kagome75
WWer
As you all know, Weight Watchers has changed from the 7th of November 2010. This is the biggest change Weight Watchers had in 15 years, since the old points were introduced. Recently, in November 2011, the plan has also been slightly modified to correct problems that were affecting some members.
Reasons behind the change:
Seems that Weight Watchers consider themselves as the leader company in weight loss. The points system has been "avant-guarde" for years, allowing WW users to eat out and still have control of their diet and allowing anyone to still have the food they liked but keep on losing weight.
Why changing then?
Well... first of all, in 15 years science has moved forward. Researchers have found out much more about how our body breaks down the food we eat. For example, looking at 2 food with the same number of calories, it has been found out that your body consumes more when it breaks down proteins than when it breaks down carbs. Besides, carbs are broken down in glucides (sugars) which are released as energy immediately and increase your insuline level. If you don't use that energy, your body will much quickly store that energy as fat, because of the higher insuline level in your blood. Therefore, the new propoints will have lower values in food with a lot of proteins than in foods with a lot of carbs. WW still allows you to eat carbs though, no food is off limits with the new system exactly like with the old one!
So... now that this is clear, researchers have also seen that when people eat fruit, the energy contained in fruit's carbs is released at a slower rate. So eating a banana is not like eating a chocolate bar, even if it's the same number of calories and saturated fat. Hence, to help you feeling fuller for longer, the WW dieticians have incorporated the normal amount of fruit and vegs people usually have in a day within your propoints daily allowance. This means that now ALL fruit will be 0 points, and most vegetables also (except things like corn, beans, peas and things like that).
Now, there is a news about how your points are divided during the week. With the Discover plan, you would have had a daily allowance, let's say 18 points, and you could have saved up to 4 points per day to use when you felt like you needed. In the new plan, the minimum propoints allowance you can have is 26 propoints. You CANNOT (and I underline and stress out, CANNOT!!!!)save points out of your daily allowance and use them later in the week. You SHOULD use all of your daily points allowance every day. That is to ensure that all the right nutritions are taken during the day, that you take the right amount of carbs, proteins, fat and fibre for your body to function. This means that if you don't use them, you LOSE them. On the top of your daily allowance however, to give you flexibility, you have 49 extra propoints you can have during the week. You can use them or not, but you can't carry them forward to following weeks. If 49 propoints are too many for you, you have the option of changing the allocated extras from 0 to the 49, to budget yourself in the way that works best for your body.
* How can I lose weight if I have more points?
You will see that you DO NOT have more points. The way the propoints are calculated means that there's no half points any more. So something that could have been 2.5 would now be 3 and there's nothing that is 0.5 point anymore or things like that, including the WW fruities (now 1 propoint per box). Because of all this "rounding up" you will see that the amount of food you can actually eat with the 29 propoints is less than what you could have eaten with your points previously
* I understand that, but if I also have the extra weekly points, how am I going to lose weight?
The 26 points that you have per day are the MINIMUM your body can't live without. In the Discover plan, you were allowed to save 4 points per day. So let's say you were on 18 points, you could have had 6 days at 14 points and 1 day at 46 points and still manage to lose weight, right? If we hence compare the old plan to the new one, it's as if WW was telling you with Discover: "you have a budget of 14 points per day, but then you have a weekly allowance of 28 points that you can have when you feel a treat".
* So how do the two diets compare? I'm fearing that if I can have free fruit I will be eating more!
Ok, let's give an example. This is what I would have had when I was still dieting with WW and not maintaining, for 14 points:
breakfast (3.5 old points, 7 new points):
30g Ready break porridge 1.5 old points, 3 propoints
100ml skimmed milk, 0.5 old points, 1 propoints
1 yogurt activia 0.1%, 1 old points, 2 propoints
1 small glass orange juice, 0.5 old points, 1 propoints
lunch (4 old points, 11 propoints):
2 slices of small hovis bread 1.5 old points 3 propoints
30g philadelphia extra light 0.5 old points, 1 propoints
2 small slices of cooked ham 0.5 old points, 1 propoints
300g cherry tomatoes 0 old points, 0 propoints
1 can of free 7up, 0 old points, 0 propoints
1 plantain, cooked and mashed, 1.5 old points 6 propoints
dinner (6.5 old points, 10 propoints):
300g cherry tomatoes 0 old points 0 propoints
1 chicken breast medium, no skin 2.5 old points, 4 propoints
300g mixed vegetables 0 old points 0 propoints
1 ww double chocolate brownie 3 old points 5 propoints
1 tsp olive oil, 1 old points 1 propoints
snack:
1 bag WW fruities 0.5 old points, 1 propoints
This menu comes out to be 14.5 old points and 29 propoints. I remind you that the minimum on the old diet for people who were 8 stone or less was 16 points, with the possibility to get down to 14 if they wanted to save max 2 points per day. That showed, it is easy to understand that the two plans are very similar and compare really well. I show you that menu because that was me in survival mode, when I had a large meal the day before and wanted to save points. With that menu I would go to bed feeling a bit ravenous. Now I wouldn't need to feel that way any more!
