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Weight Watchers
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Weight Watchers is an international company that offers various dieting products and services to assist weight loss and maintenance. Founded in 1963 by Brooklyn homemaker Jean Nidetch, it operates in about 30 countries around the world, generally under names that are local translations of “Weight Watchers”.
Weight Watchers encourages members to select a goal weight that results in a body mass index generally accepted as healthy (20 to 25), although a member may also establish a goal weight outside of that range after providing a doctor's note to that effect.
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Encyclopedia
Weight Watchers is an international company that offers various dieting products and services to assist weight loss and maintenance. Founded in 1963 by Brooklyn homemaker Jean Nidetch, it operates in about 30 countries around the world, generally under names that are local translations of “Weight Watchers”.
Weight Watchers encourages members to select a goal weight that results in a body mass index generally accepted as healthy (20 to 25), although a member may also establish a goal weight outside of that range after providing a doctor's note to that effect. In the United States, in order to join Weight Watchers, one must weigh at least more than the minimum weight for his or her height.
Once a member reaches his or her goal weight, he or she starts a maintenance period. For the following six weeks, the member gradually increases his or her food intake until the member no longer loses or gains weight. If, at the end of six weigh-ins during the maintenance period, the member weighs in within of his or her goal weight, he or she becomes a "Lifetime" member. A Lifetime member may attend meetings free of charge as long as he or she weighs in at least once per calendar month and, at any weigh-in, does not weigh more than more than his or her goal weight. If the member weighs more than over the goal weight at a weigh-in, he or she will be charged the weekly fee until he or she again obtains a weight within the target range. As long as a Lifetime member weighs in each month and stays within the target range range, there is no fee for attending meetings, and the member may attend for the rest of his or her life. Unlike with new members, there is never a registration fee for Lifetime members, even if they regain weight or fail to weigh in every calendar month.
Weight Watchers’ eTools is a Web-based service for meetings members that includes access to support materials and tracking tools. The service is available for an additional fee for meetings members who pay as they go, and is included in the fee for meetings members who opt for the recurring "Monthly Pass" membership plan. Weight Watchers claims that “Research shows that people who attend Weight Watchers meetings lose three times more weight than [those who diet on their own].” However, the results of the study were that the mean weight loss of Weight Watchers participants was 2.3 times more than (3.3 times as much as) the self-help group at one year, and essentially undefined at two years. Weight Watchers also claims that members who both use Weight Watchers’ Web-based eTools and attend meetings lose half again as much weight as those who only attend meetings, but it fails to cite a study to back up this claim, instead only referring to an unspecified “12 week study comparing people who were instructed to attend Weight Watchers meetings and use eTools to people who were instructed to attend Weight Watchers meetings alone”.
Weight Watchers Online is a more independent approach for people who prefer not to attend meetings. The Online version of the program provides access to a Web-based service very much like eTools. The support system for Weight Watchers Online is a message board where members can post support and share advice. The message board (but not the other support tools) is available free of charge to the public; in an attempt to limit access to the essential plan information to its members, Weight Watchers prohibits the posting of its proprietary Points calculations on the board.
In some areas Weight Watchers meetings are operated by a locally-franchised organization rather than by Weight Watchers International.
Weight loss plans
In the United States
Weight Watchers implemented the Momentum Plan on December 7, 2008. The cornerstone of the plan is the proprietary Points formula, which allocates each food a value based on its calories, fat, and fiber. Members are allocated a certain number of points each day based on their gender, height, current weight, age, and activity level. Members are also allowed 35 optional Points each week. Finally, members earn additional Points through exercise. These "Activity Points" are calculated based on the member's weight and the duration and intensity of the activity. Activity Points previously had to be consumed on the day that they were earned or they were lost; with the Momentum plan, they can be eaten on any day during the week.
The Momentum Plan encourages members to choose healthier foods by meeting the "Good Health Guidelines." These include eating lean protein and whole grains, meeting target servings of fruits and vegetables and dairy or soy products, taking a multivitamin, exercising, eating healthy oils, drinking adequate liquids, and limiting sugar and alcohol. Additionally, the Momentum Plan encourages members to remain satisfied while dieting by focusing on eating foods identified as Filling Foods, which include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy and soy products, and lean proteins, but this is not required. The effect of this is that the member is not prevented from eating any specific type of food, but he or she must consume foods only with his or her allotment of points. This stands in marked contrast to approaches such as the South Beach diet or the Atkins diet, in which some foods are completely forbidden and others are permitted in as great a quantity as the dieter likes. The member also has the choice to exercise--which will entitle him or her to consumer more food--or to eat food of lower Points value if he or she prefers not to exercise.
Many (but not all) of the Filling Foods also have a SetPoints value that allows members to eat a reasonable portion of the food and track the SetPoints value, rather than having to measure and calculate the exact Points value of the portion eaten. The Momentum Plan also includes an option that allows members to eat from the Filling Foods list without tracking Points values at all. This option, known as the Simply Filling Technique, is very similar to the former Core Plan. Members following the Simply Filling Technique do not receive a daily Points allowance, but eat to satisfaction from the Filling Foods list. They do, however, receive the 35 weekly Points, and are entitled to eat any Activity Points that they earn. The weekly Points and Activity Points may be used for foods that are not on the Filling Foods list.
