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Author:
Luke Sanger

As we all know by now, Weight Watchers is based on a points system and that point system basically runs the diet and everything in the diet is based on this point system. There are a few variations of the POINTS system but there isn’t much of a difference at all. The main differences are based on how the dieter looks at fiber and how much fiber they want to eat. If the dieter uses fiber as a “point enhancer”(reducer) then they would substitute the 50 pt. value in the Weight Watchers Formula for a 70 pt. base value. Other variations are that the POINTSfinder manual calculator that is handed out in Weight Watcher meetings does not reach a points value of 2 until after 70 calories have been reached, rather than 50 as the formula states. This makes the point values 20 pts. higher than first thought.

As time has progressed, so has the Weight Watchers diet. Recently the diet has started to take into consideration how much people want to exercise and how that affects the point system in a whole new way. Certain exercises are given certain negative point values to offset eating some foods that might not have been allowed in earlier variations of the diet.

The Core Plan

When the Atkins Diet and the South Beach diet became more and more popular, Weight Watchers had to come up with a different variation to compete with these diets to be able to keep their dieters happy and feeling like they were still using a diet that was modern and up to day. So, the Core Plan was invented to mirror the Atkins and South Beach diets respectively. In essence, the Core Plan eliminates certain foods all together and focuses on “core” foods that they should eat until satisfied but not full. These core foods are basically deemed healthy foods from all food groups. Still staying with the points system, dieters are allowed 35 pts. a week to eat non-core foods.

The Flex Plan

This is yet another variation that was touched on above that includes exercise into the Weight Watchers equation. A set number of points are given for a given day based on the dieters current weight. Then, the number of points could be increased when the dieter would exercise. This is a reference to the clever title “flex” which allows the dieter more points that are not based on their weight that they could use each week, but are not required to use.

TurnAround

This program was adopted in late 2004 and incorporates all the above plans into one big plan, and was created to help a person maintain a healthy lifestyle beyond just eating foods with points assessed to them. The program includes healthy foods of course, but also 8 Good Healthy Guidelines, activities, and support of other Weight Watcher members. This well balanced plan is supposed to help a dieter maintain their weight through a lifetime maintenance plan.

Weight Watchers is a diet that is tried and proven by millions of people around the world. Find more info and blog entries about this time-tested diet and other great diets here at http://www.eweightlossblog.com, or you can find great health tips and diet tips here at http://www.ihealthblog.com

| Article Keywords: Healthy Diets

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Healthy Diets... Why are there different diet types? Diet is a dreadful word for most of us because it will mean food deprivation. This is especially so for those who love to eat, hearing this word seems like asking them to commit suicide. However, the term diet is not what we know it to be, because the definition of the word diet is "the usual food and drink of a person" or "something that is used, enjoyed or provided regularly". Having said this, nothing is dreadful in the word; in fact, it is something enjoyed as the dictionary tells us. Will this change our fear of the word diet? May be not but at least I will try and explain a little bit more about diet and dieting that we know it to be. Since I already mention that nothing should be dreadful about dieting, it may be worth it to note that there are different diet types because there are different body types. Aside from the body type that we grow in, there are body shapes we long to have. This is the reason why there are nutritionists and health care professionals who design the necessary food intake to give us the body shape we dream of having. It is true that there are different diet types that will deprive you of indulging to your favorite food, but if you want a particular body shape, you need to apply a little sacrifice in order to get it. This is why models and hunks learn to love dieting. Different diet types only become successful when complimented with exercise. This is because exercise will help speed up your metabolism. Your metabolism is the primary player in loosing weight. If you have slow metabolism, breaking down of food in your body will be slow. Thus, it will be very hard for you to loose weight. There are body types that has fast metabolism, especially the thin ones. They never need the diet that deprives them of food, they have a different diet...