thoughts on Weight Watchers vs. CC?

Just interested to see what people think and the advantages and disadvantages of both. I happen to like this better than ww. It seems easier and more logical.

I agree with you.  Personally I find it easier to track my calorie and nutritional information instead of how many points I have. Not only that, but I was *always* hungry on WW. I find using CC  to be much more flexible than WW is. However, I know of many people who have lost weight using both, so I think it is a personal choice of what works best for you.

I can't see the point of paying out for people to tell you to eat healthy, and to a points value. I guess you do get the motivation by being weighed in front of others, but at the same time if you happen to put on a pound or two and no-one else does? I'd be heartbroken.

On here I can read about others experiences, and know that a couple of pounds here and there is nothing to worry about. I learn more, make friends from all over, and am only accountable to myself. And with the money I save by not going to ww, I can go to the gym instead yay

CC is great...

Advantages to CC:  It's free, it's slightly more accurate, and it promotes really knowing what you are doing.

Advantages to WW:  It's already all been figured out, so you don't have to spend as much time thinking about how it's working.  You can just mindfully follow their guidelines, and it works just as well.

It just depends on your personality type.  One of my best girlfriends is doing WW, and doing great.  But I'm controlling organized type personality, and she's not.  She wants it taken care of for her, and I want to do it all myself.  So she's willing to shell out a little money for their system, and I'm willing to do the work and use this free website :)  We both lose weight, we both win :)

I'm on weightwatchers, which led into me simply having faith that what I'm eating is under my point goal because of the repetition of certain foods (I don't get bored easily with what I like but there is a large variety) I don't like to spend more than half an hour cooking, preparing, or the like ... Anyway, I lost 25 pounds on weight watchers in a bit over 2 months.  For things like the bread, weightwatchers bread is the same as wonderbread for grams/calories/etc., but the serve it smaller, and I'm totally happy with that, I can't cut a slice of wonderbread in half myself (vertically anyway).

I'd say the advantages of weightwatchers is that there's some kinds of people that the best way to cope with dieting is to constantly keep track and list stuff, a good way to take your mind of food is to make equations and additions of how much you ate today, combined with coloriecount, I could spend quite a while adding up how many points I have and discussing random stuff on forums.  Even though I am slightly detached from weightwatchers I still support it 100% for its products, I love the bread because I love sandwhiches, I can have a grilled cheese sandwhich for 2 points (in reality it's be about 1.3 points but it's rounded up) and I use the wraps to make a pizza, everything's also laid out real easy, I guess a disadvantage would be keeping track if you just started and are very busy? yayy

CC (CalorieCount?) I have a firm dislike for the CC system (I love the charts the goals the quiz the forums, just not the inputting of foods), it probably makes a lot more sense but there's a process to putting in every single thing, my grilled cheese sandwhich needs to work out to 3 things and the amounts and products used for each.  It seems to just take too long, I inputted oranges and lettuce before I just couldn't do anymore XD

Sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about, I'm just rambling

oh and I didn't pay for using WW and I wouldn't ever, I just got the calculator and couple books from my mom who is in it.  the calculator is all you need from the program anyway ... I don't know if they talk or something ... dinner parties ... etc ...

Weight Watchers is one of the most successful long term weight management plans out there and as others have stated, if you like having things done for you, then you might prefer it to here.  I don't agree with du57y about just needing the calculator and books though.  One of the major strengths of Weight Watchers is the accountability of a weekly weigh in and the support you can get from other members in a face to face atmosphere.  If you prefer face to face interaction with people who share similar goals and can relate to your struggles, then Weight Watchers might be for you.  If you get the same thing from the forums here, then here might be just as good.

Both Weight Watchers and CC promote healthy weight loss habits, including eating a balanced diet, portion control, and slow steady weight loss.  Which one you choose depends largely on your personality and whether or not you mind spending money  on their program.

I did ww for awhile and was successful at it but I did not go to the meetings. I paid for an online membership with access to food recipes, restaurant info, and food values. However, it was not great for accountability.

I think that success mainly depends on MOTIVATION. I was motivated when I was successful at ww but later fell off the wagon. Right now on CC I am super turbo motivated. I just hope I don't lose that motivation...

I have done WW three times before.  Once before I had kids and once after each time I had a baby...(I have 2!)  It works but for some reason, I prefer to count my calories than to count my points.  Plus, I love the "electronic" aspect of this.  WW has a website like this, too but you have to pay for it.  This is FREE!

The first two times I did WW, I actually went to the meetings but felt like I was paying them $11 just so they could weigh me.  So, I took the tools and everything, bought myself a nice digital scale and kept my own log.  I am one of those that didn't NEED the meetings.

Like I said, though, I definitely prefer CC to WW.  For some reason, I feel like I have more freedom.  No rules, restrictions or points to keep up with...

