More Disinformation from Weight Watchers

May 13 2014 by in Crazy ways to lose weight

How can you recommend a sugar-laden cake to people who want to LOSE weight?

A reader sent me a picture similar to the one above to my Swedish blog, Kostdoktorn.se. Weight Watchers is encouraging you to eat chocolate cake when you want to lose weight.

The cake is made with plenty of sugar and wheat flour.

What overweight people “treat themselves” to by following Weight Watcher’s advice is hunger and failure. I don’t think they’re worth it.

Previously

Weight Watchers’ New Sweet Campaign

“I Didn’t Think the Results Would Come This Soon”

“You Have Literally Saved My Life”

“The Best 84 Days of My Life”

The Sad Truth Behind the Biggest Loser

21 comments

Top comments

Jill Sanderson
May 14 2014 4
Weightwatchers is a business that relies on customers' failure to lose weight to generate more income. As an Obesity Nurse, it infuriates me that they get away with this sort of thing.....

Replies: #11, #19

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Liz F.
May 14 2014 4
I think that Weight Watchers and many other types of diets work under the assumption that overweight people are stupid. Show them how to do it right and they will have a sudden light-bulb moment and everything is fixed. Then WW can pat themselves on their shoulders for a job well done and secretly wonder how the client/s didn't figure it out sooner.

Well, I'm fat and I'm not stupid. Maybe I don't know exactly how many 'points' there are in a slice of cabbage cake, let alone a whole one but I know that one slice won't do it. I'd eat all the cake, even knowing it's bad for me and will make me fatter.

It's not about knowledge. It's about human biology.

That is why LCHF is the only died that has ever really worked for me. Trying to brute force your body into a SAD type diet doesn't work and does terrible things to you. I'm glad to have gone beyond the fallacy I can eat anything I want in moderation and it will be fine. I don't crave sugar or starches for the first time in my life. I feel better than I ever have.

Would I want to trade that for cabbage cake? No.

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All comments

1
Emma
May 13 2014
Now I kinda want to google the recipe to see what those 695 reviews say about the cabbage chocolate cake.

This is totally what the Weight Watchers do, it's nothing new. Eat fewer calories etc etc. Not only does is fail in nutritional level, but it also predicts people's behavior wrong. In my Weight Watcher days (when it was all about counting "points") you took a recipe like this, say, a carrot cake, that *felt* more suitable than a regular cake, bake it and then *ate it all*. It was there, you had a "permission" from your dieting authority, and how many in calorie restricted diet can eat just one slice when offered fast carbs, huh?
2
Mariana
May 13 2014
I've checked the ingredientes of Weight Watchers's products in the supermarket, many of them contain sugar!!! I agree, I don't think they are worth...
3
Eric Anderson
May 14 2014 1
Eat the package and throw away the contents?

Better yet; Buy real butter and high fat cream and consume!

Eric
4
Liz F.
May 14 2014 4
I think that Weight Watchers and many other types of diets work under the assumption that overweight people are stupid. Show them how to do it right and they will have a sudden light-bulb moment and everything is fixed. Then WW can pat themselves on their shoulders for a job well done and secretly wonder how the client/s didn't figure it out sooner.

Well, I'm fat and I'm not stupid. Maybe I don't know exactly how many 'points' there are in a slice of cabbage cake, let alone a whole one but I know that one slice won't do it. I'd eat all the cake, even knowing it's bad for me and will make me fatter.

It's not about knowledge. It's about human biology.

That is why LCHF is the only died that has ever really worked for me. Trying to brute force your body into a SAD type diet doesn't work and does terrible things to you. I'm glad to have gone beyond the fallacy I can eat anything I want in moderation and it will be fine. I don't crave sugar or starches for the first time in my life. I feel better than I ever have.

Would I want to trade that for cabbage cake? No.
5
Jill Sanderson
May 14 2014 4
Weightwatchers is a business that relies on customers' failure to lose weight to generate more income. As an Obesity Nurse, it infuriates me that they get away with this sort of thing.....

Replies: #11, #19
6
OldTech
May 14 2014 1
According to my calculation a slice of that cake cut into 8 pieces (without any frosting) comes out to approximately 65 grams of carbohydrates. I do know that I cannot eat it on my carb budget of 20-30 grams per day. And that is just the carbs for desert!

I wonder how many carbs they are eating on the Weight Watcher’s diet.
7
Alain
May 14 2014 1
The good point is that they use butter instead of margarine.
8
Emory
May 14 2014 1
I don't know about the rest of you guys but if I'm going to eat a piece of choc cake with sugar, I'm not eating one that's made with sauerkraut.
WW stuff is alway full of sugar, white flour, etc. and a huge amount of sodium.
9
murray
May 14 2014 3
"M'Lady, there is a diabesity epidemic among the people!"

"Let them eat cake."
10
Peggy Holloway
May 14 2014 1
In the summer of 1999, my sister, who had battled weight problems her entire life, joined Weight Watchers. She dutifully followed the point system restricting her diet to the lowest point level of 25 a day. She walked 4 to 5 miles a day. After 3 months, she had gained 10 pounds and received her diagnosis of the Type II Diabetes that has plagued our family and that she was trying to avoid with a low-calorie, low-fat diet and lots of exercise.

Reply: #18
11
Reply to comment #5 by Jill Sanderson
Emory
May 14 2014 2
Jill, I hit the button on the right..meaning to recommend your comment..not report it. I apologize.

