The Weight Watchers program utilizes an innovative set of "food points" to help participants track calories, monitor their diet and lose weight. Rather than telling participants what to eat, the program instead gives each person a daily "points" budget. Throughout the day, program participants choose the foods they wish to eat and track the points they have consumed. When participants follow the Weight Watchers food point guide and consistently stay at their points' allowance, weight loss should occur.
Points Values
As explained on the Weight Watchers website, "every food has a points value, based on its calories, fat and fiber." The goal of the program is to stay within your personalized points budget every day. The program includes points for fast food options, restaurant meals and packaged foods. The program also offers the points values for a variety of recipes that participants can make at home. Weight Watchers offers a variety of pamphlets, books and calculators to help participants track meal points.
Exercise
Adding exercise to your daily routine gives you a greater points budget. As explained on the Weight Watchers website, the program's POINTS Activity System "uses a formula that includes the level of intensity as well as body weight and minutes of exercise to calculate the amount of energy expended." Once you have calculated the number of points earned through exercise, add these points to your meal points allowance for the day.
Considerations
Although the Weight Watchers points program is an effective weight loss option for some people, other people may need a stricter program. Since program participants are allowed to choose their own foods, it becomes quite easy to indulge in unhealthy foods with little nutritional value. Additionally, participants must not only track their points throughout the day, but also plan for later meals. For example, eating a high-point breakfast and a high-point lunch may leave you with very few points for dinner.
Saving Points
If you have plans to go out for dinner, drinks and dessert, you might need a few extra points. Fortunately, the program allows you to save up points for a few days. For example, if you are allowed to eat 24 points in one day, you might choose to only eat 20 points for three days before a night out. With these accumulated points, you have an additional 12 points to use during your night out.
Momentum Program
Along with the traditional Points program, Weight Watchers also offers the Momentum program. According to the Peer Trainer website, the program was "designed to address one of the key criticisms" of the traditional Weight Watchers program. This new program option puts a greater emphasis on healthy food choices. In fact, the program encourages participants to choose foods off the list of "Filling Foods," which help control hunger. These foods include fruit, popcorn and guacamole, among several other snack ideas. The Momentum program still utilizes the points approach for monitoring food intake and encouraging weight loss.
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