I am going to try some different sessions, but I am just not a group sharing kind of person. My trainer has another client who goes just to weigh in and then leaves. That might end up being my strategy. Still keeps the accountability in place. But I can see that there may be some good tips in the meetings if I find the right group of people.
My body just doesn’t want to drop weight. I’m down a pound in 2 weeks of meticulous tracking, even tracking the free foods. I know that WW doesn’t eliminate grains but I seem to be so carb sensitive that I just don’t eat bread. And yes constipation is a problem with my protein heavy diet. I am eating vegetables, salad and berries. And I take a ton of fiber supplements and a magnesium tea at night.
We have people who weigh-in and leave. Some never or rarely attend the actual meetings. Also, at least some leaders welcome members who only want to listen during meetings, without contributing to the discussion. However, I’ve heard that other leaders conduct their meetings in ways that would make this difficult, such as by assigning members to groups to do the exercises in the weekly handouts. It doesn’t hurt to ask. My leader makes the point regularly that some members attend meetings just to listen and do not want to share their experiences and that this is perfectly fine.
I don’t think I would ever attend a meeting, just too time consuming. I am in a program where your interaction is entirely online with a small group of people, you log daily weight, what you ate, answer questions, make supportive comments. We have occasional online meetings, but I’ve only made one of those. I’m assuming WW has online groups like that, also? Not everyone wants to show up personally, even if just to weigh in.
@busdriver11, WW has an online-only membership option. (The online resources are also available to meetings members.) There is a private social media platform for WW members called Connect, but to the best of my knowledge, there are no official small online groups (somebody correct me if I’m wrong). There might be unofficial ones. Certainly, there are Facebook groups, but I have not ventured there.
I will share my experience from when I did WW at Work in 2008-10. I joined up to support some of my staff and because my daughter’s wedding was coming up and I wanted to lose a few pounds for pictures. I was a runner, so I thought I knew it all as far as fitness/diet and really wasn’t expecting to get a whole lot out of it. One of my co-workers had already done the freestyle (wasn’t called that) plan and had lost 20 pounds pretty easily- even with a LOT of business travel and was able to not have it rule her life and make it uncomfortable at business meals.
So- I immediately learned that a lot of my “light” meals were actually not at all light- things like an Arby’s BLT (about 2 inches thick…). I was packing in a ton of calories. I also did the freestyle-ish plan, which meant less point counting. I added some walks to my running, too. I tried to focus on lean meats, veggies and fruit and when I did eat my favorites like pizza, I drastically cut back on my portions. So for me it was re-learning portions (through my 40s I could pretty much eat what I wanted without gaining weight) and making better choices. I remember the first couple of weeks being difficult, but after that I settled in. I relied on things like sugar free jello mixed with a little Cool Whip for an evening snack so I felt I had something sweet. That’s not the healthiest, but it was low calorie and satisfied me. Same with low calorie pudding cups.
Anyway, I wound up losing over 25 pounds in about 14 months and never gained it back. It helped that I ran a lot, of course, but I still had to really adjust my eating. I had gotten SO used to eating a lot and whatever I wanted, and that just was not going to work as I got into my 50s and 60s.
We really had a good WW at Work group and it was supportive and fun. When I left that job in 2011, I pretty much stopped weighing in and going to meetings, but I was able to manage on my own.
A few more thoughts that I remember from the WW days.
It seemed to me that the folks in our group who were the most successful had some pretty early/immediate success at dropping pounds. That was a real motivator. They could build off of that.
Those who were frequently “stuck” or who gained back had a lot of slips or made a lot of “exceptions” for special occasions etc. We had some who reported in every week that “well, it was Halloween week” or “my cousin’s wedding” or “someone brought donuts”… We all face those occasions, but the people who were most successful in our WW group were able to stick with their plan or manage tastes of special foods or planned the indulgences better. If you slip up big time week after week, it’s hard to keep losing the pounds and then it leads to throwing in the towel or real binges.
One more thing… It seemed very helpful to have a few very easy “go to” things to eat when I was really about to open the refrigerator and eat everything in it. The jello/Cool Whip thing helped me. Also, those little Laughing Cow cheese wedges- or even a slice of Swiss cheese helped me. Or a tablespoon of peanut butter. Fruit generally did NOT do the trick for me if I was really in a need-food-frenzy. The trick was to stave off the “eat all the things” mood.
