Zero Points Meals

Weight Watchers was founded in 1963 and now operates in more than 30 countries around the world. The plan has changed and evolved through the years, but it has been shown to help dieters maintain a loss of 3.2 percent of initial weight after two years. The PointsPlus feature of Weight Watcher provides goals for how much you should eat every day, with zero points being those you can eat freely.

Identification

The Weight Watchers PointsPlus philosophy is based on nutritional science and factors in the way your body processes food. Each food item is assigned a points value from zero on up. Depending upon your current weight, gender and other factors, you're assigned a maximum target point total for each day, with extra weekly allowances and activity points that can be swapped for food. Zero point foods and meals can help you stay on the plan when you have run out of points for the day, but find you're still hungry.

Zero Point Foods

With the 2010 PointsPlus revision, almost all fruit and vegetables are zero points, including everything from acorn squash to zucchini and bananas to watermelon. Other foods with zero points include broth, diet soda, sugar-free gelatin, horseradish, reduce-calorie ice pops, hot sauce, ketchup, mustard, pickles, salsa, seltzer, soy sauce, steak sauce, vinegar, spices and various other condiments and artificial sweeteners.

When Zero isn't Zero

The zero-point food ranking is a method Weight Watchers uses to encourage you to eat more healthful fruits and vegetables. However, some zero-point foods in larger quantities can add up to more than zero. An example is light whipped topping, which is zero points for 2 tbsp. However, if you go over that amount, it beings to add up quickly; the tub contains 25 servings with a PointsPlus total value of 8 for the entire container.

Zero Point Meals

Zero-point meals are created from zero point foods. One of the easiest and healthiest choices is a garden salad with mixed greens, carrots, tomatoes, any additional vegetables, and a dressing made from vinegar and spices. Another possibility is a vegetable stir-fry, minus the rice, using a cooking spray, Asian-style vegetables such as snap peas, water chestnuts and broccoli, with soy sauce sweetened with a little sucralose. A mixed-fruit salad is another possibility, as is a salad made from sugar-free gelatin filled with frozen fruit and/or chopped vegetables. A quick option is to use a canned broth as a soup starter and microwave it with some chopped vegetables.

Considerations

Zero-point meals can be helpful on those days or week when you've had a big feast due to a special celebration or holiday event. However, Weight Watchers strongly encourages you to not regularly consume less than your point range so that your body won't go into starvation mode and start packing on fat to compensate. If you have a health condition that limits the amount of vegetables and fruits you can consume, such as being on a blood thinner like warfarin, consult your doctor and a Weight Watchers counselor to devise zero-point meals that are more appropriate for your situation.