weight watchers and vegan

[sage68]

Hello all. I have been considering doing Weight Watchers because I need the structure to lose weight. Has anyone done weight watchers while vegan? I assume WW and vegan would be a great fit since most veggies are no points but I just wanted to get some fellow vegan input on it before shelling out the money to join!

[mtraezme]

Hi Sage,
If you go to the Weight Watchers website they have message boards kinda like this one and there is a vegetarian message board. You can use the message boards for free, you just have to sign up to be able to post. There are some vegans on there who are doing quite well on both plans. I would recommend you check that out as well.

I have done Weight Watchers Online in the past and learned a lot about portion sizes, food and my relationship with it, and how to budget the foods I do want to eat into a healthy eating plan. Of course, it would depend on which plan you choose, but both have their positives and negatives. It would also depend on if you do the online or the meetings. I've heard that sometimes the leaders don't know anything about veganism and so just kind of avoid the topic.

Ezme

[sage68]

Thank you so much. I am looking it over right now. It is quite interesting. Should be very helpful.

[mtraezme]

Hi Sage,

I just realized that I should have also given you the link to what I'm doing now. It's similar to the Core plan on Weight Watchers, but it works better for me. With the Core plan I had problems straying off and eating over the few points they did give for splurges. I think I'm one of the all or nothing types for the most part.

The website is http://www.drmcdougall.com/ and if you use the dropdown menu (it says Quick Links) and go to the Free Program part you can see their entire plan. I was a little worried that I would feel too restricted on it, especially since I can't have wheat, but I actually feel really good and can walk into the kitchen, get a glass of water or tea, and walk out without sneaking a chip or chocolate or something. They also have a discussion board that pretty much gives you all the "secrets" of their program - for free.

Anyway, I just thought I should let you know so you have another option open to you.

Ezme

[Roxy]

Tigerlily was also on Weight Watchers while she was a vegan (I'm pretty sure she was anyway), so perhaps you could ask her about it too.

[Tigerlily]

Yes, and unfortunately, I stopped and gained all my weight back! lol!

But it was very easy to follow on a vegan diet. Unlike other weight loss programs, they don't tell you what to eat (like no strict meal plans) so you can easily incorporate vegan foods. They do tend to be a little anti-veg at times, especially certain Weight Watcher meeting leaders. I personally would refrain from mentioning to others than you're vegan because you'll get all sorts of annoying/mean comments like, "But you NEED the 2 milk portions a day!" and "How are you eating up all your points on just veggies?" other silly things.

[Sealpup]

Hello,

I'm new here and this is my first post. I have been a vegan for only seven months, but I was a vegetarian for over 35 years, my whole adult life. I am following the weight watcher diet as a vegan and am losing weight at the same pace as I was as a vegetarian. However, I don't have very much to lose. I eat lots of soy products, substitute soy milk for milk, take vitamins, and drink the water. Drinking the water is really important. I am using the flex plan and attend the meetings with a friend of mine, who is an omnivore. Before I went back to WW, I called them and asked if I could follow their plan as a vegan and they said 'yes'. In fact, WW is the only program that accommodates veganism.

I would encourage anyone to try it; it really is a good program and I would also encourage vegans to be honest about veganism and let the instructors know we exist and we count, too!

~Sealpup

[Ruby Rose]

Perhaps that is the case with slimming clubs in the US, but it's certainly not the case here in the UK. I'm doing well on Slimming World whose Green Day programme is totally veg* friendly. It's the biggest slimming club in the UK (and cheaper than WW) - with no points to calculate, and no restrictions on portion for free foods (which include tofu).

[Tigerlily]

I wish they would open a Slimming World in Canada. I was researching it yesterday and the plan seems really easy to follow, from what I can gather.

[Ruby Rose]

They do an online version - but for me, I really need the support of going to a group regularly. I'm just making some SW onion bhajis now:

7 oz finely sliced onion
2 oz gram flour
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp curry powder
1 chopped fresh green chilli
small handful chopped fresh coriander
1/4 tsp baking powder
salt

Use your fingers to mix in a bowl with a few tablespoons of water to form a thick batter. Leave to rest for 15 minutes, then mix again. Form 12 small mounds on a lined baking sheet. Spray with FryLight or similar. Bake 15-20 mins at 220C. Sprinkle with paprika when they come out of the oven.

[mogthecat]

I'm very glad people are having success using Weight Watchers - I used it myself in the past and lost 1.5 stone for my wedding and I can see that the structure and support system can be very valuable to people.

