Weight Watchers: Is it a Diet or Not?

Course its a diet.

When you read about the ancient Greeks you read "their diet consisted of..." and the same for other cultures. It is a term used to describe what a person eats.

However, like you say, diets as known in pop culture are about weight loss. And yes, they ain't cool anymore.

i know on this site everyone agrees that the true meaning of diet is the way a person eats as a way of life. its not necessarily about weighing and measuring ad counting points/calories- its more about what you get out of making the right decisions about what foods to eat. diets dont work because people think they can do it for 6 months, a year and go back to the way they used to eat, a true diet is one that you can wrap your life around, right?

I know that "diet" just means "the way someone eats" (as in "a vegetarian diet") and needn't involve weight loss ... but I suspect many people equate "diet" and "diet plan".

My guess is that Weight Watchers mean it's "not a diet plan" -- ie. that they're not prescriptive about what foods you can and can't eat, they don't list seven breakfasts, seven lunches and so on to choose from each week (like some magazines do.)

Eating correct portions and getting out of the computer chair for some regular exercise is what I feel it's all about.

It's a diet. Or, should I say, diet PLAN? I personally gained a few pounds on it (the "points" plan--this was before the core plan was around). That said, it is the only diet that I know people who have been on it for years and years and it continues to work for them. I know a few people who have been "doing" Atkins and other diets for years, but all of them are still fat! So as far as diets go (and I don't believe in any of them), WW seems to be the "least of all evils".

Of course this new slogan is a money maker for Weight Watchers.BUT.

I've been following the Weight Watchers program for a long time now. I have lost 50 pounds and have 50 more to go. I know that even after I have lost all my weight I will stay on this program. It will help me keep track of my exercise, portions and help me hold myself responsible for what I put in my body.

This diet is not one that you use just to loose weight. It can be used as a lifestyle change, if you want to. Just like counting calories or following the food pyramid.

Is it a "diet"? Yes. But only until you loose your extra weight. Hopefully, by then you will have picked up some healthy habits and some common sense to go along with it.

Of course it's a diet! This new non-diet thing is just a marketing ploy. While it's true that one can use WW to develop a healthier relationship with food, the truth is that all of the points and writing things down and talking about foodfoodfood doesn't contribute overmuch to that eventual healthier relationship. You'll convince me it's not a diet when the plan becomes intuitive. Can a person live the rest of their life tracking every little thing they put into their mouth? Sure, but that's "a diet" not a plain old healthy diet.

I have been on WW for a few months now and I find that it is the best way to keep myself accountable to what I eat, trying to count calories is hard and then figuring out what each thing is worth when I eat it gets annoying. On WW I can eat things like cookies and ocassional treats without feeling like I wanna die because of it, I just work it into my points for the day. It also helps me get the most out of my workouts because knowing that I'll be able to eat a little extra treat whether its healthy or not helps me to push myself to do a little bit more at the gym. It's become more of a lifestyle for me and I believe it does work if you make it work for you. Everyone is different and needs different things which is why there are so many different schemes out there.

Nah, everyone knows "diet" means binging and purging in modern America. It can't possibly mean anything healthy in our super-obese, super-size-me culture.

a "diet" is something you do to loose weight.

After that, whatever you do to keep yourself healthy and keep the weight off is a lifestyle change.

I did weight watchers and managed to lose 20+ pounds on it but found it too obsessive. I started to obsess about food and found myself eating fake junk food because it was "free". They push artificial sweeteners far too much and of course their own products. Having said that, they do help you see what you should actually be eating. The trick is, to keep you coming and paying they don't tell you how to eat for your correct weight until you hit it (maintenance). It's a great tool to help you plan menus, learn portion sizes to a certain extent, but there is still an obscurity to what a maintenance level is. What I had wanted to know is what a 140lb person needed to eat to maintain - not what a 280 lb person needed to eat to lose weight - if that makes sense.

