Weight Watchers Program Overview

Founded in 1963, Weight Watchers is a commercial weight loss program that focuses on the “four pillars” of food, behaviors, exercise and support (group counseling).

How the Program Works
The program is based on the use of regular grocery store food, optionally supplemented with Weight Watchers food items. The focus of this program is portion control and moderate, steady weight loss (average of 1-2lbs per week). No foods are "off limits", but you do account for everything you eat and assign a point value to it. The goal is to stay within a certain daily point level. While not a focus of the support group meetings or planning, exercise is encouraged.

Although the Weight Watchers program is based on the use of regular grocery store food, you can choose from hundreds of company items found in the supermarket (dinner entrees, breakfast foods, snacks, ice cream, salad dressings, etc.). Again, the purchase of company food items is completely optional and is not pushed by the company. This is a big reason why this program is much more affordable than other programs like Jenny Craig or NutriSystem.

The latest program offering is called TurnAround. TurnAround offers a choice of two food plans: the Flex Plan or the Core Plan. With the Flex Plan, you can enjoy the full range of food options and track their POINTS. This is the points-based approach that the company has used for many years. Similar versions of this plan in recent years have been known as Winning Points and Personal Choice. Like its predecessors, the TurnAround plan is the mainstay of the Weight Watchers program utilizing the points-based approach.

The objective of the Core Plan is to help you control calories by focusing on a core list of wholesome, nutritious foods without tracking points or counting calories. The list includes foods from the standard food groups defined by the USDA food pyramid – grains, vegetables, fruits, fats and oils, dairy, and meats and beans - to ensure that all nutritional requirements are met. To help you avoid feeling too restricted on the Core Plan, it allows you to have occasional treats in controlled portions.

Weight Watchers Online
More recently, the company has strengthened its online presence and offers a variety of resources, including an online journal, a points calculator, a customized Weight Tracker, 1500 recipes with points values, a database of over 31,000 foods to calculate daily points values, and restaurant guides. You can now take advantage of the TurnAround plan 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from anywhere with internet access.

Program Costs
The Weight Watchers program is affordable, flexible, and safe. Initial program registration varies from $12-30 (registration plus first week), plus a weekly meeting fee. The registration fee is often waived with periodic promotions. Weekly meetings range in cost from $8.95/week for those that attend regularly to $12/week for those who come less frequently. If you achieve your goal weight and maintain it for 6 weeks, you become a lifetime member and your ongoing weekly meeting fees are waived.

Weight Watchers Online is available for a 7 day free trial, at the end of which your subscription to the 3-month savings plan automatically becomes active. This costs $65 for the first 3 months, then $16.95/month as long as you are on the plan. The free 7 day trial is only available to new clients in the U.S.

Conclusion
The main focus of the program is that every item of food from pizza to potatoes and cake to carrots has a point value based on its nutritional content. You may eat what you want as long as you stay within your allotment of points. This point system causes you to reduce your caloric intake and lose weight, but it doesn’t necessarily help you identify healthier eating choices. With the Core Plan, however, you focus more on a balanced nutritious menu and learn more about healthy nutrition and eating habits that you can incorporate into life-long behaviors.

This program is attractive to many people for its flexibility and affordability and can be effective. The Core Plan appears to be designed more for teaching life-long behaviors that may enable you to more effectively maintain your weight loss for the long-term compared to the more popular points-based Flex Plan option.

SBI!