When I started WW a few years ago, they had started their Points system that had just changed from I think, the Momentum program. At my first meeting, there were many established members voicing frustration, confusion and general dislike of the new system. They were told that if the old system was working, stick with it.
So while I was attending, we had members in our group following up to THREE different programs (Momentum, Points and Filling Foods.
I had to drop out of the program after a life altering medical problem but am now ready to charge ahead and possibly rejoin.
My hesitation? Attended a meeting last night and have read many posts regarding the new Points Plus program and am asking myself the same question I imagine many people have asked: "If the program is so good, why a new one every year or so?"
I spoke with several people I had in my original group and almost 70% said they hated the new PP program over the regular points program. Even our counselor said "privately" she liked the old program better but was required, obviously, to push the new one!
Is it just me, or is WW letting the public down? Seems they change the program after a certain "cap" of members join so they can then re-charge old members, and get new ones to purchase "Updated and Revised" materials not previously available (ie: new calculator, new points guide, new cookbooks, etc.).
What are we supposed to do? How do you figure out which program is best if they keep changing it? I know, I know; the best one is the one that works, right? But why does WW continually change if the program is so great?
Because the old plan was not where they wanted it to be.
I know that WW is a business, so it'd be silly of me to say that they only make plan changes for the sake of health. However, I don't believe that they only make changes to the programs for the sake of money, either.
They are ever working towards a program that fits the majority of their users while incorporating the newest gathered information about health and weight loss. This means that while past programs will indeed work, that there's always room for improvement, and I don't feel that trying to incorporate those improvements is in any way "letting the members down". In my mind, they'd be remiss to ignore updates or possible improvements.
What is an improvement for most is not going to be an improvement for all, but as a business WW has to weigh that, and go with majority rules.
Now, I love PointsPlus. I love the changes they made. I loved the old plan, too. I lost over 100 pounds on TurnAround/Momentum, so it's very clear to me that it worked fine. And I am losing weight just fine with PointsPlus, too. I like the way in which I'm losing weight with PointsPlus a little more, in that I LOVE that fruits and vegetables are zero points. I like being urged in the direction of better nutrition in the way that PointsPlus handles it.
Even in the evolution of the PointsPlus plan there has been change. The first year it seemed that the 29 Points was often too high, so the company added "adjustable Daily Points" for members to further customize their plan.
Hypothetically speaking, it's always possible that WW eventually gets away from ALL Points-involved Plans. I may or may not enjoy the way the plans go in the future, but what I DO like about WW outweighs what I don't like. So, if it means following an older plan while still taking in positive information from the group & company, then so be it.
I feel that on some level the "hating the new plan" is just a fact of human nature. The internet wasn't a huge sensation back when WW changed over from one of their previous plans to Counting Points, but I definitely remember the uproar. It wasn't for everyone, and I'm sure there are still some pockets of people out there who liked their Exchange Plan and use it.
WW has offered the public and their members a number of different ways in which to lose weight and be healthier. While they don't support all of them at once, they have introduced a number of great options to the world. I think this is positive thing.
What is a member supposed to do?
Well, to anyone brand new to the plans, I always suggest going for PointsPlus. Not only because it works, but because they'll be able to be confident in the support they get from it.
But, for those of us who have gone through several versions of plans, I suggest "go with what you want." Be confident that if you choose Momentum or TurnAround that you know what you need to do and that it fits your lifestyle. There will always be plenty of good support from the groups about weight loss and healthy habits.
Weight Watchers is in the business of weight loss. They wouldn't stay in business if no one lost weight, and they wouldn't make as much money if they didn't make weight loss look achievable to those who want to join.
They change the plan to improve the balance of it in general, but I believe that they release it at certain times to call in more members. Such as saying PointsPlus 2012 to encourage new members to join if the PointsPlus 2011 wasn't on par with what they needed.
I did Momentum twice in the past: both times I lost 45 lbs in 6 months but then got frustrated and hit a wall and couldn't do it anymore and gained all the weight back plus some. I started this time right around the switch over to Points Plus. At first I was going to do it on my own, stick with what I knew even though it didn't work long term for me, and because I heard people complaining about PP. But I am so glad I decided to jump in and just do PP and see what happened. I've been on it for over a year now and I've lost 63 lbs! This is something I know that I can do for the rest of my life. And I'm with Lovely -- if WW decides in the future to move away from a points plan, I will stick with PP because it's what works for me.
And I think that's the key: NO plan is perfect for everyone. Some people do well on the old plan, some on the new. Some don't do well on WW at all so they do something else. It's about finding out what works for you and WW adapts their program as new updated nutrition information is made available.
