So why are we doing it this way?
Well, we're not joined at the hip. We're each responsible for our own food choices and our own logging. When we both did WeightWatchers, I had a tendency to take over and log for both of us, which did nothing to help John pay attention to what he was eating. So when John decided to go back to WeightWatchers a few weeks ago, I had already moved on to myfitnesspal.com and I chose to carry on with that.
Here's how WeightWatchers and Myfitnesspal stack up against each other:
| | WeightWatchers | Myfitnesspal.com |
| Cost | £19.99/month (as of Oct 2010) | Free, ad-supported. |
| Food database | UK based. Nutritionist verified Can add your own foods but these are not shared with other users. | Mix of US and UK foods. Some verified entries but most are user-shared. Many are duplicated, making it harder to choose correctly. |
| Tracking units | Units – WW’s proprietary system, not compatible with any other system. | Calories, fat grams etc. Compatible with the nutrition data on most foods and recipes. Sodium is counted in the US style (in mg not g) so you have to watch this when entering foods. |
| Tracking methods | Online Paper tracker No mobile application | Online Mobile apps (Android, iPhone) |
| Support | Leader Groups Online community Handbook Magazine (cost extra) Books (cost extra) | Online community, ability to write blogs. Links to Facebook and twitter so your friends away from myfitnesspal can support you. |
How did we come to our different choices? For John, the dealbreaker with WeightWatchers is the support from the group. He said to me today: 'The group makes me feel less isolated. It gives a structure to my week.' He also said that most men he knows don't care about dieting so this is the one place where he can go to talk about dieting issues. And yes, there are a couple of men at the local WeightWatchers though as usual the groups are mostly women. You definitely don't get that kind of face to face support with a purely online system.
For me, the dealbreaker is easy and quick mobile tracking. WeightWatchers still does not provide any way of using their online tracker on a mobile device which is annoying since Weightwatchers charges fees and is also ad-supported, so they should be able to afford to offer this service. And the US Weight Watchers site has had mobile options for years. So I have tried various mobile programs over the years, and for now have settled on myfitnesspal. It's free as well, which is a major consideration. Almost £40 per month between us is just too much.
John is getting increasingly frustrated with not being able to update his food tracker on the go. He feels that firing up the laptop each time eats up hours as he's always tempted to keep surfing afterwards. But he'd hate to lose the support of the group so I think we'll be sticking with our different systems for the foreseeable. Lets see how we do.
Tomorrow we're going to TGI Friday's for a friend's birthday. It's notoriously difficult to get healthy options there and they don't publish the calorie count of their dishes, so my next post will be a review of TGI's and a rundown of any nutrition info I manage to get out of them :-)
Excellent, Deidre! It is great that you did this, not only for yourself, but for those who wonder what the differences are for the different systems. Please know you had my support, for what it is worth. This is the hardest thing you can do, but the rewards are so worth it. The more people request the content of the foods they eat at restaurants the more likely they are to provide it. We have a law here that restaurants HAVE to provide the info on request. Many post or publish the data. It can make you leery of ever eating out, though, when that burger you are thinking of has a full day's calorie count and twice the daily sodium recommended.
ReplyDeleteYou go, girl (and guy)!
Wish it was the law here too! Your support means a lot Anne :-)
ReplyDeleteI've found myfitnesspal.com very helpful...this is my first fairly structure attempt to lose weight, and am about 14 kilos down since June. For me the portability was key as I eat out often, and am naturally not task-oriented, so the chances of doing an end-of-day log was key.
ReplyDeleteAs an AA member, I can certainly appreciate the weekly support concept, but haven't particularly felt that need, so wasn't that important to me...and there are forums in myfitnesspal, though I've not used them.
The mobile tracking would be a deal breaker for me too. Hi Doc!
ReplyDeleteLeah xx