Any Former Weight Watchers?
 

Hi All! :)

I just wanted to see if there were any former Weight Watchers out there. I started W.W. my senior year of highschool (in 1998) and eventually lost 50 pounds. For the most part, I have kept it all off, but each year it keeps creeping onto me in different places. I started South Beach before last Thanksgiving (but have since then fallen off the bandwagon) BUT because of that S.B. experience, I have really started to generally lower my carbs--and it does work. I was just wondering if there were any former W.W. in the crowd that had a similar experience. I loved counting the points and the fact that you could eat anything as long as you counted it, and this new way of watching what you eat (carb-wise) is a new thing for me--especially since you can eat a lot more STEAK and BEEF and things that I never really ate on W.W. because they were too high in POINTS.

Please Post :)
Erica

Yes I did Weight Watchers. I am just about the only person I know who
had to pay due's for the privledge of stepping on the scale week after week to see just how much I gained. :daze: :daze: I guess I just am one of those people who can't eat certian things in moderation. I need total abstainance. But I did love the comrodery of the group thing for support and encouragment. LCing seems to be the only thing I have found that works and I can stick to while feeling great and watching the pounds melt away.( anyone have a blow torch ?) :lol:

I did Weight Watchers about two years ago and lost about thirty lbs. I was STARVING - I don't care what they say about eating your vegies and points. I was still hungry.

I like the carb counting because at least I know I won't go hungry. There just seems to be more variety to me especially with all the lo carb variety products out there in addition to the naturals. Let's face it, I like to eat, I might as well enjoy it!!!

Charlie Girl

I did WW on 3 occassions...remember always being hungry...losing very little...and being broke (dues). The weight loss plan is very carby....I think I could do WW now but low-carb way if they offered it...but then again...why pay for something you can do on your own??

Has anyone done ww more than me??? I've been on it at least 9 times! Every year or every other year for the past 20 years.

Ericav - I'm totally impressed that you were able to lose that weight and keep it off for so long. That is quite an accomplishment! I think ww works for many people but if you are sensitive to carbs, it's NOT the diet for you!

I would lose 20-30 pounds over 3-4 months, be a complete raving lunatic ( I was cranky, hungry and mean while dieting :p ) Go off ww and gain 30-40 pounds. Repeat process and you can see how I got up to 300+ pounds.

I'm so thankful that I found LC. I'm never hungry, I'm not cranky and have managed to stay lc for nearly 5 months without cheating.

Oh, one more thing, you can still count something! You can count carbs! Don't know if SB has you keeping track, but if you use Fitday, you can easily measure your carb intake. I think it's really cool, I can eat steak and say that had 0 carbs! Not gonna blow my carb limit eating steak for dinner!

Good luck to you on your low carb journey.

CindyG,
I know I've gone on WW at least 30 times, so I think I may have you beat. I love all the support you get with WW. And I also love the fact that you can eat just about anything. And, as long as I stick with it, I lose weight. The problem I had with WW was HUNGER. I was always hungry. And I LOVE buffalo wings, but the points were just too high. And then everything was low fat or fat free and I have to wonder how good all of those chemicals were for me. Sometimes I feel really restricted doing LC, but at least I never have to feel hungry.
Susan

I've gone to WW at 4 different times in my life. The first time was in 1970 & it was pretty low carb then. The other 3 times were in the 90's & not so low carb, I found myself eating alot of low point junk food, especially the WW frozen desserts. Not a positive change for my eating habits, I just substituted my bad habits with "official" junk food. What a difference Atkins has made in my life!

In all fairness to WW, I was at a dress fitting the other day (standing up in a friend's wedding), and the girl measuring us said that the only time she has seen success for weight loss was when her clients attended WW or went on Atkins. I was surprised about the WW because when I attended meetings, it always seemed like it was the same people crawling along...

I did WW like 3 times. It's not worth it. My friend is doing L.A. Weight Loss Centre and is seeing results but Boy oh Boy is she being hit in the pocket. I want her to try Atkins so bad but she feels that it's just too hard. I get that from alot of people though. I know I can't stand being hungry and it's teaching me to plan and organize my life. The energy makes me want to get out and exercise.