I also recommended Weight watchers to friends of mine who were only about 10-15 lbs overweight. I think they benefited the most from it as it helped point out what they needed to eliminate food-wise. But the reliance on artificial sweeteners and diet food annoyed me. But it is a good tool used realistically. Get the info, get the point books, and the exercise scales and use them for yourself. Stay away from the meetings after you acquire all that - all they talk about is food and that is what made me quit. You constantly hear about how to make low point brownies from tree bark and such - not how do you live without brownies! Argghh!

Stick to natural food - use the point scales to figure out portions, make sure you get enough fat in your diet and do your exercise and you will succeed! Also keep in mind anything based on the FDA food pyramid is going to set you up for failure - grains are good but switch that giant chunk of grain at the bottom with fresh veggies and you will have far more success.

Weight Watchers is a diet. It is meant to help you lose unhealthy weight while at the same time teaching you healthy habits. Marketing is marketing. The reason Weight Watchers is referred to as a lifestyle is because once members have reached their target weights they then go through a process of adding calories back into their diet until they reach a point where they would start to gain weight again.

When they have maintained this point for a period of time, they become lifetime members. When you are a lifetime member you weigh in once monthly for a 'checkup' on how you are doing. You do not pay when you are a lifetime member unless you begin to gain weight again.

Few people count 'points' or calories as a lifetime member because the hope is that you have learned portion control, to eat smaller meals more often and to eat healthier foods. If you haven't, you will undoubtedly need to go back to counting or in many cases your coach will refer you to other resources, ie. counseling for emotional eating.

Exercise is also an important aspect of the Weight Watchers program. I'd like to stress that you are told very clearly in meetings that if you are using the points gained through exercise to eat more, then you are failing to get the point of exercise and the plan.

Tracking what you eat is a strategy very similar to tracking what you spend your money on. It is a tool used to help you have a stronger conscious association with what you eat. It is not meant to be a lifetime behaviour, however as with money, there are some people who need to in order to maintain healthy habits.

I definitely do not agree with substituting food sweetened with artificial sweeteners for sugar based foods. I don't think the right lessons are being taught if we merely switch to fat-free cool whip on our pie sweetened with splenda. What I've learned is that I can have the real thing if it's a once in a while treat and done in moderation.

All the things above are what I have learned at Weight Watchers and I am convinced it is a good plan for people to get back on track with healthy eating habits and regular exercise.

Diet, lifestyle, whatever! The goal is to increase one's consciousness, specifically toward those things we shove in our mouths.

Is this going to help me, now, or hurt me? How much for nourishment, or for pleasure?

Then to make wise choices based on the information we have about ourselves, present conditions, the food to be considered, and the interaction that occurs between those.

The more personal power, both the power of knowledge and strength of will, the wiser our choices can become.

Instead of "lifestyle", they should advertise as an educational service. Then it doesn't sound like a joining a cult or "going the gay way".

They might think it's hard to get people to sign up for "education". But you think it's easier to promote a "lifestyle change"?

As much as people are anti-intellectual, they'll fight to the death to have some sort of choice. "Education" implies more choice, in using the information, than "lifestyle" implies, in living to standards.

Again, I ask, "Who are the ad wizards who came up with this one?"

WW is totally a diet. I know because it makes me HUNGRY!

Hmmm, 'diet' is a funny word these days. I think WW *is* a diet *until* making healthier choices becomes second nature to the 'dieter'. You weren't born overweight, you learned how to get fat and stay fat by practicing it until you perfected it. Successful weight loss is about learning new *healthier* habits to replace your bad ones.

I have been doing WW for 1 week. I have NEVER done a diet ever in my life before. I like WW, for one reason, it is helping with my portion control. I excercise 5 days a week for at least 45 minutes as well. I have lost 5 lbs this week! I am only doing their point system. For me this is a lifestyle change, not a diet, but WW points are helping me realize what I was putting into my body. And it was WAY to much. So I think it is all about portion control and not depriving yourself of yummy things as well.

