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Topic: Weightwatchers - does it work?  (Read 2805 times)

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Re: Weightwatchers - does it work?
« Reply #30 on: July 30, 2010, 09:41:33 AM »
My sister lost some weight with Weight Watchers and was nearing her goal weight.  Her child got sick, and she sort of fell off the wagon so to speak.  Now she struggles.  But it is keeping her from gaining too much weight.  She does eat a lot of the Frankenfood they sell.  She says it's because it's so hard for her to figure out points for recipes and things. And while a lot of chain restaurants either have points on the menu for some items or are searchable, not all are.

I know WW is touted as being successful in part to the records they keep on their participants.  Does anyone know if they track people who drop out after they drop out?  How about recidivism rate for people who stop going to meetings after the goal.  Not knocking the program at all (I know it's helped a lot of people), but I think sometimes its wonderful healthy successful shiny image is a bit self manufactured.  

Personally, if I were to go on a calorie restricted diet and I didn't want to count calories, I'd do a straight exchange diet.  It would be a lot easier for me to figure out.  I know you can still do that on WW, but you can get a lot of free ones as well.  As for support, I've been considering OA, not because I have gained a tonne of weight lately, because I haven't.  I am considering it simply because I think I have an addictive relationship with certain foods.  If I don't eat those foods, I don't overeat.  To me that's a bit of a sign that there's something going on there other than just being fat and into self gratification.  I don't know if you feel at that point, but if you're looking for support, they probably would give you the best.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2010, 09:46:04 AM by Legs Akimbo »


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Re: Weightwatchers - does it work?
« Reply #31 on: July 30, 2010, 09:59:05 AM »
You're more than welcome to join us in the UKY shrinkers club in the fitness board Katrina  :)
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Re: Weightwatchers - does it work?
« Reply #32 on: July 30, 2010, 10:01:35 AM »
Oh yeah, I meant to add that awhile back on the BBC news (I think is where I saw it), they had a story that some NHS PCTs have been giving 12 weeks of Weight Watchers free to overweight/obese patients, for them to attend the meetings.  It isn't something that was openly advertised though.  I was thinking about asking about that when I go to the doctor next.

Ok, I found a Guardian link about it here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jul/12/weight-watchers-works-say-scientists

Sounds like it was only for a small number of patients and limited in scope for the purposes of research?  Not sure if it's still an ongoing thing or not.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2010, 10:06:26 AM by Mrs Robinson »
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Re: Weightwatchers - does it work?
« Reply #33 on: July 30, 2010, 01:21:22 PM »
I think one of the good things about WW is tracking what you eat (you really don't have to to the point thing) -- either online or in one of the little books they give you. Just writing it down makes you more aware of what you are actually eating. I found the trouble with the stupid points is that I tend to eat only small amounts of anything at any one time. So I might end up eating a bunch of different things that I'd think were only worth 1/2 a point so didn't bother entering them. But -- they do add up.  :-\\\\
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Re: Weightwatchers - does it work?
« Reply #34 on: July 30, 2010, 01:42:27 PM »
I don't worry about the points on Spark People, I don't even care about that. I haven't had any troubles with it, but mainly I like it for the recipe calculator, which I use a lot. Does myfitnesspal.com have a recipe calculator? On Spark People, you just put in all of the ingredients and how much, etc., then you can divide that by the number of portions to figure out the nutritional info for each serving. But I'd be willing to try another site if it had a way to do that.

Yes, they do in fact! It's pretty cool. I find MFP to be SOOOO much easier to use than SP. Like someone else said, SP was just too bright and flashy and I could never navigate around the site very easily. MFP has tabs that are always visible no matter where in the site you are so you can always get back. I think it's easy to use and you don't have to set up favorites. It just does it itself. Then you can choose "Recent" under the list of foods and click click click on the ones you've been eating. You don't have to re-search for foods you've used before. It also keeps track of some other info for you and is fairly customizable. Just go take a look... :) www.myfitnesspal.com
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