Weight Watchers -- impressed me

BFwillie_g

Barefooters
May 17, 2010
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Kulmbach, Germany
Hey there,

Someone I know started Weight Watchers recently and I havta say, it wasn't what I expected. She uses the online-only version right now and is very happy with it.

What really impressed me was that it isn't calorie-based at all. It's the points system, but weighted very heavily toward getting customers to eat a balanced diet, with quality foods.

For example - a serving of pasta has 3 points, white rice 2 and potatoes 1 point, for the same amount. That makes sense because there's more nutritional value in the potatoes (hm, just realized that I'm talking about German potatoes which are much more yellow and flavorful than the bleached-white Idaho spuds - so maybe the calculation would be different in the US, don't know)

Fruit is zero points (with some exceptions like avacado, obviously). You can "eat as much as you like", which is maybe a bad thing depending on the personality of the customer.

The online system is a dream. Gazillions of recipes, which you can modify any way you wish, the point adjust automatically. It's very solidly programmed and basically foolproof.

Anyway, I just wanted to give WW a head's up and put out the info for anyone who might be looking for a program to follow.
 
Willie, I am going to have to keep that in mind as my wife is really struggling with the new diet we just started. I surprisingly am doing ok so far, but really we are just one day in, so we'll see.
 
Is your friend exercising at all, Willie?
 
I used myfitnesspal.com and lost about 30 pounds at the beginning of this year. Its an online (and has a phone app) tracker for all your food and exercise. All it took was staying on plan and BAM - 30 pounds down. Not a coincidence that I started running around then too and learned of barefoot and minimalist running
 
I don't like having to be tied to a planner. Was the one you used easy, Joel? Meaning no figuring out how many calories you ate, what each food's fat grams are, all that?

Is the WW one easy too, Willie?
 
I don't like having to be tied to a planner. Was the one you used easy, Joel? Meaning no figuring out how many calories you ate, what each food's fat grams are, all that?
I don't like to be tied to a planner either. I used fitday.com for a long while and tracked all my food intake on it, but it got to where I was spending so much time looking for and logging food that I wasted a lot of time every day. If a diet is going to work for me, it has to be easy to keep up on otherwise I get tired of doing all the extra work. Besides the fact that I'm not always near the computer (yes this statement is true despite popular belief) and trying to remember what you ate and how much while your out and about can be a major pain.
 
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I also can't stick to any kind of plan and eat pretty much everything. I just try to stick to quality foods and experiment with stuff.

But as far as plans go, I'd say the current WW is as easy and intuitive as it can possibly get. They've been at it a long time and constantly fine-tuning the system. And like I said, the computer program/webiste is done really really well.
 
I didnt have much problem with the planner because I am usually on the run. The app for my smartphone was awesome and lets you scan the UPC barcode on any food item and it automatically knows the nutritional value of everything. While it is a bit of a hassle to track stuff, you get used to it. The app also saves your regular foods, so if you eat the same (or similar things) every day, the more you use it, the easier it gets.

It also does all the set up for you. All you need to do is answer some questions about lifestyle (sedentary office job or something on your feet) and your goals and it does the rest.
 
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I have used loseit.com, which has an app also that syncs with the web, both are free. It is easy once you get going, a lot of food in the database and you can add other foods you normally eat as you go and then just pick from the list. The app is nice, you can update while sitting in traffic. I did not like fitday.

I find that if I am restricting calories, I tend to want to make them count so I try to get the most nutrition per calorie and make much wiser food choices.