I decided that I'd join weight watchers about 4 weeks ago and I have decided to write a review now and updated it every month so you can all follow my progress. I've also decided to include diet journal entries so that hopefully you'll be even more entertained.
First things first - signing on
I decided that I was going to complete weight watchers the online way. I didn't fancy going to the meetings and always love fiddling on the internet so I thought I'd give it a go. I spent several days umming and erming about whether it was worth the £49.99 for 3 months and I'm glad now that I went for it.
Signing up was very easy. The first 3 months are most expensive as they include a registration fee but thereafter it's only £9.99 per month. I thought that I would give it ago for 3 months and then I could always cancel my registration fee after that if I decided the Weight watchers way was not for me. To sign up I simply had to chose an Id for myself and then the usual form filling and Credit card details pages and after less than 10 mins I was ready to go.
I was asked to enter my current weight, my goal weight and several questions such as age, job type and whether i wanted to lose or maintain my weight. From this information the computer worked out that in order to lose weight i should be eating 21 points per day.
You may think that it's silly to pay so much for an online service but it had a large range of features: so here we go:
*Community area*:
This area is free for anyone to use. You dont have to be following or signed up to weight watchers to be able to join. A few days before I actually handed over my Credit card details I went on this bored to chat about which plan would be right for me. The users are incredible helpful, almost surprisingly so. I have never been on a message board where everyone is so willing to help you with your requests. There are different boards for different queries eg: there's a new users board if your stuck and need some help. Also a food talk board and special boards for online or at home users.
The community area also contains a recipe swap section where you can write your recipes and post them for others to see and use. This is good if your stuck and cant find something to interest you in the weight watchers 'food and recipe' section.
*My
Pictures of Weight Watchers
Weight Tracker 9.6.05
Switch area*:
This is like a homepage for those who are online users. It contains all of the subsections you require as tools for your online diet plan.
- Weight tracker - This is the place where you log your weight at the same time each week. You can choose the day you log your weight (mine is Thursday as this gives me the opportunity to make up for my often appalling weekend eating). All you do is on the same time each week you log your weight and your weight will be planned on a graph so you can see your progress.
An incentive in itself to see the graph slowly veering downwards towards your target, however at certain points in your weight loss you recieve stars for your achievements. A silver star is earnt when you lose 7Lbs, a brown star for when you have loss 10% of your weight and a orange star when you reach your target weight.
From this section you can also edit your profile and view your weight loss progress graph,
-Points Tracker-
This is in my opinion the best part of the website. Every day when you click on points tracker you are presented with a screen. It is split into two. The left side's function is to type in food you want to add to your tracker, food that you have eaten in the day or are planning to eat so that you can keep track of your points.
On the right side it lists the foods you have added for that day and created subtotals and totals. Here you also tick you portions of fruit & veg and how many glasses of water you have drunk.
The points tracker also has a bank which keeps note of how much you've gone over or under your points by in the week so far. Part of the weight watchers flexible diet means that if i was going for a meal on the weekend i could eat say 1 point less each day and i could save these in my bank. The points in my bank can then be used if i overindulge another day. In the same way if I eat too many points the bank will go into minus points figures and i can get these back by eating less in the next few days.
On the points tracker you can also include your exercise done in the day. These activities can earn you bonus points which you can save for a rainy day or use to make your weight loss quicker. For example a gentle walk lasting 1 hour would earn you 3 bonus points.
-shopping list- If you plan ahead like I often do the shopping list feature can be a good thing to use. I could work out what im eating for the week. Put them on my tracker and then print out a list of things which I need to buy. Genius.
-Meal Ideas- This is a good section if your stuck on what to eat for a meal. It has 7 suggestions for all 3 meals in the day and also for snacks. You can then pick what you like and move these over to your points tracker.
-Points calculator- here you can enter a food and then the calculator will find out the points. If a food you have is not listed (this does not happen very often as over 30,000 foods on the website) you can enter the cals and saturated fat of the item and the calculator will work out the points value.
-My favourites- This is simply a place where all your favourite foods recipes and message boards are easily accessible.
-Essential stuff- This is the equivilent of the weight watchers manual online. Here you can learn about portion sizes, eating out ideas and the habit guides.
