Weight Watchers and being newly banded??

[gracesmom1 0]

Hi! I am newly banded and loving it. I was banded May 3rd and have adjusted quite well. My Dr. recommended that I use weight watchers as a tool to help me with my weight loss and new way of life. I am very familiar with WW but wondering how you use it being banded. Do you still eat all the points recommended for your entered weight? Before the band, I struggled just to meet the daily points. Any suggestions since the calorie intake is a lot less? Or do I use merely as a food consumption tracking devise? Any suggestions or advise would be helpful! Thanks!

Ann:wink2:

[BetsyB 9]

If I were doing it, I'd veer toward their Filling Foods program--or, even, their old Core program. It de-emphasizes points, and emphasizes making the right food choices. (Weight Watchers has gotten a lot of criticism in recent years due to its "eat what you like! just count the points!" approach. While this increases compliance, it does so at a nutritional cost. Core was developed to address this criticism. Its newest incarnation is very similar.)

I can't lose weight using Weight Watchers's point system. I can be 100% compliant, and gain--it's simply too much food for me.

There's NO way I could meet the point allotment with a band in my body! But if I were to follow the other plan, and focus on lean Protein and veggies, it'd work. (There would be no room for using activity points for the weekly point allowance, though.)

I personally don't think it's a terrific plan for people who are banded. I think that lots of doctors recommend it because they don't really know much about diets, in general, and it was for years the gold standard. (It is returning to that status again; it was less favored by those in the know for about a decade, for good reason.)

I use Fitday.com to journal my food intake. It gives me much more information than WW Online or WW eTools does: calories, how much protein/carbs/fat I've gotten, and so on. It's free.

Once you approach restriction, you will need to rely on willpower less and less---but it will remain important that you get the right nutrients. Weight Watchers really does not ensure that. But if you keep an eye on things with a program like Fitday, you can see, at a glance, when you need to make changes.

Just my 0.02

[Spartan 4]

One other thing about the Weight Watchers experience post-banding.....

Over the years, I have seen many people on this Board comment on the fact that if you attend the live WW meetings and they are aware that you are banded, they tend to treat you not-so-nicely. It's the old "taking the easy way out" idea that many of them have, and some of them can apparently be rather rude about it.

So, if you DO attend the meetings in person, consider keeping the fact that you are banded to yourself. It's information that they do not need to have, and will likely make the experience a better one.

S.

Edited May 7, 2010 by Spartan

[skinnygirl 1]

Some of us that are doing ww post daily and weekly above this post try find and join us. Even if you go to the meetings it's a little more support and the other two are very helpful. My advice is spread your points out all during the day so you don't eat as much in one meal. I love ww and it has helped me alot. Its about the only diet I can lose on because you can have anything you want and you don't feel deprived. I think its a great plan cause i could never do a diet where i can't have certain things. Good luck hope to see you on our support group. It has about 10 pages of posts. The band is a tool to help me some people think you should starve with the band but I'm not one of those people. I enjoy the meals they sale at Walmart and I use my point finder to cook meals from scratch. I don't use my allowence points or exercise points that seems to help me. My points are 28 and I have no problem. My dr told me not to focus on eating 1/2 cup food each meal just eat till I'm satisfied. I had lost 15 more pounds but do to medical problems I gained them back. I had a kidney stone for a month that wouldn't pass so my band was emptyed cause of throwing up. But I am happy with the 46 pounds. he said my weight loss for 5 months is great almost 50 pounds. How many cc's do you have in your band and which band do you have lapband or relize.

Hi! I am newly banded and loving it. I was banded May 3rd and have adjusted quite well. My Dr. recommended that I use weight watchers as a tool to help me with my weight loss and new way of life. I am very familiar with WW but wondering how you use it being banded. Do you still eat all the points recommended for your entered weight? Before the band, I struggled just to meet the daily points. Any suggestions since the calorie intake is a lot less? Or do I use merely as a food consumption tracking devise? Any suggestions or advise would be helpful! Thanks!

Ann:wink2:

[Jachut 487]

the points system is about the only "diet" I can tolerate, because its not too much counting and weighing - I like the near enough is good enough approach with eyeballing portion sizes, so I can do it in my head. I hate journalling. If I wanted to be obsessed with food every second of the day (which is how I personally feel about journalling) I wouldnt have gotten banded. I can roughly tote points in my head, its basically calorie counting but easier. Over the years I've learned the points value of virtually everything, lol. Toting up like this is a lifelong habit for me, I say I dont "diet" but I do indeed know what I'm eating, and I dont find the inaccuracy of mental calculations and forgetting you ate this or that to be a problem.

with WW, its up to you what you choose to eat but anyone with half a brain knows that although you can make up your daily points with chocolate and Starbucks, you're hardly going to be healthy. Yet I like knowing I can have a day like that if I want to. Life is too short to be a food robot.

I havent done WW since being banded though. I havent needed to and I wanted to avoid dieting forevermore. I will never count, journal, weigh or attend meetings again, ever. That's former fat me behaviour, the new me just eats when hungry, till not hungry. I have no idea if I could eat all the points or not, my mental calculations tend to add up to about 24, 25 a day, so its probably a tad more, and I suspect I could easily do the 18-20 they'd recommend for me now at my weight if I needed to lose.

[gracesmom1 0]

Thanks to all of you for your input! There is so much to digest - ha, no pun intended!! Anyway, I will look at all the suggestions and figure out what will be right for me. All I know is I feel so wonderful for the first time in a really long time. It's just a new beginning for me and something new I will be learning. I have never been a ww meeting attender. I always got the feeling of shame when I was there. And who needs that? I have used the online tool for quite some time with and without success due to my own successes and failures. So anyway I go, I hope that it works for me, and if not, back to the drawing board. Thanks again for your thoughts.