TMD- I had the same experience you did. I paid $12 to step on a scale and GAIN weight. I did lose 10 lbs. at the beginning but it took MONTHS. It didn't help that Mom and I would go out to dinner afterwards and eat "illegal" stuff- some of that may have been an emotional response to the lack of progress.

I, too, remember being hungry, running out of points early in the day, hating low-fat cheese, salad dressings, and light mayo. I've learned that low carbing truly has to be a way of life for me. I don't have problems with my blood sugar dropping like I did on a low-fat, high carb diet.

I am waiting for the day when WW jumps on the low-carb band wagon.

(hand shoots up) Me! I went to WW!
This was many years ago, and I stuck to it ABSOLUTELY and it took me months (and months), but I did get to goal. I think I stayed AT goal for about a week and a half before I started gaining the pounds back.
But what I remember most was that it really was a WOL. I thought about food all the time. I thought about what I was going to eat at my next meal even while I was eating my current meal. And I was soooooo hungry. I felt constant deprivation, and knew I couldn't live like that forever. I think that's why I stuck to it so well, I wanted to lose the weight and go back to eating like a normal person.
Losing weight completely took over my life. So when the weight started to come back I threw up my hands in surrender. I knew I could never go that route again.
That's why I love this WOL. I never feel deprived or hungry.
I can stick with this forever.

The first time I did WW (1999) I thought it was really easy - I lost close to 30 lbs - the reason I thought it was easy....I was taking Diet Fuel (with ephedra). I didn't keep the weight off though when I stopped the Diet Fuel and stopped going to meetings - it was really starting to hit me in the pocketbook. But needless to say I signed up for WW one other time and failed within two weeks - I didn't loose squat and was hungry all the time!!:mad: I started WW 3 other times on my own and again failed in a couple days because I was just so darn hungry! This plan is just great - I can eat a whole steak or a couple burgers or a taco salad...I'm never hungry! Like patricia52 I can totally stick with this plan!! :thup:

WW and my hypoglycemia didnt mix well...I felt sick and hungry all the time

I never did WW but your stories remind me of my NutriSystem year. :) Talk about hungry!

I have done nutrisystem and Weight Watchers and lost weight pretty well on both of them. But I was hungry all the time and plagued with headaches as a result of that. I never felt good. Now, I eat when I am hungry and I feel terrific. And talk about expensive! Both of those plans are horribly expensive in the long run. I would rather spend my money on good food than onthe meetings!

Orchid

It was the hunger that did me in on ww too! I was STARVING! Now I'm sure it was carb addiction and blood sugar swings. Thank god I don't have to deal with that on Atkins.

What I find most interesting about myself is my determination that ww would work. For years ww was the penultimate diet plan. I'd gear myself up for a few months before hand (cause I knew I was about to be tortured). Then I would try with all my might to stay on track. It was never easy and I could never endure for more than a few months.

I saw very few people reaching goal weight and when someone did I was so impressed and hopeful that one day it would be me! Most of us slogged along week after week, praying to the scale gods that we'd be down this week.

I wonder why I was so willing to endure that time after time, when I should have figured out by maybe the 3rd or 4th time, that plan was not going to do it for me!

Trust me it wasn't the only diet I tried, just the one I tried most often. I'm glad it works for some, but I'm dedicated to Atkins now and have no desire to go back!

Weight Watchers changed a lot over the years. The first time I did Weight Watchers was in the early 80s when I was 24 years old. I didn't have a serious weight problem then, but because of various circumstances in my life I had put on about 35 or 40 pounds over the previous year. I lost the weight easily on Weight Watchers (it took me about three months) and kept it off easily until I got pregnant with my first child four years later. At that time, Weight Watchers limited carbs to the equivalent of two pieces of bread and three small pieces of fruit a day, plus unlimited lowcarb vegetables. If I remember correctly, it was also fairly high protein -- four ounces of meat/fish/chicken at lunch and at dinner. They didn't have the point system yet, so they basically told you what to eat in a balanced meal. I was hungry, but I could stick with it. They did have you carefully measuring out fat (butter and oil), but I used to cheat a little there and use some extra oil in cooking.

