Every time I’ve started a diet or new exercise routine in the past, I’ve looked at is as a mostly physical endevaor. Eating less, eating healthy, getting off my ass and just about every other part of losing weight is physical. Right?
One of the things that’s become clear to me over the various weight loss attempts is that losing weight isn’t about the physical and measurable aspects as much as it is about the mental and emotional aspects. As I’ve been doing research for this site, I’ve been looking at some of the success stories out there. While just about every diet plan has a handful of success stories, but after looking into them, it looks like more people fail than succeed with most of these trendy new plans. The was one exception, Weight Watchers.
While I did find a few people who didn’t find Weight Watchers helpful, there was a much larger percentage of success stories. Even several personal friends of mine have found success with it. Like any geek, I figured it was time to dissect the Weight Watchers program and try to figure out why it works. Overall, the system is only 2 parts:
- A point based system for figuring out what to eat.
- Weekly meetings to weigh-in.
I pretty much scratched the point system off right away. Diet plans rarely fail as a result of somebody not understanding the rules, so I doubt that’s the key to weight watchers. That leaves the meetings. At first I couldn’t understand how standing up in front of a group of people and weighing yourself was really that helpful. My first reaction to the idea was that it would be a source of embarrassment or humiliation. I usually try my best to hide my weight, not announce it to strangers.
After talking to my successful Weight Watchers friends, I had a bit more insight into the meetings. The meetings provided a support system for the diet plan. It gave you a chance to see people at every stage of the process. The one aspect that surprised me the most is that members who achieve their goal weight can attend the meetings for free. Since people who consistently failed to meet their goals are unlikley to stick around, you end up with a group composed of both people losing weight and people who’ve successfully lost weight. It’s tough to not believe in a program, when you’re sitting next to half a dozen success stories.
There are a few things to take away from this. First of all, the diet is only part of the plan. Secondly, your support structure is just as important as the diet and exercise. These are the people that help you celebrate losing 5 pounds and help get you back on track when you don’t. Finally, it’s important to have people in your support group who have already succeeded. They can help serve as inspiration and guidance to the rest of the group.
If you look around a bit, I’m sure that you can find plenty of co-workers, friends and neighbors to help start a group. Send out an e-mail or post a flyer and you might be surprised at how quickly you can get a group going. I’m going to give it a shot here in Manchester, and I’ll let you all know how it goes.
Hey Ian,
I think in general it’s just easier comitting to things when doing it as a group. You may have heard that back at Ektron, there is a weight loss “competition” going on. 12 of us all put $50 into a pot and have 8 weeks to lose 10 pounds. All the people that make that goal, get to split the pot. Basically, if everyone loses 10 pounds we all get our money back.
I’ve found this to be pretty successful and probably for a number of reasons. First of all, I have 50 bucks on the line. Secondly, good old competition is always a good motivator. However, I think its more than that. I look forward to our weekly weigh-ins to see how well we’re all doing. Measuring my progress regularly seems to reaffirm all those cookies I’m sacrificing. In general, it just seems less painful doing it as a group because you have people to joke with about your 10:00 PM cravings and how great it would be to run over to cold stone after lunch.
P.S. 3 weeks in and I’m winning at 8.2 lbs :)
Hello Ian,
I had been doing Weight Watchers for almost 2 years. I lost 80 pounds. Once I stopped, I gained some back. I think I’ve stabilized and even gone back to losing.
I think one of the most important parts of WW is going to the meetings. Hearing the issues that other people are dealing with and their solutions helps you deal with those issues.
With the meetings it is important to find a group leader you can identify with. We went to a few meetings with different leaders and trust me, the leader can definitely make a difference.
Also, WW offers an online program where you don’t attend meetings, but you can track your weight and have more of an online community weight loss experience.
WW offers an alternative program to the points system called the Core Program. It is sort of like the South Beach diet. You eat until you are satisfied, but are limited to the type of foods you eat. A lot of the people seem to like this option.
As far as celebrating weight loss, sometimes it isn’t even about how much you lose. Sometimes it is about how much you don’t gain. For example, when you take a cruise, it is very tough not to gain weight with free 24 hour food available. But, if you set a goal of gaining no more than ten pounds and at the end of the cruise you gained only 6 pounds, you have reason to celebrate.
Hey guys, thanks for the feedback.
@Derek: I definitely agree that competition can a big motivator. I wonder if there is some web 2.0 kind of site to organize weight loss competitions.
@Steve: I think it would be interesting to see if the online members had the same success as the members who attended actual meetings.
Ian,
My group leader often made the comment, members who attend meetings lose more weight and have a better chance keep it off. I have no statistics to back that up, but that is the information he gave me.