Weight Watchers works

I thought this was a pretty interesting article when I first read it. What do you think about the dieting programs such as Tony Fergusons, Weight Watchers etc?

Obesity doctors find Weight Watchers works

Overweight people referred by their doctors to Weight Watchers lose twice as much fat as those who receive standard dieting and exercise advice from their GP.

A study funded by the Medical Research Council – the results of which were first revealed a year ago in the Guardian – will encourage GPs to send overweight patients to the commercial organisation. Few other strategies work as well with severely overweight people, who risk heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

The study published online in the Lancet medical journal compared people sent by their doctor to Weight Watchers in three countries – the UK, Australia and Germany – with those who just received standard advice and care. The results in all three countries were similar.

The trial involved 772 overweight and obese adults who were randomly assigned a 12-month Weight Watchers course or standard care from their doctor. At the end of the year, those enrolled in the commercial programme lost an average of 5.1kg, compared with 2.2kg for the rest.

Not everybody completed the course. The weight loss among those who did was 6.7kg at Weight Watchers and 3.3kg for the rest. Those enrolled in the commercial programme were more than three times as likely to lose a substantial 5% of their bodyweight, compared with the others.

"The greater weight loss in [those] assigned to the commercial programme was accompanied by greater reductions in waist circumference and fat mass than in [those] assigned standard care, which would be expected to lead to a reduction in the risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease," said author Dr Susan Jebb from the MRC Human Nutrition Research unit in Cambridge.

In a linked comment, Dr Kate Jolly and Dr Paul Aveyard from University of Birmingham say: "The low cost of these programmes (at present about £50–60 for 12 weeks) makes the case for incorporation intuitively appealing."

Obesity doctors find Weight Watchers works | Society | The Guardian

Of course they work, they are just not always the best solution for all occasions. Even if I do not agree with everything they teach or do I would still not hesitate to suggest it to someone if I knew it would work well for them though I would choose WW over TF.

dave said:

Of course they work, they are just not always the best solution for all occasions. Even if I do not agree with everything they teach or do I would still not hesitate to suggest it to someone if I knew it would work well for them.

Also Weight Watchers should not be associated with Tony Ferguson as WW is about controlling what you eat through nutritional education while TF is about meal replacements and not changing eating habits. WW ideally should set you up for the future where TF is all about the short term.

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I take your point Dave. To be honest, I haven't looked closely into any of the diets so I've got pretty little knowledge here. I've seen the WW meals in the supermarket, and I don't find anything special about them apart from the fact that they're mighty small servings! I could easily down a couple of their tuna bakes or lasagnas, so I'm guessing that a large part about their diet is reducing calorie consumption, which can be done at home with a little bit of self control and persistence.

It'd be interesting to see the point of view of anyone in this forum that has been on these diets

My wife and I did weight watchers and it did not work for us, too labour intensive, half your life is spend preparing meals, and the shopping bill went out of this world, as they ask you to buy all these ingredients that you only use a small part of and the rest goes to waste, as you are restricted to the diet plan, and there is no opportunity to use up the left over ingredients from all the recipes you are supposed to prepare daily.

So we found a LOT of food wastage on a weekly basis, a huge shopping bill, and a fridge overflowing with left over ingredients from the recipes.

I guess the weight loss would work but just too expensive to maintain and too elaborate to prepare.

I do my own meals now and much easier, cooked up a kilo of chicken breast last night and a huge serving of rice. Had some for dinner last night, just about to have some for lunch, and probably lunch and or dinner tomorrow, mixed with other meals of tuna, protein shakes, steak and pork.

Much easier cheaper more convenient and no wastage, every last scrap gets eaten, no need for all the fancy meals and ingredients.

Some people at my work are having great success with Lite n Easy, one chick in particular, who sticks to it 100%, had gone from fairly you would not really give a second glance big, to smoking hot bod in about 6 months, she also hit the gym doing cardio and weights daily after work.

Great embassador for lite n easy as now all the fat chicks at my work are doing it, some more successfully than others, but all that stick to the plan do lose substancial amounts of weight.

nobullsupplements said:

I take your point Dave. To be honest, I haven't looked closely into any of the diets so I've got pretty little knowledge here. I've seen the WW meals in the supermarket, and I don't find anything special about them apart from the fact that they're mighty small servings! I could easily down a couple of their tuna bakes or lasagnas, so I'm guessing that a large part about their diet is reducing calorie consumption, which can be done at home with a little bit of self control and persistence.

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Those meals are not the weight watcher plan, they are only to supplement the weight watcher plan and can be used to replace certain meals, weight watchers involves a lot of fresh ingredients and a LOT of preparation, it would be a healthy way to eat. But too much variety and too much work.

nobullsupplements said:

I take your point Dave. To be honest, I haven't looked closely into any of the diets so I've got pretty little knowledge here. I've seen the WW meals in the supermarket, and I don't find anything special about them apart from the fact that they're mighty small servings! I could easily down a couple of their tuna bakes or lasagnas, so I'm guessing that a large part about their diet is reducing calorie consumption, which can be done at home with a little bit of self control and persistence.

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Damn straight it could but humans are lazy and want shit done for them not the other way round.

Also I had to edit my post as I looked more into TF and they move off the shakes now and have added in an educational element that comes in after an initial stage.

