Frustrated with Weight Watchers ProPoints

jill36_2

Lil_Me wrote: »

My tip - try slimming world. SW encourages you to eat good healthy food, for example salmon is free on SW! You can eat as much of it as you want! In reality SW wants you to make the right choices with food, and as you say there is no logic in salmon being the same number of points as crisps and chocolate!

This isn't me saying that WW is bad, but it doesn't work for everyone. I tried it and found myself going "oh well if I skip breakfast then I can have a bar of chocolate for the same number of points". So I ended up hungry still eating the wrong food, just less of it.

Good for you LM for giving your opinion.

scottishminnie

tara747 wrote: »

, if you remember the name of the bookm,
!

Not sure if it was the same book but I bought this one

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eating-Less-Say-Goodbye-Overeating/dp/0091902479/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296568199&sr=8-1


and found it very useful. I'm not going to comment on the pros/cons of slimming clubs as everyone has different needs however sustained weight loss has to be a lifestyle change not simply a time bound diet.

Jesthar

rozmister wrote: »

I think some people truly believe that if you pay £5 a week and turn up to a meeting to be weighed you'll suddenly find the pounds drop off.

Oh, the pounds will be dropping off alright - just only from their bank balance...

Gotta love the "I'm paying for this so it had better work no matter what" brigade, though, you have to wonder what else they'd complain about:

Helpline: Thank you for calling, what problem can I help you with?
Caller: My new laptop won't let me on the internet
Helpline: OK, are you getting an error message?
Caller: No, the screen just went black, and all the lights on it went out
Helpline: It must have shut down for some reason. Can you turn it back on?
Caller: Nothing happens when I push the on button
Helpline: When did you last charge the battery, and for how long?
Caller: You have to charge it up?
Helpline: Er, yes. It's on the first page of the manual?
Caller: Oh, I can't be bothered read that, I just want the internet working
Helpline: Well, you have to leave the laptop to charge for a few hours first before using it...
Caller: What! I don't have time for that! I have e-mail to read, facebook to check!
Helpline: ...well, if you insist, you need to plug it into the mains adapter
Caller: The what?
Helpline: (sigh) It's the little black box with wires sticking out and a plug on one end
Caller: Oh, that thing. I threw it in the bin, it didn't seem important. Was it?
Helpline: ... oh, I'm sorry madam, our fire alarms have just gone off, we have to evacuate
Caller: Eh, I can't hear anyth...
Helpline: >click<

Anyway, as far as diets are concerned, find what works for you and stick to it. I've never followed a formal diet in my life, and I know people who have gone through two or three different plans depending on what suited their mindset at a particular time. For example, one lost a lot on SW, then switched to WW for a while, and now does her own combination of the two. In the end, it's not the plan, it's learning a correct approach to food that's really important.

jenniewb

OK, so I will bow out after this one.

No I have not followed SW myself- I haven't even followed WW myself, I just help out my mother and listen to bits of what she says, myself? I do my own thing.

I have however had several friends on SW who wont eat out "because today is a green day", or are not going to eat fruit "because to day is a whatever other colour" day. It upsets me that my friends have become quite restrictive in this way and it feels, well, just odd to me, very hard to see how omitting food because of a rule rather then as a result of healthy eating is a good thing: eating because of a day/colour is not eating due to learning about what is/is not healthy.
I also had one friend who would start eating at 3pm every day and 6pm every day no matter what or where we were, it was a SW rule that she kept to, I have no idea why she was not more flexible but she did say it was due to the SW plan she was on. She would never eat out as she could not determine what time the food would arrive.

Look, I did not "come on here slagging off SW" I gave my opinion, that is my right and others are entitled to their words too, would you rather I kept things all nice and never said what I really felt because it may upset the status quo? am I not allowed to speak my own experiences now? is this the way things work now?

Look I wont bother anymore, I thought I would post on here as I could see people were having issues with the WW plan and I wanted to see if I could help, pass on any questions to my mum but I can't be bothered to fight back to SW people who refuse to allow me my own opionion because it upsets them, not everyone likes SW, sorry but this is how things are. I also accept people don't all like WW and even for me there are things that get to me about the plan but I don't personalise my comments nor aim them at one person alone.

If you wanted the name of the book I read which I found helpful it was "The End To Overeating" and here is a link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/End-Overeating-control-insatiable-appetite/dp/014104781X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296615069&sr=1-3

If I can help anyone out please PM I will try but it may be a few days as I don't live with my mum.