Your leader will tell you how many propoints you can have a day. The amount of points for the weekly allowance is always the same, 49. She will give you new material, including a wheel that works out how many propoints are in food.
* Isn't it complicated having to take into account all these new variables, proteins, carbs, fibres, fat? I can't waste a lot of time counting!
It might look complicated but it's less so than you think. Besides, there's a little trick if you want to just grab something on the go and not have any surprises: look at the calories of the food and divide that by 40. Round from .1 to .49 to the previous figure and from .50 to .99 to the following one. For example, a pot of Activia yogurt fat free, 70 calories. That with the old plan would have been 1 point (because of the 0 sat fat). If you do 70/40 you get 1.75, so you have 2 propoints. Check on your list and you'll see it's correct. There *IS* room for error, but you can always check it at home and adjust your allowance in case you're a bit wrong.
As a rule of thumb, all cereals seem to be 1 propoint every 10 grams, no exclusions. All "diet" cereal bars, including Alpen light and Weetabix (which were 1 point in the previous plan against the 1.5 of Kellogg's and etc) are now 2 propoints, except the ones that are filled with jam or coated with yogurt (pp values are various here), or the Weight Watchers Oaty bars (3 pp).
Change is good guys. Follow the new plan and you will feel fuller for longer and still lose weight.
Update for 2011: Simply Filling
The Simply Filling plan has been introduced together with a few changes that I have incorporated to the main message, in November 2011. The principle of it is the same as the old Core Plan (or "No Count") from the old plan, with some differences. You eat from a list of foods until you are feeling satisfied, no more and no less. This plan is especially helpful if you're going out to dinner somewhere where you can't really count not knowing the quantity. You must just remember to stop when you're full and plan a handful of points for condiment and things like that.
Differently from the Core plan:
* you can swap from points days to SF days during the week, you don't need to have one full week on a single plan.
* you can now snack during the day, you are not just limited to the 3 meals per day
* the list of foods has slightly changed, to incorporate foods like wholegrain low calorie bread, all fruit of course, 2 tsps of oil per day, quorn products and things like that. Your leader should have given you a guide at the meeting with the list of most foods, but anything that on the ww magazine or website shows with the "green" filling highlight is part of this plan for 0pp.
Anything you eat that is not on the list *MUST* be pointed and will come off your weekly 49.
Reasons behind the change:
Seems that Weight Watchers consider themselves as the leader company in weight loss. The points system has been "avant-guarde" for years, allowing WW users to eat out and still have control of their diet and allowing anyone to still have the food they liked but keep on losing weight.
Why changing then?
Well... first of all, in 15 years science has moved forward. Researchers have found out much more about how our body breaks down the food we eat. For example, looking at 2 food with the same number of calories, it has been found out that your body consumes more when it breaks down proteins than when it breaks down carbs. Besides, carbs are broken down in glucides (sugars) which are released as energy immediately and increase your insuline level. If you don't use that energy, your body will much quickly store that energy as fat, because of the higher insuline level in your blood. Therefore, the new propoints will have lower values in food with a lot of proteins than in foods with a lot of carbs. WW still allows you to eat carbs though, no food is off limits with the new system exactly like with the old one!
So... now that this is clear, researchers have also seen that when people eat fruit, the energy contained in fruit's carbs is released at a slower rate. So eating a banana is not like eating a chocolate bar, even if it's the same number of calories and saturated fat. Hence, to help you feeling fuller for longer, the WW dieticians have incorporated the normal amount of fruit and vegs people usually have in a day within your propoints daily allowance. This means that now ALL fruit will be 0 points, and most vegetables also (except things like corn, beans, peas and things like that).
Now, there is a news about how your points are divided during the week. With the Discover plan, you would have had a daily allowance, let's say 18 points, and you could have saved up to 4 points per day to use when you felt like you needed. In the new plan, the minimum propoints allowance you can have is 26 propoints. You CANNOT (and I underline and stress out, CANNOT!!!!)save points out of your daily allowance and use them later in the week. You SHOULD use all of your daily points allowance every day. That is to ensure that all the right nutritions are taken during the day, that you take the right amount of carbs, proteins, fat and fibre for your body to function. This means that if you don't use them, you LOSE them. On the top of your daily allowance however, to give you flexibility, you have 49 extra propoints you can have during the week. You can use them or not, but you can't carry them forward to following weeks. If 49 propoints are too many for you, you have the option of changing the allocated extras from 0 to the 49, to budget yourself in the way that works best for your body.
* How can I lose weight if I have more points?
