Weight Watchers has reinvented itself for a new generation of weight loss
You’ve likely heard of Weight Watchers. It’s been around for a long time, but this is for good reason: It works. It’s been backed by the likes of Oprah, Kate Hudson, Jessica Simpson, and even DJ Khaled. It’s the diet choice of so many people because it takes a mindful moderation approach.
Weight Watchers isn’t a strict no carbs, all meat diet. In fact, you can eat whatever you want. Boiled down, it’s all about counting calories, but many healthy foods don’t even count towards your daily goal. Opt for a more hardcore diet than Weight Watchers and you likely won’t make it to the home stretch. Extreme diets just aren’t realistic when it comes to a long-term, healthy lifestyle.
How It Works
Weight Watchers’ approach is called WW Freestyle, and is called that for a reason. Using the SmartsPoint system, you’ll receive a daily budget, you’re allotted daily points to help you portion control your food to meet your weight loss goals. At a minimum, your daily points are enough for three meals a day, plus two snacks or more. It’s easy to track your points because you can go online or on the Weight Watchers mobile app to check how many points a certain food is worth.
In addition to your daily SmartPoints, you also receive weekly SmartPoints so you have some wiggle room in case you go a little over on a day to day basis. If you don’t use all of your daily points, you can roll up to four of them into your weekly bank. This gives you flexibility on the weekend to splurge a bit more than you otherwise would.
Another nice component to the Weight Watchers plan is the addition of ZeroPoint foods. These are foods that contribute to health eating patterns and don’t use any points at all. More than 200 foods are on the ZeroPoint list, and include things like fresh produce, eggs, salmon, and skinless chicken breast.
There’s also a dining out guide so you can get an idea of how many points specific meals add up to.
Weight Watchers offers flexibility in what you actually eat and no type of food is restricted.
But if you choose to eat or drink calorie-heavy desserts or beverages, for example, you won’t have as many points left for the rest of the day.
Tracking
Weight Watchers determines your weekly SmartPoints by looking at your height, weight, age, and gender. Every food you could possibly eat has a SmartPoints value which can be tracked. The amount of SmartPoints each food has is determined by its sugar, protein, saturated fat and calorie amount. With a few exceptions, most fruits and vegetables have a SmartPoints value of 0.
The idea is to think of SmartPoints the same as you would money. You have a weekly budget which determines what you can and cannot afford in the real world. It’s the same with WW’s SmartPoints. If you eat something with a lot of SmartPoints (or SP as it’s commonly called), then your food budget for the week goes down.
Remember, most healthy foods don’t affect your SP, so you’re never going to go hungry, but you may not be able to indulge just when you want to, which is logical considering it’s a weight loss program.
Membership Options
You have three options to choose from, all of which come with a new member starter fee of $20.
Digital
This plan starts at $3.07 a week (or $12.28 monthly).
It comes with free access to a user friendly, easy-to-use app and website. Here you can track your weight, physical activity, as well as your food consumption. Use whichever platform you want. The two communicate to accommodate you wherever you are.
You’ll also get access to a coach 24 hours a day, seven days a week via the web. Ask them anything you want. These are weight loss experts and they’re there to help.
On a similar vein, you can also connect with other Weight Watchers members. Share your progress with either videos or pictures and read tips and tricks from other members. If you want to get inspired and stay inspired, this is the way to go.
Lastly, you’ll also gain access to a huge database with over 4,000 recipes. Have something your craving? Find a smart, healthy recipe to satisfy your craving.
Workshop + Digital
The price of this plan is determined by your zip code, but many users pay around $6 a week, or about $24 a month.
With this plan you get everything mentioned above, but you also get access to in-person workshops to help you on your weight loss journey.
At the workshops you can expect the following:
You’ll meet with your personal Weight Watchers’ guide, privately weigh yourself, and discuss your wins both on and off the scale. During the 30-minute meeting with your weight loss group, you can discuss topics relating to weight loss and overall health. It’s up to you whether you want to share your thoughts or just listen. The incentive is that you’ll earn 50 “wins” just for showing up, which can be cashed in for a variety of rewards.
Weight Watchers has thousands of workshops across the country every week. You can attend any time that suits your schedule best, be it morning, afternoon, or evening. Sign up online or over the phone. You’re never locked into a workshop if your schedule changes.
Coaching + Digital
This plan starts at $7.11 a week ($28.44 monthly) and comes with everything discussed in the Digital section. In addition to those perks, it also comes with a personal coach. You choose which person with whom you want to work. Call or text him or her as often as you need.
Once you’ve chosen your coach and talked with him or her about your fitness and weight goals, your coach will then establish a plan that works with your schedule and lifestyle. Of all the plans Weight Watchers offers, this plan is undoubtedly the most personalized. Your coach will establish accountability with you, and will be with you every step of the way to inspire you and give you clear, achievable goals.
Weight Watchers App
The Weight Watchers app comes with everything you need to get started and stay motivated.
Don’t know what to cook or eat? It has over 4,000 recipes you can choose from and is broken up into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack categories. If you have a dietary need, you can also filter out meals according to:
- Gluten Free
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy Free
- Diabetes Friendly
Want to know how many SmartPoints a particular food is at the grocery store? Scan it. The app comes with a barcode scanner that tells you exactly how that particular food fits into your weekly diet.
Have a fitness device? You can sync it up with the Weight Watchers app. Fitbits, as well as many other devices, work seamlessly with it.
FitPoints 2.0
You get points for working out, which you can then trade in for Smartpoints. How many points you get depends on the activity, its duration, as well as your age and weight. Want to lose weight but still indulge? This is how you do it. FitPoints allows you to live the life you want to live without feeling like you’re missing out.
Simply input your activities to start reaping the rewards.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Weight Watchers cost each month?
How much weight can you lose in a week or month?
It depends on a variety of factors, but the average weight loss is about two pounds a week, or eight pounds a month. The first month you will probably lose more weight than future months, which is completely normal. Many people lose well over ten pounds their first month, but after that things tend to slow down.
Weight Watchers is a slow and steady approach to weight loss, which is much healthier and reasonable for your body. Though the goal is to lose weight as fast as possible, typically the faster you lose weight the faster you put it back on. Additionally, rapid weight loss has been linked to a variety of health problems.
How do you track your points?
You can do so either online or via your smartphone with the Weight Watchers app. The two sync up, so if you’re away from one, you can still track your points with the other.
The app is highly intuitive, and you can track your points with either the barcode scanner, a simple search, drop-down menus, or by pre-tracking your meal ahead of time.