The Details of the Weight Watchers System

There seems to be one thing that I have overlooked on this weblog and that is the core of the Weight Watchers plan. Most of what you have seen here so far are the details but I thought I should also post an overview of what Weight Watchers is all about.

First, The plan and the system

Weight watchers is a diet system that is based on the idea that you eat three meals a day and a couple of snacks. Each of these meals and snacks may be smaller than you have eaten in the past but most meals should be around the same size. The next part of the Weight Watchers program is the meetings. You are expected to go to one meeting a week and are charged for it as a support fee.

At your first meeting you get weighed and set a goal of how much you want your goal weight to be and get all of the literature on how the program works. At your weekly meeting you start with a weigh in where you get weighed and this is compared to the week before and then there is a half hour meeting conducted by someone that has been successful with Weight Watchers and teaches you and gives you tips to progress towards the goals that you have set.

Next The details of the system

When you do your first Weight Watchers weigh in you are given a number of "points" that you will be eating each day. This is not a minimum or a maximum but is instead the number or range that you should eat exactly. Some people try to drop the amount of points that they eat each day hoping that this will help them lose weight more quickly but this seldom works, quite often if someone is going through a bit of a plateau instead they will eat a few more points a day.

The way that points are calculated are found in other spots on this weblog but basically you take the number of calories, and using a sliding scale adjust this with the number of grams of fiber and compares this to the number of grams of fat to arrive at a point value for the food.

The next thing is exercise. We all know that exercise is an important part of weight loss and general fitness and the way that Weight Watchers looks at this is that if you do exercise of a light, moderate or heavy intensity for a defined period of time then you can deduct a certain number of points so that you can then eat more food. This is a little contrary to the way some people look at exercise as some would restrict food AND exercise which would lead to your body hoarding fat and therefore not losing weight.

Finally Ongoing support

Weight Watchers is a system that is built around not just good food choices and portion control but also it has a great support system. The meetings are a great way to stay focused from week to week but also though this weblog or directly at the Weight Watchers site you can get that daily dose of information and support from others that can make the difference between have a good week, a bad week, or dropping off of a plan to improve yourself altogether.