Weight Watchers Diet: What To Know

Overview

The aim:

Weight loss.

The claim:

You’ll drop up to 2 pounds weekly.

The theory:

There’s more to weight loss than counting calories – if you make healthy choices that fill you up, you’ll eat less. Weight Watchers’ new Beyond the Scale Program, launched in late 2015, assigns every food a SmartPoints value, based on its nutition. (Higher amounts of saturated fat and sugar increase the point value; higher amounts of protein bring the point value down.) Choices that fill you up the longest “cost” the least, and nutritionally dense foods cost less than empty calories. So if you’re wavering between a 200-calorie fruit smoothie and a 200-calorie iced coffee, the smoothie is the smarter choice. A backbone of the plan is multi-model access to support from people who’ve lost weight using Weight Watchers and kept it off. 

Balanced Diet

These diets fall within accepted ranges for the amount of protein, carbs, fat and other nutrients they provide.

Pros & Cons

• Eat what you want; no foods off-limits
• Flexibility to shape your own diet

• Tedious point-tallying
• Pricey