Charter Member Of THSOTBA, or THSTBA, or maybe HSBA
TranceJen tells us all about Weight Watchers:
"I think they’re only out to sell their food, which is loaded with unhealthy preservatives and other assorted addictive shit, just like the rest of the diet industry’s shit, designed to get you addicted and even fatter, stuck in the dieting cycle, because they’re a multi-million dollar corporation who could not possibly give less of a shit about you and your fat ass."
While I have no such vitriol towards Weight Watchers, I will totally join "The Holy Sisters of The Big Asses" as soon as Trance starts it up.
"I think they’re only out to sell their food, which is loaded with unhealthy preservatives and other assorted addictive shit, just like the rest of the diet industry’s shit, designed to get you addicted and even fatter, stuck in the dieting cycle, because they’re a multi-million dollar corporation who could not possibly give less of a shit about you and your fat ass."
While I have no such vitriol towards Weight Watchers, I will totally join "The Holy Sisters of The Big Asses" as soon as Trance starts it up.
9 Comments:
I would completely join the Holy Sisters of the Big Asses!
Great site, thanks for the link!
Heh, I wrote almost the complete opposite thing about that commercial yesterday. And I do believe in the power of being able to eat whatever one wants and just track it.
I see her point, but I feel like the article is a little... uninformed. If you are talking about a program like Nutri-system, or Jenny Craig, where every single one of your meals is prepackaged and handed to you, then, yes. Those programs teach people nothing about nutrition or portions or anything, they just make them totally dependent on their food. At least Weight Watchers isn't like that- you can easily do the diet and never eat a single prepackaged "weight watchers" product. And it is a little more realistic- it doesn't say you can never have chocolate or binge or eat in a restaurant. Which is good, because guess what- you will. It actually allows you to see the scope of the damage. When I did weight watchers, I realized that if I absolutely HAD to binge on something sweet, an apple croissant at my favorite bakery was far less harmful than, say, two of their chocolate chip cookies.
I don't use weight watchers, I have better success with a slightly different plan, but I think just attacking it as, "A bunch of fat people trying to get away with eating chocolate and calling it a diet" is wrong, and a little insulting.
I'm in! I have a big ass, so I qualify.
I agree 100% with the article. The whole idea that "all foods are equal" that WW promotes, as in, eat junk, just tiny bits of it, and the points will still be ok, is not good to me. I always thought this calorie business was overrated anyway. If I eat 1,600 calories of unbalanced food I gain weight, if I eat 2,100 of balanced food I lose - so is it really about "a calorie is a calorie is a calorie"? Not to mention eating all your calories from junk, even if you lose weight, will make you feel like crap and mess up with cholesterol, blood sugar, etc.
I also find it funny that when you regain all the weight and go back, they just call you a 5x success story or some other term like that, instead of "proof we don't really have the maintenance thing down".
And I have a fourth issue with weight loss support groups in general. I've been a member of several web-based ones. Heck I even started and owned one for a while - we had around 1,200 members, so pretty big. What I found out was: people are very supportive of your weight loss until you actually start losing weight. Then it is all backhanded jealousy and envy, and criticism of what you did to lose weight. Note: I'm not talking about doing seriously unhealthy stuff to lose weight, just about doing things like "tracking down foods on fitday" and "weighing portions when eating at home" - the same things that these people supported, until it works for you.
Then it all turns into a "[insert name of person losing weight here] is making me feel like a failure about myself, and causing me to binge! Can she please stop posting about her dieting, and exercising, and weight loss?" Duh! Posting about dieting, exercising, and weight loss is what the place was about.
So yeah, I have all the vitriol she has about WW about ALL support groups. I'm much worse than she is.
I'm just chiming in to say that last year Weight Watchers introduced their "Core" plan to address these very issues. The core plan stresses whole, unprocessed foods. You don't have to count points for foods like beans, veggies, fruits, whole grains, lean meats, fat-free dairy. You still get the 35 flex points per week to spend on non-core foods like alcohol, sweets, etc. It's actually a very healthful way of eating.
Michele, I know about the Core plan and the fact that it promotes veggies, and I also like that WW promotes moderation. But (there is always a but, right?) I think one of the reasons people struggle with maintenaince in WW and pretty much every other diet plan out there (it is not just them) is that people cut calories too low for starters. You get people who ate 3,000 calories a day going to 1,400 suddenly, and then when they get back to eating 2,000, they will gain because the cut was too drastic. And one of the reasons that on WW the calories *have* to be so low to work is that the plan allows too much freedom to eat junk (processed stuff, even if "low-fat"). Like I said, I have my own experience and of several others who know that once they eat
"clean" (meaning: no processed stuff), they can eat a ton more calories and still lose weight. So I think that is the biggest problem with it.
It works for some people. But what I don't understand is why it is considered gospel in the dieting communities. It is like every other plan out there is a "fad", but WW is The Truth. It is not. It is just another diet. Not as crazy as some of the real "fad diets" out there, but not any better than most of the more popular plans that are accused of being fads.
I just want to point out, as people seem a little confused on this point, the link is not to an "article" or anything written for a publication -- it's a diary entry on someone's online journal. Though she has an interesting point & this can spark a healthy discussion, I don't think it should really be held to exacting journalistic standards.
-J
Yes, you're absolutely right! It's a journal post, thanks for clarifying that.
Thing is, WW still has the 8 healthy habits, even if people don't focus on them as much as the points. If you really eat 5 fruits or veggies a day plus 2 dairy servings, that's a chunk of healthy points already. Totally agree that too many people just use points to eat all junk, but then, you are hungry. For me at least WW has seemed like the easiest diet (erm, lifestyle) to maintain long-term because I can work it into my daily life no problem. When I tried some other ones I felt like it was impossible to ever eat out or on the run.
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