Weight Watchers Review #12 by Ruby on February 6th, 2008 at 5:33 PM CST

Name

Weight Watchers is not a diet. It is a support system for changing your lifestyle and does not pretend to wave a magic wand over your fat and make it disappear. Americans suffer from the vast amount of nutrient poor, calorie rich foods available in fast food joints and supermarkets. We are served giant portions and refuse to believe that anything that comes in one package is more than one portion (chips, cookies, donuts, candy). Our bodies are made to crave fats and sweets, because at one time it was hard to come by these calories. But once grown, our bodies need very little in the way of fat and sugar calories to sustain. It doesn't matter if we LOVE extra cheese pizza and eating a pint of ice cream in one sitting. The body simply doesn't need it and so it will get stored as fat. Weight Watchers uses their point system to teach you appropriate portions and amount of food to eat in one day to maintain your weight. If you are used to eating gi-normous super-sized portions you will feel hungry in the beginning. As your body adjusts, you will start to understand what it feels like be satisfied without feeling stuffed and you will feel lighter and have more energy. The meetings act as a community and the leaders give support and advice--but you have to do the work of changing yourself if you want it to work for you. It is a simple biological fact: you either get to eat huge portions of whatever you want, or you get to be healthy and lean. The upside is that you really can have some amount of the fatty, rich or sweet foods you crave. But you quickly learn that if you want to feel satisfied, you will need to eat more fruits and vegetables, many of which are zero points. I lost 35 pounds in six months at WW by adhering rigorously to their program and I ate chocolate (1oz.) nearly every day! I learned that the enjoyment of sweets and fats has to do with how I savour them, not how much of them i stuff into myself. Prior to WW I would just consume enormous amounts of whatever and I am not even sure how much I enjoyed them! My only complaint about Weight Watchers is that they continue to focus on packaged and processed foods and their dining out book lists mostly very mainstream fast food corporate type eateries. While their newer "core foods" program addresses this I think they could help people focus on organic whole foods even more than they do. Finally to the gent whose wife was turned away with her newborn: While it was a bummer this happened, you can hardly write off the whole program since she never really tried it. If I were your wife I would have either asked for a refund at the first meeting or gotten a voucher for the first one she was not allowed to attend. You can't expect the receptionist at a different meeting or venue the following week to know what had previously gone down....

Weight Watchers is not a diet. It is a support system for changing your lifestyle and does not pretend to wave a magic wand over your fat and make it disappear.

Americans suffer from the vast amount of nutrient poor, calorie rich foods available in fast food joints and supermarkets. We are served giant portions and refuse to believe that anything that comes in one package is more than one portion (chips, cookies, donuts, candy). Our bodies are made to crave fats and sweets, because at one time it was hard to come by these calories.

But once grown, our bodies need very little in the way of fat and sugar calories to sustain. It doesn't matter if we LOVE extra cheese pizza and eating a pint of ice cream in one sitting. The body simply doesn't need it and so it will get stored as fat. Weight Watchers uses their point system to teach you appropriate portions and amount of food to eat in one day to maintain your weight. If you are used to eating gi-normous super-sized portions you will feel hungry in the beginning. As your body adjusts, you will start to understand what it feels like be satisfied without feeling stuffed and you will feel lighter and have more energy.

The meetings act as a community and the leaders give support and advice--but you have to do the work of changing yourself if you want it to work for you. It is a simple biological fact: you either get to eat huge portions of whatever you want, or you get to be healthy and lean.

The upside is that you really can have some amount of the fatty, rich or sweet foods you crave. But you quickly learn that if you want to feel satisfied, you will need to eat more fruits and vegetables, many of which are zero points. I lost 35 pounds in six months at WW by adhering rigorously to their program and I ate chocolate (1oz.) nearly every day! I learned that the enjoyment of sweets and fats has to do with how I savour them, not how much of them i stuff into myself. Prior to WW I would just consume enormous amounts of whatever and I am not even sure how much I enjoyed them!

My only complaint about Weight Watchers is that they continue to focus on packaged and processed foods and their dining out book lists mostly very mainstream fast food corporate type eateries. While their newer "core foods" program addresses this I think they could help people focus on organic whole foods even more than they do.

