Comments on: Weight Watchers

By: Cathy

Cathy — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:02:56 +0000

Hi fathead. Loved your movie – watched it on netflix. But i did the fast food diet before you and lost around 10 pounds over the summer. Except it was the summer i graduated from high school 40 years ago. I ate a hamburger (with the bun)nothing else every day at 4pm. Then i went out every night with my friends drinking and partying. I should have made a movie.
My husband and i follow low carb now- sometimes it seems to take a long time to lose weight, but i lost 2 pounds over the holidays and im a size 10 (down from a pudgy 12)AND
I went to quite a few parties too (but not like when i was 18).

Losing weight over the holidays is an accomplishment.

By: Jacqui

Jacqui — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 21:30:49 +0000

Just what I expected! I joined WW in town and paid for 8 weeks (what a meat head I am) and am into my third week and have been famished! Last time I lost weight the healthy way, by eating things like salmon, almonds, peanut butter and veggies ~ a good piece of salmon has 14 points, when the min. you get is 29 points that is most of your meals with one piece of fish?! You are praised for diet drinks (can anybody say aspartame = cancer) and I did purchase the “complete food companion” booklet, $8. (stupid, stupid, stupid) and tried to look something simple as 7-up……not in there, 20 diet sodas I have never heard of but no 7-up. I also joined the YWCA and with working out and the WW plan, a measly 2 pounds gone and I have starved!!!!

Screw WW, I’m going back to the healthy weight loss and if asked how I lost it tell the members the truth, I’m sure they will not give me my money back. There are poor souls that have been in there for months on end and are excited for losing 10 pounds, bless their hearts.

Do not sign up for WW, it is an unhealthy waste of your money. Eat right and exercise, the old fashion way is still the best.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 21:14:38 +0000

I have tried all sorts of diets over the last 8 years and I constantly take off weight and put it back on. Usually low carb diets. I recently started WW online and I love the program! I can have anything I want in moderation. There is no fixation or cut off from certain food groups. If I am hungry I pick up something to eat the difference is I think about its nutritional value and if its worth the points. You can have all the fruits and veggies you want and lean meats are low in point value! The higher the carbs (that are not loaded in fiber) the higher the point value. If you are true to the program and fill yourself on healthy foods instead of high point value foods that are high in fat/carbs then the science makes sense and you won’t be hungry!

By: Vickie

Vickie — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:47:57 +0000

I am really glad I found this site…I just turned 50 and have put on about 20 pounds that I need to shed as well as some inches around the waist and hips. I have been eating nothing except WW Smart Ones with an occasional addition of a side salad with low or no fat dressing or cottage cheese. I have been doing this for about two months…I have lost 3 pounds during this whole time. I feel like I constantly want something to eat. I also stopped smoking January 15th and so I was blaming it on “that oral fixation” that everyone says ex-smokers have but now I’m thinking maybe WW isn’t for me. Here’s another thing, may be related may not…I can eat even a small amount of food, piece of fruit anything and my stomach almost instantly becomes bloated and I am miserable most of the day. How should one start a healthy moderate carb diet? Thanks for the info!

If you want to go with a low-carb diet program, I’d suggest picking up the book “A New Atkins For a New You.” If you want to go more paleo (more restrictive, but perhaps the best diet of all for health), I’d suggest Mark Sisson’s book “The Primal Blueprint.” I also like Dr. Steve Parker’s book “Conquer Diabetes & Prediabetes.”

While waiting for one of those to arrive, my advice would be to shoot for no more than 50 carbs per day to start, and to base your meals on meats, eggs, seafood, green vegetables, low-sugar fruits (mostly berries), a few nuts, and a bit of full-fat dairy.

This will all be a lot easier if you pick up some low-carb cookbooks, too. Two of the best are “1001 Low-Carb Recipes” by Dana Carpender and “Carb Wars” by Judy Barnes Baker.

By: char

char — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 12:42:05 +0000

I am a believer in moderation. I am on Dr. Gott’s no sugar, no flour diet. From my understanding , it is a moderate low carb diet. As in, yes to potatoes and no to cookies. I have lost 6 pounds in 3 weeks. I did not count calories at first but I am now. Cutting out bad carbs ( sugar, flour) keeps me from being hungry. I am a vegetarian but eat cheese, milk and eggs. I also eat nuts and meat substitutes. I did WW when I was a teen in the 70′s. The Canada’s food guide back then only suggested 3-5 servings of bread! Now it is 6-7. I lost weight I did not need to lose. Now I have 50 pounds to lose and I am not going anywhere near WW lol. I would rather listen to an actual doctor who seems to know what he is talking about.

Moderate carb is what I’d like to see most people adopt. Give up the sugar and the white flour, and we’d go a long way towards solving our obesity and diabetes issues.