I more so agree with tiniree than all the posts following for the following reasons. I strongly believe that WW is way overrated. I also wouldn't be surprised if loveley is employed by them. I also don't believe WW's statistics that the majority of their members have achieved and maintained goal weights for years. WW is annoyingly complicated and a lot of hard work - following this program WELL is much harder than the WW employees will admit to. After 13 years (6 or so of these on WW) of struggling and making attempts at losing weight, I finally reached my weight goal NOT on WW, but succeeded with a food delivery program. No counting, no frustrating meetings involving strong amounts of jealousy, no cooking, no grocery shopping, no thinking pretty much, no cleaning dishes . It does do a ridiculous disservice to WW members to change their plan every year . It sends out the message - 'you can't succeed on this plan...so here's another one' and 'this plan that you've gotten into the habbit of...now you have to readjust to another plan.' The only way that most people are capable of maintaining an ideal weight for the long run, based on much research (including the National Weight Registry), is by consistently following many positively healthy habbits. So, when WW changes a plan on someone, that it kind of naturally forces the brain to develop and adjust to new habbits. There's no long term consistency in that. I frankly found their regular changes annoying too. to give some praise to ww i did learn a lot of good habbits from them. Being told by WW staff at a WW meeting that if the old system was working, stick with it, that would not reduce my frustration at all if were hearing that. This is because the leader there cannot realistically address primarily more than 1 system. So where do the members following the older systems get support from? Excellent point when these members have wondered, "if the program is so good, why a new one every year or so?" Lovely made the argument that the changing of systems has been done to accomodate new updates and to attempt to improve their program. Improvement is great, BUT scientific research on how to lose weight and keep the weight off HAS NOT CHANGED MUCH over the last couple decades. Ironically, although millions of people find this problem the hardest to tackle, the principles of how to lose weight are still...shall I say simple? Therefore, why the need to change the program on a yearly basis? I regret putting so much money into WW, and am VERY happy having maintained my ideal weight for approximately the last 6 months.
We are ultimately responsible for what we put in our bodies. We can blame WW if the weight isn't coming off, but at the end of the day it's our responsibility to use the feedback our body is giving us about what we are doing to it.
WW is constantly looking at the science of food and that's why they're making changes. I love the PP program compared to the old one.
You wouldn't buy a computer now and expect it to run the same way 5 years from now because developers will come out with new programs. I think the changes are implemented because researches are constantly learning new things about foods and the way we process them.
It's like anything else - it's going to evolve and get tweaked and changed from time to time. I know people who dislike Weight Watchers - both the old plans and the new plan. And that's fine, not everything is going to work for everyone. But I personally have had success in the past, both on Momentum and PointsPlus and I am very pro-Weight Watchers. There are other programs that I had zero success on, but know people who did very well. We all need to find what works best for us.
Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I don't think WW is complicated at all to follow. (Just my own experience, I'm not slagging anyone who finds it complicated). Also, I have been to many meetings in my Weight Watchers history and seen firsthand people who have lost large (and small) amounts of weight and kept it off for years. My best friend happens to be one of them. She lost 75lbs and has kept it off for 7 years now. So it does work for some people.
It all comes down to personal opinion, taste and experience.
I have to say that I've read so many posts like this, here or on the WW boards, about how the new program isn't working for people. It may matter how heavy one is or how much one has to lose, but at my weight, I really don't see the difference. I don't go overboard on fruit -- 2 or 3 a day -- and I like the 0 points for fruit because it's kept me from making unwise choices.
One thing I noticed on the online tools, is that every weight seems to be able to add 1-3 points or deduct 1-3 points. That might be something worth experimenting with.
Thank you for the opinions covering all angles of this program. Please understand that I did not intend to write a post that comes off as confrontational.
Its just that when I went to this last meeting and came home with yet another set of info on yet another program, my husband's first reaction was, "So let me get this straight. You would have to purchase yet another set of "guide books" and another calculator?"
I understand that science is always learning and updating info on how the human body processes food, but it does come down to input/output.
Just very frustrated that in one group meeting, we had so many people following so many different programs. At one point a potential new member got confused when another member asked a question about "filling foods". She asked what this member was talking about and another member in the group said, "Oh that's a different program!" Not really, but this potential new member just looked so deflated and confused.
I see where you're coming from. WW does make changes to their plans from time to time, whereas other programs (for the most part) don't. I originally joined 5 years ago, and they had Momentum and Core, which were replaced with PointsPlus and Filling Foods. (I know it sounds like a lot of plans, but there really are only 2, since Momentum and Core are supposed to be obsolete now, though a lot of people still follow them).
