Weight Watchers is a diet program that has enjoyed more than 40 years of success with men and women hoping to lose weight. The plan is one of the least restrictive diets and encourages dieters to educate themselves about nutrition and fitness and make permanent lifestyle changes that will help them achieve a healthy weight for life.
Approach
Rather than assigning you a strict meal plan or having you count calories, Weight Watchers calculates a daily points allowance for you, depending on your weight, sex, age, activity level and how much weight you want to lose. Every food has a point value, so you choose which foods to eat to fill up your point allowance; as you choose different foods, you'll see how their point value corresponds to how filling they are.
Foods
On the Weight Watchers plan, no foods are forbidden. Instead, each food is given a point value based on its calorie, fat and fiber content; more calories and fat increase the point value, while more fiber tends to bring it down. In this way, Weight Watchers encourages dieters to choose low-calorie and high-fiber foods, which are naturally more filling than foods with little or no fiber. Most vegetables have zero points, meaning you can eat unlimited amounts of vegetables throughout the day.
Special Features
One of the most notable features of the Weight Watchers program is the weekly point allowance; this is an additional 35 points that you can use any way you choose, such as a nightly dessert or a weekly indulgent dinner at a favorite restaurant. Unlike many other diet programs, Weight Watchers has designed its plan with the idea that a successful diet has to allow room for real life: weddings, parties, birthdays and other events that cannot be avoided. By setting aside special points for these indulgences, the program helps you stay on track and make healthy decisions that fit into your lifestyle.
Exercise
Weight Watchers encourages you to stay active by rewarding you with additional points based on the type and amount of exercise you do. The program is designed to encourage fitness in both beginner and experienced exercisers by offering exercise demos, workout plans and tips for fitting exercise into your schedule.
Programs
Weight Watchers has several programs to meet the differing needs and lifestyles of its participants. The original program includes weekly group meetings where members each have a private weigh-in and can find support from fellow members as well as a trained Meeting Leader who has found success with the program and can offer nutrition and fitness advice. For people who prefer more privacy, there is the Weight Watchers Online program, where members track points online and have access to weight-loss tools, recipes and message boards. While all Weight Watchers plans are open to both men and women, the company also has an online plan designed specifically to suit the needs of men hoping to lose weight.
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