However, from personal experience I am now cautious about any system which makes me count ANYTHING (calories/fat/points/meal times/grams etc.) rather than listening to my own body and really thinking about what I eat. After losing the 1.5 stone I immediately put 3.5 back on. I discovered that through doing weightwatchers I had actually been focusing on a symptom of my problem - my weight - and ignoring the basic underlying problem of how much I eat and my addictive relationship with food. For me, weightwatchers avoided the issue and was only a quick-fix solution which played havoc with my emotional relationship with food.

I have been exploring my relationship with food for the last 8 years. I have never had a serious eating disorder (other than some silly starving myself for a bit when I was a teenager) but it is taking me a long time to work through the layers and layers of addiction and false thinking I have about food. With the help of some very good books I now feel I am really starting to "get" it. It's so emotionally liberating and has done wonders for my self esteem. Addiction doesn't necessarily mean being very heavy - many people who are an average size for their height, or who are thin, have an addictive relationship with food.

If anyone's interested, I would strongly recommend "Eating Less" by Gillian Riley. For me it has been truly life changing and a permanent solution to a problem which used to make me dispair.

Having said that, I hope everyone who is doing weight watchers is successful! We all have to find what works for us

[genisis]

Perhaps that is the case with slimming clubs in the US, but it's certainly not the case here in the UK. I'm doing well on Slimming World whose Green Day programme is totally veg* friendly. It's the biggest slimming club in the UK (and cheaper than WW) - with no points to calculate, and no restrictions on portion for free foods (which include tofu).

im so pleased someone who is vegan is doing the sw diet as i have been contemplating it for a while but were unsure as wether it would be suitable for vegans as they do use quorn alot as a free food.do you know if any of the vegan 'mince' is a free food? i use it alot in many of my dishes.

[Agatha]

not sure if this thread is still alive. I've recently started the weight watchers diet with my flatmate. She needs to lose a stone or two as she is rather over weight. my weight/BMI is fine so really i'm doing it to support her. Whereas she follows the meal plans etc i can't for obvious reasons! so instead i eat healthily, or what i normally would, and add up the points at the end of the day. WW recommend i have 18 points but normally i have about 20. Thing is, her diet on WW is full of frozen fish fingers, pizza, oven chips, those cake bars (all artificial ingredients) i can't help feeling she'd be better off just being vegan. I wasn't sure i could do it to start with as they treat vegetarian as a bit of an add-on category of diet and don't mention veganism at all. We exist!! but despite the option of trading all my food with wine (i haven't. yet) i'm not doing too badly. Its helping me eat much more raw food too.

[Tigerlily]

Agatha, you bring up a good point. That's the problem a lot of omnis had the meetings I went to. They would complain of it taking ages to lose weight and then you find out their diet is nothing but rubbish. Sure you *can* lose weight by simply making sure you don't go over your calories but you it makes it much easier to eat healthy too.

In the North American booklets, veganism does exist. They have a page mentioning it---basically what it means and the vitamin supplements you need. The meal plans are not even vegetarian but luckily you don't have to follow them.

[BagelKitty]

I used to do weight watchers before I was vegan. If you google "weight watchers point calculator online" you can track your point intake for free without having to join the plan. I'm not sure if there's a free chart that tells you how many points you should eat, but it's probably somewhere between 20-28 per day.

I follow it on my own, roughly.

[Gorilla]

i followed a Weight Watchers diet when i was vegetarian, i didn't go to any classes but i had the meal plans. i lost 10 pounds, but i lost the same amount in the first couple of weeks of being vegan and eating whatever i wanted.

[bronny]

Hope this thread is still active - I lost about 9 kilos on WW while vegan some time ago and then gradually put it all back on again. My weight has fluctuated since then but now I'm the heaviest I've ever been - not exactly obese, but big for me. I can't exercise much either due to bad knees and that won't change until I have a knee replacement later this year hopefully. I'm also menopausal and that's not helping. My clothes are all really uncomfortable and I'm just at the stage where I need to buy more in bigger sizes. It's all really depressing.

But your post about overeating mogthecat made me sit up and take notice - I really think that most of my problems come from eating too much - a lot of the time I indulge in 'comfort eating'. I read the sample chapter of Riley's book online and I've now ordered it from Amazon - very cheaply too. So thanks for posting!

Bronny

I'm very glad people are having success using Weight Watchers - I used it myself in the past and lost 1.5 stone for my wedding and I can see that the structure and support system can be very valuable to people.

However, from personal experience I am now cautious about any system which makes me count ANYTHING (calories/fat/points/meal times/grams etc.) rather than listening to my own body and really thinking about what I eat. After losing the 1.5 stone I immediately put 3.5 back on. I discovered that through doing weightwatchers I had actually been focusing on a symptom of my problem - my weight - and ignoring the basic underlying problem of how much I eat and my addictive relationship with food. For me, weightwatchers avoided the issue and was only a quick-fix solution which played havoc with my emotional relationship with food.

