What is the Weight Watchers diet?
The Weight Watchers diet is a method aimed at weight loss and the subsequent maintenance of the ideal weight; it is a fairly alternative program, focused on food education and the adoption of a healthier lifestyle, certainly modern, but not without its criticality.
The Weight Watchers diet is based on two key principles:
- permanently change the eating habits and lifestyle of the subject;
- achieve a weight that allows you to "feel good" with yourself, or rather, with your own body image;
it is precisely this last objective to raise the most critical points about the Weight Watchers diet, above all from the professionals who deal with eating disorders (DCA); later we will try to understand why.
Origins and evolution
The Weight Watchers diet, which literally means "Weight Control", was born in New York in the 1960s by Jean Nidetch. By virtue of its success it was then exported to numerous countries around the globe; to be honest, Weight Watchers is the name of the first "weight control club" which, from a small secular reality, then specialized refining a specialized multidisciplinary monitoring technique (or rather, this would be the goal ... ), constantly updated.
The Weight Watchers diet includes the registration (for a fee) to a motivational and educational support group. Being a standardized method, while using a constant and systematic relationship with its followers, the Weight Watchers diet requires as uniform a food management as possible; for this purpose, the club of the same name has developed a mathematical evaluation system of the calories introduced, conceptually similar to that of the " Diet in points ". In addition to some guiding principles based on food education, those who follow the Weight Watchers diet must therefore respect the constraint of the daily score given based on individual characteristics (age, height, current weight, target weight, sex, level of physical activity, etc.). ) and the calorie deficit necessary to produce the desired weight loss. Given the overall score to follow, the subject will sum the points of each single food consumed, corrected for the relative portions, in order to respect this overall constraint. Generally speaking, the Weight Watchers diet attributes a high score to foods with higher energy density (richer in calories), so that the relative portions of consumption are necessarily reduced, and that every point of the diet brings a standard quantity of calories (35-45 Kcal per point) regardless of the source from which it comes.
The individual points can also be given bonus points, to be spent during the week at will, while further points increases are provided for those who practice physical activity (in proportion to its intensity and duration). Moreover, the subject can save points in a day and then use them on a special day (for example, to include the classic weekend pizza in the diet).
Unlike other diet models aimed at weight loss, the Weight Watchers diet is not based on the total exclusion of certain foods, but establishes rules that reduce the consumption of certain foods in favor of others considered healthier (see next chapter). The only prohibitions may concern spirits and carbonated and sugary drinks. In any case, above all there is a caloric constraint to be respected, which is instead lacking in other types of diets where the permitted foods can be taken at will without quantity constraints. This makes the Weight Watchers diet a substantially balanced and largely acceptable diet, albeit more cumbersome to follow.
Furthermore, the support club meets periodically to compare the various results obtained and to express a professional judgment (of the specialists) and collective (of the participants) on the group itself and on the individual members; a sort of "group therapy". With the spread of modern technologies, such meetings can also be conducted online.
In the Weight Watchers diet we often recommend the use of specific dietary supplements, such as a daily multivitamin supplement, or traditional low calorie food products and in any case in line with its principles.
The combination of nutrition and psychology is the basis of the success achieved by the Weight Watchers diet, which acts both on the food front through a regularized eating pattern, and on the psychological front through collective motivational support.
When the subject reaches the desired target weight, he begins a period of adjustment by adjusting his diet so as not to lose or gain weight. If after the first six weeks of maintenance the weight does not undergo fluctuations greater than 1 kg compared to the target weight reached, the subject becomes a Weight Watchers member "for life" and, if he maintains this regularity and constancy, he can participate for free in the meetings of the groups of support.
Weight Watchers Diet Rules
According to the principles of the Weight Watchers diet it is important:
- Follow the menus offered by the club and DO NOT break the number by increasing or decreasing the number of meals
- Follow the following rules regarding the consumption of the various food categories:
- Fruit: fresh or canned but without sugar; once a day consume at least 1 fruit that contains a lot of vit. C (citrus fruits, kiwi, berries, currants ...); a portion must be present in the morning meal
- Eggs: up to 4 per week (1 in the morning and 2 in the evening); with freedom of cooking but WITHOUT FAT
- Cheeses: no more than 120g a week (30g in the morning and 60g in the evening): asiago, caciotta, gorgonzola, mozzarella, pecorino, caciocavallo, emmenthal, gruyere, fontina, parmesan.
- Other milk derivatives: up to 75g in the morning and no more than 150g in the evening, for a total of 225g a week
- Bread: 30g of white bread 2 to 4 times a day MA only per meal (1 portion always for breakfast)
- Milk: 250ml per main meal or between meals for 3-4 times a day or replace them with 200g of low-fat yogurt
- Meat and fish: lean meats, duck and goose are allowed; at least 3 portions of fish a week
- Legumes and vegetables: at least 3 times a week with portions of 100g each
- Fats: only margarine and seed oils allowed; the olive one only once a day; 3 portions of fat a day of 1 tablespoon each are allowed but NEVER fried
- Drinks: water freely, NO alcohol, tea and coffee allowed but without sugar
PLEASE NOTE: these rules can be more or less strict and differ slightly according to the application plans (which we remember being in constant evolution and often different from country to country); however, even when such strict recommendations on portions to be consumed are lacking, the principles expressed above must still serve as general guidelines to guide the subject's food choices with respect to scoring constraints.
Critical issues
Despite being a sufficiently balanced and varied diet (compared to other standardized methods), the Weight Watchers diet is quite restrictive and in its most rigid variant requires the compilation of a food diary with the weighing of all foods.
Furthermore, as far as club meetings are concerned, the Weight Watchers diet uses the open group formula (ie the free entry of new participants in each phase of the program) and NOT always under a SPECIALIST medical check-up, with a relative spannometric application of the principles of cognitive and food therapy. Unfortunately, this neglect has considerable repercussions on the success of the program which, in many cases, suffers from mutual confrontation between the participants; after all, let us remember that the frequent visitors to similar systems are those affected by eating disorders (DCA), who need a very specific psychiatric approach and a multidisciplinary approach that cannot be obtained with the Weight Watchers diet. Moreover, subjects suffering from eating disorders are characterized by an immeasurable distortion of their body image which, according to the second cardinal principle, through the Weight Watchers diet would lead them to thinness levels (prolonged or excessive restriction - for anorexia and some forms of bulimia) or frustration (failure therapy - for some forms of bulimia and binge eating disorder) absolutely inadvisable.
Bibliography:
- Websites: - Weight Watchers on wikipedia - Official website of the weight watchers diet (English)
- Obesity - CM Rotella - SEE Florence - page 450
- Anthology of diets, Natural health - U. Raiser - Edizioni del Baldo - pag 98: 100.
