 Hi friends, welcome back to my channel and welcome if you're new here. My name is Jen. I'm a certified weight loss and nutrition coach and I'm on the WW or the Weight Watchers Blue Plan. Welcome to Sunday's video. Today we're having a little sit down, a little chat, grab your coffee, grab your tea, or in my case, grab your kombucha and let's sit down and have a chat about Weight Watchers versus calorie counting. This is a question that I get a lot about which one is better, why do I do both? So we're gonna deep dive into that today. So if you're excited, give this video a big huge thumbs up and if you're new or you haven't yet subscribed, hit the subscribe button and click the bell next to it so you never miss a single video. I do upload five days a week so you definitely don't wanna miss out. Check out the description box down below for my three recipe e-books. We have breakfast, lunch and dinner, 15 recipes, WW plan points and calories included. So it kind of goes hand in hand with today's video and I do offer nutrition coaching with personalized macros and calories as well as one-on-one coaching if you'd like to chat with me directly. Links discounts to all my favorite things and lastly, my Facebook group, come on over, join us there, we'd love to have you. So let's jump into talking all about calories versus points. ["Metal Music"] To lose weight, we have to be in a caloric deficit. Now whether we choose to follow Weight Watchers, calorie counting, keto, low carb, South Beach, whatever, all of those programs work because they put us in a calorie deficit. Sometimes calories are called different things. Weight Watchers basically calls calories or calories make up their point. So instead of counting calories on Weight Watchers, we're counting points. But there is a very big difference between Weight Watchers points and counting calories. Even though calories make up a portion of the points, we need to know the difference between counting calories versus points. There are distinct similarities between Weight Watchers and calorie counting, but the things that aren't similar between the two, the differences is what really makes this video important. Weight Watchers is all about the numbers. Their tried and tested formula, their point system works on numbers. It takes into account things like calories and saturated fat and protein and sugar, numbers. It takes into account numbers to give you a number of points designated to that food. The healthier the food is, the healthier the ingredients, the less points that particular food is. There's zero point foods up to 200, depending on the plan that you follow. These are generally low calorie but very healthy foods, so Weight Watchers gives them a points value of zero, which means that you can eat these items throughout the day to satisfaction and you don't have to count points for them. Even though there are no points in zero point foods, no food is free, nothing is free as far as food is concerned except water, all of these zero point foods still contain calories. You are given a number of smart points or points every single day, that is your target, and as you consume food throughout the day, all of those foods have a points value assigned to them, whether it's zero or a numerical value. You track those points and then you eat your said number of points every day to reach your calorie deficit or your targeted points goal. That's in a nutshell how the Weight Watchers program works, I have put out a lot of videos all about WW, I'll link a couple of those playbooks down below for you. The program is changing here in the next couple of weeks, but this video is still relevant because there's still points being assigned to foods and you're still allocated a number of points every day and I want to compare those to calories. So speaking of calories, let's jump into calorie counting. Now calories are based on science. The number of calories that your body needs every single day will put you at maintenance when you're in a deficit or eating less calories than you burn, that's when you see weight loss. A calorie is a unit of measurement. So a calorie basically measures how much energy we receive from the foods that we're eating. Now protein and carbohydrates have about four calories per gram, where fats have nine calories per gram, and alcohol, believe it or not, falls at seven calories per gram. Alcohol has zero nutritional value, but packs a pretty good caloric punch per gram. You need a certain number of calories every day just to sustain life. This is called your BMR or your basal metabolic rate. This is the number of calories that you need just to live. It helps your organs work in your body, it pumps your blood, it runs your heart. Those are the calories that you need just to live. Now if you were in a coma and completely bedridden in sedentary, you still need a certain number of calories every day just to live. And the reason I'm telling you about this is because you should never, ever, ever, ever, ever eat below your BMR or your basal metabolic rate. I am going to link a calculator in the description box that will give you your BMR. It's pretty simple, it's all done by numbers. It's not going to vary based on very many factors. So this calculator is very, very accurate. And remember, you should never eat below that number. You also need to incorporate things into your number of calories every day, such as activity, your age, your current weight. All of those things play a factor in how many calories you should be consuming every day. Now I offer personalized calories and macros. I highly recommend that if you wanna know how many calories you should be eating every day and you can figure your BMR out yourself, but it's hard to figure out just how many calories you need every day. That's where someone like myself can come into play if you're interested in having that service done and is linked down below. Once you know how many calories you should be consuming every day, you need to then subtract from that number to put yourself into a deficit. Now a safe amount of calories to subtract from your maintenance calories is anywhere from three to 500 calories per day. Now if you have a lot of weight to lose, you can venture more towards the 500 to 750 calories per day. As long as you are not eating under your BMR, you should be okay in a more of a severe calorie deficit if you have a lot of weight to lose. Now maybe you wanna eat more and you still wanna lose weight. You can make up that calorie deficit with physical activity. So maybe you have a 200 calorie per day deficit, but you are someone that has physical activity incorporated into your daily life. That is going to burn more calories which is going to put you in a deficit and still allow you to eat a little bit more throughout the day. So you can put yourself into a deficit based on activity, food or both. In order to track calories and be successful, you have to do it consistently and honestly and you do have to track your calories just like you track your points on WW. My favorite app for calorie tracking is