The best way to change your eating habits and lose weight is to hold yourself accountable to the food you are eating. Tracking your food is the most effective way to do that. Without tracking it’s easy to think you are eating healthy – or within your means. However, if the scale is not budging or goes up then too much food is usually to blame. When you do not pay attention to the food you eat then most likely you are eating too much. This has been my experience every time my weekly weigh in does not go in my favor.
I hear over and over again that tracking food is tedious and takes too much time. Yes it will take time and some effort. But…I am here to tell you that tracking your food is essential to losing weight. To make changes to your eating habits you must pay attention and be intentional with your food. Tracking helps you do just that. Once you are comfortable with food portions and creat a structure for yourself then you can ease up on the tracking a bit. However, if you are struggling with your eating habits then tracking your food can provide a nice frame work and structure to keep you focused and intentional.
Two popular programs/and or systems people use to track their food are Weight Watchers and My Fitness Pal. There are other programs but those are the two my readers use most.
Anyway, I am often asked if I recommend one program over the other or why I chose My Fitness Pal over Weight Watchers. So in this post I am going to share the 3 reasons I prefer My Fitness Pal over Weight Watchers. Please note this is all based on my experience and by no means am I saying Weight Watchers doesn’t work or I don’t recommend it. Many people love Weight Watchers and rightfully so – it is sound weight loss program that many people can embrace and stick with. I am just speaking on what has worked for me. At the end of the day you need to find the system that works best for you.
My Fitness Pal is free
You can use My Fitness Pal completely free of charge. This was and still is huge for me and I know it is for a lot of my readers too. Let’s face it we like free. However, even though the MFP website and app don’t cost a dime they do not lack any features. They have a huge food database, an awesome recipe builder, progress reports, different apps you can utilize, a community forum, blogs, and tons of other features all free of charge. Everything you could possible need to help you lose weight can be found on My Fitness Pal free of charge.
Weight Watchers also has a great feature rich website and app along with the opportunity to attend weekly meetings – but it costs money. I pay about $20 a month. **please note I am a Weight Watcher member for educational purposes only and to calculate points for my recipes. I like to keep informed on the resources my readers are using.
Besides Weight Watchers meetings and the live chat feature I don’t see much difference between the two websites. If those two things are important to you then it might be worth it. However, in my opinion both websites offer the same basic type of weight loss tools.
My Fitness Pal is super easy to use
The MFP website and app are simple, functional, and easy to use and understand. After you sign up it doesn’t take a lot of effort to navigate and figure things out. I think this is important because most people prefer weight loss not to be complicated. As soon as losing weight becomes confusing most likely you will get discouraged – I know that is how I am. Even as My Fitness Pal evolves and changes their website I find it easy to follow and use.
The Weight Watchers website is a little bit clunky to me. It is still easy to navigate but there is lots of information and many different pages to sift through. This can get a little overwhelming for those just starting out. However, don’t let that discourage you because Weight Watchers definitely provides a lot of great information.
I prefer to track calories over points
This is a big reason why I chose MFP over Weight Watchers. Personally, I prefer to track calories and basic nutritional information over points. I am going to be honest – the points system confuses me. I do figure out the points for all my recipes – because my Weight Watchers readers want that -but I still get confused on the number of points a person should have for meals and snacks. For example, my raspberry overnight oats recipe is 322 calories and 8 weight watchers points plus. Well..I don’t think 322 calories is too much for breakfast. In fact, I think that is about average. However, some of my readers on Weight Watchers have said the 8 points is too much for breakfast. So I get confused with how points should be distributed throughout the day. Also, there are activity points and then fruit doesn’t count towards points. And then every now and then Weight Watchers goes and switches the whole point system up. My brain goes into overload. Therefore, I stick with simple and just track my calories. Calories never change.
I also think it is easier to eyeball the calories of a food rather than try to figure out the points. But that’s just me. Some people love the structure of the points system and if it works for you then stick with it.
Those are the 3 reasons I choose to use My Fitness Pal instead of Weight Watchers. Again, you need to use the program or system that you are most comfortable with. What works for one might not work for another. We are all different people with different needs and learning styles.
With that said, it is important to understand that nothing will work if you don’t work. You can sign up for every program and system under the sun but if you don’t change your lifestyle then you will never lose weight. My Fitness Pal and Weight Watchers are programs that provide the tools to keep you accountable with the food you eat. You have to be consistent with using those tools. But I know you can do it! So keep moving forward.
What about you? Do you use My Fitness Pal or Weight Watchers? I would love to hear your feedback on both of these systems in the comments.
Are you ready to start your weight loss journey? If so, check out my ebook Organize Yourself Skinny for my 5 strategies and some secrets to creating a healthy lifestyle and losing weight. I also provide a bonus 4-week make ahead meal plan to get you started. Read more about it here.