CheeseCat

Lil_Me wrote: »

Good luck with your weight loss goal CheeseCat!

Thankyou

Its true what you say though, as you are given a set amount of points, and a creme egg is less points than a jacket potato it doesnt exactly encourage me to choose the healthier heavy pointed foods so its not really promoting 'healthy eating' - I would like to know I am doing good for my body and not just losing weight!

I do think SW sounded healthier to me, which is why I tried it, as its actually getting you to eat whats good for you - if that makes sense - rather than 30 propoints to do what you like with (oh, 6 creme eggs then :rotfl:) It's just a shame it didnt work for me. Maybe I gave up on it too easy. I also had a 'cliquey' SW group too so it didnt really encourage me to go.

Congrats on your loss Lil_Me! And good luck to everyone whether its SW, WW or your own thing

Lil_Me_2

I don't object to people coming on here voicing an opinion, in fact I said that I agreed with everything else you said about diets (and still do) except your view of SW is misguided!

As someone who's learnt a lot from SW I just can't sit by and let you tell people that it's a faddy diet! I'm trying to show you the ethos of SW so that you are better informed.

I guarantee if you sat down and actually learnt how to follow the plans you would change your opinion, but you don't seem to want to do that.

Anyway to get down to the facts -

jenniewb wrote: »

I have however had several friends on SW who wont eat out "because today is a green day"

This is not a restriction on SW, what your friends are really saying is that they don't WANT to eat out because wherever you were going doesn't fit in with their plans for what they want to eat. When you eat out you take out the control of what gets put in the cooking and generally anyone on a diet (and that includes WW) will be hesitant to go out to eat. If they really wanted to they could have factored in the syns and gone but they chose not to, not SW stopped them.

Personally I eat out around once a fortnight and I go to places like Frankie and Bennys, yo sushi etc and I eat Krispy Kreme doughnuts (yum) as a treat but I can do that and fit it in with my diet.

jenniewb wrote: »

are not going to eat fruit "because to day is a whatever other colour" day

Total rubbish. Fruit is free on ALL plans.

jenniewb wrote: »

very hard to see how omitting food because of a rule rather then as a result of healthy eating is a good thing

No food is omitted, just restricted. E.g you shouldn't have more than 1 bar of dairy milk a day which is 14 syns (you get 15 a day) as long as everything else you eat is free. If you want to borrow syns from other days in the week that's fine, but then you have to restrict the treats on other days. This is very easy to do btw as there are so many free foods. Many of us survive on eating 5 syns a day as we fill up on healthy food.

The only food that is restricted (not omitted) is the food that does not form part of a healthy diet (i.e too much fat, sugar and cakes).

jenniewb wrote: »

eating because of a day/colour is not eating due to learning about what is/is not healthy.

You seem very focused on what foods are restricted but are not understanding all of the food that you CAN eat. If it's healthy you can eat as much of it as you want.

jenniewb wrote: »

I also had one friend who would start eating at 3pm every day and 6pm every day no matter what or where we were, it was a SW rule that she kept to, I have no idea why she was not more flexible but she did say it was due to the SW plan she was on.

I've never heard anything as ridiculous in my life. It's certainly not a SW rule!!


Please don't take this as a personal attack, I'm just trying to show you that your view of SW is not actually representative of what SW is like.

tara747

jenniewb wrote: »

If you wanted the name of the book I read which I found helpful it was "The End To Overeating" and here is a link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/End-Overeating-control-insatiable-appetite/dp/014104781X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296615069&sr=1-3

If I can help anyone out please PM I will try but it may be a few days as I don't live with my mum.

Thanks jenniewb, must look it up.

Lil_Me wrote: »

This is not a restriction on SW, what your friends are really saying is that they don't WANT to eat out because wherever you were going doesn't fit in with their plans for what they want to eat. When you eat out you take out the control of what gets put in the cooking and generally anyone on a diet (and that includes WW) will be hesitant to go out to eat. If they really wanted to they could have factored in the syns and gone but they chose not to, not SW stopped them. I agree - eating out needs to be an occasional treat when trying to lose weight, and even then healthy choices must be made (in terms of what restaurant to go to and what to order once there). When I was slimmer, I didn't eat out so much as I do now. OH loves eating out - well, so do I but I prefer to strike a balance between pleasure and discipline! I would choose healthy options and skip dessert. That's what I'm getting back to now - better habits. Thankfully we both adore sushi so that's what we have most of the time we eat out.

