How Does Weight Watchers Online Work?

Have you heard good things about Weight Watchers (WW), but you just can't make it out of the house to attend a meeting? If so, then maybe WW Online is for you. The program is tailored to help with portion control and hunger. Something great about the program is just about any fruits and vegetables have a point rating of 0, so you can have as much as you want to help fill you up. They are called power foods and help to promote a healthy lifestyle.

Right now the company is offering a three-month savings plan. It gives you three months for $56.85, waiving the $29.95 sign-up fee. If you choose the monthly option, you pay for the month ($18.95) plus the sign-up fee.

Once you are signed up, you enter your information to get your daily points value.The new PointsPlus program has been tailored so that most people get around 29 daily points and 49 weekly ones to use as you want. This is more than the old weight watchers, but most foods now have a slightly higher value due to advances in science that determined their healthiness since the last weight watchers was released. Mostly, I have noticed some of my favorite things have gone up a point or two. However, the higher weekly points can make up for this. The daily points have to be consumed in one day; they don't carry over. The weekly points can be spread out over the week or used up all in one day (this is good when you know you're going out to eat).

You can also earn extra points through exercising, that you can decide to use or not, depending on the level of weight loss you want.

When you log into WW, you will be directed to your homepage:

Once at your homepage, you click on plan manager, where all magic happens!

When plan manager first starts, it will have you enter your weight and goals. It prompts you to go with a 5% goal at first, which I always do because it seems more reachable. You choose your weight tracking day (I go with Monday; some others I know go for Friday because they tend to use all their weekly points over the weekend).

On the left side of the screen, there are tabs to navigate you through the plan manager. The PointsPlus Tracker is where you track everything you eat. The Weight Tracker is where you will track your weight every week. The Progress Reports BETA is brand new and shows you how you're performing over time. With Find & Explore, you can find many of your food in the WW database. Those that you can't, you can use the point generator on the PointsPlus Tracker tab to add the nutritional content to find out how many points your food is. Lastly, there is the Recipe Builder that you can use to build up recipes and find out how many points they are.

You can also add any activity you do through Activity Tracker to earn additional WW points.

Yes, Weight Watchers works. However, you have to be committed and do it 100%. The way it is designed is to keep you full and satisfied all day long. You will definitely see a larger weight loss in the first two weeks, just like with any other diet. I lost anywhere between 8-10 pounds during that time. The weight loss slowed down after that, anywhere from .5 to 2 lbs a week. Everyone's results will be different.

Remember, this is a lifestyle change, not a diet. You have to be committed to changing the way you eat and live. After about three weeks on the program, I started to notice how the little changes I made didn't seem so big anymore. I was used to measuring everything, having fruit instead of cereal for breakfast, and using as many "light" products as possible.

• Buy a food scale. It will become your best friend. WW measures most portions in 3-4 oz.
• Slowly break away from using all your weekly points. You will see a greater weight loss. However, you might need them the first week or two to help curb hunger.
• Don't be surprised to find no weight loss during PMS. You'll make up for it the following week.
• Eat as many fruits and vegetables as you can stand, but don't over-stuff yourself. Fruits still have calories, but they are better for you than many other foods.
• Only weigh-in once a week. You might be surprised at the numbers you see!
• Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. The scale will move faster, especially if you're not a water drinker like me.