ingredients - like chili. Although someone had to point out to me that there is a barcode scan feature to scan the different cans of beans, tomatoes, etc. that you put in the recipe.

 

[jodifla]

I'm a bit cynical over the constant WW changes. To me, it feels like a constant need to have you buy new materials. It seems like their older programs for 20 or 30 years ago are more like the one they just reintroduced.

 

[pat fan]

However, WW is so much more than just that. WW was a place where I could get support, hear success stories from others, learn from mistakes others made and etc.

I think it may just be me, but I never got much "support" from my local weight watchers. I struggled there, I struggle on my own. At least this way I'm not throwing my money away. I WISH it worked for me, and I'm happy for those who have the right people at their meetings to actually get help.