Samantha

I tried WW in the past & never got on with it. I remember in my first week of WW about 7 years ago I lost 7 or 6lbs but that was down to hardly eating anything because I just could not get my head around working out the points for everything (at one point I just sat & ate marmite out the jar because it had 0 points).

Plus I resented having to pay £5 A WEEK to be weighed when I could weigh myself for free at home. I never stayed for the meeting after the weigh in as after going to a couple of them I found them pretty unhelpful in that they were always trying to promote WW products & generally stating the obvious.

Also at the time I had about 80lbs to lose & didn't like feeling like I was the biggest person there as some were just wanting to lose 7-14lbs.

In the end I did a different diet where I had a one on one councellor & liked that we would just sit & chat about weight loss & any issues I had that were a factor to why I was overweight (OK I paid about £32.50 a week for that but that included shakes/soups/bars for the week plus half an hour of counceling & her spuring me on). It also helped me relearn how/what to eat.

Now I lost 70lbs & have been maintaining for a year I want to shift a little more & tone up. CC is fantastic for this because I've learnt so much, I find it quite fun to be able to log my calories & make the most of what I can eat & also to pick up exercise tips & get support when needed. Like Samantha said - it's more relaxed. Your not worried about feeling like a failure in front of a group of people when you don't lose any weight because you had a couple of meals out/parties/family gatherings to go to that week.

& not only is full of lovely funny people but it's FREE!

Original Post by j-snyder:

Advantages to CC:  It's free, it's slightly more accurate, and it promotes really knowing what you are doing.

Advantages to WW:  It's already all been figured out, so you don't have to spend as much time thinking about how it's working.  You can just mindfully follow their guidelines, and it works just as well.

It just depends on your personality type.  One of my best girlfriends is doing WW, and doing great.  But I'm controlling organized type personality, and she's not.  She wants it taken care of for her, and I want to do it all myself.  So she's willing to shell out a little money for their system, and I'm willing to do the work and use this free website :)  We both lose weight, we both win :)

 I liked this post - so positive.  I've never had a weight problem; my husband does.  He's done both WW and CC - because he won't follow either of the guidelines and instructions, he doesn't achieve what he'd like to (and needs to).

So, free or not - eating right; sticking to the guidelines wherever you find them (and there are so many sites like this that are free), is KEY to anyone achieving their goals.

I also like the ZONE diet; I like the PRITIKIN diet - the PORTFOLIO diet, and the website called SPARK.  Each and every one of these that are all free (including one on the MAYO CLINIC WEBSITE) advocate sound eating and give you all the tools and 'clues' to success.........

I do agree that the personality has much to do with it; I'm a controlling person as well, which is why I've controlled my weight for 65 years, and still weigh what I did at 16 years old (my driver's license is my best guide - the weight never changes, only my age.....).

I don't like the whole points aspect of WW. I also don't like the approach of 'you can't have this' or 'you can't have that'. I like CC because you can have ANYTHING you want as long as you adjust for it in some way (eat less, exercise more, etc). For me, the idea of a food being forbidden makes me want that food so much more. Then, when I finally cave and have that food I feel like a complete failure and I completely relapse to my old ways. With CC, that doesn't happen. I satisfy my craving, take a quick run (or whatever) and I feel wonderfully satisfied and fulfilled.

I have used WW successfully in the past once after I quit smoking and then again after my 1st pregnancy.  It definitely worked for me and I lost weight BUT the thing I don't like about WW is that you are basically free to eat whatever you want and for me that was too much freedom.  Yes, I lost weight but I ended up kind of skinny fat from it, because I was using some of those points to eat foods that were processed and full of sugar.  I wish someone had told me back then about eating natural, whole foods instead of selling me WW bars and telling me it is ok if I want to have some french fries once in awhile.  Again, not saying you can never indulge in a tasty treat, but WW really doesn't discourage eating junk even if you want to work it into your points every day.

What I like about CC is that there are some super smart people here on the boards that have given me tons of info!  And, I still have the freedom to eat what I want but now I know better than to eat junk.

I lost about 18lbs on weight watchers but it stopped working for me eventually.  A lot of the vegetables I eat are no points on the ww points plan but they actually have calories, so I was eating about 200 calories in tomatoes, peppers, onions, salads etc. per day and not probably not ending up with more than about a 200 calorie per day deficit and I wasn't seeing significant losses anymore. I didn't understand why until I joined cc and realized how many calories are in no points foods. I definitely think cc is better, your body runs on calories not points after all and continuous calorific values are better than discrete points ones in terms of accuracy.

Got a question..........

Ok a friend of mine has just joined weight watchers and she saw me out running at the weekend and then went on to tell me that her class leader had explained to them that excercise DID NOT help you loose weight it only helped you to tone up and that what basically made u loose weight was just your diet?????

Personally I think its a combination of both diet and excercise and either of those alone is not enough???

Any thoughts on this?????

