How Does Weight Watchers Work? Is Weight Watchers for Me? {honest review}
This post contains affiliate links, but the opinions are mine.
Weight Watchers. We’ve all heard of it, and some of us have looked into it. But what really is it?
Have you ever wondered if it’s another one of those diets that everyone talks about, but no one really makes progress with? If you’re sitting on the fence wondering, “Is Weight Watchers for me?”, then this article is for you.
We will be discussing what Weight Watchers is, the pro’s and con’s, as well as things to be sure and consider before making that final decision.
What are Weight Watchers points?
Weight Watchers isn’t your typical food elimination diet. In fact, one thing that everyone loves about Weight Watchers is that no food is off limits. Instead the program is based on points. These points together represent your caloric intake, saturated fats, sugars and proteins.
They focus on three main areas depending on individual needs; Green, Blue and Purple.
- The Green focuses on 100- plus Zero Point food.
- The Blue is based on 200- plus Zero Point foods.
- The Purple totals 300- plus Zero Point foods.
To break this down a little bit more. Each individual, depending on which color you choose (yes it is a choice that can be made by each person), is distributed a certain amount of points that can be used throughout the week. This is based on your credentials: gender, weight, height, goal weight and activity.
Each color has different freedoms with food. For example, the purple group has 300 foods that have zero points where the green only has 100 foods that have zero points.
Say the purple group is only allotted 65 points a day, where the green group has 105 points per day. Overall you will end up in the same range of caloric intake because the value of points differ in each group. (get more details on calorie counting here).
Weight Watchers is a diet that focuses on community. It provides many opportunities for you to connect with other individuals who are struggling with the same things that you are. The program allows you to have a personal connection with coaches and advisors that will be able to help with all your questions, concerns and needs.
The majority of your interactions will happen via the app or online, but if you live somewhere with a studio close by you will be able to attend meetings and gym sessions there. In the end, if community is something that you thrive with this is definitely a great place to find it.
What are the challenges of weight watchers?
Now that we understand their system , we can see that the program can take up a lot of your time. If you don’t put forth a good effort in weighing, recording and measuring all foods, you probably won’t see the progress that you want to.
However, if done correctly it is overall simple to calculate your points using their resources and you will see results. Hopefully, the program teaches you a new way to build a lifestyle that will fit your needs in the future.
Weight Watchers Concerns
One concern people have found is that they tend to reserve points for particular foods they want, whether that is by skipping meals or not eating enough. This habit can lead to unhealthy lifestyle changes. Which is one reason they encourage individuals to seek out support.
Overall, Weight Watchers does have many wonderful attributes as well as a few different things to be cautious of. They want their clients to feel like they aren’t limited to specific food selections, but that one can enjoy any and everything, if done through moderation and tracking of points.
Calculating points, measuring and weighing food is essential to your success. This can be tedious and time consuming for individuals who aren’t accustomed to it. Community is a huge aspect of Weight Watchers. They want you to feel free to talk about any and everything relating to your health.
Lastly, Weight Watchers can be very expensive, and it does not include any exercise equipment, so be sure you have the budget for it.
In conclusion, no matter what you choose it is important to remember that the goal is to create new habits of health throughout your lifetime and not just a temporary fix.
Have you tried Weight Watchers before? Hit me up in the comments and share your story!
Check out some of my Weight Watchers recipes here!
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Weight Watchers was revised recently (mid-November 2022), so everyone is now on the same plan, EXCEPT for diabetics. This was after about a year of trialing an even different, more personalized strategy, where everyone had different zero-point foods, depending on a survey they took. My theory is that they discovered that people wanted to be able to share recipes with each other and not have the point values be different depending on the person. The advantages of personalization were overshadowed by the complexity. However, one aspect of personalization still present is that everyone has a customized “Daily Remaining” points total, based on things like gender, weight, height, etc… (the exact formula for determining these points is proprietary).
Based on this article, I think the scale of points is smaller now than when it was published? I get a total of 34 points each day and my wife gets 19 points. The article says, “…Say the purple group is only allotted 65 points a day, where the green group has 105 points per day…” but nobody gets that many points a day currently, that is way higher than anyone I know.
You do get weekly points added for doing exercise, which allows you to go over your Daily Remaining.
Also, Weight Watchers got a new CEO recently. She decided to go back to calling the program Weight Watchers instead of only using the WW acronym in case people are wondering if it still just goes by WW.
Will!Thank you for the updates. This article is absolutely out of date, but I DID participate in weight watchers for 2022 (until about August) with the new personalized points and i hated it!For the exact reason you suggest- that I couldn’t share recipes without everyone having different points. And in my opinion, my plan had way to many zero point foods!!I can’t BELIEVE they’ve changed it AGAIN! and I can’t believe they renamed it back. WOW. What a roller coaster for a company.
I might just have to sign up again just to check out the program so I can write a fresh article about it! THanks again for the heads up.
I should add that I lost 63 pounds on Weight Watchers this year! So despite the changes, it has been an excellent program for me.
I have been debating if I should join Weight Watchers. I appreciate this article. What if I join and it doesn’t suit me? Is it worth it to spend the money for something that “may” work?
I think the biggest thing is where you put your focus. Weight Watchers is a great tool to use, to teach you how to change old habits and develop a new lifestyle. If you want to learn more of how you can become healthier this is a good starting point. Try it out for one month and apply what you learn to your lifestyle if you like their methods you can keep doing it, if not you learned things to apply to your life.