By: Patio Lantern

Patio Lantern — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 03:45:23 +0000

I can’t believe all of you whiners and Weight Watchers haters! Good grief! Just eat normal foods and normal portions for gods sake. I lost 45 lbs on Weight Watchers, have kept it off and found it really easy to do actually. I realised that I just ate too much before joining and once I learned portion control, it all made sense. Never once did anyone promote eating carbohydrates or telling me I couldn’t eat any fat. That’s just rediculous! I have no idea where you guys are all going, but it all sounds absurd to me and not my experience with Weight Watchers at all! I love the program and now that I am at my goal weight, it is so easy and even though I keep track of what I eat, I eat whatever I want…protein, fat or carb and now naturally eat the right amount for my body and never feel deprived or hungry. Actually during my weight loss I have to say that I never felt hungry either. I never once deprived myself and have continued to eat fats, proteins and carbs & whatever else I feel like and even have a bit of chocolate everyday too! Sorry guys…but I love the program. Just don’t dwell on food and carbs, proteins, fats, whatever…just eat sensibly, move more, don’t deprive yourselves and the weight will come off. Forget all this low carb, high protein crap and just eat a normal diet with lots of variety. Afterall…we all know that variety is the spice of life!!!

Glad it’s working for you. But you’re a rarity. Their long-term success rate is dismal.

By: Nora

Nora — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:14:59 +0000

And here I was about to sign up for WW *again.* My own history should be my guide.
I was a NORMAL weight when I first joined WW at age ~30. Lost ~22 pounds.
Gained them back plus about 60 more. Joined again. Lost the 60. Was 11 pounds from my original start weight.
Gained back 110 (do you see the pattern here?). And YES, I did (and maybe still do?) blame myself.
So I started WW at 174 pounds in 1987-ish. It is now 2010 and I weigh over 290.
I really wish I had never ever started WW in the first place, and I feel like in doing so I completely set myself up for type 2 diabetes, which, to the best of my knowledge, does not exist anywhere in my family history.
When I went lo-carb for three months, I lost about 30 lbs. I was not hungry at all, and I felt GREAT. Unfortunately, I tend to freak out when I hit certain weights on the way down, and I started sucking up the carbs again.
Reading this just fueled my determination to do the RIGHT thing for MY body. Never mind that I’ll also be saving myself some $480/year, as well as the non-stop conversations revolving around foods, eating, and how to adapt recipes to make them “point-friendly.”

Best of luck. Since going low-carb, I find my weight is remarkably stable, and I never have to be hungry.

By: Ivy

Ivy — Thu, 27 May 2010 23:57:36 +0000

I am so happy I found this site. I was about to join weight watchers for the 5th time again and I now realize I need to go back to low carb. I have to tell you how frustrated I got with weight watchers the last time I joined I counted points but I lowered my carbs and I was lost almost 10 pounds the first week and I can remeber getting a lecture from the women that weighed me in she said I had to eat all my points yada yada and I was eating all my points I just wasn’t eating a lot of carbs and I was really working out. I agree…. you are nothing but hungry because your not eating enough protein and the leaders can’t explain why your not losing they just tell you to not give up (keep giving weight watchers more money)

Yup, I’d dump WW and eat a whole food, low-carb diet.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:53:32 +0000

I spent years and countless $$ in WW for a weight rollercoaster ride. I eventually gave up on trying to lose weight until I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Thank God I found low carb.

Week after week, I saw people like me who kept coming, but were making no noticable progress. There were a few that made their goal, but most didn’t and they all seemed obsessed with food. A neighbor down the street became a “life member,” but it seems she has not regained the weight.

As they say, insanity is doing the same thing over & over again and expecting different results.

I’d like to know what the dropout rate is. I could only find guesses, not hard data.

By: Katy

Katy — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:43:27 +0000

“Now on the day when I had the high sugar diet — the diet we should all avoid — my blood sugar stayed the same, which you’d expect from someone without diabetes. But my insulin level was through the roof, my pancreas was working overtime [HELLO!] to try and maintain my blood sugar at that level,” says Andrew.

But his system did cope — despite the binge, his blood sugar level stayed normal [this time!], and that means eating sugar is not a direct cause of diabetes.

But if Andrew kept that high-sugar diet up, he could develop insulin resistance and he’d certainly put on weight, which is a major problem.

“So there are many causes of diabetes but we’re happy to report that sugar isn’t one of them. But does that mean you can stay in a lolly shop and gorge yourself? No, because if you eat too much sugar then you’ll put on weight and obesity is a risk factor.”

No beta cell burnout from a high-sugar diet? Only fat people develop insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes? No, a few sugar binges won’t give you diabetes, but over time, one Big Gulp at a time, how can it not be a contributing factor?

I got ya. I read it right after writing a post, a little bleary-eyed from staring at the screen, and managed to miss a couple of key lines.