I tried Weight Watchers several times in the late 80s and early 90s after putting on lots of weight during my two pregnancies and by that time the plan had changed to be higher carb and lower protein. I could never stick with it. The most I ever lost was 10 pounds and I was a crabby mess when I was on it. I don't know why I didn't just try the old Weight Watchers which had been successful for me. I think they had me convinced that the old plan was unhealthy based on the latest research and therefore I needed to do the new plan. I think I also developed blood sugar problems after my first pregnancy. I probably lost the weight easily when I was young because I did not yet have a severe problem with carbs. At this point, even the old Weight Watchers would be too high in carbs for me.

Lowcarb is certainly easier and cheaper!

I lost all of my post-pregnancy weight after baby #4 on Weight Watchers, but it was hard because I was hungry all the time. And because I used a lot of my points on drinking wine and beer, which was not healthy either. LC works better for me because it controls my blood sugar, so I am not as hungry - plus don't feel like drinking as much alcohol as I did on WW, probably due to the blood sugar being under control.

Liz

I lost 46 pounds on WW in the mid 80s (before the point system), through a combination of faithful eating and aerobic exercise classes almost every day. It took me 4 months (I lost 13 pounds in the first two weeks). Then I got pregnant. I was never able to have a sustained loss again at WW--the most I could lose seemed to be about 10-15 pounds, then I would backslide. One of my unfortuate WW habits was more or less fasting on the day of the weigh in. It may be that fasting one day a week doesn't do much harm, but it became symbolic to me of the pressure of the weekly weigh in, which preyed on my mind.

I tried WW about 10 years ago, maybe a lot of people found comfort & support, I had tha nasties, bit**iest group of depressed, hungry, cranky men & women in the bunch! After 2 months of starving myself and losing 3lbs, I demanded my money back! haha. I had constant shaking, sugar ups and downs, I was convinced I was diabetic! I was so cranky myself from my constant starvation and having to listen to ALL those people complain for a freakin hour a week! All they kept saying is "keep trying, that'll be $12/please.........". I'm surprised we all didn't start beating each other up in the parking lot on the way out!

I love this WOL, I'm eating better than I've ever eaten, I eat more vegetables than I've ever eaten, I"m not hungry, my blood sugar is great and I'm losing weight and have energy for exercising!

LL :)

LOL! Lucy, that's hilarious! Of course they were cranky, they were hypoglycemic and starving!

You know what everyone? After reading everyones posts about their WW experiences, I realized what MY problem was on it. I mean, I hate to bash it because it really has changed my life--I lost 50 pounds on the program and probably about 5 clothing sizes too--(i have since gained a little bit back, but mostly have kept all of it off since then) BUT--my issue was (in attempting to "re-join" the program) the POINTS system. Everyone else has been saying how hungry it left them--but I dont really remember that being a major problem for me--it was more COUNTING the POINTS that was my issue--I would want to eat things that I know I really SHOULDNT eat but knew I was "allowed" as long as I counted the POINTS--but then by the end of the evening, I would be pretty much OUT of points and then I would FAIL for the day. With Lo-Carbing, there ARE NO POINTS and NOTHING TO KEEP TRACK OF--so that takes that whole aspect of FAILURE out of it!

Ok--I just wanted to say that :)
Erica

Yep, I've donated my dollars to WW several times too ... :rolleyes:

Actually, the first time was in 1979 .. I was in college then and successfully lost 25 lbs which were kept off for a few years. I still have the original program book, and just as liz175 mentioned, it was much lower carbs and higher protein back then. In fact, I recently plugged some of the sample menus into fitday, and it works out to average 1200 - 1300 calories per day for women (higher for men and youths), and pretty close to the 40-30-30 ratio of The Zone. Although The Zone is way lower calories than that. It was somewhere in the early to mid-80s that the food plan was totally revamped to include more bread, things like potatoes, pasta and rice were allowed right from the beginning (previously you could substitute one of your 2 bread servings with half a small potato or a small scoop of rice, but not until Week Five) .. and meat portions shrunk. I think the points system came along in the 90's (?) Needless to say, once the program changed, I was never successful again, although I did try several times over the years. I'd be "good" for a couple of weeks, then go off on a bender of pizza, burgers and slabs of cheese. :rolleyes:

