Weight Watchers
Summary
Weight Watchers is an international company started in 1963 by a Brooklyn homemaker named Jean Nidetch. It operates in 30 countries around the world.
Weight Watchers encourages members to choose a weight that fits in the healthy range of their BMI or Body Mass Index. Once they achieve that weight then they continue on to the maintenance program. After the six week maintenance period if the member stays within 2 pounds of their goal weight they become a “Lifetime” member.
The company provides meetings and tools online for an extra fee to help members reach their goals. Members eat on a point system. Each food has a certain number of points and you are allowed a certain number each day.
Review
People seem to like this program. It teaches portion control and allows people to eat foods they enjoy as long as they fit in the point system. Weight Watchers also encourages exercise and physicians approve of this way of losing weight. Having meetings is a good way of keeping a good support system to keep you on track. If you are someone that needs someone else to keep track of things for you and get you on the right track this might be a good way to go as a start.
Having said that I wouldn’t recommend this diet. First of all, I think I would go a bit crazy having to live on a point system all the time. Really we need to learn to listen to our bodies to tell when we are full. This takes practice and time. When you learn to do this however, it is not as hard to pass on seconds at dinner.
Second, Weight Watchers does not teach you how to eat healthy. They tell you can eat anything you want as long as you are within your points. Please read my pages on healthy eating and exercise. We are not made to eat just anything. Not all calories are the same. Yes if you stay in your points you will probably lose weight because you are restricting calories but in the long run you did not feed you body what it really needed which is a well balanced diet.
Third, be wary of the Weight Watchers frozen foods. They also do not promote healthy eating. They are packed with high sodium and sugar. These are not things that help you lose weight. They do not tell your body that you are serious about losing weight. You need to eat foods that actually change your body’s chemistry so you can be that “fat burning machine”.
Lastly, some of the reviews that I read were not satisfied with the online services. Once they signed up they realized that the program was not what they wanted and they couldn’t get their money back. Read the reviews for yourself before handing over your credit card.