Habits are things which help you to lose weight more successfully on the diet. From the essential stuff page you can follow a link to an online quiz which determines what habit you should learn. When you have mastered this you repeat the quiz until you have managed to get all of the habits sussed. So far I have only completed 'manage your feelings' habit and can say that I am officially no longer a comfort eater.
-Weight loss options- This section just has details of the different ways you can do the weight watchers diet (ie online or at meetings) and has pricing details for these.
*FOOD AND RECIPES*
-Recipes- This section includes the features website recipe and also a little box to search for a recipe yourself.
-Recipe Renovation_ This section takes a favourite recipe and makes it the Weight Watchers way. For example as I'm typing this the recipe featured is a low fat low points Swiss Roll.
-Recipe Search- This is an advanced search page where you can search for a recipe on the website. You could search for all recipes for a particular course or with a particular ingrediant. You can search by the difficulty of the recipe or the length of time taken to prepare. You can even specify how many points in the meal you are searching for. This is particularly helpful if you have had a bad day and are looking for something with very few points so you keep on track.
-Recipe Builder- This is one of my favourite parts of the website. It is a tool which you can use to build your own recipes. You simply enter ingrediants and instructions and the builder works out points for you. These recipes are included in your recipe search and you can also post them in the community recipe swap area.
-Food lists- This section contains basic lists of need to know foods. The lists include everyday foods, eating out foods, cooking foods and zero points value foods.
-Food guides- This section is quite unused by me but it contains food articles for example sugar guides and holiday guides. These articles are ones that have been previously posted on the website.
-Portion Guides- This is very helpful indeed especially when you start the diet. If you have a recipe which needs a medium potato it is only judgement that you can tell what is a medium or large potato. This is quite important on this diet as you may be eating too much if your portion sizes are too high. The portion planner compares everyday foods to household objects. For example, I now know that a medium apple is the same size as a tennis ball and that a medium jacket potato is the size of a computer mouse. Fantastic!
-Articles- This section again includes as the title suggest articles. Some of them on there at the moment are '6 no-lettuce salads' and 10 top toppings for crispbreads. My mouth is watering as I type. Actually this section has gone previously unexplored but does look facsinating so I'm going to check it out further.
-Weight watchers food- A list of all the lovely foods made by weight watchers themselves. I admit to indulging in one or two weight watchers muffins which are lovely. Also weight watchers deli fillers are fabulous on jacket potatoes and baguettes alike. This is a useful part of the website where you can keep up to date with the latest food offers and also where to buy them although most supermarkets have a good stock.
*HEALTHY AND FIT*
This section of the website is based around what it suggests. The most useful part is the assessments section to find out things like your BMI, and other fun questionaires to do with your health and fitness. The healthy guides section is full of articles such as 'get excersizing guide'. The best part of this section is the 'workouts' section which shows different exersizes to target different parts of the bodies.
*SUCCESS STORIES*
This is a fantastic section. It contains stories and pictures of people for who the weight watchers diet has been a great success. I find this area (as well as the message boards) a great source of motivation whenever im about to reach for the ice cream or the cheese.
This section also gives you an opportunity to share your success story. Hopefuly at some point in the future i will be able to enter my story.
*SHOP*
In the weight watchers shop you can buy chocolate bars, books, scales and other tools to help your weight watchers diet be it's most successful. The P&P is very overpriced and this section is my only problem with the website. If you do wish to order something online you have to fax an order form. It seems that weight watchers is back in the 90's with the online shopping section.
So what you're all wanting to know. I started the diet on 10th May 2005. I have so far to date (6 June 2005) nearly a month later lost 5lbs. This is a healthy weight loss on average about 1lb per week. I am very pleased and am finding the weight loss plan very easy to follow. I have never stuck to a diet this long. I feel like im eating well and not starving myself and my attitudes towards food have changed. Below are some of my journal entries for your enjoyment:
17.5.05 So today has been another good day, cant believe I haven't had a binge day yet. To be honest I have been too full to want to. Feeling a little bloated though but not as much as yesterday. Think my bodies getting used to the fruit and veg intake. I think I am learning a lot of good habits on ww. Like eating more in the day and not as much before bed time. Tomorrow I will be having a very healthy day so here's the menu plan:
brekkie: crunchy nut cornflakes and semi skimmed milk Lunch: Jacket potato and cottage cheese from canteen. Dinner: grilled chicken breast, pitta bread. peppers and courgette with mediteranian (out of a packet) cous cous. Snack: WW yoghurt, apple, french fries crisps, ww muffin.