Nadia Garas says
Are you going to be incorporating the new WW Smart Pointsminto your program? I love your site. You’re my inspiration!
Matt says
Lo and behold, just this month Weight Watchers changed their whole points system again, and it’s worse than ever. PointsPlus worked very well for me, but you are right, they are confusing, unfair at times, and harder to calculate.
When I was a member about 3-4 years ago pointsplus was brand new, but it worked for me. The recipe builder was good, the online tools were good, the database of foods was weak but grew over time and got to be much better than when I first started.
Now I re-joined a couple months ago to lose a few more pounds, and they had put in a great mobile app that had a barcode scanner, the database was good, everything was great, but within a couple weeks of joining they completely changed the website (which sucks now) and this month they completely changed over to SmartPoints. I went from 42 points per day to 39, and literally every food I had been eating (and losing weight eating) is now 2-3 points more than it was.
The new website and app are worse than the old, the program is even LESS intuitive, and I’m struggling to see any reason to continue with it. I have about another month on my plan but I’ll be cancelling.
I’ve downloaded My Fitness Pal to see if it will work as a replacement and I am wondering why I paid for weight watchers again in the first place! It has all the same features I liked, and the app is better, you can actually create a recipe through the app whereas WW you need the website for that.
The thing I liked about PointsPlus was that it subtly penalized you for eating sugary, fatty foods and give you an incentive to eat more filling whole grains, but if you really wanted a piece of cheesecake you could do it as long as you behaved yourself the rest of the week.
I’m doing both for now just to make sure I like this app, but so far I really do. Calories is definitely simpler. It lacks the social engineering component that I found helpful in WW, but as long as I’m getting even half the results I got from WW for free, I’m willing to switch.
Emily says
I, too am on Weight Watchers and am extremely frustrated by their new SmartPoints program. I have lost weight using the PointsPlus and cannot understand the logic of SmartPoints. I am thinking about cancelling and joining MFP but am nervous I will not be as successful. I like your idea of doing both prior to cancelling to determine success.
Dawn says
I have done WW my whole adult life and needed to lose weight again. I signed up again thinking if Oprah is behind it, it must be good. Imagine my surprise when a can of Coke is 9 points! A tiny container of yogurt was 7. Very disheartening. I’ll continue for awhile (only paid for 3 months), but I will probably go back to MFP. The WW website is horrible. You can’t import recipes and it’s just very user UNfriendly.
Marsha says
Ten years ago I lost 45 pounds on Weight Watchers and gained it all back plus five pounds. I am super busy (I know everyone is) and weekly Weight Watcher meetings were just too cumbersome. And I agree the ever changing points system was a lot to keep track of.
I am using My Fitness Pal and finding success. I agree, calories are the easiest for me to count and I like the exercise feature as well. I’ve logged in for 105 days 🙂 and I’ve lost 13 pounds so far and have 16 more to lose to meet my first goal. Taking it one day at a time to get through the holidays with little or no weight gain 🙂
Nicole says
I actually prefer Weight Watchers over My Fitness Pal. I find that giving vegetables and fruits 0 are the perfect way to get me to eat them. I stick to 2 fruits a day as I know not to spend an entire day eating fruit. 26 points a day roughly equals 1200-1400 calories. 8 points for breakfast is a lot because then you only have 18 left for the day. I usually spend between 5-7 for Breakfast, 7-9 for lunch and 10-12 for dinner. Weight Watchers is super flexible because you get that extra 49 a day which if you split amongst 7 days that’s 7 extra. so 33 points should run between 1400-1500 calories. I love Weight Watchers. I’ve lost 8 pounds in 4 weeks and I plan on losing more through the holidays. I think their mobile version is actually much simpler than my fitness pal. My Fitness Pal I’ve noticed too now charges for advanced nutritional information which used to be free.
Kelly says
I just switched to MFP. I started off in august on WW and while I lost weight, I hit a plateau a few weeks ago. So I tried MFP. It was super easy, and I have been able to finally reach my goal weight. But what I love most is that it gaveme a clear picture of all calories, carbs, protein sugars and fats. It was an eye opener how much sugar you can eat like fruit, which is a freebie on WW. Sugar is hidden in everything and MFP clearly shows where it is. It gave me a clear picture of how I was eating and how many calories I still would have left to eat at the end of the night. It helped me make better choices. It incorporated my exerise and adds calories back. I just love the site and won’t go back to WW.
