Weight Watchers® Review
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Weight Watchers Review Basics:
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Overview |
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Weight Watchers has been around for over 35 years and has grown into one of the best known brands in the weight loss industry. The basic idea behind the plan is that foods are allocated points based on their own special formula which takes into account the amount of calories and saturated fat an item contains. When you first attend a meeting or signup online then you provide your height and weight etc and you are given a daily points allowance which you have to stick to. You also get an small weekly points allowance which you can use to ‘cheat’ a bit when you fancy a treat. There is another system for people who hate the idea of counting points, this allows you to eat as much as you want from a list of healthy foods they provide. You are supposed to eat until satisfied not stuffed, and the idea is the healthy foods are also filling so even though you are allowed to eat as much as you want then you will quickly fill yourself up so you don’t eat too much. Personally I like the normal points system best as no food is off limit. People have criticised the system as just a glorified way of calorie counting and some people say it sounds too complicated. I agree it is basically a way to monitor fat and caloire intake, but that is a positive not a negative. To lose weight then you need to use more calories than you consume, either by eating less than your body uses daily, and/or adding in exercise to increase the amount you use. Normal calorie counting can be very tedious, but with the points system it turns it into a challenge to see whether you can stick to the points for the day. We associate ‘points’ with games and calories with dieting, so this subtle mental shift gets you to enjoy the process rather than dread it. I also agree it can seem complicated at first, but with the use of a points book or the online system you can quickly find out how many points almost anything has, and like any lifestyle change then it will take a while to get used to. But after you have been using the system for a few weeks then you will find it a lot easier and probably won’t even have to look up most of your meals to figure out how many points they contain. Using a system like this helps you to focus on how much you are eating every day (I was surprised how much I underestimated my daily calorie intake when I wasn’t measuring it) and also what you are eating. When you know how much of your daily point allocation that chocolate cake will use then you don’t feel so inclined to eat it. Another good aspect of the points system is that you can earn more points to use just by exercising (or even just moving more, you can earn points for mowing the lawn for instance). So you get bribed to get out exercising which is a great way to get people moving more. You have two options to learn the system, offline meetings or an online membership site, or if you know the system and have a points book you could do neither and just monitor yourself. I have been inside the site and attended a meeting so let’s look at each in turn: Meetings The meetings are very motivational. Once you have signed up and received your starter pack then you weigh in on some precise digital scales and discuss what your ideal weight should be. You get two targets to aim for at first, a 5% drop in bodyweight and a 10% drop, when you reach each one you get a small gift and you are congratulated by the group. When you reach your ideal weight (which could be less than 10% of your bodyweight if you don’t need to lose that much) then the meetings are free as long as you stay within 5lbs of your ideal weight. This means you can go whenever you need a bit of motivation or start to slip. The meetings are hosted by a WW leader and you all discuss the topic for the week and discuss how much weight people have lost. The atmosphere is very friendly and everyone gives each other tips they have found out and motivates each other. The talks are on topics I believe are decided by the WW headquarters and you get a printed booklet to add to your ring binder each week so you can refer back to what you spoke about. The leader at my meeting was very friendly, she sat me down and took me through everything, gave me advice on how to get the most out of the diet and how to get started on it right away. Some people have said they didn’t get on with their leader or group which is always a possibility, but you won’t know unless you try one. Going to a meeting each week and having to say if you lost weight or not is a big motivator to stick to the diet, nobody wants to go in and say they pigged out all week and put on weight! You only get a small starter pack when you join the meetings with possibly a couple of hundred foods and their points values listed, as well as some recipes and other advice. So I also purchased a recipe book, an electronic gadget which calculates points values for you and tracks your points expenditure, along with the food companion books that list the points values of thousands of foods. Online membership site Please note we received a free 7 day trial to the site as we are in the UK and couldn’t sign up to the US version of the site, so we did pay for the meeting ourselves and all the guides etc in the photo below, but not the online membership site. The online membership site can be used in conjunction with the offline meetings, and you can get a monthly pass that gives you access to both for a discounted rate, or you can just use it by itself and skip the meetings. The core of the site is the ‘Plan manager’ which is an interface where you can search for foods and get their points values, you can add in what you ate all day and track how many points you are using etc. In the same place you can also get access to 2000+ recipes and their points values, you can also input what chores and exercises you have been doing and it will calculate the extra points you have earned from that and add it onto your weekly points total for you to use. The whole thing is really easy to use, you can see they have put a lot of effort into making it user-friendly – you can sort recipes by the time they take to make, how difficult they are to make, or how many points they are etc. You can even use it to find the point values of foods at popular places like Subway®, then you can add that in if you have had one and see how it affects your total. Back in the main area you have a huge list of message boards, all the ones I checked were really active with lots of answers and support being given. You can choose your favourites to monitor too so you don’t need to go through the full list each time you go in. There is a powerful community side in there, you will find groups & challenges you can join, there is an area for people to submit their recipes which has around 15,000 so far, you get your own profile and can add people as friends, you even get your own blog if you want it and can read other peoples blogs. You get helpful articles in almost every section of the site plus there is a comprehensive ‘Your plan’ section which tells you everything you need to know about sticking to the diet and how to use your points etc. There is a section which gives success stories and interviews with people who have succeeded with the plan. There is a section with videos on how to prepare different foods, articles on how to cook foods in different ways, tips on eating out and you can search through recipes based on their main ingredient or just browse based on whether they are breakfast recipes or lunch etc. Then there is a fitness section which gives you loads of different workout plans for everything from walking to treadmill and elliptical trainer workouts, full body workouts, workouts to do in your hotel if travelling and lots more. Each gives detailed instructions and tells you how long to do everything for, even what speed and incline to have the treadmill on! Plus everything is punctuated throughout with videos to help show you any exercises they tell you to do. You can see a lot of time, effort and money has gone into this system, and the diet is extremely well thought of both online and off. Lots of the people at my meeting had lost 10lbs plus, and some had lost 49lb and more! This diet is more expensive than just buying a book like with some other diets, but if you really want to go it alone then once you know what to do you can buy the book with all the points values in and carry on yourself. You can get a free 7 day trial to the site at the moment so you can check it all out without spending any money, on the site you can also put in your zipcode and find out what meetings are taking place near you, use the button below to visit the site.
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Proof we have actually signed up, attended a meeting and explored inside the membership site – click pictures to enlarge |
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What’s included? |
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With the meetings you get:
On the membership site you get:
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Weight Watchers Review – The Good & The Bad:
Pros
- Encourages you to watch what you eat, and how much you eat so you control your calorie intake
- You can get more points by exercising so that rewards you and encourages you to exercise
- Gives you structure, goals and motivation to help you stick to the diet as well as a community atmosphere (both with the offline meetings and online site)
- Teaches you how to eat more healthily for life not just for the period you are trying to lose weight
Cons
- Recurring cost (although offline meetigs are free when you reach your target weight)
- Can be overwhelming at first to overhaul your diet and start working out your points
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User Comments |
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Looking online then we have found lots of positive comments and lots of people saying how much weight they have lost (some people have lost 100lbs+). There are some people who said it didn’t work for them, but even they said they’d still recommend it to others which is incredible! |
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Customer Support |
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There is a contact form on the main site you can use to contact them if you have problems, I had a response within 24 hours to my question. Plus in the site you get access to the message boards if you have trouble, and at the meetings of course you can just speak to the leader or one of the hosts if you have any trouble, so this deserves the full 5 stars. |
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