Weight Watchers Review

Weight Watchers Review - When founder Jean Nidetch began inviting friends into her  Queens, New York home once a week to trade weight loss strategies forty years ago, Weight Watchers was born. 

Today, millions of people turn to the group-based program to help them shed weight.  A medical advisory board featuring nutritionist and weight loss experts keeps the company on the cutting edge. 

Instead of telling you what you can and can't eat, Weight Watchers motivates dieters to make healthful decisions to help instill permanent lifestyle changes.  With an array of choices, ease and a lot of flexibility, it's easy to understand why dieters lose weight on this plan. 

Even the POINTS system is trouble free once you get the hang of it. The number of POINTS allowed each day is determined by your gender, weight, height, age and how you spend your days, and because low-fat, high-fiber foods have the fewest POINTS values; the system encourages such foods by default.

In the Core Plan, you pick from a list of fiber-rich, low-cal foods, but can also go 'off-list' for occasional splurges like dessert.  Both plans essentially follow a low-calorie, high-fiber diet. Members are also welcome to join the Weight Watchers population online, at WeightWatchers.com.  From the privacy of their homes, members can form virtual support groups, monitor progress and access hundreds of approved recipes.  If it's not convenient to prepare the meals at home, they offer a wide variety of frozen meals and point-complimenting menu items at Applebee's.

Weight Watchers was made popular by a points system called Flex Plan.  A point value is assigned to each food on the comprehensive list of more than 27,000 foods.  The Flex Plan allows you to eat the foods you like.  Just stay within your daily points and you can still enjoy fried chicken and Diet Pepsi.  It's an easy plan to follow, offers great flexibility and has proven successful for more than 40 years.

What we like about this plan  It has a stellar reputation in the dieting community. Buying food is not a requirement for this plan. The plan educates the dieter on healthier eating habits.  Dieters can follow the core plan or the flex plan.  The centers and/or website offer plenty of tools and resources.  The plan has plenty of variety and the ability to eat all food groups, eliminating cravings and no-no’s.  The point system is simple to follow.  It is suitable for vegetarians. 

What we dislike about this plan  Web membership can detract from the social aspect of going into a location, and getting on that scale.  The points system is by no means a complete indicator of the nutritional value of the food. The costs for online or meetings can start to mount up.  If you are looking for fast rapid weight lose this is not for you.

How Healthy is This Plan?  It can be extremely healthy or very nutritionally poor,depending on the individual member. Since points give the followers free will in choices, dieters could try to survive entirely on candy bars and milkshakes provided they stay within their daily allowance.

Some dieters may eat a high number of low-points foods and end up without the proper amount of daily dietary fat or protein. Others might under eat all day and save up their Points for a single splurge. But dieters who take a balanced approach to the system, thrive on guidance and support, and create a weight watchers advised exercise plan will create a super healthy lifestyle with life transforming results. 

Weight Watchers gets a lot of respect from the health community because it's balanced; it gives people many ways to lose weight, and it retrains people in how they view food and eating. 
 

Here’s The Bottom Line  This is the matriarch of all weight loss programs.  Weight Watchers teaches a moderate path to weight loss and lifelong healthy habits: How to plan a more balanced diet, control cravings and impulses,reduce time spent sitting, and increase activity.  With the added bonus of group support, whether in weekly meetings or online communities, many people find this plan, along with an exercise plan,the best diet on the block.

If you don't mistreat the points system, you can create a balanced, beneficial diet. Weight Watchers' real success is the support network and educational tools.  Weight Watchers provides support from every aspect of weight loss- so you're never left without information or support. 

Food is one of the key concerns of any dieter and Weight Watchers goes above and beyond most other weight loss programs with thousands of recipes that anyone, dieting or not, will find enticing and mouth-watering. If all of this information appeals to you, do not hesitate to try this plan.