Finally to the gent whose wife was turned away with her newborn: While it was a bummer this happened, you can hardly write off the whole program since she never really tried it. If I were your wife I would have either asked for a refund at the first meeting or gotten a voucher for the first one she was not allowed to attend. You can't expect the receptionist at a different meeting or venue the following week to know what had previously gone down....

Weight Watchers Review #11 by Cari on February 5th, 2008 at 10:57 AM CST

Name

I just wanted to say that I agree with Barbara and the many other supporters of WW. I have been a lifetime member for two years now. It took me two years to meet my goal and become lifetime. During that time at the encouragement of my leader, I began to exercise regularly as well as learn to eat the right things and in the right portions. I am still exercising five days a week, one hour a day. That may not seem like much, but I am in the best shape I have ever been in. I need to be accountable to achieve my goal and it eventually I became accountable to myself and not relying on others asking me how I am doing. We all need to take responsibility for the way we eat and what priority we put on our own health. One of the lessons I learned from my WW leader was the day she asked if we could take a pill after every mean that would guarantee that we would be healthier and want to eat the right things would we do it? We all said yes. She said that pill is exercise! That convinced me. I needed to add exercise to my routine of eating healthy and it made a huge difference. No one is going to put a gun to your head and say exercise in any weight loss program but WW defintely includes that as a basis for losing and maintaining your weight loss. For those reading this, good luck to you. Use whatever works for you but don't be discouraged because someone else is. Look at the positive side. It took me two years to get to my goal, but now it is two years later and I am still doing well in keeping the weight off and I still exercise! So set a goal and go for it!

I just wanted to say that I agree with Barbara and the many other supporters of WW. I have been a lifetime member for two years now. It took me two years to meet my goal and become lifetime. During that time at the encouragement of my leader, I began to exercise regularly as well as learn to eat the right things and in the right portions. I am still exercising five days a week, one hour a day. That may not seem like much, but I am in the best shape I have ever been in. I need to be accountable to achieve my goal and it eventually I became accountable to myself and not relying on others asking me how I am doing.

We all need to take responsibility for the way we eat and what priority we put on our own health. One of the lessons I learned from my WW leader was the day she asked if we could take a pill after every mean that would guarantee that we would be healthier and want to eat the right things would we do it? We all said yes. She said that pill is exercise! That convinced me. I needed to add exercise to my routine of eating healthy and it made a huge difference. No one is going to put a gun to your head and say exercise in any weight loss program but WW defintely includes that as a basis for losing and maintaining your weight loss.

For those reading this, good luck to you. Use whatever works for you but don't be discouraged because someone else is. Look at the positive side. It took me two years to get to my goal, but now it is two years later and I am still doing well in keeping the weight off and I still exercise! So set a goal and go for it!

Weight Watchers Review #10 by Marci on February 5th, 2008 at 10:52 AM CST

Name

I can believe the negative comments written about the WW program! Many years ago (17), I needed to lose a little weight, about 10 lbs, and had a girlfriend that had been on Nutrisystem for a month or so and was looking amazing already. I signed up. Bottom line, yes I did lose the weight, but you had to purchase their food. I love to cook and this doesn't give you that luxury!! I only had 10 lbs to lose to get me back to where I was comfortable. I also tried Phen Phen......not good, makes you feel really weird, almost like speed, and it affected my memory and mood.NOT GOOD!!! Several years later, after 2 children, I had more lbs to lose. It took me that last time looking in the mirror at my 25 pound overweight self, not recognizing that face and body to say OK...time to do something NOW!!! I noticed in Poway (San Diego,CA) near my house, was a WW location.After checking the meeting times, I decided Saturday 7:30am would be great for me because I could slip out quietly leaving behind my sleeping husband and two kids, and leaving me the whole rest of the day! I walked in the door that first time to WW and didn't know a soul, but I was determined to lose the "extra Marci". Each week we received a new successive informational booklet with a new recipe as well. I loved this!! My goal was 113. It took me about 4 1/2 months, and my success motivated about 5 of my girlfriends too. We started going to the meetings together and would go to the local farmer's market after to buy fresh produce, flowers and amazing pita & hummus. We all were successful, and we all became lifetime members. We all went weekly, we STAYED FOR THE WHOLE MEETING, and we all supported each other. The leader at the time was wonderful, her name was Marie, and the people that attended the meetings were also very supportive. There were often times mom's with their new babies in attendance, and it was never an issue with anyone. After a couple of years, health issues (chronic pain caused by endomertiosis, depression......then a total hysterectomy)caused me to gain 40 extra lbs. I tried going to L.A. Weight loss, where you pay up front (they say so you stay with the program) I think it was about $700.00, but I was feeling desperate. The reason I went there was because of the much faster results they claimed. Boy was I pissed at myself about 2 weeks later!! (so was my husband)I HATED IT!! It was humiliating to look at everything you ate and drank with the counselers.The shakes, snacks and cleansing drinks were nasty. I decided to actually use my long held membership at 24hr Fitness, and also decided to get a personal training package. I also came back to where I really needed to go...WW. When I lost weight with WW the first time, I did very little additional exercise. When I finally came back this last time( this was nearly 2 years ago), I was working out and following the core plan. I LOVE THE CORE PLAN!!! It is a way of a healthy lifetime diet. I have maintained at about 113 for quite a while now. I get asked all the time by moms at my children's school " how did you get so skinny", and "what kinds of food do you eat" and it truely is so simple. The core works, and WW works!! By the way, I am 41, 5ft 4in, pain free (but forced menopause), and I take a couple of abdominal patchs for hormone replacemnt as well as levoxil for hypothyroid disorder. I feel great and you can too.

