Weight Watchers! Anyone else changing the way they eat?

[Rhiannon]

Well, I've finally joined Weight Watchers and am looking for support girls. Anyone else doing it? R

[Rhiannon]

Hi Star, hope we can spur each other on to a less blobby existence. I have my first weigh in on Thursday, I have stuck to it about 90% as we had visitors over the weekend. I weighed in at 13 stone and 13.5lb! I've put a target in of 10.7 stone as I'm 5ft 8" tall. Good Luck on Wednesday.

[Tigger2]

Husband has stoped smoking and has put a bit of weight on, so we are now going on a more healthy eating regime. Lets all keep in touch and give each other support as it's much more fun when there is someone else doing it!!

[Suew]

I've done about 20 weeks of Weightwatchers now and my official weight loss with them is 2st 7.5lbs during that time.

I weigh in on Wednesday mornings and I'm looking forward to school starting as the last few weeks, with the move back from Australia and re-settling into the UK plus catching up with people hve meant I'm not losing as much as I'd like and having problems fitting in the exercise.

I lost well the first couple of weeks with WW but i think in the third week only lost 200g (less than half a pound) and it would have been easy to give up then. My top tips are:

re-evaluate your targets/goals regularly, aiming for a little at a time

and

when you feel as though you are gitting a plateau, step up the exercise.

Good luck everyone!

BTW, Rhiannon, I am aiming for a similar weight to you but have now changed my personal focus to fitness rather than 'thinness' IYSWIM, hoping the former will automatically lead to the latter!

[Joe]

I think I might go and join as it is free registration at the moment. I wasnt going to diet until I stopped feeding my son, but he is not feeding much now and I plan to wean him off in the next few months so now could be a good time for Christmas and my leather trousers. I have been feeling very tired of late, so I probably havnt been eating properly. Ill check out my local class and let you know. Good luck all.

[Rhiannon]

Suew that's brilliant, how near to target are you now? I have been a model WW today, my WW Ocean Pie is in the oven.

I am finding it easier than Slimming World at the moment, but it's early days yet. I am psychologically (spelling?) ready for this and realise that I have a kind of habit for stuffing myself for no reason.

[Jj]

What are the differences between WW and SW? Why are you finding one easier than the other?

[Suew]

Ok, in December I was 16 st and 5'9", size 20-22. By March with no effort (other than moving countries and it being too hot to eat and hating the chocolate in Oz!) I was 14st 13lb.

I am now 12st 5.5lb, size 14-16 and want to get down to somewhere between 10st and 10st 7lb. But it's now become more important to be able to run 3 miles (pref in under 30 mins), tone up (so I am doing weight training as well as cardio-vascular) and be able to wear a size 12. If this means I end up being 10.5-11st I don't think I'll worry.

The running thing is really important to me as I hated sport at school and I want to get over that.

Still a long way to go (I look at it as 2 stone) but that's a lot less than 5.5stone which is where I was 9 months ago and I know I can do it.

[Bloss]

Message withdrawn

[Paula1]

JJ, I don't know about WW,never done it, but I did SW after my son was born, and am still sticking to it (with minor modifications) 3 years later. I find it really easy to stick to, but it is not that dis-similar from my previous eating method (ie, either fish or pasta, not both together). I think if I had a lot of weight to lose I would try WW, simply because I would need to do something different - having done SW for so long. I don't think of either of them as 'diets' more as sensible eating patterns that you could stick to for the rest of your life.

[Willow2]

Just to let you know, there is pretty much the same chatter going on at Food: Postnatal weight loss... so come on in and join the party (strictly no peanuts or full fat dips though I'm afraid).

[Crunchie]

Yeh it seems silly to have two threads going.

But just to explain SW, I don't know WW, and I have lost 2st 11lbs (in 18 weeks! while breastfeeding)

SW you have red or green days. On a green day you eat unlimited pasta, rice, potatoes, all veg, fruit, eggs, quorn, cottage cheese, low fat yoghurt and a wide variety of 'branded' foods from the supermarket. Red days are unlimited meat, fish, poultry, veg except potatoes, fruit, eggs, quorn and cottage cheese and yoghurt. On either day you have a choice of 'healthy extras' and 'sins' which are the only foods that need weighing. Healthy extras include milk, cheese, bread, breakfast cereal and cooked fruit on both days, and on green days a small portion of meat, fish or poultry. On red days a small portion of pasta or potatoes. Sins are all other foods which you choose (chocolate, chips etc) and you have some of these every day.

I have found this plan really easy as they are big into 'non guilt eating' you can eat as much pasta as you like on a green day, none of this 'average portion size' or 2oz dried weight.

If you are serious about losing weight classes work because you suddenly find out you are normal, and that others struggle too. Also you get the support where sometimes family and friends seem to try to sabotage things. I am a big fan and reached my target weight today, 9st 11lbs!!!

[Joe]

Before I go off and join WW can anybody advise which club has the best eating plans for vegetarians. I have been on WW before and this would be my first choice, so easy.

[Rhiannon]

Congratulations Crunchie, I'd kill to be 9 stone 11lbs! R.

[Crunchie]

Joe I don't know WW but I am vegetarian and that's why SW was so good for me. I had green days every day when I could eat unlimited pasta with tomato and vegetable sauces on them, Jkt potatoes with baked beans and cottage cheese, rice, polenta, couscous and ebly (including flavoured packet ones like Sammy's couscous, and Batchelors savoury rice), eggs, quorn, tofu, all fruit and veg. All pulses are also free on green days. So I found the only real changes to my diet that I had to make was to cut out high fat dairy (high fat cheeses etc) and replace them with low fat cottage cheese and semi-skimmed milk. Cut out oils, butter and other high fat foods. Cut down refined carbohydrates like bread and breakfast cereal (althought hese are allowed in measured portions) and to be honest about what I ate. It was this honesty that has worked for me and meant that I made choices about what I really wanted to eat instead of stuffed down the nearest handy thing.

I hope this makes sense to you, since I don't know the WW plan, all I know is that it goes by points for an 'average' portion. Well I am a pig, and my average portion is usually huge, so that didn't seem like the plan for me. With SW you can eat so much 'free food' (and not just salad and watery things, that even when the munchies strike in the evening there were really filling things like 'sin free chips' or potato wedges with dips (cooked using spray oil and free food on a green day!). Many a time snacking on this sort of thing convinced me I was not on a diet!

Good luck with whatever you choose

[Marina]

Well done Crunchie - what you said about joining a group has made me think again about the advantages. I hope you, or preferably someone else, is splurging on some glam new clothes sometime soon! Great news.

[Rhiannon]

7lb!!!!! I've lost 7lb in one week. I can't believe it, well I can actually as I've stuck to my 18 points like glue. I will be thin at Christmas and next Christmas and for all the Christmasses! R.

[Tigermoth]

That's amazing - nearly half a stone!! Well done!

[Joe]

Well done Rhiannon, a real boost to keep going.

[Rhiannon]

Tigermoth it is half a stone! R.

[Tigermoth]

So it is - getting my stones and pounds muddled up as usual!

[Ludo]

It's ages ago that you were all doing WW - are you still losing pounds?? I did it before my wedding 4 yrs ago and found it really good. I'd like to give the points diet another go now. I'm still breastfeeding dd at 8 months old and as much as I want to lose the horrendous extra stones need to know that my milk won't dry up!! Also, have checked with the WW website and they say breastfeeding mothers can have extra points but don't say how many - does anyone know?