The Weight Watchers Plan A Philosophy Developed Over More Than 40 Years.

An article by: Donald Saunders   Published: 2006-04-20 00:00:00.0
Original Website: Ezine Articles

Dieters the world over will be familiar with the Weight Watchers plan and it's amazing to see that what started out as a meeting between a few friends in the house of Jean Nidetch in Queens to exchange dieting ideas and tips has matured into an enormous publicly quoted company employing close to 50,000 people and operating in more than 30 countries around the world.

So why has Weight Watchers proved so successful and why is the company continuing to expand after more than 40 years in business?

The answer is to be found in the fact that Weight Watchers does not only offer a diet plan but is founded on a philosophy of dieting as just one part of an overall plan to set and maintain a healthy lifestyle in term of physical, emotional and mental health.

As a consequence Weight Watchers does not merely hand you a diet sheet and tell you what you can and cannot eat, but provides you with the information and advice needed to make the right decisions about your diet.

In addition, and most importantly, the Weight Watchers plan provides you with a level of support and motivation that is essential to your success and that is lacking in many other weight loss plans.

Local group meetings, which many who have not had the benefit of the Weight Watchers experience often dismiss as simply a waste of time, are, in many ways, the key to the Weight Watchers plan. Not only do these meetings provide a wealth of advice, information and tips, but they also allow members to offer each other encouragement and support which is necessary for the long-term success of any diet.

As well, the fact that you will need to meet with your fellow members on a regular basis and show them your progress, or lack of it, is an excellent way of helping you to stay on track as, occasionally, you're tempted to stray from your dieting regime.

Underpinning Weight Watcher's philosophy of dieting there is of course a basic diet plan, or to be more precise, two plans - the points plan and the core plan.

The basis of the points plan will be familiar to anybody who has tried dieting. Members are assigned a weekly points allocation depending upon their current weight and the weight that they are aiming for and may eat anything they like within this points allocation.

The beauty of the points system is that a points score is allocated to any food imaginable and there is no limitation on the types of food that you are allowed but only the quantity that you eat dependent upon that food's points score. This is in contrast to many other diets which ban some foods completely or require that specific foods are included in your diet.

The points plan also provides you with considerable flexibility by allocating negative points for exercise. So, if you decide to exceed your points allocation you can as long as you take enough exercise to counteract the additional points consumed.

The core plan was introduced in response to the popularity the Atkins and South Beach plans. Under this plan a wide variety of foods including vegetables, fat free airy products, fruits, fat free airy products, and whole grain foods are classed as "core" foods and there is no limitation on the quantity of these foods that you can eat, other than the proviso that you should only eat these foods to satisfy your hunger rather than to "fill" yourself up.

Any food item that does not appear on the "core" list is then given a score in the normal manner and members are given a weekly allowance of 35 points for these foods.

There is nothing new of course in either the points plan or the core plan and many of the hundreds of diets available follow the same sort of pattern. The strength however of the Weight Watchers plan is not in the underlying diet itself, but in the need of dieters for advice, information, help and, above all, support in what is in many cases a long, and at times difficult, struggle to remove those stubborn pounds.

Operating for the most part as a "club", Weight Watchers has grown and strengthened over the years and, as long as it continues to provide so much more than just a diet plan, it will without doubt continue to flourish in the future.

About the Author

For more information and advice about Weight Watchers and the Weight Watchers Plan please visit http://InternationalWeightWatchers.info today.