Karen says
I use the FitBit app and have lost 30 lbs since May. The fact that the calories burned versus eaten turns RED when you are not meeting your goal for the day is motivating for me to get on the treadmill. I was a WW member for years and got tired of the gimmicky nature of the annual changes and the need to constantly sell you new materials, plus the $49.95 monthly fee.. Either the program works as designed or it doesn’t. I lost 62 lbs on the original points program, but regained and didn’t have any luck with the follow on programs. But FITBIT has worked for me and I will stick with it to goal.
bitsy says
i can’t afforded WW and the food you have to buy to lose weight…. Your plan is a much better choice for me. Just need to clean out the junk and buy some real food.
Crystal says
You don’t have to buy any special food for WW. Any food item can be tracked as long as you know what the nutritional content is. WW does have its own line of products, and they endorse some other products as well but you don’t need to purchase them to follow the plan.
Debi Dahn says
What are the 3 steps for Weight Watchers?
1) Measure
2) Count
But what is the thrid one.
Does anyways know??
Thank you!
Gail Bozeman says
Tracking
Nanci says
I love that since UA bought MFP, it integrates with their other apps, specifically for me MapMyFitness. I am such a cheater! I would over estimate my exercise and under report my weight. I don’t know who I thought I was fooling. Lol. But now with my WiThings scale and MapMyFitness –no more fibs.
Jeffiner says
I have found that having friends in challenges is really motivating (finally bought a Fitbit because my sister uses one), but I dont’t know anybody on MFP, even though I’ve been using it for months. I feel like I’m not as motivated to use it because of that.
Becca says
I lost 45 lbs on WW 2 years ago and really liked the program. I like how it taught me to eat in moderation. The meetings were a big part of my success I think. I found an amazing and inspiring leader. I no longer live in an area with a lot of meeting options so when I tried WW again over the winter just on the app, I didn’t stick with it. I need some sort of personal aspect. So I downloaded the App Rise to work with a dietician. I wasn’t losing weight after a few weeks with her so I asked to add in calorie counting since I know I’m successful when I’m tracking. Since I already pay for Rise, I wouldn’t also pay for WW. And now after 2 weeks of using MFP I would agree with you on the differences in technology of the websites and apps. MFP is far superior an app. I didn’t realize how lacking the WW database was until I started on MFP!! It’s crazy. I did like counting points though. For some reason. Even if I did get frustrated that a bowl of oat meal was 8 points and still a whole grain like the recommend. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to WW. I miss the groups, but the cost is becoming prohibitively expensive. But then again I’m not losing any weight right now so I suppose I would pay the $50/mo if I knew I’d lose 45 pounds again.
Vicki says
I prefer tracking on MFP as well but enjoy and need the support from the WW meetings. I’m wondering how you decided what daily calorie goal to choose? Currently at WW I am allowed 26 daily points and 49 weekly bonus points. I would like to merge both programs by continuing to go to WW meetings for awhile but track on MFP ( calories not points) because as you said calories always stay the same and this is a lifestyle. Any advice with this would be appreciated. Thanks!
Julie says
I’ve used both and I have to say I much prefer WW. The reason is because I can easily stay within my calorie allowance on MFP and still eat nothing but crap. It is impossible to do that on WW because you are penalized so heavily for eating empty calories. There are a few things that I would like to see improved in WW. For example: I miss the nutritional breakdown offered in MFP (as others have mentioned), but my overall nutrition is far better on WW than MFP because it really forces you to cut certain foods out but still gives you flexibility versus just reducing the amounts you eat.
Donna Damsgaard says
Everyone needs to find a fit for what works for them in terms of weight loss support and strategies. I love Weight Watchers program it is the only thing that has really helped me to lose weight. I am sure MY Fitness Pal will help others with tracking calories if tracking calories is the system that works for the individual. Here is the big difference between My Fitness Pal and Weight Watchers e-Tools. My Fitness Pal is loaded with advertising all around your MFP site. Your Weight Watchers e-tools does not have advertising on your personal site. For me, I prefer Weight Watchers Points Plus System over counting calories and I love their e-tools because it is clean, only contains program information and it does not have advertising from other services or products displayed.
Donna Damsgaard says
For years I tried tracking calories and even tried using MFP to make it simpler, but it didn’t work for me. I really liked the idea of getting something for free and losing weight without it costing me a whole lot of money. However, MFP didn’t work for me and I needed help in losing weight, so I joined Weight Watchers and lost 35 pounds. Since then I became a Lifetime member (I then got everything for free, including etools) and now I am a leader. Every penny I spent on WW has been worth it. Also, I love the flexibility of the Points Plus Values and the support you gain from attending meetings. The Points Plus system really isn’t difficult to understand if you take a little time and effort in learning about how it works – for me, it was an investment that paid off big!
Mary Beth says
I use MFP because it calculates and tracks things like saturated fat – things I need to monitor for my health.