The Weight Watchers diet has long been among the most popular weight loss programs.
Even though the Weight Watchers weight loss diet program has been rebranded and evolved into the WW diet, it remains one of the most popular diets with a supportive online community and an ever-growing list of WW diet resources for support.
The Weight Watchers diet uses a point system to track your daily calorie intake, creating healthy food choices and healthy habits in your everyday life.
In this diet guide, we will discuss what the Weight Watchers diet plan involves, the principles behind it, how to follow the Weight Watchers diet, and potential WW diet benefits and drawbacks for weight loss and weight management.
Lets jump in!
What Is the Weight Watchers Diet?
Weight Watchers was founded in 1963 with the mission of providing a weight loss framework that would help people lose weight and maintain their weight loss without going on a crazy crash diet or regaining weight that was lost after a diet program ended.
Weight Watchers weight loss programs are designed to instill lifelong habits of healthy eating, incorporating exercise, understanding portion sizes, and making nutritious choices rather than having a strict weight loss meal plan that only allows certain foods and prohibits others.
The Weight Watchers company has a dedicated science team that uses research to inform the foundations of diet programs and continually modifies these plans based on emerging evidence in the field of nutrition and health.
The WW Diet, formerly known as Weight Watchers, is generally considered to be one of the best diets for weight loss, particularly lasting weight loss.
Known for its points system for foods, the Weight Watchers diet immediately gained traction when it was first introduced because it didnt ban any particular foods from the diet plan.
This freedom of choice can help dieters on the WW weight loss plan feel like they arent restricted to only ever eating boring diet foods or unable to celebrate or enjoy special meals or treat foods periodically without completely derailing their diet plans.
How Does the Weight Watchers Diet Plan Work?
The WW Diet plan assigns points to all foods based on their calorie content and nutrient profile.
However, you have the freedom to choose whatever food you want to eat.
You simply have to measure your portion sizes and then keep track of your food points throughout the day based on the meals and snacks you have and how much of each of these foods you eat.
While you can choose whatever foods you want, the Weight Watchers diet points system encourages you to eat healthy, fibrous foods like veggies and low-sugar fruits vs. processed foods like cookies and frozen pizza because nutrient-dense foods that are not energy-dense will be more filling and less costly from a points standpoint.
For example, while you can have a bowl of oatmeal made with sweetened packets of oatmeal with added brown sugar, cream, and maple syrup, you will use up more of your daily Weight Watchers diet points than if you have steel cut oats with raspberries and blueberries.
The total volume of your food might be the same, but the nutrient density of the steel-cut oats fleshed out with large, low-calorie berries will cost fewer WW diet points while still being more filling and certainly more nutritious.
There are also zero-point foods on the Weight Watchers meal plan.
These are foods that you can eat without accumulating points because they are so nutrient-dense yet low in calories that they are not going to have an appreciable impact on your total daily caloric intake.
Although not required, the Weight Watchers weight loss program encourages you to exercise.
Not only does the WW have workouts that you could do, but you also get additional points to add to your point budget when you do exercise, as your body needs more calories when you work out.
This can provide extra motivation to incorporate regular physical activity into your weight loss program because you get a tangible benefit in the short term by earning more Weight Watchers Diet points while also gleaning the true health benefits of exercise.
What Are the Benefits of the Weight Watchers Diet for Weight Loss and Health?
According to studies, the Weight Watchers program can help people successfully lose weight and keep it off.1Gudzune, K. A., Doshi, R. S., Mehta, A. K., Chaudhry, Z. W., Jacobs, D. K., Vakil, R. M., Lee, C. J., Bleich, S. N., & Clark, J. M. (2015). Efficacy of Commercial Weight-Loss Programs. Annals of Internal Medicine, 162(7), 501. https://doi.org/10.7326/m14-2238
One of the benefits of the WW diet plan for weight loss is that it teaches people to be mindful of not only choosing nutrient-dense foods that are lower in calories and more satiating but also encourage being mindful of portion sizes.2Vadiveloo, M., Parker, H., & Raynor, H. (2017). Increasing low-energy-dense foods and decreasing high-energy-dense foods differently influence weight loss trial outcomes. International Journal of Obesity, 42(3), 479486. https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2017.303
WW diet food point values are not just accumulated based on which foods you eat but also on how much of the food you eat.
Having to keep track of your points will necessitate measuring portion sizes and then making judicious decisions about which foods you should have more of if you are quite hungry so that you can eat more food while staying within your daily points limit.
In this way, the WW diet plan is somewhat like the Volumetrics diet in that you will be best served to have low energy-density foods because they are filling but low in calories, which translates to 0-point foods or 1-point foods for Weight Watchers calculations.3Rouhani, M. H., Haghighatdoost, F., Surkan, P. J., & Azadbakht, L. (2016). Associations between dietary energy density and obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. Nutrition, 32(10), 10371047. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nut.2016.03.017
That said, because there arent any foods that you cant ever have, the WW diet allows you not to feel emotionally deprived.
In this way, the WW diet can help instill sustainable lifestyle eating changes rather than simply serve as a short-term crash diet.4Mathes, W. F., Brownley, K. A., Mo, X., & Bulik, C. M. (2009). The biology of binge eating. Appetite, 52(3), 545553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2009.03.005
Moreover, because there arent any foods that are always off-limits, the WW diet meal plan is quite flexible.
Whether it is Thanksgiving, a holiday celebration, your birthday, or you are just really craving a special treat, you can absolutely indulge and enjoy without feeling like youve gone off the rails with your diet.
Rather, you just have to be honest with your points calculations; theoretically, you can have any food you want.
Studies also show that combining diet and exercise is often one of the best approaches to sustainable weight loss and weight maintenance.5Clark, J. E. (2015). Diet, exercise or diet with exercise: comparing the effectiveness of treatment options for weight-loss and changes in fitness for adults (1865 years old) who are overfat, or obese; systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Diabetes & Metabolic Disorders, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40200-015-0154-1
Furthermore, even when weight loss is not the goal, getting regular exercise should be part of any healthy lifestyle regimen.
Finally, because the Weight Watchers diet program has been around for so long and has such a massive following, there is an abundance of social support and practical support for the WW diet program.
For example, there is a WW app that helps you track your food intake and points throughout the day, there are online social support groups, and even many food manufacturers post the WW diet points for a serving size on the front of the package if it is prepared food.
Social support and the ease of tracking your Weight Watchers points can make it easier to stick with the diet and not feel alone or overwhelmed.
There are also different levels of support you can get with the WW diet program, so if you need one-on-one weight loss health, there is a WW diet program tier for that.
However, the more robust your support level, the more expensive the WW program will be.
The other downside of the WW diet program for weight loss is that you must be honest with your food tracking and measuring portion sizes for the Weight Watchers diet to work.
You arent going to lose weight if you either forget to track food or cheat in terms of how many points you are assigning to a meal or snack by not being realistic with your serving size or the actual foods that you eat.
Ultimately, the the Weight Watchers diet plan encourages nutritious foods like vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and legumes, and it doesnt forbid any specific foods.
This may be one of the reasons it is often successful in the long term, both for people who have to lose a lot of weight or who lose weight through Weight Watchers and then need to maintain their WW diet plan weight loss results.
It is always advised to meet with a nutritionist, registered dietitian, or your healthcare provider when choose a healthy diet that will support your needs.
If you are convinced the WW points system is right for you and want to start your weight loss journey today, click here!
