I've struggled with my weight for as long as I can remember. While I've never been considered overweight, I tend to gain and lose (and gain) the same 5 pounds over and over again thanks to stretches of eating "good" food punctuated by massive binges. The back-and-forth is accompanied by stress, anxiety, and feelings of guilt.
As a consequence, I've tried every diet in the book. I was eating organic and cutting out wheat, sugar, and dairy — "eating clean" — before it was cool. When Atkins diet-related advice told me to avoid "high sugar fruits" I listened, refusing to eat apples or bananas. But still, no dice on the scale.
In early June, I was sick of feeling like my weight fluctuations controlled me. That's when one of my coworkers suggested I try something that I hadn't thought of in years: Weight Watchers. Specifically, the app that you get to use when you become an online member of its program.
That's right, Weight Watchers — the diet your mom was on in the 90s. And thanks to the app, you don't have to go to weekly meetings to step on the scale anymore if you don't want to.
I tried it, and I lost 10 pounds — something I hadn't even thought was possible before. And I didn't have to cut out wheat, dairy, meat, or sugar to be successful. Plus, I didn't feel guilty about food for the first time in years.
Here's how the Weight Watchers point system works
Weight Watchers has been around since the early 1960s. It began as an offshoot of what was believed at the time to be a healthy heart diet. The plan itself has gone through a lot of permutations over the years. At first, alcohol was strictly forbidden, but now it's okay as long as you track the points. And points weren't even part of the plan at the beginning, but they've now become the crux of the whole thing. The company's Wikipedia page has an exhaustive history as well as detailed equations explaining the points system over the years.
At this phase of its existence, Weight Watchers points are based on a food's fat, carbohydrate, fiber, and protein level, and a point value per serving is assigned to whatever food you're eating.
You get to eat a certain amount of points per day with a bank of 49 extra points each week for days when you want to eat or drink more.
For example, a 27-year-old woman who is 5'5" and weights 166 pounds (the average weight of a woman in America) would get 27 points per day, according to this unofficial Weight Watchers points calculator. For the average man, who's 5'9" and weights 195.5 pounds according to NPR, the daily value is set at about 43 points if he's 27 years old. Of course, if you have any health issues, you should talk to your doctor first.
As you lose weight, you are given fewer daily points, which aids the weight loss. Once you get to your goal weight, your daily points allotment goes up.
You also get activity points, which you can dip into if you're out of weekly points and daily points. The idea is for this to happen very rarely, but one thing Weight Watchers prides itself in is its flexibility. There are going to be days or weeks where you just consume more than allotted. The idea is to just keep track of it all.
Members who dutifully track their points can lose quite a few pounds the first week. I lost about 3. Generally, people lose about 1-2 pounds a week after that.
If you plateau, the app gives you tips or changes your daily point count in order to help you keep losing. The company also has blog posts and message boards where you can seek out tips.
I'd tried the MyFitnessPal app before — counting calories — and found it incredibly discouraging, limiting, and depressing. But counting points instead of calories somehow feels less frustrating. Vegetables and fruits are "free" at zero points and you're encouraged to quit depriving yourself of the foods you may be craving (a cookie, a bagel, a piece of pizza), and make considerate choices that allow you to indulge while staying within your allotted points.
When I first tried Weight Watchers in high school, I found it tedious and embarrassing to have to whip out a pamphlet to track my points every time I ate — not to mention the frustration of thumbing through the paperback manual to figure out points values to begin with.
Now, like everything else, the program has an app, and those problems are solved.
The app is a lifesaver — and the program's biggest selling point
One of the best perks of the Weight Watchers app is its inclusion of most chain and franchise restaurants. I order salad from Chop't a few times a week and all I have to do is type in "chop't hard boiled egg" or "chop't bacon" and the point value pops up on my phone. No guess work needed.
If a food isn't included, you can figure out the point value by using the calculator. You can also scan the barcodes on most packages of food you'd find at the grocery store.
It cost me $14 a month to access the app with a Weight Watchers online membership (no meetings included), but the price varies according to whether there's a promotion. A membership that includes weekly meetings can cost up to $40 a month.
The simplest way to see success? Log everything — even if you've eaten 90 points worth of French fries (hey, happens to the best of us). Be honest with yourself.
I've gone to weddings, parties, and barbecues this summer and indulged more than maybe my points allowed. But I've found that as long as I track every single thing I eat, I can balance those indulgences with better meals later on in the day or week, instead of eating a burrito and pretending it never happened.
I learned "health foods" aren't necessarily lower in calories
My cherished organic "health foods," it turns out, are ridiculously high in calories.
My beloved Schmear sandwich from Juice Press is a super health-conscious bagel with marinated kale, cucumber, rosemary cashew cream cheese and sesame dressing.
Or so I thought — it's 13 points. I might as well have been eating a McDonald's quarter pounder with cheese (14 points).
Before Weight Watchers, it would have been nothing for me to eat a 10-point smoothie in the morning, the schmear for lunch, a massive eight-point serving of trail mix in the afternoon, and a big omelet with tons of oil at night for another 11 points.
Add in a glass of wine at 7 points and that's a total of 49 points — and that was on what I'd thought was a good day.
Add in mindless snacking like half a doughnut at an office meeting or a mid-day Starbucks drink, and you can easily creep towards sixty points.
When I was "eating clean" with no regard for calories, I had no idea what I was doing. But thanks to my newly increased intake of fruits and vegetables and my attention to the caloric content of what I'm actually eating, I feel so much healthier.
Of course, it isn't perfect
The Weight Watchers app falters when it comes to plugging in meals that aren't part of the average American diet, like Indian or Thai food.
Plus, it's possible to lose weight on Weight Watchers without any regard for healthy eating. If you wanted to eat 15 points of pizza each day for lunch and have a zero-point apple for dinner, you could probably still shed pounds — but you wouldn't be healthy.
I also would love to go to meetings every once in awhile without having to commit to going every week to make the membership worth paying for.
Still, the benefits greatly outweigh any technical hiccups and I find the price to be fair now that I know what I'm getting.
Weight Watchers is not a cure-all and it takes a ton of work, but it's by far the most effective plan I've ever tried.