30.5.05
Weigh in day today, bank holiday monday and no work. I managed to lose 1lb which is great. I should be down to under 11 stone next week I think which means I've lost 7lbs and get a little star on the chart. Went out today for lunch and had naughty meal and glass of wine. Went for an hours work which is 3 bonus points so still managed to keep in my points.!
UPDATED: 12.6.05
Just over 4 weeks into my diet and on my 4th weigh in day I have lost another 2lbs in one week. This means that I have lost a total of 1/2 a stone which feels fantastic. This week I was poorly too and ate loads to compensate for being full of flu and i still managed to pull it back with exercise and eating better to make up for the bad days. I have recieved my first silver star on the weight tracker which makes me feel fantastic. (see pic)
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Congrats! I'm finding weight loss a problem right now :-(
Pmshack99 13.06.2005 13:46
a well detailed review. i am currently trying to lose a bit of weight - only about half a stone but i'm struggling - and if i had the money, you would have seriously tempted me to sign up for this service! paula x
pennfold001 12.06.2005 17:14
very good review, i am also on a major diet but i chose slimming world for mine, have been on it 2 months now and have lost 14.5 pounds so am very happy with it. good luck with your martin xx
A sleek silver scale with state of the art technology to calculate body weight A large 1 / ... more
33mm LCD display Weighs up to 23st 8lb / 330lb / 150kg With 3 oz / 0.1kg accuracy Offers the flexibility to choose Stones, Lbs or Kg settings Long-life lithium battery Supplied with optional carpet feet for accurate readings on soft as well as hard floors
LCD Precision Electronic Scale uses the latest technology to offer you the most accurate ... more
measurements. 1 / 33mm LCD display Weighs up to 23st 4lb / 396lb / 180kg 1 oz / 50g accuracy Choice of measurement in stone / kg / lb 4 load cells Long-life lithium battery included
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Postage & Packaging:£3.95 Availability:In stock. Standard delivery in 3-5 working days......
A stylish silver painted finish with easy to use colour bar indicators Coloured bar ... more
indicators for low, normal, high body analysis readings Measures body weight, BMI( body mass index), body fat and body water Large 1 3/4 inch / 33mm display Weight capacity 23st 8lb/330lb/150kg Silver painted finish platform with stainless steel plates
Earn 58 Nectar points with this purchase. These electronic glass scales feature an LCD ... more
digital display and give you exact measurements that are accurate to 100g or 0.2lbs. The scales let you choose to be measured in stones, kilos or pounds. They also feature carpet feet to ensure accuracy on any surface, and for easy use, they have an easy-access tap start device. For those of you who have weight loss in mind, the scales display your last weight and goal weight. Battery included. 15 year warranty.
Postage & Packaging:£3.95 Availability:In stock. Standard delivery in 3-5 working days...
painted platform. Carpet feet for accurate reading on carpet and hard floors. Tap start, auto shut off and low battery warning. Weight capacity 150kg/23st 8lb/330lb. Size (W)29, (D)31, (H)3.5cm. Includes 1x long life battery.
Postage & Packaging:refer to website Availability:In Stock
Because these glacier scales have been made to Weight Watchers exacting standards, every ... more
little difference you make to your weight is taken into account to give you the positive feeling you need to carry on in the right direction! The stylish glacier desi
For an accurate shape up try the LCD Precision Electronic scales from Weight Watchers. ... more
They have made these scales to Weight Watchers exacting standards so you can be sure that every little difference is taken into account to give you the positive feeling
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easy to read blue display and a chic compact profile. They feature impact resistant safety glass, a large coloured display and measure in stone, pounds and kilos. They've a weight capacity of 27 stone. Includes 3 x AAA batteries. 15 year warranty.
Postage & Packaging:£3.95 Availability:In stock. Standard delivery in 3-5 working days...
Advantages: Easy to follow and effective dietary plans. No food is forbidden! Disadvantages: Possibly the cost of meetings, although to me this is an good thing
oxonian 20.01.2008 (20.01.2008)
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Review of
Weight Watchers
Jun 12th, 2005
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