Weight Watchers gives members the option of participating online or at local meetings once a week. The program promotes weight loss by assigning dieters a personalized points budget to spend on food. Weight Watchers provides members with a guidebook that lists the points value for common foods and a slide to find points values for other foods based on calorie, fat and fiber content.
Identification
Points allowance refers to the number of points you are allotted daily based on personalized factors. Weight Watchers bases your points allowance on your gender, age, height, weight and activity level. Nursing mothers are allotted an additional 5 to 10 points, depending on whether breast milk is supplemented with formula. Weight Watchers encourages food journaling to help you track your points and stay within your points budget.
Features
Weight Watchers allows you to spend your points allowance on any foods, as long as you stay within your budget. However, the program encourages you to make healthy choices from a list of nutritionally dense foods referred to as "filling foods." The list available on the Weight Watchers website includes a large selection of fruits and vegetables, healthy grains, soups, lean meats, seafood, meat and dairy substitutes, dairy products and eggs.
Bonus Points
In addition to your standard points budget, Weight Watchers gives you a weekly allowance of 35 bonus points. Spending these bonus points is optional. Saving the points to add to another week's bonus is not allowed, but otherwise the points can be spent at your discretion. Add 5 points to your daily budget, spend the points all at once or spend them at various amounts throughout the week.
Activity Points
Weight Watchers gives you the option of increasing your points allowance through exercise. Starting in your third week on the program, you can boost your points budget with physical activity. Weight Watchers calculates activity points based on the intensity and duration of the exercise, as well as your current weight. In general, you earn 1 activity point for every 100 calories burned during exercise.
Considerations
Your points allowance is not a permanent, fixed number. As you lose weight, your points allowance decreases because your current weight is one of the factors used to calculate your points target. When you reach your weight-loss goal, you become a lifetime member. Lifetime members have access to the program free of charge as long as they stay within 2 lbs. of their original weight goal, according to Weight Watchers.
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