SW Vs WW

[BritMumInCanada]

I have done Weight Watchers before in the past and lost quite a bit of weight on it. I find the weight comes off a lot quicker with Weight Watchers too. You are far less restricted in terms of you can have anything with in your points allowance, and if you want to eat from a free list like on SW you can also do the new core type plan (cant remember what it is called now).

The only reason I think it didnt work for me long term, is because once at target it was hard for me to maintain, counting points and weighing food for ever does become a bit of a chore, and that is one of the reasons Slimming World appealed to me.

I love slimming world and will continue with it for as long as I am losing weight, if my weight loss starts to come to a halt, then I may think about switching back to weight watchers to limit my portions/calories etc. But when at target, slimming world is definately something that will be more managable for me to maintain.

I know some say well you must be starving because you only have so many points a day etc when you can have all this food on slimming world, but it really isn't like that. Points are not comparable to syns. For example 2 slices of WW or Nimble bread are 1 point. Then you also have some free items on weight watchers too, such as non starchy vegetables, stocks, certain sauces etc. So you can bulk out meals with the free veg to spread out your points. It isn't as hard as some think.

 

[philly_x]

I did WW twice or three times before discovering SW. and to me SW is a million times better, I cant beleive I ever did WW!

For me what I hated about WW was weighing and pointing EVERYTHING, even the likes of bananas to see if it was the right weight...and I think bananas were 1 1/2 points?!

I'm sure it would have worked if i'd stuck to it, but weighing everything really isnt for me! I dont keep food diaries as it is so I definitely couldnt do WW properly!

I find SW (EE), so incredibly easy. To be fair I dont know how i'd find red and green as i've never used them. The only thing I write down each week is a count down from the number of syns I have per week. Then I keep it in the kitchen and cross syns off as I use them. Apart from that I pretty much know all the free foods I like, and because I only have 1 HEA and 1 HEB, its really easy for me to remember what I've used for that day and what I have left, and then thats kind of it unless I fancy trying something new in which case finding out about it is just one click away!

I think the SW Website is another massive perk of SW, and the way they make us aware of whats low syn and useful - is just as good if not better than WW's having their own brand of food!

SW has just worked so well for me, and I feel like the plan is so much easier to follow long term than WW.

However WW has obviously worked for lots of people and I'm sure it works well, I personally dont have the disicipline for it! x

 

[ilovelife]

with SW you can still have portion control I believe, anyone can bend the rules
I disagreewith the website - I wish they had a forum, the recipe section gets boring and is just taken from books you have already brought, its slow, struggle to find syns up-to-date and I finish my membership on the 8th of April. Saying that it was excellent to get me in the frame of mind when I orginally started SW

 

[daisydoo]

Well ive done both eating plans and i think both work really well if followed. I'm enjoying SW at the moment, but i also enjoyed doing WW but i fancied a change as getting my mind around new things and plans helps to motivate me and keeps me busy. You can manipulate any diet/eating plan but you only cheat yourself out of weight loss or eating foods that are nutritionally good for you. I think both eating plans promote healthy eating and with WW it lets you know that after a couple of chocolate bars or so , you have no points left so you must now fill up on veg/free point food which is an education in that it lets you know what a wally you are if you continue to try that kind of eating behaviour. With SW i could still fit in a couple of chocolate bars and still eat lots of potatoes veg fruit meat etc etc which is great but it would slow my losses in comparisson to WW. With WW i would know that i had finished my points and anything eaten with a point value over my allowance would slow my losses.

Both are great eating plans with common sense applied and if you dont apply it then it cant be the fault of the eating plan, can it??

Good luck to everyone on your weight loss journeys and healthier lifestyles. x x

 

[Kikikisses]

I think it really has to be personal preference and as many said it does depend on your lifestyle.

Although I've not tried WW myself I have friends who are on it and friends who have been on it before. The friends who are on it say it's amazing but the friends who have decided they can't do it anymore still insist it's wonderful. Asking people I know who are on/have been on SW say the same.

Only difference for me is I understand SW better as I live with someone who did it for years and also have watched her success, my mother. If I have a question I can just text her and she knows lots of recipes so I never feel stuck.

I say why not give both of them a go for a few weeks and see how you feel after those weeks, i don't just mean how much you lose but also do you feel you have more energy? Do you feel starved? Do you feel in control? These sorts of things can mean the difference between you staying on the wagon or falling off.

 

[BritMumInCanada]

I think the SW Website is another massive perk of SW, and the way they make us aware of whats low syn and useful - is just as good if not better than WW's having their own brand of food!

x

I have to disagree with this bit too. Although I prefer the SW diet, their website doesnt even compare to WW. SW website is in bad need of updating, it is very very basic from what I was used to with WW.