Or should we talk about "habits"? Eating and drinking habits? You can change them to better or to worse... depends on your personal situation.

I agree with Ali, a diet is simply what you eat. Everyone is on a diet. Some diets are healthy and some are not. Diet has been turned into a four letter word for "restriction" and "taste bad". So now everyone wants to stop using it.

"Diets" are now considered temporary fixes and "lifestyle changes" are permanent changes. If that's the case, I would consider WW a lifestyle change.

The methods you use to lose weight are the same methods you will have to use to keep the weight off. So choose a "lifestyle change" instead of a "diet". Small lifestyle changes lead to slow permanent weight loss.

Let's face it, the word "diet" has become the obsessive term about how we eat and the good or bad decisions we make when we eat. WW & other diets, like South Beach, are doing a good thing by marketing as a lifestyle or "living." On these programs, you learn between good & bad choices. The WW points system is a scale that does keep you on track to lose weight because you make better food/meal choices. Some might say restrictive & obsessive, but thats what our "diet/weight obsessed society" has become. Not all plans work for everyone, so when you find something that works for you, stick with it & be healthy.

I joined WW and was able to stay within my assigned number of points for exactly one week before I couldn't take the constant hunger anymore. I found myself seeking out the lowest point foods I could find, just to be able to eat enough not to feel like I was starving -- crap like fat free hot dogs on "light" (not whole wheat) buns-- only 2 points each! Is that real food? Um, no.

Of course it's a diet!

I think it's a diet that can lead to a lifestyle change. I tried it once, but having to put everything into points just drove me nuts; I don't have the extra time to do that. It's easier for me to count calories.

I've been a lifetime member of Weight Watchers since I once gained 20 pounds after chemotherapy and other physically disturbing "events."

Of course it's a diet - a healthy one that can be followed by anyone of good sense who wishes to remain slim, healthy and aware of what they eat and what they do.

There are people who want to go through life sleepwalking into fast food restaurants, chomping ersatz foods and snacks instead of crunching a carrot or baking a potato, lolling about on the couch, driving when they could be walking, and they are free to do so. I assure you that by 35 or so they will look and feel the part.

So, people - if you want to be trim and fit and feel better, Weight Watchers really is a great tool. And you don't have to buy their products. I've never tasted any in my life and don't plan to. Oh, by the way, I lost every ounce of that twenty pounds and five more and that was nine years ago. Bravo Weight Watchers.

To lose weight requires a lifestyle change. A permanent one. To go on WW to lose the weight, then go back to what you were doing before you joined WW, is to invite yourself to not only gain all of it back, but to add a few more pounds with it.

We gain weight because of the lifestyle we lead (ie, eat too much, not enough exercise). To NOT gain weight requires a change in your lifestyle. Your "diet" is not a "diet", but a change in how you eat for the rest of your life.

I have been on WW since October. I have lost 26 pounds. I do not consider it a "diet" per se because I do not feel it is restrictive.I have never been hungry on this plan. The meetings are the best part. I love getting those recipes for low point items. Why should be have to live without brownies. I eat those treats because most people can not give up a food forever. I just watch my portions and the points I have. I still have hamburgers and french fries. But instead of the large meals, I get the kids meal.

Im still hungry and I dont know what I can do it. Maby somebody help me - please. Hi - Mielno.

I did WW to lose most of my weight and I still kind of stick to the basic guidelines that helped me lose the weight to begin with. I think it's got one of the best maintenance plans of any commercial plan out there. WW was the only diet I've ever been able to stick to for more than 2 weeks because A) I could eat foods I liked and B) I had lots of options for meals and stuff and C) I could eat out with my friends without having to completely ditch the whole diet effort. Also, they do encourage exercise, which I think helped me the most because working out has helped me maintain my weight for the past 6 years.

