Thinking of joining WW ?

[digi1024 3]

Is it crazy to join Weight Watchers ?? I had my surgery 1 year ago lost 100 pounds Just had a breast reduction June 12 . Feeling awesome .I can't find a nutritionist that is the least bit helpful . ( couldn't find one I liked before my surgery either ) My weigh ins now are 3 months apart instead of monthly . That's not going to work for me I need the monthly discipline, and to be honest weekly discipline works even better for me . I understand that I would continue to stay away from sugar and carbs . Is this a crazy idea ??

[Introversion 1,876]

I wouldn't join Weight Watchers, but to each her own...

Realize that Weight Watchers maintains its profitability and success as a company by banking on dieters' repeated failures so they return and sign up for more of the same, year after year.

Weight Watchers (and every other weight loss scheme) depends on repeat customers. The Weight Watchers business model is clever since very few people keep the weight off after losing it.

People who regain re-enroll at Weight Watchers. Rinse and repeat. The company stays wildly profitable while the customers fail to address the root causes of their weight problems.

Also, the gimmicky Weight Watchers way of eating is not really conducive to the manner in which a sleeved or bypass patient should eat.

IMHO, save your money. Stop making the dieting industry rich. Weight loss surgery is a lifestyle, not another diet.

Edited July 13, 2017 by Introversion

[LetGoJo 27]

Why not set up a group in your area - your needs are not catered for in the industry

[fruitandveggies 456]

I personally have been doing Weight Watchers since January 2016. It kept me from gaining another 50 pounds that year but didn't help me lose. I had surgery in February 2017 and have gone to WW every week since. I find it much more helpful than my bariatric support group (which is focused on problems, not solutions) and it keeps me accountable and my mind in the game. I say try it and see how it works for you! I will probably never quit WW, and their new format is much better then when I did it 10 years ago.

Edited to add: WW doesn't tell how you to eat anymore. You can eat literally anything you want, so it works with bariatric plans too.

Edited July 13, 2017 by fruitandveggies

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

Honestly I would go to over eaters anon meetings. I wouldn't pay all that money for WW. Or you could just join an online group or diet bet.

WW is exactly what Introversion said, they focus to profit from failure. I don't don't know why people don't get it, but people are still out here signing up for new MLM so...

[fruitandveggies 456]

I get that it's a business. But I also get that the group and program actually help me. Considering some people paid over $10k for bariatric surgery, $45 a month until you reach your goal (which you set--then it's free), is like a drop in the bucket. @digi1024, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. It's not like surgery is a charity operation, yet we all decided to get it done anyway. It could very well help you like it does for me.

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

The way I was dropping sizes I would have needed that 45 a month for clothes.

BP was my accountability and support that first year. I did the challenges and stuff like that. Posting daily kept me on track. Reading what people did wrong and how they were not losing reminded me what not to do, daily.

Also I would feel really uncomfortable at WW with people that haven't had surgery when my WLS is on easy mode and they are trying to lose weight with a normal stomach and hunger. I would feel like my success would be making someone else feel worse.

[Introversion 1,876]

Quote

At first glance, Weight Watchers works. But the truth is a bit more complicated: Winfrey’s venture is, in fact, a brilliant investment, although not necessarily for the reason she thinks. It’s brilliant not because Weight Watchers works but because it doesn’t. It’s the perfect business model. People give Weight Watchers the credit when they lose weight. Then they regain the weight and blame themselves. This sets them up to join Weight Watchers all over again, and they do.

The company brags about this to its shareholders. According to Weight Watchers’ business plan from 2001 (which I viewed in hard-copy form at a library), its members have “demonstrated a consistent pattern of repeat enrollment over a number of years,” signing up for an average of four separate program cycles. And in an interview for the documentary The Men Who Made Us Thin, former CFO Richard Samber explained that the reason the business was successful was because the majority of customers regained the weight they lost, or as he put it: “That’s where your business comes from.”

But what about those aforementioned studies showing Weight Watchers works? There’s an important catch: While most dieters do lose weight in the short term, they gain most of it back in the long term.

http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/10/why-weight-watchers-doesnt-work.html

I personally wouldn't fork over my hard-earned money to a company with a business model that is predicated on customers' failures and weight regain (and WW's executives freely admit to this).

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

That NY Mag article is basically exactly why I had WLS.

[Sherrie Scharbrough 311]

You ever heard of TOPS? TAKE OFF POUNDS SENSIBLY> It is a pretty good group. You have a yearly joining you pay a certain amount (I don't remember the $ amount) It isn't real expensive either. There is a lot of support and lots of incentives to win a little money. Might want to give it a try. Most of the memebers are very nice and supportive. Just a idea.

[digi1024 3]

Both my parents lost 100 pounds doing WW and kept it off . Me not so much I couldn't do it . Money is not the issue for me $15 dollars a week is not going to kill me . I think it will be interesting to hear other people's success and failures that's how I will continue to learn . I can still continue my Bariatric Eating staying away from carbs and sugars and continue to eat high Protein . I think I will be more aware of what I'm eating .i am finding the maintenance phase to be the hardest so far . The weekly discipline is what I need .