I'm glad I saved my old pre-change WW cookbooks though. Many of the recipes are already low-carb, with decent protein portions. Just need a little more fat to jazz 'em up .. :)


Doreen

Hi,
I was on weight watchers for about 12 weeks. I lost 40 pounds, but I was obsessed with what I was going to eat next all the time. Another part of my problem is that I evalute restaurats for a living, and at first I would just figure out the points and do really well that way, but I soon started drinking only coffee all day so I could eat whatever I wanted in all the courses I am required to order, and still lose weight each Wednesday. Sometimes I would eat almost nothing on Monday and Tuesday to make sure I had lost, because I had the mentality that I was not going to pay to gain weight. I only gained one time, but I was completely not following the plan the way you are supposed to, and everyone in the group was so happy for me each week and asked what I did to lose the weight, and I felt like a complete phony. It was just unhealthy for me, and I much prefer this way of life, I can always find something at restaurants, the appetizer is a bit hard in some cases, and I give the dessert to my son or get it to go and give it to someone.

I tried WW briefly after my 2nd son was born. I was BFing at the time and obviously had glucose issues (but didn't know it). I did the program faithfully for 8 weeks and lost nothing. At the last weigh-in, there was a different lady there and she insinuated in front of everyone that I was cheating because the program works for everyone and I must be doing it wrong or in denial.

Needless to say, I stormed out of there and never went back.

I was a weight watcher from 12/2002 until 1/2004 with a few weeks off the program for other experiments. I did well in that I lost 70-some pounds, but I found every loop hole in the POINTS system to binge on my trigger foods and stay within my range or at my target. How I managed to keep the weight gain at bay, muchless lose, is still a mystery to me.

I am really loving my carb-controlled program that I am working now, and it is similar to what I was doing at the end of my WW program, however, counting points makes me crazy now. I am never going back to that kind of compulsion.

well let me say i just joined ww my first wi(weight in i lost 7.2 lbs)the next time i went i Gained 5lbs and that was following the ww program and wasnt even using all my points and before ww i was doing somewhat low carb not strict like i should have.but to me i need to weigh in to keep discipline because i do have a dr office scale and it is just as accurate as wws, also i find that when i eat carbs like you can on ww it just makes me eat more just like i can't have popcorn i can eat at least 2 batches of air popped corn so ww watchers is great if you can controll cravings for carbs but i'm not one of those people. (sorry so long)

Hmmmm *scratches head* then runs to grab WW cookbook from kitchen shelf.

Indeed! There are a lot of recipes in mine that are LC!!

I can pretty much say the same as everyone here, although I only actually went through one period of time. It was after my first daughter was born. I lost some weight and was constantly hungry, cranky and with low blood sugar. I found myself pregnant again, so quit going. I never went back.

Yeah, back in August-October of 2003, I did it. I really didn't lose. About 5 pounds the entire time. I did it because my physican is really anti low carb as a WOL. So at her suggestion, I switched. I enjoyed eating the breads that I missed while LCing, but other than that. I wasn't happy having to calculate points and keep a strict journal. I love low carbing. Calculating carbs is much easier than counting points. I swear you need a PhD in Rocket Science to do the math to figure out a WW point!

To be fair, my mom did WW, like twenty years ago, and she's kept the weight off. She no longer counts points or anything, but she has learned to eat in moderation. I love alot about WW - the magazine, the meetings, the support - but I just can't live with the hunger. I thought I really missed fruits alot, but I allowed myself a few fruits last week and they weren't that good.

I've been on WW for the past 6 months and for the most part (99.9%) didn't cheat. I exercised, drank my water and lost only 10-15 pounds in that time. Now, after 2 months of no losses on WW here I am. I hope this works- I'm losing my faith in diet programs.