Why I Quit Weight Watchers and What I Do Instead

If you are here because you are thinking of quitting Weight Watchers after the latest update to Weight Watchers Personal Points, listen to this podcast.

It’s no secret that I have a very long and complex relationship with Weight Watchers. In fact, our love story has a 10 year history. When it was good, it was really good! I have even written blog posts titled, “4 Reasons Why WW is the Best Weight Loss Program” and “WW is NOT a diet.” Despite the good times we shared, however, I haven’t been using WW for the past 10 months. I figure it’s time to explain why I quit Weight Watchers, seeing as we were really happy together for quite some time.

*This post contains Amazon affiliate links and other affiliate links. I will receive a small percentage of the sale, at no additional cost to you, if you purchase through my link. Thanks for your support!

*Before We Go Any Further, Let Me Explain Something.

Nothing is more confusing than the weight loss world. There is a mind-blowing amount of conflicting information out there, when it is actually quite simple. The “secret” to weight loss is nothing more than consistently being in a calorie deficit. How you achieve that deficit is completely up to you, and the options are endless.

Take it from me, someone who has tried and failed a lot of diets, that the least miserable way to create a sustainable calorie deficit is by incorporating the foods you love into your diet. But how do you manage that and successfully lose weight? By creating a plan, and becoming the author of your own diet.

Would you believe me if I said you can lose weight, right now, and enjoy the process?

My goal is simple: I want to help you create a weight loss system that is completely personalized. Let me take the confusion of weight loss out of the equation, and set you on a consistent path to weight loss success. But not just any path, not mine or anyone else’s, your own path.

The one you create will be unique to you, and that’s why it works. Let’s get you started today. Don’t wait until after the holidays, or for the New Year. Start changing your life now. Sign up for my FREE weight loss course and find out just how much you’re capable of.

Now, onto what you are here for…

First off, I am not some sleazy salesman trying to make a buck at the cost of your trust. I recommend WW and maintain my WW affiliate status because, despite the fact that I no longer use the program, I believe it provides a tremendous amount of value to the weight loss world. WW was what I needed, when I needed it, and helped me to lose a significant amount of weight over the years, while repairing my relationship with food (with the help of this book.)

I’ve never been so head over heels with the program, however, that I overlooked its flaws. Even when I continued to choose and join the program over and over again through the years, I knew it had its shortcomings. You can read my post about that here. I want my readers to know EXACTLY what to expect before they sign up!

I have nothing against Weight Watchers

This is not at all a negative post about how WW ruined my life and eating habits. I know there are plenty of those out there, and that WW gets a lot of hate. But I also know WW does a lot of good for a lot of people. As with any diet, weight loss, or fitness program, WW can be a terrible fit or a perfect match – it just depends on the individual. I wish WW would stop getting such a bad rap in the news and on social media, because despite what you might read, WW has helped THOUSANDS of people lose weight AND keep it off.

Perhaps you’re not destined to be one of the thousands of people, and that’s okay! If the program affects you negatively, simply quit and move on. It may not be for you, but there’s something else out there for you – I guarantee it (maybe even Mom’s Kids or Challenge!)- so don’t give up. If you find yourself successful on WW, keep going with it until you feel like you have gotten as much out of the program as possible.

That’s where I found myself in January, despite 10 on-again, off-again years with WW and hundreds of pounds lost (combining all the loses after pregnancy). Here are my reasons for moving on from the program:

1. I reached a point where I couldn’t turn off my brain

Weight Watchers works if you follow the program exactly. It’s as simple as that. You track points, and only points, without giving calories any thought whatsoever. It’s not a good idea to tally or log calories, either in your head or in an app, AND do WW. That will only destroy the smoke-and-mirrors magic of having a low-calorie day without realizing it. Because you counted points, you don’t see the low calorie intake and convince yourself you’re hungry even though you’re not.

It’s the same concept behind why I didn’t wear a fitness tracker for years. I would think, “it’s a nice night! I’m gonna go for a run.” Then, I kid you not, I would look at my fitness tracker, see I’d already taken 12,000 steps for the day, and convince myself I was too tired to run. Same exact thing happened time and time again when I tried to count calories – I would feel super hungry as soon as I saw that I’d only eaten 1200 calories.

Unfortunately, during what would be my last year with WW, I was switching back and forth between the program and MFP so often that I kept a running log of my calories for the day in my head, alongside my points. Points and calories don’t mix, and I’d either think I was starving or eating way too much to see progress when the two numbers would contradict each other.

After the birth of my final kid, I lost a total of 45 pounds using WW, at an excruciatingly slow rate of about 10 pounds per YEAR. Like many who have had success on the program, I was afraid to leave. Especially since it was the only program that ever gave me results! But, it was time.

2. I felt restricted and still CRAVED junk

One thing I adore about WW, and why I leave the option of returning to the program someday open, is it makes you eat healthy. The points system heavily penalizes high fat and high sugar foods, while fruits and vegetables are essentially “FREE.”

I was shocked when I began calorie counting and discovered a mango could clock in as many calories as a Snickers bar! Given the choice and focusing solely on calories, I will choose a Snickers bar over fruit 99% of the time. WW nudged me in the direction of healthier eating habits, which was a major win.

Unfortunately, over time, this push to make smarter food choices started to feel majorly restrictive. Sometimes I want to eat cake and ice cream multiple times throughout a week. It’s just not possible for me to eat cake that often without WW making me feel like I’ve failed. In order to afford a piece of cake on WW, I would need to eat nothing but zero point foods the rest of the day. Yes, I could probably do better about budgeting my points, but if you saw my finances you would understand that saving is not my strong suit.

