Weight Watchers must be joking?
April 9 2015 by Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt, MD![Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt, MD]()
in Crazy ways to lose weight
in Crazy ways to lose weight 
I decided to try out Weight Watchers online program and signed up today. I don’t really have any weight to lose – just wanted to see what I could learn and what their online program looks like.
I was astonished when I saw their “recipe of the day”, it’s Chocolate Cherry Cupcake Bites. Biggest ingredient? “Chocolate cake mix”. I googled that and not surprisingly the two main ingredients tend to be sugar and wheat flour.
Recipe of the day? It’s not still April 1, is it?
89 comments
I am constantly frustrated by the statement from all the 'gurus' that "You don't need to count calories because if you are low carb/high fat you won't be hungry". I have battled with my weight for years, attended various slimming clubs in the past, run them, have researched and read very widely, am trained in natural nutrition, exercised, incorporated Jon Gabriel approaches and so forth. And yes - last year lost 4.5 stone on LCHF -
AND using My Fitnesspal (where I can track carbs as well as calories).
In my experience (and I am also a Life Coach) many many people do not only (or even perhaps mainly) eat just because they are hungry. They eat because they are stressed or bored or lonely or avoiding difficult feelings etc etc. Obviously each individual has to decide how to address this. But it is NOT a rare exception for people to eat when they are not hungry (and there are all the social and cultural connections of food with celebrations, sharing as community-building etc).
If I DON'T count calories it is very likely that I will eat too many of them to lose weight (and yes, I only eat high nutrient, unprocessed, organic etc food - except when I don't! - but hunger is not the deciding factor).
End of rant. But please 'gurus' - stop pretending that you don't know that people eat for reasons other than hunger - and may therefore need to count calories too.
if you count calories, may be you'd end up chosing to eat a piece of bread instead of a piece of butter, just because it has fewer calories. Counting calories is wrong advice for the general population.
How calorie-focused thinking about obesity and related diseases may mislead and harm public health.
Counting calories while low-carbing may be useful for losing weight if your diet is also carb-restricted, and you understand that "fewer calories" doesn't mean "better".
There is NO WAY I would endorse such a horrible organization. Eat REAL food, don't be afraid of natural fats, stay away from processed foods, and don't bother counting those moronic "points"!
On low carb I ate to much. By over Eating and all the high fats really messed with my digestive system. Now I cant tolerate carbs very well at all. Wheat causes actual pain but that's cause my body will not tolerate it anymore because of my low carb diet I was on. Not saying that's a bad thing gluten is not the best for you anyway, but that's another story. Plus I gained my weight back a lot faster and more weight from eating low carb. Then again low carb also takes away cravings and makes you lose the weight faster. I recently joined ww again to see if I can combine the two diets with ww new approach on lower carb eating. As for products there is low carb products and ww products. SAY NO!!!!!! Its you that decides what to put in your mouth not ww or low carb. If you truly want to lose you will it all about control and will power. Eating either way will need this. I know this from doing both diets. Hopefully I can keep you updated on this diet and see if it works but I think I am the deciding factor either way. Have a good day and keep up the good work on either diet and food plan. If I do know anything, EXECISE is a big key, just saying.
My wife however is limited in what she can do, so she swims 2.5 hours a day at a very slow rate. Maybe burning 250 calories an hour. ( being very conservative). She walks very little, because it hurts her. She is fastidious about following WW in fact she does it for me as well. From a calorie point of view she is probably eating about 1350 calories a day and about 100 gm's of carbohydrates a day . Lately (the last week or so ) she gained 2 lbs, however her clothes are fitting a lot better ( lost about 5 inches on her waist). So in her case why has her weight loss plateaued. I'm thinking some weight training might help because it would add muscle resulting in an increase in metabolism. Or is there something else going on. ( Note her resting heart rate is 52 beats per minute).
We believe that a method which means that you are hungry most of the time will only work for a few people.
Pain on walking (knees and lower legs especially), slow pulse and difficulty losing weight sound like hypothyroidism. Find a doctor that tests T3 as well as T4 and who does not rely on TSH. Sometimes thyroxin does not work and people do better on dessicated pork thyroid. Sometimes people have hypothyroidism simply due to low iodine, so an iodine test is a good idea as well.
I admire you and your wife's journey and today, June 11, 2017 my hope is your wife found the pounds may not have changed for a little while though her body was, followed by the pounds.
Swimming daily and other small exercises was/is toning the body and building muscle.
For all the negative on WW's, as with all programs, it's how one thinks and uses the program. Not saying weight watchers -current or previous -always does the correct presentation.
No I'm not a WW spokes person, and I do not go to meetings but, I am currently on WW online, started 7 weeks ago with 50lbs to lose. Currently down 18 with smart choices- I rarely do process or package foods. A lot more whole food eating and cooking and lots of walking has been successful for me. Weight Watchers app and point counting via my phone, works very well -for me - tracking everything. I've tried other approaches and other apps - this works for me. And, for me I'm learning - fruit may be free points but, 5 pieces a day is too much - exchange one for another veg. I do eat carbs, though have greatly reduced them. Our life is not all rice or potatoes now. I love desserts and after the first 2 weeks have no cravings for sugar snacks. Plus, I'm not hungry - sometimes I have to remember to eat.
So, we are all different - for me to lose weight is to exercise and stop process/package foods, and bread at each meal. This will be a positive and lasting life change for me.
Oh, I'm 60 and sit at a desk all day - so, not a young person who easily loses weight with changes.
The following website has what WW considers healthy options for diabetes: https://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&...
These recipes will cause blood sugar issues for me.
This article is too vague and no details.
As I understand it there are specific diets, categorized by colors. One of them is purple.
Nobody thinks you can just eat chocolate cake and lose weight.
To criticize a very popular good results by a brand that has been doing this and perfecting it for so long with the most results ever or discourage anyone is so negative. IMO.
I think the point is
You never get off of it.
If you go back to eating crap
You will go back to ....
It's a new way of eating
For life.
If you want to live. Truly
Uou dont stop wanting to live.
You dont get rewards for doing bad things to your body
Nobody can make you not kill yourself