Big Mick said:

My wife and I did weight watchers and it did not work for us, too labour intensive, half your life is spend preparing meals, and the shopping bill went out of this world, as they ask you to buy all these ingredients that you only use a small part of and the rest goes to waste, as you are restricted to the diet plan, and there is no opportunity to use up the left over ingredients from all the recipes you are supposed to prepare daily.

So we found a LOT of food wastage on a weekly basis, a huge shopping bill, and a fridge overflowing with left over ingredients from the recipes.

I guess the weight loss would work but just too expensive to maintain and too elaborate to prepare.

I do my own meals now and much easier, cooked up a kilo of chicken breast last night and a huge serving of rice. had some for dinner last night, just about to have some for lunch, and probably lunch and or dinner tonight, mixed with other meals of tuna, protein shakes, steak and pork.

Much easier cheaper more convenient and no wastage, every last scrap gets eaten, no need for all the fancy meals and ingredients.

Some people at my work are having great success with Lite n Easy, one chick in particular, who sticks to it 100%, had gone from fairly you would not really give a second glance big, to smoking hot bod in about 6 months, she also hit the gym doing cardio and weights daily after work.

Great embassador for lite n easy as now all the fat chicks at my work are doing it, some more successfully than others, but all that stick to the plan do lose substancial amounts of weight.

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Your way is better. You went out and learnt what you needed and used your brain, great job. Many others can not or will not do what you did though and WW etc may help them along.

LnE is a short term plan unless people start learning from it (portion control, food choice etc). It is expensive too for an 1800 calorie diet or what ever their choices are. Not enough education and just playing with the lazy human factor again. Will work short term though, hopefully the people start to think and learn from good sources as they get healthier.

All well and good to go on the eat whatever you want, as long as it's only small portions, or the shake diets. But when you stop, the weight piles back on. Yoyo dieting does not work.

lkt004 said:

All well and good to go on the eat whatever you want, as long as it's only small portions, or the shake diets. But when you stop, the weight piles back on. Yoyo dieting does not work.

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I will add that "dieting" does not work, will never work.

AndyMitchell said:

I will add that "dieting" does not work, will never work.

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Damn right.

my wife was a facilitator at weight watches, so i have a fair idea about what they do, and how it works.

As mentioned it bascially re educates people about what certain foods contain, their calorific value, when to eat certain things and portion control.

sure they sell sell a few things , but mostly its foods that have had their "points" value worked out already, its calorie counting for dummies. They dont supply a prepared meal as such..

The biggest thing my wife does is motivate and support these people, , most of them are BIG, like morbidly obese, and older so gyms etc are not a first place to vist, they are usually encouraged to start small, short walks, etc,

while I agree it helps those that attend, and commit to it, anyone that gets advice, and commits to a routine and change will probably get some results, the support offered is HUGE part of why it works. A lot of these people dont get out or socialise because they are self concious.

trofius said:

my wife was a facilitator at weight watches, so i have a fair idea about what they do, and how it works.

As mentioned it bascially re educates people about what certain foods contain, their calorific value, when to eat certain things and portion control.

sure they sell sell a few things , but mostly its foods that have had their "points" value worked out already, its calorie counting for dummies. They dont supply a prepared meal as such..

The biggest thing my wife does is motivate and support these people, , most of them are BIG, like morbidly obese, and older so gyms etc are not a first place to vist, they are usually encouraged to start small, short walks, etc,

while I agree it helps those that attend, and commit to it, anyone that gets advice, and commits to a routine and change will probably get some results, the support offered is HUGE part of why it works. A lot of these people dont get out or socialise because they are self concious.

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Thanks for that insight!

I've done light and easy before. Food wasn't and but as you say the portions for it was to small so i didn't stick to it for long

Any form of 'dieting' that restricts calories will 'work'. If the protocols can be adhered to for the long term, that should determine the level of success for the individual.

I've never had trouble losing weight, I have trouble maintaining muscle mass. I have tried many diets. Hopefully the one I am on now will work.

Personally, I am a massive fan of the WW diet. My partner is currently on it (and therefore I kinda am by default) and this lifestyle change is a key factor in my involvement in this forum. This diet does not 'restrict' what you eat but rather encourages healthy choices such as high protein low carb options (e.g fish, Chicken etc as meat) and fresh fruit and vegies. More importantly, the 'diet' ensures that you become more aware of what you eat and points system ensures that you do not just snack on crap food all day. As a result it is more likely to result in a lifestyle change rather than a quick fix diet. As far as costs go, it is more expensive than my previous diet where i would be eating shit like sausages and mash potato and spag. bol. every second night, however, between us we are probably spending approx. $170 per week ($85 for me - not including my daily coffee and supps) although we buy a lot of the fruit and veg at the local fruit wholesaler.

Why does WW encourage a low carb diet?
Since when are carbs a bad food option?
Rob?????

The 'points system' (to me) seems to encourage lower carb options. (apart from fruit which is zero points) For example, a 2 egg omlette with tomato, mushrooms and spinach etc will be the same 'points value' as 2 slices of toast. I am not suggesting it is an atkins style diet or that carbs are a bad food option, I think we all are aware that they are essential for our wellbeing, however, the program does not allow you to go overboard with processed carbs. For me, it is probably more of a portion control thing in relation to pasta, breads etc compared to what i am used to.

What about unprocessed carbs?

All fruit and veg are 'free' and therefore you can have as much as you like. Also, many of the provided recipes include legumes and whole grains so WW does certainly include carbs as an important part of the diet.