by Marian Routledge

Created on: April 05, 2007   Last Updated: April 18, 2007

Weight watchers is great because, in theory, you can eat what you like providing you record the details and don't go over your daily (or weekly) allowance. My limiting the amount of food you can eat within the week, the diet tries to change your eating habits, encouraging a diet with less saturated fat. Long term, if you want to keep the weight you lose off, it will be necessary to change your eating habits for ever, so the weight watchers approach is a sensible one - its all about reeducation.

So how does it work? Well, weight watchers (WW) understands that we are all not the same...yes all of us who are signed up want to lose weight, but after that we differ. To this end WW offers two programs - in the UK these are called "The Points Plan" and "The Core Plan".

The points plan allocates each individual a daily points allowance based on their current weight, age and activity level. Each food stuff is given a points value according to the amount of saturated fat and calories it contains. The aim of the program is for the dieter to keep within their allocated points allowance. If you have a monster appetite (like me!) you can up your points allowance through exercise - this is very handy if you a night out planned (dancing round your handbag counts as exercise!). The bonus of the points plan is that anything goes - there are no foods you can't have...although you might find your points allowance disappears quick if you fill up on cream cakes!

The core plan is a bit more rigid and doesn't offer the same amount of choice as the points plan. Basically, you eat three meals a day using any foods off the core plan food list (includes rice, pasta, meat, fish, veg, fruit, etc). Between these meals you can snack on healthy options only - fruit, veg or WW fruities. In addition you do get a weekly points allowance to "fund" those treats or nights out - again this can be added to through exercise. The big plus of the core plan is that there is no weighing of food to be done, however you should exercise caution as for success on the core plan requires discipline, as at meal times you should eat until you full only and not go totally over the top.

Both diets offered by WW work - I know I've tried them! However, I personally think that the real bonus of WW is the support you get as you trundle along your weight loss journey. Support comes in the form of meeting leaders, other meeting members and online chat groups. As you lose weight your self esteem naturally improves, but this is also helped by gaining confidence from those around to you to participate in meetings and/or online discussions.

Go on give it a go!

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