There can be few people alive today who have not heard of the Weight Watchers plan and it's amazing to see that what started out as a simple meeting between a few friends in Jean Nidetch's house in Queens to exchange dieting tips and ideas has matured into an enormous publicly quoted company employing nearly 50,000 people and operating in more than 30 countries around the world.
So why has Weight Watchers become so successful and why is the company continuing to grow after more than 40 years in business?
The answer rests in the fact that Weight Watchers does not merely offer a diet plan but is founded on a philosophy of dieting as just one part of an overall plan to set and maintain a healthy lifestyle in term of physical, mental and emotional health.
Because of this Weight Watchers does not just provide you with a diet sheet and tell you what you can and cannot eat, but gives you the advice and information needed to make the best decisions about your diet.
Also, and of critical importance, the Weight Watchers plan provides you with a level of motivation and support that is essential to your success and that is lacking in so many other diet plans.
Locally held group meetings, which many people who have not had the benefit of the Weight Watchers experience frequently dismiss as simply a waste of time, are, in many ways, the key to the Weight Watchers plan. Such meetings not only provide a wealth of advice, tips and information, but also allow members to provide each other with support and encouragement which is necessary for the long-term success of any diet.
In addition, the fact that you have to meet with your fellow members on a regular basis and show them your progress, or lack of it, is a very good way of helping to keep you on track as, at times, you're tempted to stray from your dieting regime.
Supporting Weight Watcher’s philosophy of dieting there is naturally a basic diet plan, or more exactly, two plans - the points plan and the core plan.
The basis of the points plan will be familiar to anybody who has tried dieting in the past. Members are given a weekly points allocation depending upon their present weight and the target weight they are aiming for and may eat whatever they like within their allotted points.
The strength of the points system is that a score is allocated to any food imaginable and there's no limit on the types of food that you are allowed but only on the quantity which you can eat dependent upon that food's points score. This is in contrast to many other diets that ban some foods altogether or require that particular foods are included in your diet.
The points plan also gives you a great deal of flexibility by allocating negative points for exercise. So, if you want to go over your points allocation you are free to do so as long as you take enough exercise to counteract the additional points consumed.
The core plan was created in response to the popularity the South Beach and Atkins plans. Under this plan a wide variety of foods including whole grain foods, fat free airy products, fat free airy products, whole grain foods, and lean meats are classed as "core" foods and there is no limit on the quantity of these foods that you are allowed to eat, other than the proviso that you should only eat these foods to satisfy your hunger rather than eat them until you are "full".
Any food item which is not included on the "core" list is then allocated a points score in the regular manner and members are given a weekly allowance for these foods of 35 points.
There is nothing new of course in either the core plan or the points plan and many of the hundreds of diets available follow the same sort of pattern. The strength however of the Weight Watchers plan lies not in the underpinning diet itself, but in the need that all dieters have for information, advice, help and, most especially, support in what is sometimes a long, and at times difficult, struggle to lose those stubborn pounds.
Operating largely as a "club", Weight Watchers has gone from strength to strength over the years and, as long as it continues to offer so much more than just a diet plan, it will undoubtedly continue to flourish in the future.
For more advice, news and information about Weight Watchers and the Weight Watchers Plan please visit International Weight Watchers today.
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