WW have forums, a HUGE recipe list, a recipe builder (which totals up your points as you add ingredients), food diary, huge food list/points list, a much wider list of support articles and heaps heaps more. As well as the fact that being an online WW member is far far cheaper. I was very disappointed with the SW website when I registered with body optimise, but as I love the diet, I have no choice but to use it because living in Canada I have no meetings I can go along to.

They could attract so many more members if they improved their website, especially as it is the first port of call for people overseas.

 

[Helen89]

I have previously done WW and whilst it was good and I did loose weight I found it hard to stick too, quite expensive and very confusing with all the information they gave me...I was ALWAYS thinking about food and how many more points I am allowed and didn't enjoy what I ate.
With SW I am finding it better, cheaper and easier to follow. I am enjoying what I am eating, know what I am eating and also taking pride in what I cook. And for the first time I will say I do like vegetables and fruit....just particular ones

But at the end of the day it is personal preference and no one should be held against a firing wall for loosing more weight on one diet than another

Good Luck to everyone...(lets just loose more weight fellow SW's )

 

[philly_x]

I have to disagree with this bit too. Although I prefer the SW diet, their website doesnt even compare to WW. SW website is in bad need of updating, it is very very basic from what I was used to with WW.

To be fair when I was doing WW, I always really wanted to just have a look at the members website, but in order to do that you have to commit to a direct debit and because each week I didnt really know that much about WW (because I didnt stay for meetings and couldnt go on the website), I didnt want to commit to a direct debit so I ever actually saw the website, and ultimately ended up failing.

As I havent seen the WW members website I cant compare them, and although I'm sure it's better, the fact that I could browse over the SW website before I even started is what ended up selling SW to me, I think if WW let ALL members (new, pay weekly or pay monthly) see their more of their website maybe more people would stay!

After about a month of going to SW classes and using the website, I decided it was something I did want to commit to and paid for 12 weeks the next month! I think being able to use the website was an important factor in that decision! x

 

[On-a-mission]

I have done both diets, i started ww and thought it was fantastic, i lost weight slowly so assumed it would stay off doing it that way. I then found that i plateued and despite my best efforts couldnt kick start it. I then lost interest and wwhen i started eating normally i.e not counting all my points, i put all th weight back on plus more. When doing WW i couldnt understand why on earth people did Sw it seemed bizaare all the talk of red days and green days and i couldnt figure how they ever understood what could be eaten and when.
When i moved to cyprus last august i wanted to lose weight before the dreaded cyprus stone found me. Unfortunately there were no WW clubs here, so I was resigned to the fact i was going to have to join SW (theres no way can i "go it alone")
Anyway...6 months later i have lost 3st 6.5 lb and i absolutely love the freedon SW gives me, i dont ever get bored i am never hungry and i dont find myself saving points for treats. i can fill up all day long on free and superfree foods and then i have my syns for treats. I do believe thaat Sw is going to be so much easier to mantain when i reach target as i wont have to carry a points calculator around with me aswell as a list of the point values of foods.

I can understand peope swapping to Sw from WW but i really dont get the opposite switch unless as has already been said that people feel the need to have portion control.

 

[Starlight]

I can understand peope swapping to Sw from WW but i really dont get the opposite switch unless as has already been said that people feel the need to have portion control.

But as everyone has said its a personal choice and what suits your lifestyle best. WW does for lots of people, theres been a lot of SW people moved to WW recently so many people do make the move and enjoy it. I tried SW for a few months, didnt like it and went back to WW because it IS the right diet for me. Just because its not for me doesnt make it a bad diet and I CAN understand why people do it by the same token a lot of people on SW can totally understand why people do WW and its not just about portion control

 

[Starlight]

To be fair when I was doing WW, I always really wanted to just have a look at the members website, but in order to do that you have to commit to a direct debit and because each week I didnt really know that much about WW (because I didnt stay for meetings and couldnt go on the website), I didnt want to commit to a direct debit so I ever actually saw the website, and ultimately ended up failing.

As I havent seen the WW members website I cant compare them, and although I'm sure it's better, the fact that I could browse over the SW website before I even started is what ended up selling SW to me, I think if WW let ALL members (new, pay weekly or pay monthly) see their more of their website maybe more people would stay!

After about a month of going to SW classes and using the website, I decided it was something I did want to commit to and paid for 12 weeks the next month! I think being able to use the website was an important factor in that decision! x

I think a lot of that has changed now, you can access large parts of the site without signing up. One thing WW do which I dont know why SW dont copy as judging by posts on here theres a real need for is to allow you to register for part of the paid site which is free to members. You can pay something about £10 a month to get access to a members section, its not as concise as the full payment option or the one that class members get but its a great option. The forums on WW site are awful, theyre really badly laid out, very cliquey and rarely on topic - WW really need to address that. I do think that the