[princess77]

Hi everyone! I am very interested in WW but would like to ask some questions. It's hard to get info from the site, w/o paying...

1. Is it easy to follow, or complicated? Does it restrict certain foods, like no carbs, or no fat?

2. If I find a meeting, (from the site, I guess?) Can you just attend, even if you're not a member yet? Also, about how many meetings are you supposed to go to, and about how much does it cost to join and stay in the program?

3. When I was in highschool, I wanted to go to WW w/ a friend who had quite a bit of weight to lose, 50 lbs maybe. I feel like i need to lose 10-15 lbs only and learn to eat better. Nothing really works for me, and if it does, it's temporarty... well, she discouraged me from going, saying that because I'm pretty close to a healthy weight (not obese by any means just a little plump) that they would treat me bad, not take me seriously. She said it was a program for people that were fat, not ignorant teens. Anyways, I'm 5'6 and weigh 155 and do need to drop 10 or so. I just want to know if people are like that there...

[cher123]

Hi and welcome. I'll take a stab at some of your questions.

1. WW tries to make the program easy to follow. You have two choices, the most popular being the Flex program. Flex assigns a "point" value to foods, based on calories, fat and fiber. Members get a slide-rule type thingie that lets you calculate points based on nutritional information on packaged foods and a lists of points values for other things. There are no restricted foods, but you have to make good choices to keep yourself healthy and satisfied on your given number of daily and weekly points.

2. Yes, you can attend any meeting and become a member. There is sometimes a registration fee, but they do run no-fee specials sometimes. You can attend one meeting free, I think, but have to pay to join. My meetings run $14 dollars a week, which gets you all the basic material. HOWEVER, I think you have to want to lose at least 10 percent of your starting weight to join, and your goal has to be within healthy guidelines.

3. I've never seen teenagers or people who didn't need to lose a lot of weight treated differently at my meeting. The focus is not all on weight loss, but also on healthy eating and exercise.

[Karen L]

You are very close to your right weight. But you can still join WW. You need to be at least 5 pounds above the low end of your weight range. And you are. From my many years as a WW member if you have 5 pounds or 150 pounds you will be treated with respect. You'll get all the awards they give out & all the high fives from staff. It will be a good experience for you. Just be realistic about what you want the numbers to read.