Weight Loss Product

Weight Watchers (NYSE: WTW) 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 now operates in about 30 countries around the world, generally under names that are local translations of “Weight Watchers”.

Weight Watchers has a minimum weight requirement (based on a member’s height) to protect those who are not actually overweight. In the United States, one must be at least 5 pounds (2.3 kg) over this minimum weight in order to establish a lower goal weight. Height and beginning weight are recorded before a goal weight is set. Members may choose any weight that results in a BMI generally accepted as healthy (25 to 20),[citation needed] or a member may bring a note from his/her physician stating what a healthy weight for the individual would be.

Once a member reaches his or her goal weight, he or she starts a maintenance period. For the following six weeks, the member is taught how to maintain the goal weight by not losing or gaining. At this time they become “Lifetime” members. A Lifetime member must weigh in at least once per calendar month. If the member weighs more than 2 pounds (0.91 kg) over the goal weight at a “weigh-in”, he/she will be charged the weekly fee, until he/she again obtains a weight within the target range. If a Lifetime member stays within that range, there is no fee for attending weekly meetings, and they may attend for the rest of their life.

Weight Watchers’ eTools is a Web-based service for meetings members which includes access to support materials and tracking tools for a fee. Weight Watchers claims “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 support system for Weight Watchers Online is a message board where members can post support and share advice.

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

Varying by location, Weight Watchers generally offers two programs:


The Core Plan

In part as a response to the popularity of plans like Atkins and South Beach, Weight Watchers has recently developed a separate plan, known as the Core Plan. This plan classifies certain types of food as “core”, and permits participants to eat core foods with the restriction that they should only eat these foods until satisfied, not full, to stay within their comfort zones. They do not have to weigh, measure, or track the core foods they eat. Core foods are healthy foods from all the “food groups”,[citation needed] including fruits, vegetables, fat-free dairy, lean meats, and whole grains. Participants in the Core plan may also consume non-core foods, and these are assigned the usual point values. Participants are allotted up to 35 points per week for non-core foods. With exercise, participants can also “earn” points to “spend” on non-core foods.


The Flex Plan

Under this plan, participants are allotted a number of points each day based on their gender, height, current weight, age and physical activity. The number of points allotted may be increased with sufficient exercise, as in the Core Plan. Participants are allotted 35 “flex points” per week in addition to their fixed daily allotments, and they may use these any time during each weekly cycle.

The Flex plan is, in essence, a simple way to quantify and track a participant’s energy intake and expenditure. Various servings of foods are assigned specific numbers of points, and various types and quantities of exercise are assigned negative numbers of points; a program participant is allocated a certain number of points per day, with that number based on the individual’s current weight.

The effect of this is that the participant is not prevented from eating any specific type of food, but he/she must consume foods only with his/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 participant’s ability to factor exercise into Weight Watchers’ plans increases their flexibility; the participant can eat food of higher points values provided he offsets this with exercise, or eat food of lower points value if he prefers not to exercise.

Many Weight Watchers proponents enjoy the Flex Plan precisely because no food is out of bounds as long as it is eaten in moderation, and because exercise can be factored in.[citation needed] (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 the participant, who must keep track of the points values of everything they eat; they prefer Weight Watchers’ Core Plan 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 Points 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 encourages participants to follow eight “Good Health Guidelines”.[citation needed]


In the UK and Australia

In the UK there are two plans, called “The Points Plan” and “The Core Plan”. They essentially correspond to the Flex and Core Plans in the US, except that the Points Plan omits the 35 “flex” points per week allotted in the “Flex” plan, and the UK Core Plan only allots 21 points per week outside of the Core diet. In “The Points Plan”, 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.