Lose It. I love it. I find that it's accurate with the food values. There's millions of foods in there. It's aesthetically pleasing and it's easy to use. So I'll link that down below for you as well. So Weight Watchers versus Calorie Accounting. How are they the same and how are they different? With Weight Watchers, you're going to receive a lot of support. So not only do you have in-person support in workshops, you also have online coaching. You have the Connect Group which is kind of like Facebook for Weight Watchers. You have like-minded individuals that you meet at the workshop and become your friends and your accountability. There's a lot of community associated with Weight Watchers where with calorie counting, there isn't so much of a community. It's more of a number-based program. Now this doesn't mean that you can't use friends or family for accountability. My Facebook group is a great source of accountability. YouTube is a great source of accountability. When you're tracking calories, you don't have the same type of support system that you would have built into the Weight Watchers program. Both of the programs require tracking and honest tracking. Whether you're tracking points or calories, it still requires you to honestly track and to consistently track. Both Weight Watchers and counting calories allow you to eat the foods that you want to eat. I do want to say that even though Weight Watchers says you can eat whatever you want and still lose weight, that's not necessarily as accurate as it is with calorie counting. A lot of the higher calorie foods or the foods that have added sugar are very high in points where honestly you can't eat those foods day to day or you wouldn't have enough points for other foods nor would you be eating enough calories. Now when you count calories, nothing is off limits. Everything has a set caloric value. Whether that's a donut or a demo broccoli, they all have a caloric value and you truly can eat whatever you want. So if you struggle with restriction of foods with Weight Watchers, maybe calorie counting would be a better option. Both Weight Watchers and calorie counting take in physical activity into account. With Weight Watchers you can earn extra points based on your physical activity and with calorie counting that is taken into account when we determine your total number of calories for maintenance and your deficit amount of calories. You can basically earn more of a calorie deficit without eliminating more food by building in that physical activity. And this is for both programs. Both programs work if you follow them. WW works if you follow it, calorie counting works if you follow it as well. Both Weight Watchers and calorie counting require work. You have to figure out points or calories of foods. I will say that calorie counting is a little bit easier when it comes to that aspect because everything has a caloric value. Everything from your fast food restaurant to the items in the grocery store. With Weight Watchers or WW, you have to manually figure the points out. You can use their in-app barcode scanner. You can enter the information into the calculator in their app, but you have to do a little bit more work than with calories. A 250 calorie hamburger is a 250 calorie hamburger, but you have to enter several factors into the app to determine its smart points. They're both sustainable programs long-term. In my opinion, I feel like counting calories may be a little bit more sustainable because with Weight Watchers, people can develop unhealthy eating habits. They save up all their points for a big meal at the end of the day. Or when I was strictly doing Weight Watchers, I would have a free day or a cheat day every week and I would consume so much that I would undo all of the deficit that I had earlier in the week. And it also led me into that binge eating mentality. So if you struggle with the all or nothing approach or you feel like you have to eat the whole pack of cookies today so it's not in your house tomorrow, then maybe being in a little bit more restrictive program like WW may not be right for you. If you enjoy the zero point foods and you struggle with picking the right foods and you want the support, then WW may be the perfect program for you. What's the bottom line? What are the final thoughts on the two programs? Now with WW, again, if you are someone that needs support, you thrive in the group setting, you thrive with the accountability of weighing in every single week and you like using the app for resources like Connect and also the online coaching, then Weight Watchers would be a great choice for you. If you feel like you can make good food choices on your own and you know that you can be health conscious and honest and you'll track your food accordingly and you'll weigh in your measure and you'll do all the things, then calorie counting may be a little bit more freeing and a little bit more eye-opening for you. Every weight loss strategy and every weight loss program or option works differently for everybody. If you feel like you're not eating enough calories on Weight Watchers, which is very, very common, a little more common than I would like, please make sure you're double tracking, make sure you're not eating below your BMR or your basal metabolic rate, no matter what plan you're following. You always want to eat two to 500 calories above your BMR. All of the information for the calculator is linked down below for you. Make sure you understand how many calories you should be eating every day. Make sure you're in a mild to moderate calorie deficit, not a very heavy deficit where you can do irreversible damage to your metabolism. You have to figure out what's right for you. Think about your food behaviors. Are you someone that saves up points or binge eats? Then maybe you need to open yourself up to calorie counting that's a little bit more flexible. With calorie counting, I don't have to eat the whole pack of cookies today, I can have a cookie tomorrow, the next day and the next day because they're not so many points and I can easily work them into my day. So we all have to think about what's best for us. Weight Watchers versus calorie counting is completely personal. It's all about what works for you. But I hope today's video kind of helped answer your questions on what's the difference between Weight Watchers and calorie counting and can help you make a little bit of an educated decision on which route is the best for you. So if you enjoyed today's video, don't forget to give it a big huge thumbs up. And if you're new or you haven't yet subscribed, hit the subscribe button and click the bell next to it so you never miss a single video. Let me know down in the comments, do you do Weight Watchers, calorie counting, both? And what are your thoughts on today's video? Don't forget to check out the description box for that BMR calculator, Nutrition Coaching. I'll also link the Lose It app down there for you as well. And head on over, join us on Facebook. We would love to have you. Thank you again for watching and I'll see you next time. Bye.