What is the Weight Watchers Diet?
The Weight Watchers diet is a method aimed at slimming and subsequent maintenance of the ideal weight; it is a fairly alternative program, centered on "nutrition education" and on the adoption of a healthier lifestyle, certainly modern, but not without its problems.
The Weight Watchers diet is based on two cardinal principles:
- permanently change the eating habits and lifestyle of the subject;
- reach a weight that allows you to "feel good" with yourself, or rather, with your body image;
it is precisely this last objective that raises the greatest criticisms of the Weight Watchers diet, especially from 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; indeed, Weight Watchers is the name of the first weight control "club" which, from a small profane reality, then specialized by refining a specialized multidisciplinary monitoring technique (or rather, this would be the "goal ...), constantly updated.
The Weight Watchers diet provides for registration (for a fee) to a motivational and educational support group. Being a standardized method, while making use of a constant and systematic relationship with its followers, the Weight Watchers diet requires food management as uniform as possible. For this purpose, the club of the same name has developed a mathematical evaluation system for the calories introduced, conceptually similar to that of the "Points Diet". In addition to some guiding principles based on nutrition education, those who follow the Weight Watchers diet must therefore respect the constraint of the daily score attributed based on individual characteristics (age, height, current weight, target weight, sex, level of physical activity, etc. ) and the caloric deficit necessary to produce the desired weight loss. Once the overall score to be observed is known, the subject will add the points of each individual food consumed, corrected for the relative portions, in order to respect this overall constraint. maximum, the Weight Watchers diet gives a high score to foods with higher energy density (higher in calories), so that the relative portions of consumption are necessarily reduced, and that each point of the diet provides a standard amount of calories (35- 45 Kcal per point) regardless of the source it comes from.
Bonus points can also be attributed to the individual score, to be spent over the course of the week at will, while further increases in the score are foreseen for those who practice physical activity (in proportion to its intensity and duration). 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 dietary 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 lacking in other types of diets where the permitted foods can be taken at will without quantity restrictions. This makes the Weight Watchers diet a substantially balanced and largely shareable diet, albeit more cumbersome to follow.
In addition, the support club meets periodically to compare the various results obtained and express a professional (specialists) and collective (participants) judgment on the group itself and on individual members; a sort of "group therapy". With the spread of modern technologies, such meetings can also be held online.
In the Weight Watchers diet we often recommend the use of specific dietary supplements, such as a daily multivitamin supplement, or traditional food products with reduced calorie content 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 diet, and on the psychological front through collective motivational support.
When the subject reaches the desired target weight, he begins an adaptation period 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 one kg with respect to the target weight reached, the subject becomes a "life" Weight Watchers member and, if he maintains this regularity and constancy, 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 to:
- Follow the menus proposed by the club and DO NOT transgress by increasing or decreasing the number of meals
- Observe the following rules regarding the consumption of the various categories of food:
- 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 FATS
- Cheeses: no more than 120g per week (30g in the morning and 60g in the evening): asiago, caciotta, gorgonzola, mozzarella, pecorino, caciocavallo, emmenthal, gruyere, fontina, parmesan.
- Other dairy products: up to 75g in the morning and no more than 150g in the evening, for a total of 225g per week
- Bread: 30g of white bread 2 to 4 times a day BUT only with a meal (1 portion always at breakfast)
- Milk: 250ml per main meal or between meals 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; olive oil only once a day; 3 portions of fat per day of 1 tablespoon each are allowed but NEVER fried
- Drinks: water freely, NO alcohol, tea and coffee allowed but no sugar
PLEASE NOTE: these rules can be more or less strict and differ slightly according to the application plans (which we remember are constantly evolving and often different from country to country); however, even when there are no such strict recommendations on the portions to be consumed, the principles expressed above must in any case act as general guidelines to guide the food choices of the subject with respect for the score constraints.
Critical issues
Despite being a sufficiently balanced and varied diet (when 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 regards the club meetings, the Weight Watchers diet uses the formula of the open group (ie the "free admission of new participants in each phase of the program) and NOT always under SPECIALIST medical supervision, with a relative spannometric application of the principles of cognitive and nutritional therapy. Unfortunately, this neglect has a considerable impact on the success of the program which, in many cases, suffers in the mutual confrontation between the participants; after all, we remind you that the frequent users of similar systems are those affected by eating disorders (DCA), which require a precise psychiatric approach and a multidisciplinarity that cannot be obtained with the Weight Watchers diet. In addition, people with DCA 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 at levels of thinness (prolonged or excessive restriction - for anorexia and some forms of bulimia) or frustration (treatment failure - for some forms of bulimia and binge eating disorder) absolutely inadvisable.
Bibliography:
- Websites: - Weight Watchers on wikipedia - Official site of the diet weight watchers (English)
- Obesity - C. M. Rotella - SEE Florence - page 450
- Anthology of diets, Natural health - U. Raiser - Edizioni del Baldo - page 98: 100.