I can believe the negative comments written about the WW program!

Many years ago (17), I needed to lose a little weight, about 10 lbs, and had a girlfriend that had been on Nutrisystem for a month or so and was looking amazing already. I signed up. Bottom line, yes I did lose the weight, but you had to purchase their food. I love to cook and this doesn't give you that luxury!! I only had 10 lbs to lose to get me back to where I was comfortable. I also tried Phen Phen......not good, makes you feel really weird, almost like speed, and it affected my memory and mood.NOT GOOD!!!

Several years later, after 2 children, I had more lbs to lose. It took me that last time looking in the mirror at my 25 pound overweight self, not recognizing that face and body to say OK...time to do something NOW!!! I noticed in Poway (San Diego,CA) near my house, was a WW location.After checking the meeting times, I decided Saturday 7:30am would be great for me because I could slip out quietly leaving behind my sleeping husband and two kids, and leaving me the whole rest of the day!

I walked in the door that first time to WW and didn't know a soul, but I was determined to lose the "extra Marci". Each week we received a new successive informational booklet with a new recipe as well. I loved this!! My goal was 113. It took me about 4 1/2 months, and my success motivated about 5 of my girlfriends too. We started going to the meetings together and would go to the local farmer's market after to buy fresh produce, flowers and amazing pita & hummus. We all were successful, and we all became lifetime members. We all went weekly, we STAYED FOR THE WHOLE MEETING, and we all supported each other. The leader at the time was wonderful, her name was Marie, and the people that attended the meetings were also very supportive. There were often times mom's with their new babies in attendance, and it was never an issue with anyone.

After a couple of years, health issues (chronic pain caused by endomertiosis, depression......then a total hysterectomy)caused me to gain 40 extra lbs.

I tried going to L.A. Weight loss, where you pay up front (they say so you stay with the program) I think it was about $700.00, but I was feeling desperate. The reason I went there was because of the much faster results they claimed. Boy was I pissed at myself about 2 weeks later!! (so was my husband)I HATED IT!! It was humiliating to look at everything you ate and drank with the counselers.The shakes, snacks and cleansing drinks were nasty. I decided to actually use my long held membership at 24hr Fitness, and also decided to get a personal training package. I also came back to where I really needed to go...WW.

When I lost weight with WW the first time, I did very little additional exercise. When I finally came back this last time( this was nearly 2 years ago), I was working out and following the core plan. I LOVE THE CORE PLAN!!! It is a way of a healthy lifetime diet. I have maintained at about 113 for quite a while now. I get asked all the time by moms at my children's school " how did you get so skinny", and "what kinds of food do you eat" and it truely is so simple. The core works, and WW works!!

By the way, I am 41, 5ft 4in, pain free (but forced menopause), and I take a couple of abdominal patchs for hormone replacemnt as well as levoxil for hypothyroid disorder. I feel great and you can too.