Is Weight Watchers the Right Weight Loss Program for your New Years Resolution?
Written: Aug 29 '05 (Updated Jan 05 '07)
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Pros: No special food to buy, promotes healthy choices
Cons: Easy to try and fool the system, can be tough to make permanent changes
The Bottom Line: Weight Watchers is a good choice for people you need a minimally structured weight loss program.
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| mmcphee's Full Review: Weight Watchers TurnAround Program (Core / Flex Pl... |
I have struggled with my weight for most of my life. I tried a variety of diets on and off since high school. Finally, with my wedding approaching I decide to try Weight Watchers. That was 7 years ago and this is my journey.
The Basics
Weight Watcher’s TurnAround Plan provides two different weight loss plans for you to select from based on your lifestyle. Both plans require learning the Weight Watcher Point system. Weight Watchers does not require the purchase of any special foods and provides you with the tools to calculate the point value of any food.
Flex Plan
With the Flex Plan you are given a specific number of points you must eat everyday based on your current weight. For example a person weighing 175 - 200 lbs must eat 24 points everyday. On top of the daily point allotment you get 35 points to use over the course of a week. You can eat all 35 points in one meal or spread them out evenly.
The Core Plan
The concept behind the Core Plan is eating whole foods. You can eat as much as you want to feel satisfied from a list of specific foods such as vegetables, vegetables, fat free dairy and lean meats. Once again you also have 35 points to use over the course of a week.
Exercise
Weight Watchers encourages its members to exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle. By exercising you can earn points that are exchanged for extra food points. The points earned are based on the duration and intensity of the exercise as well as your current weight.
So What Is A Weight Watchers Point?
A point is based on the calories, fat and fiber in a serving of food. One point is calculated by taking the number of calories divided by 50 plus the grams of fat divided by 12 and subtracting the grams of fiber (up to a maximum of 4 grams per serving) divided by 5. Now don’t worry, you don’t have to dust off your old math books, Weight Watchers makes this as painless as possible. Booklets are provided at meetings that give you the points value of most common food. You also receive a cardboard points finder that allows you to calculate the points of value of any food that you have the nutritional information for. You can also purchase additional books providing more extensive food lists as well as restaurant guides and a battery operated calculator to calculate and keep track of your points.
While it may sound complicated it does not take long to learn the points values of the various foods you eat in a day. Most non-starchy vegetables are 0 points and most fruit is 1 point per serving. Lean meats are about 1 point per oz. Over the course of a few days most people find that 1 Weight Watchers point is 55-60 calories.
Let’s Eat!
With the Flex Plan every food you eat needs to be accounted for. You target point value is your built in portion control. Theoretically you can eat anything to reach your target points, even if that is 24 points worth of potato chips. However, WW does not recommend that! They suggest 2-3 servings of dairy and 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, at least 6 glasses of water as well as including protein rich foods and grain whole grains foods in your diet. Weight Watchers also suggests taking a multi vitamin-mineral supplement every day.
A typical healthy eating day for me starts with a 5 point smoothie made yogurt, milk and fruit. Lunch may be soup or rice and beans with a piece of fruit for about 7 points. Dinner is lean meat and vegetables for about 8 points. That leaves me with about 4 points worth of snacks for the day for fruit and/or popcorn. With the Flex Plan it is easy to not make such healthy choices. Flipping through some of my old journals (WW recommends recording everything you eat) I can see days where I had brownies for breakfast, candy bars for lunch or ice cream for dinner and still managed to eat at my target points for the day or dipping into my extra points for the week. The Flex Plan requires self discipline to select healthy foods instead of filling up on junk food. I find it a little too easy to pick the junk food over an apple.
A day eating with the Core Plan is quite similar to a day of healthy eating on the Flex Plan. The difference is not having to keep track of portions since most of the foods can be eaten in unlimited quantities. That, for me, is the downfall of the Core Program. I found that I needed to count points to keep my portion size in check. While not having to count points is nice, it was evident in a couple of weeks that this program was not for me.
Something Weight Watchers emphasizes is keeping a food journal. If you attend meetings you receive a 7 day food journal as part of weighing-in, but you can also purchase a bound journal that lets you record 12 weeks worth of meals. I personally purchased a small notebook and recorded what I ate and its points that. There are other methods for counting points, such as a small beaded bracelet that lets you keep track of the points you have eaten as well as the calculator that not only keeps track of your daily points, but the 35 extra points you get in a week as well. However with the bracelet and calculator you are only recording the number of points eaten without a record of the actual food eaten.
Joining Weight Watchers
There are several ways to become a member of Weight Watchers. The most common way is to join a local meeting where you go once a week to be weighed in in private and then stay for a ½ hour motivational meeting. If you aren’t a meeting person you can (in some areas) purchase and At Home kit that includes everything you would get at a meeting. WW also offers an on-line program that allows you to keep track of your eating journal and exercise on-line and recipes. There are extensive support boards that are free for everyone to use.
Meetings start with a weigh-in, followed by a short 30-45 minute meeting. The meeting is staffed by Weight Watcher members who have reached their goal weights and have maintained their weight for at least 6 weeks. The meeting leader presents a topic for discussion related to weight loss. There is usually a time for questions and answers and then weight losses are celebrated. If you want you can share the amount of weight lost that week as well as your total loss. Token gifts are given for various weight loss achievements.
