Weight Watchers

I was watching a Weight Watchers commercial the other day. The lady in the advertisement said that she could eat unlimited amounts of fruits and vegetables while on the progam. For instance..."a whole watermelon..."

Now I know that Weight Watchers uses a point system. You can only have so many points a day. It's basically a simpler way to count calories. Anyways... Fruits and vegetables still have calories. So where does that work into the whole point sytem? I just looked up a whole watermelon and it is around 1200 calories. Uh...I think that would send you over your calorie limit for anybody trying to lose weight.

Maybe I have my facts wrong. But will someone tell me how this works!

Fruits have more calories than veggies...can you imagine how full you'd be if you ate a whole watermelon?

I routinely have a pound of broccoli for dinner...200 calories is a total deal for what I get out of it.

On the core plan you can eat as many fruits and veg as you like. The idea being that when you stuff your face with fruit and veg, there will be less room for high calorie snacks.
On the points plan you still need to count the points in fruit and veg.


The core plan gives you a list of foods you can eat. These are all unprocessed, low calorie, low fat foods. You have to measure out your portions, and keep an eye on how much you eat. You don't have to count anything, you just eat till you are satisfied. Not unlike what we are doing now, only we also log and count the calories.

I follow the core plan to a point. But the only reason i go to weight watchers is because i can't lie to the leader or to their scales. If my weight doesn't drop, or goes up, i can't ignore it and pretend it will be better next time. The control works better for me.

You can't eat a whole watermelon and not expect to gain weight.  Watermelon is full of sugar and is a higher glycemic fruit.  To say that to people is irresponsible.  Not all fruit is created equal.  Blackberries and raspberries yes, watermelon and canteloupe no.  Everything should be eaten in moderation and responsibly.  Veggies, by all means, have at em!

I eat a whole cantaloupe, but that's only 200 calories... but a whole watermelon, who would want to?!?!   And yes, that does sound misleading, as with the amount of fruit I eat I would probably surpass my calorie limit by far if left to my own devices.

I did WW and my understanding is that on the Flex system water where you count points, watermelon is 1 pt per cup. Even when eating 0 pt foods like lettuce or carrots after 5 servings of 0 pt foods you charge yourself 1 pt.
Now on the WW "core" program, you eat specific foods in any quantity until you are "satisfied" with your level of fullness! This one would be dangerous for me! But in the "core" version I suppose you could eat a whole melon, but who could do that and not be full 1/4 of the way in!?!?!

I'm looking at my WW booklet right now and a 2" slice or 1 cup is 1 point.  On the point system, I can only have 20 points a day... so I can eat as much watermelon I want as long as I don't go over the 20 points. 

To me that just sounds sorta silly, how is that teaching moderation and portion control and what happens once they go into maitenance mode are they still going to be eating whole watermellons? That isnt giving you all the food groups you need in a day to me that just makes no sense at all sorta sounds like one of those silly fad diets where all you eat is celery carrots and a bottle of vinegar to wash it down with.

I know fruits and veggies are very important but to only eat them all the time with hardly no meats, just sounds very foreign to me.

I did WW core plan for a few months - my problem was I didn't stop eating at the point of "satisfaction" but to the point of "stuffed".  The core plan has a list of foods you can eat with the only limit being until you are no longer hungry - and don't wait to eat until you are starving but just a tad bit hungry - so if you eat small amts of food throughout the day you'll lose weight.  Its more of the eat 5-6 small meals all day instead of 3 large ones.  And yes there are certain foods that are "free" you can eat as much as you like.  Like oatmeal, fruits veggies and most unprocessed foods. 

I understand WW also recently redid their points program - not sure what the difference is.  But as has been said who'd want to eat a whole watermelon- except it is mostly water and fiber so its not a bad choice vs say a giant snickers bar LOL

Like stated above there are TWO weight watchers systems.

1: Points- you have certain amount of points each day, and must stick to it.

2: Core plan- certain food (like fruit and veg) can be eaten as much as you like, but you must have three meals a deal, and are not supposed to count the points. You should only eat the core plan foods.

I follow the points, as i like my junk food lol so like to work them into my diet now and then as a treat. Besides, as soon as i'm told there are foods im not allowed to eat, they are the foods that i begin to want- Very "i want what i cant have"

Is it a full size watermelon or one of those new personal size ones I'm seeing? 

With or without the vodka? ;)

I think that if you start eating veggies and fruit without moderation, you get addicted to volume - that means that you will be used to more food in your stomach be it veggies or lasagna.  So, if you go off the plan, or go on vacation, you will need more food to fill you up - and you know that on vacation you aren't eating broccoli!

But .... eating fruits and veggies with a lot of water and fiber will tend to fill you up sooner. And while you may be hungry again soon, the fact that there are no chemicals, additives and processing means your body is able to digest easier, use more nutrients and process everything faster. You are getting many more nutrients in your food than your counterparts on the flex plan - and eventually your body will "know" that is it getting what it needs and may start to turn down the hunger dial. Our society eats so much processed, unnatural and unhealthy foods that maybe we are overeating because our bodies are craving nutrients we aren't getting in our diet - maybe that causes the constant hunger cycle. If we feed our bodies what they really need, they might stop being so hungry all of the time.

I did WW, in fact I am still Lifetime in a sense, but am going to quit all together. I did the Core plan the 5 months it took me to make Lifetime. The problem was I was getting full on so little food and you have to eat fat free for it to be a core food otherwise you have to count points for lowfat. One lowfat yogurt averaged 4 pts a day so that left you with only 7 points left for noncore foods for the week. You get 35 extra points per week so a yogurt a day used 28 points.

Anyway, the reason I quit was that I was getting full on so little calories that I ended up stalling my metabolism. Doctor verified this. My average calories when I started tracking them while on core was around 840 calories a day so that over 5 months really did a number on me. I started tracking the calories when I was no longer getting results--I began to gain weight. Also, my doctors told me that I need to eat low fat foods NOT fat free.

Now, I am trying to get my metabolism back in gear and it doesn't help that I'm over 40 with a thyroid problem.

Exercise is no problem as I've been an avid exerciser all my life.

I also dislike that many of the low point WW branded foods promoted at our meetings are all full of chemicals and artificial flavors.

Oh, and they do have the healthy guidelines you are to follow: 2 teaspoons of healthy oil a day (my doctor told me I needed more), 5 servings of fruits and vegs, 2-3 dairy servings depending on age, 6 glasses of water daily (can substitute with coffee, etc for 3 of the servings). There's either one more or a few but I don't feel like trying to find the books to look them up.

yeah seesaw! i did ww as well, lost 20 lbs. kept it off fpr a year. i exercise like crazy too. i'm going to try cal counting because i cannot lose any weight. i feel i may need more calories since i am exercising so often. i also do hair so i'm on my feet all day. i think cal counting may help more so i can really fine tune things. because after all, a point may range from 50 cals to 100(just guesstimating here). but u kno what i mean? i'm only allowed 22 points per day. anyway....i'll give this a whirl. so when you started counting cals, you gained weight? are you now losing? let me know!! thanx!