NBR: W W or Spark People?

thethomps

So I've been on WW for about 5 weeks now and I am not really digging the new Points Plus thing.  I lost a lot of weight on the old system but this new one doesn't seem to be working as well.  I'm accounting for EVERYTHING I put in my mouth (and trying to eat mostly Power Foods), working out 30-45 minutes/6 days a week, will have a good chunk of the "weekly extra" points and activity points left over, and have only lost 4 lbs.  Does that seem right?  I have started an account at SparkPeople, too, so I can track actual calories v. points and see what I'm actually taking in per day.  Has anyone else had success with SparkPeople?  (I think someone mentioned it previously, but I can't remember who.)  Or do I need to stick it out longer with the new WW program?

molliedb

the rate you lose weight at can be affected by so many things- the more weight you have to lose, the faster you lose at first (i have no idea how much you're trying to lose, but if its less than 15 pounds i just think its slow going for most people).  i have been doing ww for about a week and a half and have lost 2 pounds.  i think that sounds about right for me, but i know my body and i just lose weight slowly (despite that i have 20 pounds to lose).

i also lose weight really slowly when i am nursing- i don't know if you are or not but that affects it big time for me.  i'm not one of those 'breastfeeding made the weight fall off' people- i actually lose more when i finally am done.

it can't hurt to track your calories on the side for a few days and see if your calorie intake is out of whack somehow.

smb29

I'm not familiar with the new program, but like Mollie said there are so many things that could be influencing it.  You might actually need to use the extra points and activity points - your body might think you are starving it, especially if you are bfing.  Post baby I lost weight really steadily (w/o really dieting) until I started working out.  My body wanted to make sure it had the calories it needed so it was hanging on to those extra pounds.   

flymansWife

ditto previous posters.

personally spark people didn't work for me, but bobcatsteph has been really successful using sparkpeople! WW was the only thing that seemed to work for me that i could stick too, but i haven't tried the new program...  

Deltadee

I have been on the new program for 2 weeks and was on the old program for a few months last year.  I have lost about 2 pounds and haven't seen the results that I was hoping for, or like I saw on the previous program.  

I did some lurking on their message boards and there was a lot of venting about the new program.  Some people suggested that you might lose more if you use more weekly points.  One lady said she played with and found that she lost the most weight if she used all of her dailys and then 1/2 of her weekly points, that was the magic number for her.  I am going to give it another couple of weeks and see what happens.

amyliisa

I used WW for a few months after DS was born, so it was the old system and didn't have a whole lot of luck. To be fair, I don't think I tried very hard, and I didn't really work out. Now I'm using SparkPeople (inspired by bobcatsteph), plus going to bootcamp 3x a week (usually). I was super successful for about 4 months and had list about 36lbs by thanksgiving. Since then I've been very lazy and have only lost 2 more lbs but that has everything to do with me and nothing to do with sparkpeople. I always recommend sp because it's free and it has everything that ww online has, except the points system. I actually prefer seeing cals/fat grams/carbs etc than point values...