With more than 78.6 million Americans being obese there is no wonder that everyone is looking for a way to lose weight and get healthier. Medical costs exceed $180 billion a year for people that are obese. Obesity creates various health issues like heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and countless others. It also increases your risk factor for cancers. You quality of life can be limited because of joint pain and also low self esteem.
There are many programs and diets out there to help you lose weight. One of the most popular one throughout the years has been the weight watchers program. Started in the early 60’s in Queens New York with just a few friends meeting up it has grown tremendously over the last 50 years. It has helped millions of people lose a significant amount of weight using a points program.
With this points program no food is off limits to you. The program helps you to figure out how much is too much. You can still eat out on the program and there are quite a few places that give point values now on their menus. You can even still have an alcoholic beverage. WW does suggest meal ideas and recipes but you don’t have to follow them if you don’t want to. It is mainly a source of support in your weight loss journey using the point system they have in place.
Your points budget is based on your gender, height, age and weight. You will get a daily target and then also a weekly allowance that you should try not to exceed. The first points program was launched in 1997. It has now been changed in 2011 and is called PointsPlus. Technology and science has helped us to get a better understanding of food and weight loss. Therefore, WW wanted to implement a new system to keep up with these advancements.
The original points program was a “calories in, calories out” based plan. There was a penalty for fat and a reward for dietary fiber. The daily points target was much lower than the one you will have with PointsPlus. There was also a half point option. Activities were assigned points and offset against food points leading to weight loss through caloric deficit. Daily points don’t rollover. You are allowed 35 flexible points per week that lets you indulge with an occasional tasty treat without threatening weight loss.
The PointsPlus model totally revamped the points system there is nothing the same about this new program. PointsPlus takes into account how the body processes the nutrients in the food you eat. When calculating the PointsPlus value you have to use the protein, carbohydrates, fat and fiber numbers. Calories have been taken out of the equation completely.
Your new daily target will be higher than with the original system. The minimum point value you can have per day is 26. Now a person gets 49 PointsPlus points for the week to splurge with. Another interesting change is that all vegetables and fruit are free points and not assigned a value.
For people following the WW plan for years this was a abrupt change. But you still have the option to use the old points system because you can find the calculators online. PointsPlus takes all the guess work out and really gets down to the specifics of what you are eating. Choose what is best for you, either way you will lose weight.