In theory, WW’s system of getting you to eat healthier is ingenious. On the right personality types it will work like a charm. By the end, it wasn’t consistently working for me and consistency is key when it comes to weight loss.

3. I was constantly hungry and out of touch with what my body needed

Once I got into a solid exercise routine, I could no longer stay on top of my hunger using WW. Yes, technically I could eat zero point foods all day long to fill me up. But believe you me, if I could eat a pile of chicken breasts and a dozen eggs, I would! But I can’t. I am not a “food is fuel” type person. For me, food is an experience, and so much more than the primal act of eating.

I am a foodie, and could talk about, make, taste, and eat food all. day. long. I call my friends and family as soon as they get home from traveling, and make them describe to me, in detail, what they ate during their trip…meal by meal. Hours pass, as I live vicariously through anyone who has had the luxury of going anywhere that has good food.

I can think of a number of people off the top of my head who do not cherish food in the same ways I do, and these people would probably thrive on WW. I am a little – okay, a lot – “extra” when it comes to food, and unfortunately that aspect of my personality is very incompatible with WW. When I realized this, I realized it was time to move on.

My journey has been slow, but the results have been incredible.

4. I began to wonder if there was a more efficient way to lose weight for me

Technically, I was losing weight and keeping it off, and I was more aware of my eating habits. On paper, WW was working for me. However, when the rate of weight loss is a paltry 10 pounds per year, with a significant amount of weight to lose overall, you have to ask yourself if the program is really working? To quote every infomercial since the dawn of time, there’s gotta be a better way! In search of a more efficient path to weight loss, I left WW to try a different approach, and I lost 20 pounds in 6 months!

It was scary to leave WW after years with the program and the belief that is was the only program that would ever work for me. But my weight loss was slow, stalling, and stagnant for years, and it was time for me to spread my wings and fly.

But transitions are hard…

By no means did I soar as soon as I left the nest. In fact, I fell out of the sky and smashed my face directly onto the hard concrete. And you will, too. But before you go running back to the safety of the nest with your tail-feathers between your legs, know that there’s a learning curve when it comes to any diet. You will figure it out and find success in your own right if you continue to push through it.

I would bounce back to WW after each time I left the program and “failed” out there on my own. When I did Noom and WW at the same time, however, I finally got the courage to leave WW for good. Sure, my progress stalled for about THREE months while I figured things out, but now I’m in a groove. I am finally seeing myself reach my goals, and faster than expected at that! I realize all that time I spent failing with WW isn’t because I’m a failure. The program simply doesn’t offer what I need to be successful.

5. I like Noom better

After stalled progress and increased frustration with WW, a friend told me I should “just try” Noom. Luckily, I listened! After experiencing Noom, I learned that I didn’t necessarily hate counting calories, as I had always thought. Turns out I just hate the MyFitnessPal app for counting calories.

Logging food on Noom was such a positive, easy experience compared to my past frustrations with MFP. There are some things I feel MFP does better than Noom, like logging recipes and tracking macros, but I can get past the recipe inconvenience, and I don’t care about macros. Honestly, even if I couldn’t and I did, I would still choose Noom as my tracking system of choice.

4 years later and I’m so glad I never gave up!

Noom held my hand while I transitioned away from WW…

After logging WW and Noom side by side, it didn’t take me long to officially quit WW. The Noom tracker is just so. much. better. I no longer follow the Noom calorie suggestions, pay attention to the Noom color-coded food guide, utilize the Noom group support, or read the Noom articles, but I still use the Noom tracker to log my food. I feel like this book is better than anything I got from the Noom daily readings, and my own weight loss community, “Mom’s Kids”, provides a better daily support system.

At one point I even thought about switching back to MFP because I decided to prioritize my protein intake. While you can view this info on Noom for each individual food you log, you have to keep a running total yourself. After a lot of thought, I decided to use my planner to track my protein manually while using Noom’s calorie tracker. That’s how much I like it, and prefer it to MFP and WW. It makes me insanely happy to track food with Noom, so I will keep doing it. It is by far the best tracking experience I have ever had – WW doesn’t even hold a candle.

6. It was time to forge my own path

There is something strange about the WW experience. The first time I joined was after I had my first baby, and I dropped forty pounds like it was nothing. After my second kid I joined again, and I STRUGGLED to lose just half of my baby weight before I fell pregnant again with my third child. I rejoined after having my third child, and it was more than a struggle – it was epic.

Oddly enough, I know several other people who also had great luck with WW initially, then less success with the program with each attempt after. It’s weird, and I don’t know why it happens. I needed to take matters into my own hands.

What did I do?

I started listening to my body, emotionally and physically, and took a scientific approach to decipher what I heard. Then, I meticulously tracked things like weight, calories, feelings, obstacles, and so on. I created a planner to help other people discover, like I did, what their own bodies and minds need to achieve weight loss. You can read more about that here. I created a support group, because I know from personal experience just how vital a proper support system is to weight loss success. You can join that here.

If you, too, have found yourself unhappy, stalled, or frustrated with your WW journey, I am here to help you move forward WITHOUT WW. Quitting a program that no longer serves you is more than okay. You don’t owe WW anything. You owe it to yourself to find a weight loss method that works for you and helps you efficiently and enjoyably reach your goals.

If you need support with your weight loss journey, join Mom’s Kids. It is run by someone who understands how you feel 100% – ME. Hope to see you there.

Let me know in the comments below how I can help you on your journey to a healthier, slimmer, stronger you.

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