Of course, you CAN do WW as a yo-yo diet as well. My mom and dad have gone on and off WW probably over 10 times. Their cycle generally looks like this: Mom and Dad start eating healthy foods and start losing weight. Dad loses 20 lbs and can fit into his skinny pants again and Mom loses 20 lbs and goes down barely a size (she is a lot more overweight than my dad). Mom gets frustrated and buys a bunch of junk food to tempt Dad. Mom and Dad both cave and go back to eating all the crap they used to eat and gain back the 20 or so lbs they lost. And they just keep repeating the cycle. I still think WW is probably one of the least restrictive plans out there. I personally don't agree with how much processed stuff they push (like their frozen entrees, fat free/sugar free desserts, their yogurt, etc.), but you can still follow their plan without buying their stuff. Just stick with more natural foods (I usually buy lots of veggies, fruits, skim milk, lean meats, etc.)

I sort of feel it is a diet - in the modern sense, not the true sense of "what you eat"... I think it's one of the BEST diet plans out there, but it still has a method that can emphasize Calories (points) in instead of the nutrient density of your food and a healthy attitude towards food. As someone who used to have an eating disorder, perhaps I'm more sensitive to that.

My new doctor recommended I stop counting Calories and forbade plans like Weight Watchers. She suggested a focus on eating healthfully instead and forgetting about weight and Calories and some type of arbitrary limit -- instead focusing on healthy choices. It was the first time in years I stopped hating myself and started eating to fuel my life instead of fearing food... So I tend to think of anything on her list of "no's" for me as a diet in the modern sense.

Now, while the idea is to eat for life... I don't believe a diet is BAD in and of itself while LEARNING how to eat for life.

Definitely a diet for all the reasons described above. But in some ways, it gives more choices within its constraints, than most.

I agree with Julia though -- too much acceptance of fake sugars and fake foods and fast food and too much obsession with food in general. I also left because of these.

"I’m not saying Weight Watchers isn’t a “lifestyle change.” I’m just saying, who wants that kind of lifestyle?"

uh, plenty of (thin and healthy) people. not to sound self-righteous, but if overweight people do not make such a lifestyle change, however repugnant they may find it at first, then they will remain overweight forever. i know if i never started watching what i ate, how much i ate, and exercising, i would still be chubby. it's that simple. what's not simple is actually implementing such a change and sticking with it.

It's a diet. It's no different than counting calories. Doing that for two weeks or life still makes it a diet. It's just not a natural thing and in my book that makes it a diet. I don't have anything against diets, hell I'm on one and I plan on staying on the diet I'm on for life. But nice try Weight Watchers, can't blame a company for trying to convince us otherwise.

ellie said:
WW is totally a diet. I know because it makes me HUNGRY![...]

Amen girl!! That's exactly what it did to me. I lasted about 2 weeks on it (going from 192 to 195 lbs), and that was my last diet. 7 years later, I eat what I want, including PREMIUM ice cream almost every day, and I weigh 120 pounds.

I also agree with John about artificial sweeteners and artificially fat-free foods. I don't bother with either. I know that a couple of spoons of real sugar and cream in my coffee isn't going to kill me. Now, artificial sweeteners and partially hydrogenated oil-based "non-dairy creamers"? Not so sure about those.

hahahah I love your last quote on there! I have to agree that weight watchers is in fact a diet.

I have to agree with Gwen...Portion control and exercise.I have lost 61 pounds doing just that. I have tried every diet you can think of. Then my husband and I just decided to start eating healthy, watch our portions and exercise. We are both feeling great and all we did was change our lifestyle....I think that my husband and I doing it together really was a key point as well, and guess what? we did not use anyones diet.

I am a huge supporter of Weight Watchers (I have lost 115 pounds in the last year on the program) When somebody needs to loose as much weight as I did you need a "diet" to re-program your attitude about food. The program taught me portion control through the point system and also that if I eat that cheeseburger I need to exercise it off. Now I am able to eat healthy without tracking and still able to loose weight. Weight Watchers taught me how to do that.

