I’ve Tried Them All, and Succeeded with Weight Watchers
Written: Jan 25 '01 (Updated Jan 25 '01)
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Pros: Regular food, inexpensive, encouragement, classes, group therapy, reasonable lifestyle demands, and it works!
Cons: Few other men, Weight Watches Points slide rule is too big to use daily
The Bottom Line: Here is a program of education, eating regular food, adding reasonable exercise, that nearly anyone could do. The cost is reasonable and the benefits are great.
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| topolski's Full Review: Weight Watchers 1-2-3 Success Traditional Meetings |
I joined Weight Watchers, like many others, because of a New Year Resolution to lose weight. However, I stayed on Weight Watchers because of the reasonableness of the program, the cost, and because it ultimately works. It is because of Weight Watchers that I have brought my diabetes under control without insulin or any prescription drugs. I exercise an average of 10 hours a week (and enjoy it) and I consume an average of 1,800 calories. I lose between 1-2 pounds a week and I have stayed on the program for over a year.
The Meetings
Weight Watchers offers meetings in most city and suburban neighborhoods, in the morning, afternoon, or evening and on weekdays and weekends. It’s easy to find a meeting. Local offices are listed in the white pages, you can call 1-800-651-6000, or hit their web site at www.weightwatchers.com.
The cost in my local area is $12 a week. If you miss a week, you pay $24 the next week. This encourages you to keep participating, but if you’ve ever been on NutriSystem or Jenny Craig, you know that their costs – which are also built into the cost of their foods – are quite a bit higher.
At each meeting, you will weigh yourself. The weigh-in is semi-private. You’ll stand in line until your turn, go behind a screen, and jump on the scale. Your weight is not visible to the class. They record your stats into your take-home log and on their local record. If you have a personal/private question, now is your alone time with the instructor. If you have hit a 5-pound milestone, you will get a little sticker for your book to recognize your achievement.
Following the weigh-in, your class will gather. Usually there is lots of conversation as others weigh in and you wait for the class to start. This is a good time to make friends and catch those tips not covered in class. Once the weigh-ins are over, a class begins that quickly reviews and reinforces what was taught in the previous week and gives new information. The classes are quite good, with skills for goal building and tracking, food choices, exercising, coping with restaurants and parties, and lots of group Q&A and other interaction.
One of the benefits of the meetings and classes is group therapy. You will learn that the way that you feel about food – which you believed was quite abnormal and upsetting – was actually not that unique. There is comfort in finding others who share the same struggles as you do.
At each meeting, there is time for positively reinforcing personal milestones reached. The class applauds weight losses, exercise accomplishments, new recipes, and other victories.
If there is a downside to the class, it is the long wait before the class starts in large sessions. This is particularly noticeable after the first of the year, during “New Years Resolution” season. It is also noticeable just before swimsuit season. Another downside, for men, is the lack of men. I had to hit the Internet to find other men in Weight Watchers. Men, expect to be outnumbered 20 to 1. Many sessions have no men, although Weight Watches does not exclude men. Nevertheless, there are men in Weight Watchers, you can and should be successful regardless.
The Plan
The food you will eat is the food you buy in the grocery store every day. There is no food to buy at Weight Watchers. The company does have a brand that you can buy in stores, but most of us do not buy it except on rare occasion. The food is regular food from the everyday USDA Food Pyramid, and this is one of the reasons why the program is so successful.
The activity and exercise encouraged is also nothing from the US Navy Seal Book of Fitness. It ranges from easy walking and light aerobics, and particularly teaches you how to choose an exercise plan that fits you and how to add exercise to your daily activities (like walking up stairs instead of taking an elevator, or parking away from the mall entrance on purpose).
You will learn to measure and record food in a proprietary, trademarked, measurement that Weight Watchers calls Points. They will issue you a guide that assigns Point values to foods and exercises, and a (too big to carry everywhere) slide-rule device for figure out Points from the nutritional information labels. It does not take long to figure out that every 50 calories is a Point, every 12 grams of fat adds an additional Point and every 5 grams of fiber takes away a Point, so you can just throw that slide rule in the drawer once you don’t need it anymore.
Logging is an important part of succeeding with this program. It keeps you on track and prevents excursions away from your plan. I have found that logging or not logging often defines success or failure on any given day. When I log diligently, I stick to the plan.
Success or Failure
Weight Watchers wins because it is simply eating regular foods, eating them correctly portioned and with regard to fat and fiber and appropriate amounts of grains, vegetables, proteins, and fats, and works at any grocery store, restaurant, or company cafeteria. It reinforces success and teaches strategies, and allows you to meet people who have the same struggles and goals as you do. It teaches you how to change from your current lifestyle to one that is healthy and relatively easy to integrate into your work and home life.
Besides the classes and the program, Weight Watchers maintains a web site of additional tips and articles, recipes, and other resources. They also have a magazine.
Outside of Weight Watchers, there are a ton (excuse the pun) of online resources. Fans have put up web pages, started mailing lists and recipe databases, and wrote software to figure out Points. All this speaks to a large (sorry again) community of supporters to help you succeed.
Moreover, when you do succeed, Weight Watchers welcomes you to keep coming back, free. I am sure they do this because you are their walking advertisement. You help dispense good advice and encourage others to stick to their goals.
Conclusion
I’ve tried them all, and succeeded with Weight Watchers.
Recommended:
Yes
Approximate Monthly Cost (US$) 12
Food Variety Restrictions A wide variety of allowed foods
Restrictiveness of Portions Satisfying
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Epinions.com ID:
topolski
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Member: Robert Topolski
Location: Hillsboro, OR
Reviews written: 23
Trusted by: 12 members
About Me:
I sing baritone in a barbershop quartet!
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