Proof Weight Watchers Doesn't Work Long Term

Actually...

I'm glad you brought this point up. I'll be discussing it more in the upcoming webinar, but for now let me say that by far everyone did/ does not lose the weight. This particular study started with a group of people who had lost the weight, yes.. but that does not mean that everyone who joined Weight Watchers at the same time as these people were also successful.

In 2005, a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association printed a study comparing the Atkins, Weight Watchers, Zone, and Dean Ornish (Low fat) diets. All had a similar success rate. The average person in this study (who stayed with the diet) lost 6.6 pounds in one year on Weight Watchers. Most dieters can lose 6.6 pounds of water in the first weeks of a diet.

Over 35% of the people in this study dropped out of Weight Watchers before the year was up, by the way.

In the other study I quoted in the video, the subjects had lost an average of 28 - 30 pounds to reach their goal. I have yet to find a study that shows Weight Watchers to be successful with people who have a large amount of weight to lose -- say 50, 75 or even 100 pounds. I'm sure some people have done so, but statistically they don't seem to be the norm. It seems people drop out of the program way before they can lose that much weight.

However, any diet can help you lose some weight. All I am saying is that in their current commercials, Weight Watchers claims to be "the one that works." They claim not to be a diet. (See their website, that promises you can "stop dieting, start living.")

Yet the fact that so many of their members come back to the plan again and again -- the average is four times -- tells me that instead of encouraging a lifestyle change, they're encouraging yo-yo dieting.

What we're proposing here is not a diet. We're trying to give guidelines that people can use forever. Stop using sugar forever. Stop eating a lot of grain forever. Choose foods low on the glycemic index forever.

Don't think you can follow these recommendations temporarily. That would make them just another diet. But plan on eating healthy for the rest of your life.

Weight Watchers claims to be teaching you the same thing, but I beg to differ. It's not eating healthy when you can load up on junk in one meal, and have to eat only salad the next because you've "spent your points." Healthy eating means consistently making wise choices -- not learning how to budget bad ones.

As I said, we'll be talking about this more in the webinar, and why counting points is not something you can do for life. I hope you'll join us!

LisaP