How Much Does it Cost?
Meeting prices vary by the area of the country. There is usually a one time sign-up fee, but WW often runs specials. Currently in my are meetings are almost $12 to attend meetings every week or $16 to attend only when you want to. If you choose the weekly $12 option you pay for missed meetings, although you do get a couple of free misses for vacations and such. You are not required to attend meetings at the same time or place, just bring your membership card to attend any meeting in a week. Once you pay for the first meeting of the week you can attend as many others as you want during the week for free, although you only weigh in once. The on-line program goes for $17 a month and if you attend meetings you can gain access to the on-line tools for an additional $13 per month.
You may find that there are additional expenses on top of the meeting or on-line costs. You may want to purchase additional tools or cookbooks. You will probably also find a change in your grocery bill. When my husband and I do WW together I spend less on groceries since I am not buying any high point, and often expensive, junk food. Even though fresh fruits and vegetables can be expensive since we are eating less in general our food bill seems to go down. But when I am doing WW on my own my husband still insists that I purchase chips and ice cream for him in addition to extra fruits and vegetables. I also tend to buy low point treats for myself so that I can enjoy low point ice cream while he eats the regular stuff. In that situation our food bill goes up significantly.
Weight Loss - That’s What It’s All About
I’ve joined Weight Watchers several times. The first time was before I got married. I lost 50 lbs in 6 months and became a Life Time Weight Watchers member by reaching my goal weight and maintaining it for 6 weeks. I kept most of the weight off for a year and then it started to come back so I went back to Weight Watcher meetings. Since I was a Lifetime member I did not have to pay the registration fee. I did well for 6 weeks and then found out I was pregnant so I had to stop. I went back to WW meetings when my oldest was 8 weeks old and I followed the special program that give nursing moms an extra 10 points per day. I lost weight quickly but I also lost motivation after about 6 months and I attended meetings sporadically.
When I finally recommitted, 2 months later I was pregnant again. This time I attended my first meeting when my 2nd daughter was only 8 days old. Unfortunately going to meetings was difficult with two little ones so I decided to try the on-line program for a while. My weight loss was very slow, I think mostly due to the fact that I wasn’t being weighed-in by someone else. I was on my own and it was too easy to just skip getting on the scale at home where I wasn’t paying someone else to weigh me. So back to meetings I went and following the same pattern a month later I was pregnant again.
Shortly after The Little Guy was born I went back to a meeting but as difficult as it was with two kids taking three children to a meeting was nearly impossible. While some areas of the country have meetings for mom’s and their kids there are none near me. While children are allowed it is hard to keep young children from disturbing others at meetings so I stopped going and decided to try once again at home.
Doing WW at home was a huge failure this time around. It took me a while to figure out why. After all I have been very successful the first couple of times I followed the program. For me, Weight Watchers has become a game. If 4 crackers is 2 points I try and figure out if I can have 4 ½ crackers for the same amount of points. I spent lots of time in the grocery store searching for low point prepared snacks like ice cream and cookies. Weight Watchers ceased to be a healthy eating plan but instead became a game of eating as much “food” as possible regardless of it was a healthy choice. It didn’t matter if something tasted good or not. If I could eat 50 of something for 1 point taste was not an issue only volume.
Instead I convinced my husband that we needed, together, to overhaul our bad eating habits before we passed them on to our children .He agreed. We have cut back on the processed carbohydrates we eat, upped out intake of fruits and vegetables, scaled back on snacks and count calories instead of points. This method, so far, has proved to be successful for us.
So do I Recommend Weight Watchers?
I do think Weight Watchers can be a great program for the right person. If you need a program with minimal structure WW may be a good match for you. You can select a program that limit’s the foods you eat (Core Plan) or a program that limit’s the amount of food you eat (Flex Plan). If you need someone to sit down and tell you exactly what to eat in a day then Weight Watchers is not for you.
Members need to make a lot of decisions for themselves as to what constitutes healthy eating. This means you get to take into consideration your food preferences and you will never have to eat something you detest. Since you are eating regular from the grocery store food from day 1 the program gives you the tools to learn to eat healthy for the rest of your life.
To keep the weight off long term you need to make changes to your eating habits that you can maintain for the rest of your life. If you choke down skim milk to lose weight but can’t stand it you will most likely eventually go back to the type of milk you like. You are better off learning to fit whole milk into your daily points allotment rather than depriving yourself and trying to eat food you don’t like.
Final Thoughts
While I was successful in losing weight with Weight Watchers on several occasions I was never really able to maintain the weight loss long term. Weight Watchers makes it too easy to not really change your eating habits, but simply substitute high calorie (and point) junk food for a lower point version. Without having made a real change in the way I eat it is too easy to simply opt for the high calorie treats again. In the end I find counting calories much more accurate for weight loss and easier than counting points.
Additional Products
Light & Tasty Magazine A Good Source for Point Friendly Meals
Journal Notebook An Alternative to the Weight Watchers Journals
Health-O-Meter A Great Home Scale
Recommended:
Yes
Approximate Monthly Cost (US$) 48
Food Variety Restrictions A wide variety of allowed foods
Restrictiveness of Portions Satisfying
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mmcphee
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Member: Mary Ellen
Location: Nutmeg State
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