WW is not a diet-it's a way of life. It teaches you how to correctly eat portion sizes and make better choices in the foods that you eat. Yes, a diet can be viewed as the foods that you put in your body on a daily basis (whether it be meats, vegetables, etc.) However, we all know DIET is most commonly used as a temporary fix to a long term problem. Why do you think there are so many Weight Loss Pills, Drugs, etc. on the Market. Lemon Diet, Canteloupe Diet, Water Diet, you name it. Temporary Fix. When you stop most diets what happens? You gain weight. With Weight Watchers you don't have stop because if you do you'll die. Why? Because you have to eat in order to live and stay healthy.

Weight Watchers is a phenomenoal way to enjoy eating. For those who "claim" that they are hungry on WW-the reason is probably because you DO NOT EAT ENOUGH FOOD. Who cares about whether or not you have to count points. That's why they have a Core plan so you don't have to do count points if you don't want to. Honestly, I love counting the points. It helps me be mindful of how much I am putting into my body.

WW works and with 50 lbs off (From 200-149 lbs)I can attest to how great the system is. You don't have to starve yourself and you don't have to eat the same thing every day to for two weeks to lose weight. It's a lifestyle change-one that can be attained for LIFE if you follow the plan right!

TEAM WEIGHT WATCHERS!

I believe eating food ideally should be just a way for us to keep our bodies moving while we do the actual important things of living each day. Most people with food or weight issues have thrown that off-kilter. When we go on diets or focus on portion control, weighing food, measuring, etc., we are still obsessing but now in the other direction. The secret is to stop making food that important in your life. Don't give it that much attention. That's what got you in the predicament in the first place! And don't buy any magazines with pictures of food on the front cover. Don't watch television cooking shows for entertainment. Stop planning your day around what you are going to be eating. Do NOT read and eat - EVER!

I've lose oodles of weight on weight watchers - I've also gained it all back. Of course it is still a diet. But having said that I think it's a good education plan. Maybe their slogan should be: "Stop dieting - start educating." Then once you know what 'healthy eating' looks like, then you've still got to stop following a points system and start listening to your body. I think there are so many dieting myths out there... check out http://www.ditch-diets-live-light.com

Weight Watchers ABSOLUTELY is a "diet".
It's fine if you have a few vanity lbs to lose, but you figure, "Oh, if I stay in my points range I can have whatever I want" and end up eating high-carb, 100calorie pack JUNK. They don't teach you how to eat healthy except on the first day and it's mostly on portion sizes.
Don't get me wrong, I had a great leader and all, but I couldn't stick with it, and with well over 30lbs to lose, I just wasn't seeing results---I'd lose maybe 5lbs and would immediately plateau.
I ended up joining and "flunking" the program at least 8 times.
If you can stop obsessing over food and are not dying to cheat all the time, then I recommend it, but if you are seriously addicted to eating unhealthy food all the time and have to be limited to a number, I suggest going elsewhere.
For anyone who's a WW member, I wish you the best of luck. Me? I'm going elsewhere...

To all of you who say WW makes you hungry: you're probably just eating the wrong types of foods. My mom always claimed WW made her hungry, but she would waste her points on things like mayonnaise or cheese on her sandwiches. Example: A turkey sandwich made with 2 pieces of white bread (4 pts), a slice of cheese (2 pts), 1 oz turkey cold cuts (1 pt) and a tablespoon of mayo (2 pts) has a total of 9 pts. You could make the sandwich with 2 slices whole grain light bread (2 pts), 1 oz turkey meat (1 pt), a slice of tomato (0 pts), a piece of lettuce (0 pts) and mustard (0 pts.) for a sandwich that has 3 pts and fills you up the same. It's all about the choices you make, I suppose. If you REALLY want your mayo, WW teaches you to "budget" for it. I do think they should focus a bit more on creating a healthy diet where you get your points from things like low fat dairy, veggies, fruit, protein, and whole grains because a lot of people DO eat 9 2-pt. ice cream bars and that's it for the day.