Not only is fruit and vegetables a source of variability in daily calorie averages, so is the "weekly" points, and the calories in the activity points (if WW still does activity points).
The old points work out to an average of about 50 calories per point, more if you're eating low fat, high fiber, and less if you're eating a lot of fat.
The "new" points are smaller, but fruit is now free.
It's very hard to compare the old point system to the new point system, because different people are going to use the systems differently. Some people may be eating more calories on the new system than they did or would have used on the old system, and some may eat less.
I don't think the change was made to increase the daily calorie count (especially since people who don't like fruit may actually be getting in fewer calories than on the old system).
I think the change was made to encourage people to eat more fruits and vegetables (and making them "free" will help some people choose them more often).
One thing to keep in mind is that Weight Watchers is a business selling a product. There's nothing worng with that, but you've got to remember that when they change the product there are a lot of possible reasons, and the new product isn't necessarily better than the previous one (such as when a cleaning product is advertised as "new and improved," the improvement may be a slightly different fragrance - not necessarily improved in cleaning power). This means that if the old plan works great for you, you don't have to feel that you have to change it, because the new plan will work better (it may or may not).
There's nothing wrong with following the old plan (except that if you go to meetings, it's a lot harder to participate in meetings actively, if you're not following the same plan as everyone else).
Personally, I think the most effective part of Weight Watchers has always been the meetings (and there's a good deal of support for that in the research. We've known for years that support groups help people make changes in their lives).
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