You are spot on about WW. I had a few employees, in the nineties, who tried WW. Though it does work for short time, all failed due to two things: the low calorie count and the complicated eating system. They also tried a few other similar programs that had the same level of complication and low cal requirements and ended up with the same results.....in initial loss of weight (fat and muscle mass) followed by a plateau and frustration with feeling hungry all of the time as well as confused about how many points were left or used up for each meal.

To me, it's always been much easier ( I lost 50 pounds with Atkins in the early 70s) to keep it simple. Carbs low, high fat, adequate protein. It has worked for me for the 40 years since I began.
Once again, I'm sorry for hitting the wrong button.
12
Kathy from Maine
May 14 2014 2
I was told by a friend who did WW that they offer a lifetime free membership if you reach goal (THEIR goal for you, according to some chart of height and weight). Trouble is, hardly no one does, so it's a win-win for them. People just keep paying for it. Ask virtually anyone, though, and they'll tell you that WW is the most sensible program out there because it has proven results.

A doctor once told me that WW is the best program for weight loss because they teach you all about food. I asked how's that, as all you get is a point system. She said that's the beauty of it; if a food is high in points, you stay away from it, or learn to have just a bit of it. Not sure how that teaches you about food.

So, how is that cake "slimmed down" by adding the sauerkraut? Is it supposed to replace some of the sugar? It still has 1 1/3 cups of sugar.
13
Emory
May 14 2014 2
It does teach people how to add and subtract but doesn't teach much about food. ( I don't think "food" comes in package and is cooked in a microwave)
Another trick they use are in selling their desserts. For $4.00 you can have a package of 2.5 oz ice cream bars with only 90 calories. Of course, left out of the equation is the fact that 2.5 oz of regular ice cream only has 75 calories. Ever tried to eat 2 oz of ice cream?

Organizations like WW makes money on people being overweight and buying their products. A slim population wouldn't have the need to buy convenience "lower calorie" food. Anyone on a diet such as WW can do the same thing buy buying a normal sized "mac and cheese" or similar and scooping out a few tablespoons before eating.
Of course, Atkins does the same thing with their net carbs...sugar alcohols.
If I"m going to eat a sugar, it will be from a natural source such as an apple, greener banana, or a date or two.
14
Betty
May 14 2014 1
Years ago, we used to make a chocolate cake that had sauerkraut in it - you didn't pulverise the kraut this this one does, but rinsed it good - the cake was actually quite good - but that was back in the day when I didn't care what ingredients were in something. I might have even been on WW at the time, I was a few times.

And when I was on WW I felt like I was never satisfied with my food choices, not enough proteins than and definitely not enough fats either. Now that I've changed to LCHF, (several years ago) I'll eat my sauerkraut sometimes, but maybe with a hot dog, definitely NOT with flour/sugar, etc.

I enjoy your articles!!
15
Kim
May 15 2014 2
I was on WW several times, and followed the program very strictly. I always lost weight, but I would always plateau for weeks, get discouraged being hungry, give up, and gain it all back, plus 20 pounds more. It works by cutting calories (some), and fats (a lot). They don't care about sugar as long as overall calories are low and the fat as well. I would eat those WW frozen entrees for dinner...pasta or rice in a low-fat sauce with a tiny bit of meat. And I would wonder why I couldn't keep the weight off. I gave up my last attempt in despair when they started the "eat all the fruit you want" rule and I started gaining again, even following every rule!

Now on LCHF, I've gotten to a weight I'm reasonably happy with, and have kept it up for three years. It's still tough at times, but this way of eating is a thousand times more satisfying than WW, it works past the first 30 pounds, and you can stick to it without being miserable.
16
UdoJ
May 15 2014
I think that all "wrapped" product, so I call all the ready-products in super markets, are not healthy. Eat fresh and you don´t need those food.
17
eddy
May 24 2014
The failure rate of various products and weightwatchers is discussed in this BBC video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-_LoAm_etU
18
Reply to comment #10 by Peggy Holloway
Vivien Harris
November 25 2015
Peggy so very sorry for your sister. My story is similar but not as bad as your sister. I joined weight watchers followed their points system and week after week my weight didn't change - it didn't go up but it also didn't go down. (almost everyone else in the room did seem to benefit but I think this is because my diet was never super bad to begin with - I too am not a stupid person I am a trained scientist so its not hard to document my eating habits). I have been very fat since my mid 20s but I have really good blood work which I put down to me eating a moderate carbohydrate diet (I ate bread and pasta but not cake, biscuits, sugary soft drink, lollies, fruit etc but still too many carbs for my body with the bread and pasta). I need to be under 30g per day but was eating closer to 100g when I work out my normal days carbs before embracing lchf. lchf has been such a blessing perfect blood work and and my doctor telling me to do more exercise because he couldn't figure out what to tell me since I am still not at the healthy bmi but I probably have the best blood work he has seen in ages living in Asia where carbs with every meal is the norm (and I am talking rice 3 times a day).
19
Reply to comment #5 by Jill Sanderson
Sherry
January 16
It’s now owned by Oprah too, so I’m not surprised by the behavior.

Reply: #21
20
LB
February 28
JILL SANDERSON: years ago I was researching the business end of WW, and something I remembered seeing on one of their market analysis papers, or whatever it was, is that WW tries to set up their offices next to or close to a bakery or restaurant, so that the smell of the food will lead members to cheat aft er the meeting, not lose, or gain back, and thus way they insure repeat customers. Now that I think about it, I do recall every WW location I knew of except one in a synagogue years ago, was right near a Chinese restaurant.
21
Reply to comment #19 by Sherry
Coco
April 9
That's a really nasty comment! Remember what your mother said, "If you can't say something nice, then shut your mouth and say nothing".

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