I know that a lot of people think it's to make more money, and I won't deny that's real a possibility, it is a business after all. But I personally like that they tweak things and change things that they think need to be changed in order to make the program better.
And don't worry, I don't think your post came across as confrontational! You are entitled to feel the way you do.
I think WW has some useful tools, for example I prefer to count points as opposed to calories. This being said WW is a business and like all diet industries their success is our failure. Yes I lost lot's of weight on WW and gained it all back and more, not their fault of course not. But they gave me some tools and I have found other tools to help me that I will not find in any diet industry. I quit WW for a variety of reasons. Where I attended it was so busy and you could barely get a seat. That is fine for some but it really reminded me of the business end, like a cattle call, forgive the expression. I found the people who were the main contributors annoying and still too much of a focus on fake foods, like getting as much food for as few points as possible but rather than with real food with fake foods (non fat puddings, ww treats etc.). I am not anti WW, they are the same as all the others. They have some useful tools and I am thankful for the points system. I am doing much better though leaving the group and joining this forum.
I am having success on the Points Plus Program. If I wasn't I would be searching the other diet boards for ideas. I have tried Ally, Atkins, Nutrisystems, South Beach and a few more that I have probably forgotten. At the end of the day it comes down to me and what I have done to promote or discourage weight loss. Everyone has to find the program that is right for them. I am eating lots of fruits and vegetables because they are zero pts. Good luck and keep trying.
I also wouldn't be surprised if loveley is employed by them.
I'm just going to address this one point.
I would hope that most members who frequent the boards know this, but if they don't I will make this very clear now: I am NOT employed by WW, and I never have been.
I'm just a simple WW member, and have been a WW member for 5 years. I've gone through many plans over the years with WW, and have a lot of experience with it. I am enthusiastic about the plans, because they work for me. They keep me positive about this journey.
It should go without saying, but again I want this to be clear, that it's also fine to disagree with me. Just as it's fine to disagree politely with what anyone else says about a plan. We're individuals, and we need the ability to find what works for us. We also need to feel free to discuss in a calm manner what isn't working for us.
Quote:
Thank you for the opinions covering all angles of this program. Please understand that I did not intend to write a post that comes off as confrontational.
It didn't come across as confrontational in the least, Tiniree. I'm glad you brought it up, because I think it's a very valid topic for discussion.
WW does change plans. Sometimes in big ways. Sometimes in smaller "tweaking" ways. It's a balance that they must walk the line between being a big business, and also dealing with truly healthy ways of losing weight. So, I'm of the opinion that sometimes it's business that drives the change (like making new things to buy all the time, not always needed, but people do buy them and that makes WW money), and then the health changes (like when they find loopholes in plans and want to be sure that their members are making the best choices).
Thanks Lovely, I was quite offended by someone insinuating you had a hidden agenda.
I will say that my leaders have discussed the change to points plus as a way to encourage members to choose more fruits and vegetables. They said too many people would choose a 100 cal bag of chips over a carrot, and while just having lower calories will allow people to lose weight, they wanted to ensure people were learning healthy habits for life, and that included having fruits and veggies in their diets.
I have also been told I am to eat my points, AND all servings of fruits and veggies daily or I will not be getting enough calories. I have seen this discussed elsewhere, and I think its good advice.
WW letting us down?
. It does do a ridiculous disservice to WW members to change their plan every year 
. It sends out the message - 'you can't succeed on this plan...so here's another one' and 'this plan that you've gotten into the habbit of...now you have to readjust to another plan.' The only way that most people are capable of maintaining an ideal weight for the long run, based on much research (including the National Weight Registry), is by consistently following many positively healthy habbits. So, when WW changes a plan on someone, that it kind of naturally forces the brain to develop and adjust to new habbits. There's no long term consistency in that. I frankly found their regular changes annoying too. to give some praise to ww i did learn a lot of good habbits from them. Being told by WW staff at a WW meeting that if the old system was working, stick with it, that would not reduce my frustration at all if were hearing that. This is because the leader there cannot realistically address primarily more than 1 system. So where do the members following the older systems get support from? Excellent point when these members have wondered, "if the program is so good, why a new one every year or so?" Lovely made the argument that the changing of systems has been done to accomodate new updates and to attempt to improve their program. Improvement is great, BUT scientific research on how to lose weight and keep the weight off HAS NOT CHANGED MUCH over the last couple decades. Ironically, although millions of people find this problem the hardest to tackle, the principles of how to lose weight are still...shall I say simple? Therefore, why the need to change the program on a yearly basis? I regret putting so much money into WW, and am VERY happy having maintained my ideal weight for approximately the last 6 months. 
