"Weight Watchers Winning Points Plan"

Balanced Review

Weight Watchers Winning Points is a commercial weight loss program that focuses on balanced low fat nutrition, exercise and group counseling. It is now called the "Flex Plan." Every item of food from pizza to ice cream to carrots to bread has a points value based on its nutritional content. You may eat as you like as long as you stay within your allotment of points. Each week you have 35 reserve points (flex points) to use for unplanned activities or cravings. This new program is basically the same as the old, but uses the points in a slightly different manner.

You are assisted by a points "calculator" and recipes provided by Weight Watchers. To assist the dieter in their lifestyle changes all members are encouraged to attend group discussion and counseling sessions, mostly in person, at local centers.

Weight Watchers programs are good plans, but they are increasingly relying on gimmicks and slick marketing. The new "Flex Plan" is basically the "Winning Points Plan" with refreshed marketing. They attempt to convince overweight people that they can lose weight without sacrificing their favorite foods. The points-based plans control portion size by allowing calories that should be consumed on healthy food with very smaller portions of potentially unhealthy food. You can imagine some of the strategies people come up with to eat what they like. This strategy gives the dieter a false sense of the real nutritional changes they need to make in their lives for long-term success.

If one seriously wants to lose weight and keep it off in the long-term, they need to think more comprehensively about the foods they eat. The program does not put a priority on exercise, which is essential. Group therapy impedes the development of self-reliance and self-discipline, which is essential for long term success.

But Weight Watchers remains one of the good guys in this unscrupulous industry . The program costs around $46 dollars a month, which makes it more expensive than our favorite program eDiets, which shares the basics without the gimmicks and inconvenient counseling sessions.