Weight Watchers Is Not a Diet
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Weight Watchers (WW) has gotten a bad rap over the years, despite being consistently ranked by U.S. News as one of the best weight loss diets. People accuse it of being a diet and hurting a basic understanding of nutrition. To be honest, I completely understand where these viewpoints are coming from, in fact I talk about the possible shortcomings of the program here.
In the 7 years since I first found WW success, I have learned a lot about nutrition. That is why I believe that WW is an excellent way to lose weight and develop healthy food habits.
What is WW?
WW is a weight loss program that assigns foods a point value instead of just using calories. The program’s goal is to get you to lose weight, and you can use the program to lose weight anyway you want.
The Reimagined program assigns a higher point value to foods high in saturated fat and sugar. The four nutrients you have to enter into the calculator to figure out its points are calories, saturated fat, sugar, and protein. Usually the points for junk food are higher than healthy food. (You only have to use the calculator if the app doesn’t have the food already in the database, which isn’t often) This makes it very hard to fit a steady stream of junk food into your diet.
Don’t be dismayed, where the program heavily penalizes for junk food, it gives you loads of healthy food for free. To offset the high point value in junk food, nearly every healthy staple you can think of has ZERO points. I’m going to list as many groups as I can just off the top of my head; beans, lentils, chicken and turkey breasts, fish, shrimp, vegetables (minus potatoes), and fruits (minus avocados). You can look at the full list here, but you get it. That is incredible. (update: WW just got even better! Check out this post to see why.)
Wait…food I don’t have to track?
Correct, you don’t have to log these foods. You can literally eat as many of those foods as you want and you will lose weight on this program. WW claims you won’t pig out on those foods, and as a person who is an overeater and snacker, they are right. I have yet to lose control on those foods.
This gives the program more freedom than it has ever had before. I can technically still eat junk with my points and fill the rest of the day with zero point foods… but that is hard and I don’t want to do that everyday. Plus, I don’t feel my best eating that way. Therefore the new Reimagined program has forced me to start changing my habits.
For long term success, change your habits.
Unfortunately if you just “play the game” of WW then you can become dependent on the program for long term weight loss success. (What I mean by play the game is that you just eat what you want and less of it. You eat as much of the bad as you can possibly fit into your points, but you continue to lose because you stay within your points) If you do this, it is a diet. You will be unable to keep the weight off when you go off the program.
I know this because the first time I lost 40 pounds on WW was between my first two kids. When I went off the program, I gained 10 pounds before becoming pregnant with my second daughter. Why?! What happened? I didn’t change my relationship with food, I kept eating the bad foods but less of them, and I relied heavily on exercise to continue eating crap.
You can’t eat tons of junk food
In fact, that’s why it was really hard for me to adjust to the new Reimagined program at first…because I didn’t want to change my habits. I still wanted to drink soda and eat candy, but the new program makes it VERY hard to do that.
If you eat like that, you will starve because a Snickers full size candy bar has 12 points and a bottle of Dr. Pepper has 13 points. I would consume 25 points on that snack (a mere 455 calories), yet I only have 23 points for the day (this snack would put me 2 points in the hole).
But WW has changed a lot over the years, and all the changes have been for the better. The changes they are making are ones that will get people to make healthy choices a real part of their life. Here’s how.
How WW Reimagined Works
The new program offers tons of flexibility that MyFitnessPal and other food trackers don’t. Here are 4 key reasons that set it apart from other programs and sets you on the path for intuitive eating.
1. You start your week with safety net of 36 weekly points.
When you go over your daily points, it starts to pull points from your weekly stash. By doing this you still stay in your allowance of points for the week, and you won’t be in the hole for that day. This is what sets it apart from a regular online food diary, and why I find it easier to succeed at WW.
Digital: Track food, activity, & weight any time with our digital tools, track to earn rewards with WellnessWins™. Learn more..
Losing weight is such a mental game. According to Brain Powered Weight Loss, one of the problems people have with succeeding on a diet is black and white thinking. WW helps me break that thinking pattern by seeing how the food I eat day to day all works together towards weight loss and proper nutrition. I can see and understand how one bad meal or day isn’t going to ruin my week.
2. Exercise Points Can Be Used When You Want.
You can earn activity points and use them throughout the week, instead of only on the day you exercised. That helps me listen to my body because I’m usually hungrier the day after a run than the day of the run.
3. Rollover Points
If you find yourself less hungry and unable to eat all of your daily points, the program will roll up to 4 points over each day (into your weekly points). This helps me learn to listen to my body and its full cues.
Then when I have a day where I want to eat more than my 23 points, I can just use the points that I rolled over. It’s very nice to be able to have this kind of flexibility.
4. Support and Incentives
There is also amazing community support and incentives for meeting your goals called “Weekly Wins”. They will give you free things when enough points have been earned and the prizes are good! You earn wins by doing simple things like logging your food and weight or being active. It’s actually really fun. That’s the funny thing about WW, it can be a fun sort of game to get your points to work together all while losing weight and learning better habits.
Digital: Track food, activity, & weight any time with our digital tools, track to earn rewards with WellnessWins™. Learn more..
Why WW is not a diet
If you are reading this thinking, “But it still sounds like diet to me,” keep reading. Here is why I believe it is a tool for success to help you on you reach your weight loss goals.
WW Teaches you to eat intuitively
Since you don’t have to weigh the zero point foods, I just eat until I am full with no obligation to finish my plate. When you have pre-measured portions that are logged on MFP, you often put pressure on yourself to eat it all because you can. You worry if you don’t you will be hungry later. WW alleviates that stress. I stop eating when I am full, if I am hungry later, I just eat some zero point fruit, veggies, chicken, or beans… all of which are healthy.
On the days when I need chocolate or some junk, I can work it into my weekly points. I just have to measure my portions and stick to it. Measuring the food with a scale helps train me to eyeball proper portion sizes when I no longer track my food.
If I want the junk, no food is off limits on WW or with intuitive eating, so I eat the junk. I have learned that in a well rounded diet, some junk food in a proper portion is okay.
You Can Follow Any Diet While on WW
Another perk is that WW is a weight loss program, but not a specific diet. This means you can pair it with your diet of choice. For example, I am currently eating a plant based diet. You’d think that alone would cause me to lose weight, it didn’t.
There are still ways to eat too many calories on a plant based diet. I don’t have to log any of the beans or lentils, but I do have to be accountable for oils, avocado, grains, hummus, and dried fruits. Turns out overeating those foods was the problem, and I am learning to keep those portions under control.
The WW program can compliment any diet you choose (Keto, Vegan, Paleo, Vegetarian, Clean Eating, intermittent fasting) to help you shed some weight. It’s a weight loss program, so if you find yourself at an unbreakable plateau doing any of those diets mentioned above, try pairing it with WW. I guarantee you will lose weight.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I love WW and will always crawl back to it when I need to lose weight because it is not a diet. It is a weight loss program that when followed as intended, will help you lose weight. You can pair it with any diet you are on, and you will lose weight.
Don’t “play the WW game” which is simply eating less and not changing your habits. If you do this, you will lose weight, but you will become dependent on the program. That’s when the program becomes a diet and you will regain weight when you quit. In this case, long term success without the program will be nearly impossible.
If you start today, you will never regret it.
