For the past month I’ve continued logging my Weight Watchers Points consumed and Activity Points earned like normal (meaning somewhat sporadically and sometimes as a form of self-punishment), despite having to give up my online membership. Mom did me a huge favor by giving me some of the materials that she got when she first signed up for meetings, so I just did it the old-fashioned way, with brightly colored gel pens.
Yesterday afternoon, however, while I was home trying not to throw up or feel too sorry for myself, I received an email from Weight Watchers, trumpeting their new program and begging me to come back. Okay, maybe not begging; they don’t need my money that badly. I decided that since I’m working full time now, I’d go ahead and sign back up. I’ve been needing something to re-energize my weight loss, and quite often a new approach does just that.
First impressions of the new PointsPlus program?
- Whoa, wait, I get how many points?! On the old program, at my current weight, I got 27 points per day, plus 35 flex points. With PointsPlus I get 33 daily points and 49 flex points. That doesn’t mean I get to stuff myself silly: a lot of foods also have a higher Points value as well.
- I knew that was coming! Calculating points based on carbohydrates, that is. They’ve been doing it on the European program for a while now (they call it Pro Points). I don’t understand why it’s taken us so long to transition to it in the U.S. (from what I can find, it’s been at least a year since it was introduced over there), but I’m glad we’re finally seeing it. Healthy eating bloggers know how long we’ve touted more natural, whole, unprocessed foods, and the new formula takes that understanding of nutrition into account. What I wasn’t expecting, was that they would also add protein into the mix, and completely toss calories.
With the old formula it was pretty easy to guestimate how many points something was as long as you had the nutrition information in front of you: 1 point per 50 calories, plus a little for high fat, minus a little for high fiber. This is one downside I see: it isn’t quite as easy to guess at how many points something might be. And unlike my sister, I can’t calculate (Protein / 10.9) +( Carbohydrates / 9.2) + (Fat / 3.9) + (Fiber / 35) at the drop of a hat. This formula takes into account a number of factors, including how hard your body has to work to use different components of a food (see this article for more information).
- Thank JUBEZUS! Most fruits and veggies are 0 points now. It’s hard convincing yourself to eat a lot of fruit when it costs as much as a shot of vodka two slices of healthy, whole grain bread. I ate my tummy-friendly banana this morning, fully appreciative of the fact that it wasn’t costing me 2 points.
- This really isn’t that different, after all… I mean, yes, there are some changes. You have a new, higher daily points target, and a higher weekly flex points allowance. And all of your favorite foods that you have the points values memorized for? Well, you’re probably going to have to relearn most of them. But otherwise, the consumer’s side of it hasn’t changed much. You still log your food points, earn your activity points, and focus on those healthy living guidelines.
In my opinion, this is one of the strongest aspects of the Weight Watchers program: the idea of counting points instead of calories or any of the other numerous things nutritionist and diet-mongers hype. This new transition – the biggest Weight Watchers has seen in 13 years – just makes it all the more comprehensive. Our understanding of good nutrition has come a long way over the past 13 years, and it’s probably long past time that Weight Watchers caught up.
My mom is a member, and she was telling me about the new program. I did points for a while, but when I transitioned over to healthier eating with healthier foods, I felt I had to ditch WWPoints. I think this new program is great, esp for women who don’t understand the benefits of whole, unprocessed food (ie, some of my mom’s friends). Keep us posted with your take on the new system!
I know what you mean. Although I’ve always loved the Points program, they haven’t really taken real nutritional value into account before this. I think they kind of tried to get people thinking more that way with their Simply Filling technique, but I think it’s a lot more effective when the Points formula actually takes it into account!