@MomofWildChild cheese sticks to eat with an apple late afternoon and a pudding cup or Yasso ice cream sandwich after dinner have been the small indulgences that keep me on track. Yes, staving off the “eat all the things” mood is critical!
About three years ago, WW switched from a system of calculating point values called Points Plus to one called SmartPoints. SmartPoints is still in effect, although there has been some recent tweaking.
The most dramatic feature of SmartPoints for me is how drastically it penalizes sugar. The difference in point values between a 300-calorie food with no sugar and a 300-calorie food that is high in sugar is drastic. I chose 300 calories for my example here because that’s the approximate calorie count of many Lean Cuisine entrees. Yet there’s an amazing difference in point values among those entrees. The ones with the sugary sauces may have double the points of the ones that contain little or no sugar.
@Marian, I am often surprised by how much sugar is added to things that aren’t desserts. It’s not always possible for me to do everything from scratch, but that seems to be the only way to guarantee foods fall within my plan guidelines
I thought of this thread as I was Googling recipes for a Black Bean Corn Feta Salsa/Salad/Relish and saw several recipes calling for lots of sugar in the dressing. Potluck coming up, in case you’re wondering!
@abasket Thank you for the recipe link! Our hiking club is having their winter picnic this Sunday and I need something easy and yummy to share with the group of hungry hikers!
No weigh in this week, since school’s out for February Break.
I’m hoping to hit 10 pounds at next week’s weigh in-- that would mean a total of 3.2 pounds in a two week period. That magic number is keeping me from reaching for junk while I’m home this week. Whether or not I hit my goal, it’s a great incentive.
I had an interesting chat with my sister, who recently hit her goal weight on WW. She gave me recipe after recipe for “Zero Point this” and “Zero point that.”
My approach is very different. I want to learn to eat appropriately, not to switch from “bad” all day grazing to “good” all day grazing. So I’m not going crazy on the zero point stuff. I am eating more fruit and veggies, since I figure they’re part of a healthy diet, so I’m thrilled that they’re zero points. But I’m eating normal foods, with lower point options. So, for example, I just finished breakfast: 2 Eggo nutrigrain low fat waffles (4 pts) with sugar substitute mixed with cinnamon instead of syrup. (I did hit it with a spritz of Pam to help the topping stick) I’ll have a tangerine when I go upstairs.Tomorrow I may make french toast, using the 45 calorie Pepperidge Farm wheat bread (4 pts for 3 slices; I’ll have 2) with an egg and nonfat milk and the same cinnamon topping.
I’m not criticizing-- her approach obviously works for her. But I’m more interested in adapting what I would normally eat to fit within the WW framework than in finding ways to still graze all day.
I totally agree, @bjkmom. I think of WW as a way to reset my awareness of what and how much I eat. Even too weeks in I realize that i feel deprived if I drop carbs. So I am trying to adapt with the added complexity of being gluten free, which puts all those nice low point breads out of reach - so I need to leave myself more room. I have eaten more fruits and vegetables which is good.
I do sort of cringe when drinking morning coffee. I don’t like it black and use milk which already ups the points. I’ve been trying to get off artificial sweeteners other than for lemonade (recommended for kidney stone prevention) and to not spend too many points on coffee, I’ve gone back to splenda. Therefore, I will avoid all other foods that have lower points due to artificial sweeteners and just not have them or save more points to splurge. Unfortunately that’s how WW seems to make lots of sweets fit in daily allotment.
@bjkmom, my approach is more like your sister’s, and I wonder whether that’s a contributor to my lack of success since Freestyle went into effect.
Freestyle is different from other recent plans because there are some foods with very substantial numbers of calories that have zero points. So if you adjust your eating habits to include more zero point foods in your life, you may eat too many calories. On some occasions when I’ve been hungry at night but out of points, I’ve eaten as much as 400 or 500 calories’ worth of zero point foods – something I wouldn’t have done on previous plans because there are only so many oranges or apples you can eat. That has to make a difference. In the past, I would have gone to bed hungry or chosen to go over my allotted points – and if I did the latter, I would expect to gain weight that week. Now, I never go over my allotted points, but I’m not losing.