You will see that you DO NOT have more points. The way the propoints are calculated means that there's no half points any more. So something that could have been 2.5 would now be 3 and there's nothing that is 0.5 point anymore or things like that, including the WW fruities (now 1 propoint per box). Because of all this "rounding up" you will see that the amount of food you can actually eat with the 29 propoints is less than what you could have eaten with your points previously
* I understand that, but if I also have the extra weekly points, how am I going to lose weight?
The 26 points that you have per day are the MINIMUM your body can't live without. In the Discover plan, you were allowed to save 4 points per day. So let's say you were on 18 points, you could have had 6 days at 14 points and 1 day at 46 points and still manage to lose weight, right? If we hence compare the old plan to the new one, it's as if WW was telling you with Discover: "you have a budget of 14 points per day, but then you have a weekly allowance of 28 points that you can have when you feel a treat".
* So how do the two diets compare? I'm fearing that if I can have free fruit I will be eating more!
Ok, let's give an example. This is what I would have had when I was still dieting with WW and not maintaining, for 14 points:
breakfast (3.5 old points, 7 new points):
30g Ready break porridge 1.5 old points, 3 propoints
100ml skimmed milk, 0.5 old points, 1 propoints
1 yogurt activia 0.1%, 1 old points, 2 propoints
1 small glass orange juice, 0.5 old points, 1 propoints
lunch (4 old points, 11 propoints):
2 slices of small hovis bread 1.5 old points 3 propoints
30g philadelphia extra light 0.5 old points, 1 propoints
2 small slices of cooked ham 0.5 old points, 1 propoints
300g cherry tomatoes 0 old points, 0 propoints
1 can of free 7up, 0 old points, 0 propoints
1 plantain, cooked and mashed, 1.5 old points 6 propoints
dinner (6.5 old points, 10 propoints):
300g cherry tomatoes 0 old points 0 propoints
1 chicken breast medium, no skin 2.5 old points, 4 propoints
300g mixed vegetables 0 old points 0 propoints
1 ww double chocolate brownie 3 old points 5 propoints
1 tsp olive oil, 1 old points 1 propoints
snack:
1 bag WW fruities 0.5 old points, 1 propoints
This menu comes out to be 14.5 old points and 29 propoints. I remind you that the minimum on the old diet for people who were 8 stone or less was 16 points, with the possibility to get down to 14 if they wanted to save max 2 points per day. That showed, it is easy to understand that the two plans are very similar and compare really well. I show you that menu because that was me in survival mode, when I had a large meal the day before and wanted to save points. With that menu I would go to bed feeling a bit ravenous. Now I wouldn't need to feel that way any more!
Your leader will tell you how many propoints you can have a day. The amount of points for the weekly allowance is always the same, 49. She will give you new material, including a wheel that works out how many propoints are in food.
* Isn't it complicated having to take into account all these new variables, proteins, carbs, fibres, fat? I can't waste a lot of time counting!
It might look complicated but it's less so than you think. Besides, there's a little trick if you want to just grab something on the go and not have any surprises: look at the calories of the food and divide that by 40. Round from .1 to .49 to the previous figure and from .50 to .99 to the following one. For example, a pot of Activia yogurt fat free, 70 calories. That with the old plan would have been 1 point (because of the 0 sat fat). If you do 70/40 you get 1.75, so you have 2 propoints. Check on your list and you'll see it's correct. There *IS* room for error, but you can always check it at home and adjust your allowance in case you're a bit wrong.
As a rule of thumb, all cereals seem to be 1 propoint every 10 grams, no exclusions. All "diet" cereal bars, including Alpen light and Weetabix (which were 1 point in the previous plan against the 1.5 of Kellogg's and etc) are now 2 propoints, except the ones that are filled with jam or coated with yogurt (pp values are various here), or the Weight Watchers Oaty bars (3 pp).
Change is good guys. Follow the new plan and you will feel fuller for longer and still lose weight.
Update for 2011: Simply Filling
The Simply Filling plan has been introduced together with a few changes that I have incorporated to the main message, in November 2011. The principle of it is the same as the old Core Plan (or "No Count") from the old plan, with some differences. You eat from a list of foods until you are feeling satisfied, no more and no less. This plan is especially helpful if you're going out to dinner somewhere where you can't really count not knowing the quantity. You must just remember to stop when you're full and plan a handful of points for condiment and things like that.
Differently from the Core plan:
* you can swap from points days to SF days during the week, you don't need to have one full week on a single plan.
* you can now snack during the day, you are not just limited to the 3 meals per day
* the list of foods has slightly changed, to incorporate foods like wholegrain low calorie bread, all fruit of course, 2 tsps of oil per day, quorn products and things like that. Your leader should have given you a guide at the meeting with the list of most foods, but anything that on the ww magazine or website shows with the "green" filling highlight is part of this plan for 0pp.
Anything you eat that is not on the list *MUST* be pointed and will come off your weekly 49.
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