I have been exploring my relationship with food for the last 8 years. I have never had a serious eating disorder (other than some silly starving myself for a bit when I was a teenager) but it is taking me a long time to work through the layers and layers of addiction and false thinking I have about food. With the help of some very good books I now feel I am really starting to "get" it. It's so emotionally liberating and has done wonders for my self esteem. Addiction doesn't necessarily mean being very heavy - many people who are an average size for their height, or who are thin, have an addictive relationship with food.

If anyone's interested, I would strongly recommend "Eating Less" by Gillian Riley. For me it has been truly life changing and a permanent solution to a problem which used to make me dispair.

Having said that, I hope everyone who is doing weight watchers is successful! We all have to find what works for us

[Owlish]

Good luck to you Bronny!

[bronny]

Thank you! Oh BTW - just reread my post and it sounded like I'm no longer vegan - I am, and have been for about 15 years.

[genisis]

bronny I know how you feel it is very depressing when your not happy with the weight you are I put on 61/2 stone on in 3 years due to a medical problem I had which I ended up having an op for.since then I managed to lose 31/2 stone but then last year I put 2 stone back on! Im so so so depressed about it.Dieting has become the plague of my life.
then just last week I went into a veggie/vegan cafe and ordered a vegan pie making a joke about how pastry is my downfall, the waitress looked at me and said 'wow you dont see many fat vegans do you? I usually tell people that if you want to be thin be a vegan!' needless to say that depressed me even more!!! So the plague carries on

[bronny]

Yes - the old myth - that all vegans are thin!
Bronny

[Rooey]

I done the Online Weight Watchers plan but I always ended up going over my points a little and still felt hungry.. and not knowing/remembering the points of food before I could eat, especially when I was hungry and had to eat quick. But I have learnt portion sizes from it, and why certain foods contain so many points so I'm happy I mainly quit because they made a transition to the new points scheme and the database of my food that I worked so hard to put together became invalid.

I'd say if you're curious, give it a try for 3 months and see how you go

[missbettie]

So i'm on my 3rd day of WW, and so far its really nice, I feel a lot better already. I'm hoping I will actually stick with it, the actual test will be the weekend.

[Gladys Rabbit]

I've been on WW and lost 20 pounds, which I have kept off. WW is really nothing more than an elaborate calorie-counting system. If you are the kind of person who can diligently record every single bite you eat then WW is a good program. I was able to keep it up for several months but then the whole thing got so fiddly and irritating that I just couldn't stand it anymore. But I was able to remember useful stuff, like portion sizes, which I still take to heart today and is probably responsible for not gaining those 20 pounds back.

The best weight-loss advice I give myself is to remember that vegetarians eat mostly vegetables. When I stick to this little maxim I stay slim. When I eat chips, manufactured vegan food-like substances, soy desserts, too much bread, etc, I run into trouble. Vegetables, plenty of them. Some fruit, a few grains, some beans, a few nuts- this is what works best for me, without fiddling around counting calories which makes me a little neurotic.

[missbettie]

but thats my problem, i've always struggled just a little bit or a lot with my weight, and i did lose weight initially when I went vegan 4 years ago, but i've gained it back and then some. one of my things is yes, i'm eating better food, but now i'm cooking more, and now i'm eating more, and more and more.... I've totally went off the deep end with portion control, and telling myself that i'm full....so its pretty nice...this is my second week and I lost a pound so far... and i'm still eating so it makes me happy.

i think that it is just a good reminder. and its just helping me a lot...and then the other thing is, WW doesn't count the calories...so its helping me not get obessed with calories, which can be pretty bad for me...

i'm going to try it for the next 3 months, cause thats what i paid for, and i'll see where to go from there.

[KayJay]

I just joined WW after a failed attempt with SW. So far the pro-points plan is working ok, I lost 1lb in my first week which is better than nothing! Is anyone else still on WW?

[missbettie]

I quit. LOL It just was not working for me. now i'm tracking food at sparkpeople.com, I like it a lot more.

[VWW]

Hi everyone! Like so many of you, I was disappointed about the lack of resources online for fellow Vegan Weight Watchers. I started a blog at www.veganweightwatchers.com to help keep others’ weight loss journeys interesting while sticking to a plant-based vegan lifestyle.

My journey with Weight Watchers started in June 2009. I lost 25 lbs and have maintained my weight as a lifetime member, and now, a vegan. Excited to share with you all!