It seemed like every adult woman in the 1970’s followed Weight Watchers. Certainly all my relatives did. My mom followed the diet but never joined Weight Watchers. A lot of men followed it too. Sometimes involuntarily. They had to eat whatever appeared on their dinner table. I ended up eating recipes from the Weight Watchers cookbook during my childhood. Not by choice!
Millions of pounds must of been lost on that diet in the past sixty years. Quite a greasy legacy. Thank you Jean for making so many of us healthier.
The founder and spokesman Jean Nidetch died this week at 91. I posted a obit in Cafe.
How many here joined Weight Watchers or followed their diet at some point in your life?
Nope. But both my sister and her daughter did. Both lost a ton of weight, with my niece going from a size 20 to a size 8. They both gained it all back, unfortunately.
One of the problems with any “diet” is the loss-and-gain cycle that so many people have.
I joined WW when I’d gained some weight in the late 1990s. I hated it, it felt like AA for people who liked to eat. “And how did you lose 2 pounds this week, Gwen?” Gwen replies bashfully, “Oh, I counted my points, and drank my water.” No, Gwen. You didn’t eat anything fun for a week, obsessed over everything you put in your mouth, only drank water, and were a total bitch. I know because I work with you.
I quit WW a couple of weeks in.
My mother modeled as a young woman and followed the WW diet when she needed to drop weight before the big spring and fall shows. It worked for her, but she was a) naturally slim, and b) could make a meal out of toast, grapefruit juice, and black coffee.
I will say that I can spot a “proper” serving size of something because of WW.
ETA, I have a couple of WW recipes that I often make.
Joined 2x. Just couldn’t commit to all the planning for cooking, shopping, meal planning–it seemed I was constantly thinking about all of it, and thus thinking about food. Dieting works best for me when I don’t even think about food. I know it has worked for some people.
I had the impression Weight Watchers was really the first nationally known diet. There had been other diets but not necessarily on such a scale. Modern Mass media helps push fad diets across the country. Seems like every year or two a new Fad diet rockets across the country.
Weight Watchers is unique that it survived and expand after the initial Fad craze.
I’ve never done the meetings but do follow the points system when I need to drop a few pounds. It’s based on very healthy low carb, low fat food and allows you to eat as much fruit and veg as you like, so it doesn’t feel faddy like a lot of diets. You do become obsessed with counting points, but it’s brilliant for portion control. All told, as far as steady diets go (ie losing a steady 2 points a week and eating healthily). I find it useful. It would be a breeze if I didn’t use up a bunch of my points on wine
I have participated in a couple iterations of their system. The old Core plan worked for me, albeit slowly–ten pounds in three months. Any of their systems that involve counting points are intolerable. I get too hungry to sleep, and go off the rails within a week.
I do have several metabolic disorders, but that’s my experience.
I did it many years ago, lost 16 pounds, and then began putting it back on while still on the program. The Points worked until my body caught on and adjusted my brilliant-in-a-survival-situation metabolism.
Then it became just too much to sit in a room full of people talking about food every week, so I quit.
I still use quite a few recipes, because they’re just tasty. The Taco Soup is a winner, for sure.
I used it and lost 65 pounds. I have kept 30-50 of that off over the years (winter is hell) because of the basic knowledge of calories and portion sizes that I learned (back in the days when Points were pretty much 50 calories per point).
I still use a modified version when I want to diet. I do not like many of the more recent changes to the program, however. When I first started with the Points system, it was a lot easier to estimate on the fly and still get close. It felt a lot more reasonable. Our leader emphasized that you could eat anything, even dessert–just in moderation.
I went again a couple years ago with my husband, and the program now penalizes fat, carbs, AND protein, and encourages lots of processed “diet” foods and strange food combinations that don’t taste good. For example, our leader told us we couldn’t count salad dressing for our “healthy oils,” but wanted us to pour olive oil on our breakfast oatmeal or in our drinks. I asked why salad dressing was a no-no.
She said, “You don’t know what all is in there.”
And I said, “Yes, I do, I make my own salad dressing from scratch with olive oil.”
She could not comprehend this was possible.
Still, I think the core message is one that is pretty common-sense: portion control, fresh fruits and vegetables, and don’t starve yourself.
Quite a greasy legacy. Thank you Jean for making so many of us healthier.