Personally I eat out around once a fortnight and I go to places like Frankie and Bennys, yo sushi etc and I eat Krispy Kreme doughnuts (yum) as a treat but I can do that and fit it in with my diet.

Total rubbish. Fruit is free on ALL plans.

No food is omitted, just restricted. E.g you shouldn't have more than 1 bar of dairy milk a day which is 14 syns (you get 15 a day) as long as everything else you eat is free. If you want to borrow syns from other days in the week that's fine, but then you have to restrict the treats on other days. This is very easy to do btw as there are so many free foods. Many of us survive on eating 5 syns a day as we fill up on healthy food. I've never done SW or WW but I can see the benefits of both, as they are designed to make you really think about what you eat as it will use up so many points/syns. Obviously 6 creme eggs wouldn't fill anyone up for a day and you'd feel pretty awful after eating them, I'm sure WW assume that people will make good choices though! I do think that SW seems to have a better approach but, as I say, I've never done either of them so I don't know them well. The weekly weigh in and meeting seems to be a good idea, as it puts pressure on people not to 'fail' in front of others, and the people I know who do WW say that this is the greatest motivating factor. I don't know if SW have weekly meetings or not. Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is that any regime which makes you more aware of what you're eating is a good one - as long as you stick to the principles for life. A diet is not something you can be 'on' or 'off'!! In fact, the definition of the word 'diet' is the customary amount and kind of food and drink taken by a person from day to day. That is the most important thing to take away from WW, SW or any plan.

The only food that is restricted (not omitted) is the food that does not form part of a healthy diet (i.e too much fat, sugar and cakes).

You seem very focused on what foods are restricted but are not understanding all of the food that you CAN eat. If it's healthy you can eat as much of it as you want. For me, I'm not sure that this works. As I am not that much over my ideal weight, I could not eat unlimited amounts of food and lose weight, no matter how healthy the food is. It's still got calories! Can you give me a list of the 'healthy/free' foods? TIA.

My replies are in pink (sorry, haven't worked out how to multiquote a single post).

Lil_Me_2

In a nutshell you're looking at this -

Most Fruit
Most Veg
Salad

Eggs
Quark
Peas
Baked beans

Lean meat (no fat, sausages/burgers)
Fish

Potatoes
Pasta
Rice
Noodles

Healthy Extra A - these are limited amounts
Milk (e.g 250ml semi skimmed milk)
Cheese (e.g 28g cheddar)

Healthy Extra B - again, limited amounts.
Wholemeal bread
Cereal
Cereal bars

There are 3 plans -

Extra Easy - you must make sure that 1/3rd of your plate for every meal is superfree then you can eat as much stuff in the free,the red and green lists as you want. Plus 1 HEA and 1 HEB.

If you don't like fruit/veg or can't find a way to fit it into a meal then you can do these plans -

Red/Original - superfree and free is all free, and anything in the red list. Then you get 2 HEA and 2 HEB. Things from the green list become a HEB, but they are portion controlled.

Green - superfree and free is all free, and anything in the green list. Then you get 2 HEA and 2 HEB. Things from the red list become a HEB, but they are portion controlled (e.g 85g of lean meat = 1 HEB)


On top of this every day you get 15 syns to use on whatever you want and these can be carried over for a week so if you want to go out and have pizza then you can, but you have to stick to "free" food once you've used all your syns. Everything on the red and green lists has a syn value so if you want to eat more then you can, but you use your syns. A bar of dairy milk is 12.5 syns (I said 14 earlier, but got it wrong oops) so if you want to eat all free foods and then have a bar of dairy milk every day then you can and you will still lose weight.

You'd really struggle to eat 2000 calories of free food, hence why it's not limited.

maman

jenniewb wrote: »

OK, so I will bow out after this one.

Look, I did not "come on here slagging off SW" I gave my opinion, that is my right and others are entitled to their words too, would you rather I kept things all nice and never said what I really felt because it may upset the status quo? am I not allowed to speak my own experiences now? is this the way things work now?

Look I wont bother anymore

Of course you're entitled to your opinion. My problem was that you have posted some truly ridiculous things about SW all based on hearsay and second-hand stuff from friends rather than your own experience. So your opinion needs to be put into perspective and taken with a 'pinch of salt' (free on SW;)). I'm not trying to recruit for SW but if people are having issues with WW then it's hardly helping them to to imply that they'd be even worse off trying SW because it's faddy, doesn't allow you to eat out, dictates you have to eat at 3 o' clock.......:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

rozmister

maman wrote: »

a 'pinch of salt' (free on SW;)

Free on WW too