Everything about Weight Watchers totally explained
Weight Watchers, is an international company that offers various
dieting products and services to assist
weight loss and maintenance. Founded in 1963 by
Brooklyn housewife
Jean Nidetch, it now operates in about 30
countries around the world, generally under the name "Weight Watchers" translated into the local
language.
Overview of organization
The plans are supplemented by optional support groups which meet regularly and provide assistance to those trying to meet weight-loss goals.
Weight Watchers has a 'minimum weight' level (based on a member's height), to protect those who are not actually overweight. If those interested in Weight Watchers are at least 5lbs above this 'minimum weight' then they can set up their weight loss goal with their local Weight Watchers leader. Height and beginning weight are recorded in order to establish their goal weight. Members may choose any weight that calculates out to a healthy BMI (25 to 20), or a member may bring a note from his/her doctor stating what a healthy weight for the individual would be.
Once a member reaches his or her goal weight he/she starts a maintenance period. For the following 6 weeks member should learn to both stop losing and not gain. At this time they become Lifetime members. After this, Lifetime Members must weigh in at least once per calendar month. If the member weighs more than 2 pounds over the weight goal at their first monthly weigh-ins, he/she will be charged the weekly fee, until they get back within the 2 lb range. They won't have to pay another registration fee. Part of the success of Weight Watchers members keeping weight off is the continued free support of their weekly meetings.
Weight Watchers eTools is an online option for meetings members, where for a monthly fee they've access to all support materials and online tracking tools. Members who use eTools and attend meetings lose an astonishing 50 percent more weight than those who only attend meetings. Weight Watchers Online is an alternative for people who don't want to attend meetings, and is a more independent approach to weight loss. The support system for Weight Watchers Online is a message board, where dieters can post support and share advice. Although using Weight Watchers Online has been proven successful for many Weight Watchers members, research has shown the members lose three times more weight by attending regular meetings [asreported in the April 2003 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association 2003: 289(14):1792.Heshka S et al.].
In some areas, including the Philadelphia metropolitan area in the United States, Weight Watchers meetings are operated by a locally-franchised organization rather than by Weight Watchers International.
Weight loss plans
Varying on location, Weight Watchers generally offers two distinct programs:
- The Core Plan
- The Flex Plan
The Core Plan
In part as a response to the popularity of plans like Atkins and South Beach, Weight Watchers has recently developed a separate plan, known as the Core Plan. This plan classifies certain types of food as "core," and permits participants to eat core foods with the restriction that they should only eat these foods until satisfied, not full to stay within their comfort zone. They don't have to weigh, measure, or track the Core foods they eat. Core foods are a list of healthy foods from all the food groups, including fruits, vegetables, fat free dairy, lean meats, and whole grains. Non-core foods can also be enjoyed on the Core plan, and are assigned the usual point values. Participants are given a weekly allotment of up to 35 non-core "Points" for the non-Core foods. Participants can also earn "Points" by exercising to 'spend' on non-core foods.
The Flex Plan
Under this plan, participants are assigned a set number of
Points they're allowed to consume per day based on their gender, height, current weight, age and how active they are. The number of
Points allowed may be increased with sufficient exercise, as in the Core Plan. Participants are given an allotment of up to 35 "flex"
Points, that they may use above and beyond the per-day
Points, that can be eaten at any time during the week.
The Flex plan is, in essence, a simple way to quantify and track a participant's calorie intake and energy expenditure. Various servings of food are assigned a specific number of
Points, and various types of exercise are assigned negative numbers of
Points; a program participant is allocated a certain number of
Points per day, with that number based on the individual's current weight.
The effect of this is that the participant isn't restricted from eating any specific type of food, but they must stay under their total point value for the week. This stands in marked contrast to diet approaches such as the
South Beach diet or the
Atkins diet, under which some foods are completely forbidden and others are permitted in theoretically unlimited amounts. The participant's ability to factor exercise into the plan increases its flexibility: the participant can eat more points as long as he offsets them with exercise, or eat fewer points if he prefers not to exercise.
Many Weight Watchers proponents enjoy the Flex Plan precisely because no food is out of bounds, as long as it's eaten in moderation, and because exercise can be factored in. (In the
UK, Weight Watchers advertises under the slogan "Where no food is a sin"; this is a reference to its chief competitor
Slimming World's system of giving some food "sin" values.) Others, however, dislike the record-keeping that the plan imposes on the participant, who must essentially keep track of the
Points value of everything they eat; they prefer Weight Watchers Core plan, or other plans that place restrictions on types of food rather than amounts of food.
Other plans
TurnAround
In August of 2004 the TurnAround Program (a registered trademark) was introduced which not only incorporated the Points and Core food plans but is intended to assist people with developing an overall healthy lifestyle. The program includes healthy food intake but also includes following 8 Good Health Guidelines, activity and member support. It is through all of the aspects of the program that members are able to not only reach their weight loss goals but to make permanent changes to support lifetime weight management.
UK and Australian versions of plans
In the UK, the two plans are called "The
Points Plan" and "The Core Plan." They essentially correspond to the Flex and Core in America, except that in the UK there's no such thing as the 35 "flex" points allotted per week in the "Flex" plan, and the Core Plan UK members get only 21 points per week outside of their Core diet. In "The
Points Plan," one may eat fewer
Points than has been calculated from their sex, weight, age, height, pregnancy status, and activity level and save these points up for a special occasion within the week.
Effectiveness
A clinical study published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association in 2005
Atkins,
Ornish, Weight Watchers and
The Zone diets reported that among the Weight Watchers participants, the average net weight loss in a one year period was 3.0 kilograms (6.6 lbs.). However, the study only included two months of "maximum effort," letting the participants decide their level of adherence for the following 10 months. Weight Watchers was the second most effective diet in terms of weight loss, and those that continued to adhere to each diet significantly decreased cardiac risk factors.
Price
Like many other weight loss programs, Weight Watchers frequently offers promotions and coupons ranging from free registration (normally twenty dollars) to advance-purchase plans that bring the weekly cost down from twelve dollars on average to less than nine. Missed meetings must be paid in full before the next weigh-in, which is a surprise to some members. However, a member never pays more than the cost of the new-member registration fee for all their lost meetings. For example, if meetings are $12 per week and a member has missed five meetings, he/she must pay the new-member registration fee, not $60.
The Points formula
The current formula for calculating the
Points content of a specific food serving is copyrighted information available only to members. Some people still use the former formula described in :
» , for a calorie-based calculation.
The resultant value,
p is then rounded to the nearest half.
Spokespersons
Perhaps the most prominent celebrity endorser for Weight Watchers is Sarah, Duchess of York(Fergie).
For many years, Lynn Redgrave appeared in a series of popular television advertisements for the packaged low calorie food division of the H.J. Heinz Company, then the parent of Weight Watchers.
Jenny McCarthy recently appeared in a commercial for Weight Watchers after successfully losing and maintaining her post-pregnancy weight by following the program.
Corporate information
Corporate history
From 1978 until 1999, the Weight Watchers company was owned by the H. J. Heinz Company, which continues to produce packaged foods bearing the Weight Watchers brand name (and with points values clearly identified). Weight Watchers was acquired in a leveraged buyout in 1999 and went public in 2001.
Corporate governance
Current members of the board of directors of Weight Watchers are: Philippe Amouyal, John Bard, Raymond Debbane, Marsha Evans, Jonas Fajgenbaum, Linda Huett, Sacha Lainovic, Sam K. Reed, and Christopher Sobecki.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Weight Watchers'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://weight_watchers.totallyexplained.com">Weight Watchers Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
