The quest for losing weight is an old and a noble quest that has been going on for centuries. Even before the advent of the medical technology that we enjoy today, people were still trying to lose weight for aesthetic reasons. Even as far as back as the 17th century there is documented cases of French nobles trying out different diets to look slimmer. Thus, the basic drive to lose weight is a fundamental one. But due to the modern style of living that incorporates too little activity, no exercise and lots of fatty fast foods into our lives; becoming overweight has become a more common problem than before. Now more than ever being overweight is a serious problem that afflicts many people. Thus there are hundreds and even thousands of diets and weight loss programs out there all geared toward losing weight. Especially with the recent findings that indicate being overweight can lead to serious health problems, the quest for losing weight has become more urgent than ever.
In order to address this problem, there are various weight loss techniques and diets. However, some of them are nostalgic and they have been around for some time especially in the recent decades. One of these techniques is the weight watchers diet. You can remember it from the 1970’s. It is based on the fact that losing weight requires emotional support and constant supervision and watching. Thus by incorporating peer groups, you can get the help that you need easily by getting the emotional support to focus on your weight loss goal. It has been around for some time, but now it has metamorphosed with the changing times and it has become a more popular and more detailed diet and a weight loss program.
The weight watchers system is more of a life style than a diet. In general, summary nothing is forbidden on the diet and you can almost eat anything. In order to incorporate a positive approach, the weight watchers diet has incorporated a POINTS system. In the program, almost everything is categorized into POINTS system. There is a point for everything. Whether it is a Burger King Whopper or a delicious pizza, it doesn’t matter. Every single food that you can eat inside or outside in a restaurant has points in this system. This is especially beneficial as you don’t have to be limited to house made foods or meal supplements like the various other diet systems out there.
In the weight watchers diet you are allowed to intake food up to 24 points a day (20 points for women, 24 points for men). The diet in general states that you can eat anything that you want, provided that you stay within the boundaries of the points system. If you just want to eat Bonbons every day, even that is fine as long as you don’t exceed your maximum points. For example, a typical hamburger may have 6 points while a Kentucky Fried Chicken has 5 points. A typical vegetable dish like cauliflower or broccoli has only 2 points. You can even drink alcohol as long as you keep it within your POINTS limits. As you can see that more fatty and more caloric a food, then more points that it has. This is a good systems so that you don’t feel as if you are in a diet prison. That is why many other programs fail as the dieter feels himself or herself too restricted to move on and too restricted even to breathe. However, this is definitely not so with the Weight Watchers. The main part of the plan is Auto control that you exercise using the POINTS system. This is highly beneficial and you always get the feeling that you are in the driver’s seat in this diet and that you are in control.
Sometimes some people eat as little as possible some days to reserve their points. Then they use these points to splurge themselves on different foods another day. Although technically this is permitted within the Weight Watchers program, it is definitely not recommended. However, the general system allows it. The important point here is Auto control or self control. Thus in order to help people cope with these types of problems, the main component of Weight Watchers system is the peer meetings. The peer meetings allow you to express your emotional frustrations and you are able to get the support that you need with these weight watchers community meetings. Since Weight Watchers is an especially wide spread program in the United States and Europe, you can find many people who are also in the Weight Watchers program to share your experience with. In case there is no local community near you, you can always go online and use the website to help auto control yourself. As long as you are a Weight Watchers paid member, you can also get help by telephone or email, if there is no local community near your location.
In general, Weight Watchers is an old program that has been proven to work. It has worked for many people and the POINTS system along with the auto control principle and the peer review is a sound one. The membership is around $20 a month and this is not something excessive, especially for people who spend hundreds of dollars on a weight loss program. There are no meal supplements to buy, which also makes it a cheap and usable program. You can eat anything at home or in the Restaurant as long as you stick to your points. Of course, exercise is also an important part of this program. If you are doing exercises every day, then you get more POINTS so that you can eat more. The main part is getting control of your calories. It is a very sound and sensible plan that has worked for thousands of people. The only disadvantage of the plan is that it is not a rapid weight loss plan and it is not really suited for very obese people that need to control their weight fast.