I just started WW (online) this week. I've been doing CC for over two years now and have only gained. About 20 lbs gain. This is because CC is open to whatever you want to eat, and really only takes into consideration "calories." Yes, it does advise eating less sodium, less fat, etc. But the point system is based off of calories of fat vs fiber.

I find on CC I eat less food, but it's fattier or processed foods with less fiber. WW points are fiber friendly and anti-fat. CC says "a calorie is a calorie"

one thing though, I do love CC for it's nutritional information. I am excited about putting the two together and seeing how well it works.

And ANYONE who says exercise doesn't help lose weight is a big fibber. :D 

I'm in the minority here-I prefer WW to counting calories.  For one thing, I'm terrible with numbers!  If I only eat 25 points a day, I can at least keep up with that in my head.  But getting up to 1200 & 1500, adding for food, subtracting for exercise, thats just a disaster in the making for me.  I also like how counting points causes you to make special mention of fat & fiber.  For example, a frozen "Bubba" burger is only about 360-400 cals, which if you've got 1500 to play with isn't that bad.  However, it has no fiber (I don't think) & about 26 grams of fat!!!  YIKES!!!  400 cals, to me, doesnt' sound anywhere near as bad as 12 points!  So for someone who gravitates towards junk, I need a quick WW calculation to determine how REALLY bad a food is.  And the points take away any doubt!  LOL!!

You don't have to go to meetings either.  I've lost over 50 pounds & maintained it for over 3 years now by doing the online system (which I cancelled a year ago) & carrying around my little purse calculator.  To this day, I don't know that I've ever bought any of their products.

But do what works for you!!!!

Oh, & to touch on the exercise thing-what I've learned is that exercise seems to have the biggest WEIGHT LOSS benefit if you aren't fit or active already.  The HEALTH benefits are there regardless of your size or fitness level, but if you are fit, its going to be a little harder to lose weight.

For example:  I'm in pretty good shape-triathlete, marathoner, 6 day a week runner.  For me to lose 5 pounds (which I'm not trying to do-just a hypothetical), 30 minutes of cardio isn't going to make a big impact b/c I routinely run 10 miles on either Sat or Sun, weather permitting.  However, cleaning up my diet & lowering my calories will.  B/c I'm within my weight range, I don't burn 100 cals per mile run-I only burn about 75.  Its funny-the fitter you are, the more efficient your body is, requiring less fuel.

Again, just what I've learned from various trainers...

Although there are many benefits to your health and to weight loss from exercise, you don't have to exercise to lose weight.  It is just harder to do because your deficit has to come from restricting calories alone instead of a combination of restricting calories and burning off excess calories through exercise.

I lost 81 pounds through dietary changes alone when I wasn't able to exercise due to an injured back and severe joint pain.  But as soon as I was healthy to exercise, I added it to the mix because it makes me feel so much better.

I don't recommend that anyone who is able to avoid exercise.  There are just too many benefits from it besides weight loss.

I did WW as well, and lost over 35 lbs, which was great... until I hit a plateau and got NO support from the people at the centre... then I fell off the wagon, and gained almost all of the weight back.

I enjoy this site because it lets me know I'm eating PROPERLY... not just within a certain "range".  Even having all of the books etc... with WW, I wasn't eating balanced meals, or using my points properly.  I felt that because it fit into my points, I could eat half a veggie pizza, and still be doing well.  I love that there is a grading system on here, and the % of nutrients/proteins etc... so that I know I'm eating healthy.  I also feel like this is *truly* a lifestyle change, because I'm forced to look at how balanced (or not) my choices are.  I'm not just in this to lose weight, I'm in this to eat healthier, and live a healthier lifestyle.

Edited to add:  I have, and will still continue to buy the WW bread, hamburger buns and bagels, simply to aid me in re-evaluating my view of a "portion"... and they're not bad tasting, and usually full of fibre!

"For me, the idea of a food being forbidden makes me want that food so much more. Then, when I finally cave and have that food I feel like a complete failure and I completely relapse to my old ways. With CC, that doesn't happen. I satisfy my craving, take a quick run (or whatever) and I feel wonderfully satisfied and fulfilled."

If this is how you are thinking in weight watchers, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG, WW allowd you like 25 points extra for a night out once a week, AND YOU WERE JUST SO WRONG, I have a 23 point daily limit, there's 0 point soup I can have if  I decide to go over and have a big mac instead.

"I don't agree with du57y about just needing the calculator and books though.  One of the major strengths of Weight Watchers is the accountability of a weekly weigh in and the support you can get from other members in a face to face atmosphere."

I just don't like being told someone doesn't agree with me XD yes this is a personal thing people would have to see for themselves, it's just I hate people and don't like them and I want to live as a hermit for the rest of my life.  Why do I care to lose weight then? Because even hermits should have cool clothes >.>

heh ... o.o;