Many Weight Watchers proponents enjoy the tracking option of the Momentum Plan precisely because no food is out of bounds as long as it is eaten in moderation. (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 requires of participants, who must keep track of the Points values of everything they eat; they prefer the Simply Filling option or other plans that place restrictions on types of food rather than quantities.
TurnAround
In August 2004, Weight Watchers introduced the TurnAround program, incorporating parts of the Flex and Core food plans, but intended to assist people in developing an overall healthy lifestyle. Aside from encouraging healthy eating and providing member support, the program encouraged participants to follow eight Good Health Guidelines.
In the UK, Ireland and Australia
In the UK and Ireland there has recently been a new plan launched called Discover. This is similar to the points plan that went before it, where one may eat fewer points daily than are allotted based on sex, weight, age, height, pregnancy status, and activity level and “spend” these points later within the week . However the Discover plan aims to help the user understand which foods are more filling, and make healthier choices. Part of the new Discover plan is an option which is similar to “The Core Plan”. This is called the Simply Filling technique. Users choose freely from the "filling foods" list and also allots 21 points per week outside of the filling foods list.
Effectiveness
A clinical study involving Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers and The Zone diets, published in 2005, reported that among the Weight Watchers participants the average net weight loss in a one-year period was . However, the study only included two months of “maximum effort”, letting the participants decide their level of adherence for the following ten months. Weight Watchers was the third most effective diet in terms of weight loss, and those that continued to adhere to any of the diets significantly decreased cardiac risk factors.
Price
Like many other weight loss programs, Weight Watchers frequently offers promotions ranging from free registration to discounted fees if paid in advance. Members are required to pay the fees for missed meetings before a “weigh-in”, but a member never pays more for missed meetings than the amount of the new-member registration fee; if a member misses several consecutive meetings, he/she need only pay either the sum of the fees for the missed meetings or the new-member registration fee, whichever is the lesser.
If members are insured with particular insurance companies there are agreements that may reduce the member sign up fee or weekly weigh-in fee. In corporate locations in the United States, members may pay $39.95 per month for a "Monthly Pass" that entitles them to attend meetings and provides access to eTools. In return, members agree that the monthly fee will be automatically debited from a debit or credit card and the pass mailed to them each month.
“Points” formulas
The formula for calculating the value of a specific serving in points is proprietary and available only to members. Some simply use the earlier formula described in instead:
Another simpler way to calculate points is: (Calories + (Fat x 4) - (Fiber x 10)) / 50
where is the number of points, is the amount of energy in Calories (1 Calorie (Cal) = 1 kilocalorie (kcal) ˜ 4.2 kilojoules (kJ)), is the amount of fat in grams, and min is the lesser of the amount of dietary fiber in grams or four. The value is always an integer, with fractional values rounded to the nearest point. An alternative version mentioned in the patent and used on some Web sites rounds values to the nearest half-point.
Calculation aids
New members are given a cardboard slide rules to assist in calculating point values of foods. By reading the nutrition label on any food package and quickly adjusting three slide-rule scales for energy, fat, and fiber, the point value is easily determined by inspection of a fourth scale. Weight Watchers also sells an electronic calculator that performs the same function.
Weight Watchers also sells small paperback books that list thousands of foods sold by fast-food and full-service restaurant chains as well as generic restaurant foods, e.g. “Mexican: refried beans, ½ cup” (120 mL), and corresponding point values. This is useful in cases where precise nutritional data are not available. These books are available at meetings locations.
Alternative formulas
An early version of the points system did not limit the fiber “credit” to four grams. Another variation, which may be explained by rounding, is that the “points finder” slide-rule distributed at Weight Watchers meetings does not reach a value of 1 unless an item has at least , rather than as the formula indicates. As a result, point boundaries are or 4.8 grams of fat higher than might be expected. Though the patent mentions possibly using rather than as the single-point baseline, that method may be intended for use by dieters who do not use fiber content to calculate point values.
More recent versions of the program, such as that described in , take exercise and physical activity into account to grant additional points in the daily allowance.
Use outside the US
Outside the United States, nutrition labels are markedly different from those in the United States; in particular, energy is usually expressed in standard kilojoules (kJ) rather than Calories (kcal), and labels in some countries may not show fiber content. The points formula for some markets is based on energy (in kilojoules) and saturated (not total) fat. This formula is expressed in UK patent 2302605 as follows:
Where is the number of points, is the energy value (in either kilojoules (kJ) or Calories (kcal)), and is the amount of saturated fat in grams. The constants and are described as follows: is chosen so that the points target will be in the low tens. If the energy value is given in Calories, then will be within the range of /35 and /10, ideally /17.5. If the energy value is given in kilojoules, then the value of will be between /146.7 and /41.8, ideally being /72.8.
A practical implementation of this formula for a kilojoule-based calculation appears to be as follows:
or the following for a Calorie-based calculation:
The resultant value is then rounded to the nearest half.
Spokespersons
Corporate information
Corporate history
From 1978 until 1999, Weight Watchers was owned by the H. J. Heinz Company, which continues to produce packaged foods bearing the Weight Watchers brand (and with point values clearly identified). Weight Watchers was acquired in a leveraged buyout in 1999 and went public in 2001.
Corporate governance
The 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.
See also
External links
Points calculation aids (unofficial)
Success Stories (unofficial)
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