[2ndSpring 350]

I can see how it could be beneficial if you ignore their meal plan advice and just take the parts that you need, like the weekly weigh-in and the group support.

WW is all about moderation which is good advice for the average person, but most of us needed WLS because we couldn't handle moderation. I know I can't. Too many foods are triggers and set me off . I also remember people sharing at WW meetings about low calorie or low point finds - but usually, those foods were all chemicals.

[Little Green 583]

15 hours ago, Sherrie Scharbrough said:

You ever heard of TOPS? TAKE OFF POUNDS SENSIBLY> It is a pretty good group. You have a yearly joining you pay a certain amount (I don't remember the $ amount) It isn't real expensive either. There is a lot of support and lots of incentives to win a little money. Might want to give it a try. Most of the memebers are very nice and supportive. Just a idea.

I'm a current member of TOPS. I would caution bariatric patients about it... not that you can't, or even shouldn't, join, but just be cautious about it. Based on my 4 years of experience with TOPS they have an extremely negative view of bariatric surgery with members considering it "cheating" and looking down on it. You are not eligible for any royalty awards which is a clear indicator they do not consider WLS-assisted weight loss as an achievement to be celebrated equally. All members who get bariatric surgery are placed into one single division no matter their starting weight. So you could have a 220-lb woman in the same division as a 500-lb man - there is no way that lower weight people could have a fair shot at winning their division, as they go by pounds lost, not percent!

However, even if you don't care about the awards at all, you also cannot be Best Loser in your weekly group. So, no matter how well you do, you will not be recognized in the TOPS traditions.

Also, imagine sitting at a table with your former self (or 5-6 of your former selves, or 20-25, or however big your group is) and how frustrated and hopeless you felt back then because you kept losing and regaining the same 20 lbs. Do you think anyone is going to listen to what you have to say, about nutrition, or willpower, or suggestions for managing cravings, etc.? No. As soon as you pipe up, their ears will close because in their mind, you cheated by getting surgery. I really don't think that is a positive or helpful environment for a bariatric patient to be in and that's why I'm not staying.

Dang, this is by far the most negative post I have ever written on this site! LOL! I'm so sorry! I guess I needed to rant because I'm feeling frustrated that I "have" to leave my group. I just know once I told them about surgery that all of the "support" I get from the group would go away. Every time WLS comes up the conversation is so negative and smug. Even though there are people in my group who joined in the 90's and are 50 or 100 lbs heavier than they were when they joined, so you'd think they'd be open-minded since their way clearly doesn't work. I don't know. Maybe it's just my group and another TOPS group would be great. But I'm not so sure and I don't want to risk the negativity.

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

2 hours ago, Little Green said:

Do you think anyone is going to listen to what you have to say, about nutrition, or willpower, or suggestions for managing cravings, etc.? No. As soon as you pipe up, their ears will close because in their mind, you cheated by getting surgery. I really don't think that is a positive or helpful environment for a bariatric patient to be in and that's why I'm not staying.

This are these feelings that a lot of people hold. I will admit myself until I had surgery or got close to having it, I thought that surgery did more than what it does. The reality is, you still need will power after WLS. You REALLY need to understand nutrition, no matter how you choose to eat post-op, the people that more successful have a firm grasp on nutrition and how it works. You still have to manage head hunger. I have no physical appetite really, but I have head hunger like anyone else. WLS makes it easier to ignore my head hunger but it is still there.

I feel like WW would do more harm than good, for these reasons. If you accidentally slip and let people know you had surgery, they are more than likely going to treat you with disdain. All of your successes will have an asterisk next to it, in their minds.

I will be 2 years post-op tomorrow and I feel like the biggest flaw with WLS and the WLS community is all of it is focused on immediate post-ops. No one cares about people over a year out. The further you get from surgery the less of a community you have. People are either successful and they have just moved on from WLS community or they are not successful and are too embarrassed to come back. If you are looking for long term support, other long term WLS patients, support and information, it basically does not exist.

[Introversion 1,876]

18 minutes ago, OutsideMatchInside said:

This are these feelings that a lot of people hold.

2 hours ago, Little Green said:

Based on my 4 years of experience with TOPS they have an extremely negative view of bariatric surgery with members considering it "cheating" and looking down on it.

Yep. Bariatric surgery has a negative stigma, albeit largely undeserved. People without any understanding of the hormonal nuances of longstanding obesity view weight loss surgery as 'cheating' and 'taking the easy way out.' They see it as the lazy person's tactic of losing weight.

Uninformed people assume every WLS patient couldn't (or wouldn't) lose weight prior to surgery. My reality is I'd lost 200+ lbs over the 2 decades preceding WLS (lose 50, regain 60, lose 60, regain 100, etc).

I could lose weight, but couldn't keep it off. I was on the same yo-yo dieters' carousel as most WW members and TOPs attendees, yet the fact that I've had surgery would negate my success in their eyes.

People tend to view money in discrete drips and drops in the here and now rather than for the long term. Sure, $15 weekly for WW might seem like a bargain in the here and now.

But for the long term, $15 weekly for WW represents $780 over one year, or nearly $4,000 over 5 years. This money could be worth in excess of $100,000 in a couple of decades.