 Hi, friends. Welcome back to my channel and a special welcome if you're new here. My name is Jen. I'm a certified weight loss and nutrition coach, and I'm on the Weight Watchers or the WW Blue Plan. Today we're talking about Weight Watchers or better known as WW. We're going to go over some pros and cons of following the WW program. I get asked a lot as a weight loss and nutrition coach about pros and cons of WW versus calories or counting macros. So in a later video, we are going to compare WW and calorie counting. But today I want to focus on the pros and cons of being on the Weight Watchers or the WW program. So if you're excited, give this video a huge thumbs up. And if you're new and you're not part of my channel, I would love to have you here. Hit the subscribe button and click the bell right next to it so you never miss a single video. I do upload five days a week so you definitely don't want to miss out. Check out the description box down below for nutrition coaching. I offer personalized macros and calories as well as one-on-one coaching if you want to chat with me directly. Also, I just released two WW friendly, calorie friendly, all plan points included recipe ebooks, breakfast, and lunch. So make sure you're getting your hands on those for amazing, delicious recipes that fit into that healthy lifestyle. Links, discounts to all my favorite things and my Facebook group. Comment over, join us there. Are also down in that description box. So let's go ahead and jump in to talking about the pros and cons of WW. As we know, WW Weight Watchers is a very, very popular weight loss program that leans on a point system to track your food. There are endless zero-point foods on their list. And in order to track and stay on track, you track the WW points. Everyone has allotted a certain number of points every day based on several factors, weight, height, gender, and age. So not everybody receives the same number of points every single day. But in order to follow the WW program, every food is assigned a point value. When you consume that food, you track the points. And when you're out of points, you're out of food for the day. Now this sounds pretty easy and convenient. You don't have to track every single calorie that you're eating because WW does offer so many zero-point foods. Those foods do not have to be weighed, measured, or tracked. So it eliminates having to track every single thing that you're eating like you would have to do if you were following a macro or calorie counting approach. But that doesn't mean that Weight Watchers is the right program for everyone. So I want to share with you some pros of the program and some cons of the program so you can decide if, number one, you want to join the program if you're just looking into WW or maybe you're on WW and you're just not sure if it's the right program for you. Hopefully the pros and cons of today's video will help you make a better educated decision. First, let's start with the positive. Let's start with seven pros of the WW program. Pro number one is it is a balance and flexible program. In fact, WW is one of the most flexible diets on the market. By assigning fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins a point value of zero. WW encourages you to get the majority of your food throughout the day from this healthy zero point food list. With the points left over, you can pick adequate whole grains and dairy that fall within your daily smart point allocation. And the second pro is it teaches you lifelong skills. No matter what diet plan you choose, it should be something that you want to follow for life. Now this doesn't mean that you can tweak the way you follow the plan as you reach your goals. But whatever you do to lose weight, you have to do to maintain your weight. So you want to make sure that the plan that you're choosing is something that can work for you long term. WW teaches essential lifelong skills such as weighing and measuring your food, watching your serving sizes, and in fact encourages you to prepare your meals at home. So you know exactly what goes into those meals. Pro number three is my favorite. And this is that no foods are forbidden, restricted, or eliminated. There is no list of foods that you will find in order to follow the WW program. No food is off limits. WW encourages you to eat healthy food choices. That's why they make those items zero points. But the leftover points that you have for the day, you can allocate those to your favorite foods. Sometimes it's pizza. Sometimes it's a big green salad. But no food is off limits. And that's what makes WW a more sustainable program and a sustainable lifestyle. Pro number four is it delivers slow and steady weight loss. And as I always say, slow and steady wins the race. You can expect to lose half of a pound to two pounds per week following the WW program. You're not going to lose five, 10, 15, 20 pounds a month, but you are going to lose weight at a healthy rate. And the slower we lose our weight, the more likely we are to keep it off. So don't fall into those fad diets that tell you that you're going to lose five pounds a week. Or even those fad diets I've seen on TV that say that you can lose a pound a day. That is not healthy. It's not sustainable. And chances are very, very, very good that you're not going to keep that weight that you lost off because you're not developing good, healthy, sustainable habits as you're losing that weight. The next pro is that WW delivers a ton of support and resources for you to utilize. There's many, many features such as the WW app that allows you to not only track your food, look up the point values of foods, build recipes, figure out what you can eat at your local restaurant. And it even contains a community called Connect, which is essentially Facebook for the WW app where you can connect with other WW members. In addition to the app, you can attend regular in-person support type of meetings where you go and you discuss a weekly topic, you weigh in, you ask questions, and you can utilize the support of like-minded individuals on the WW program. And there's even the option for a premium membership that includes one-on-one coaching that you can chat with a WW coach directly. And lastly, you can sync any type of Fitbit, Apple Watch, Garmin to the WW app so that you can rack up extra points when you're working out. These are known as fit points. So the fact that WW has so many resources and so many different options for support makes it a really good program if that is what you're looking for. If you need accountability and support, WW can be the way to go. The next pro of the program is it actually reduces your risk of diabetes. Because the healthy food options are zero points, people who follow the WW program generally consume a lot more healthy foods than they would if they didn't have those foods rated at a zero point. And because they're gravitating towards these healthier options, they have a reduced risk of type two diabetes quite substantially when following the WW program. And individuals that suffer from diabetes have seen their weight go down and have seen a substantial decrease in their blood sugar level. So WW not only helps prevent diabetes, but if you suffer from diabetes, it can really help curtail your symptoms and make it a little bit more manageable. And last but not least, when it comes to pros, is WW promotes and encourages exercise. WW encourages plenty of daily movement. And like I said, you can sync up a fitness watch to the app and earn additional points called fit points as you do exercise. So it's encouragement and it's motivation to get out there and move your body and exercise not only because you earn fit points, but because that is what also helps you tone up, become stronger and see more success on the scale. Now all of this sounds amazing. Sounds like the plan that you've been looking for, but before you jump in with both feet, let's chat a little bit about some WW cons. Number one and the one that I hear most often is it is a costly program. Now the cost varies from person to person depending on what services and resources you would like to utilize from WW. If you decide to be digital only or online only, this is going to be the most affordable option. Now the in-person workshops fall right in the middle for affordability and the most expensive option is going to be the one that utilizes one-on-one coaching. Now you can get discounted rates by paying for several months in advance. You can also utilize any promotions that WW is offering and down in the description box I will put a link for a free month of WW if you want to try it out and again see if it's the right program for you. But take advantage of discounts, free months, links for special promotions before signing up for the program and try to make it as affordable as it can be so that it's something that you can continue to stick with and that you can continue to work into your budget. Con number two is counting points can be pretty tedious. If you don't like counting calories there's a good possibility that you're not going to like counting points either. You still have to weigh, measure, and track all of the food that you're eating. Now depending on the WW plan you choose some involve more tracking, some involve less tracking but the reality is you're still going to have to track. Con number three is that weekly weigh-ins are necessary for the program. You need to weigh in once a week to track your progress. Your weigh-in is put into your WW app and that is how Weight Watchers tracks your overall weight loss that's how you earn charms and rewards is by tracking your weight every single week. You can either weigh in virtually or in person. Now if you're someone that does the digital only plan you would weigh in at home and track your weight in the app. If you're someone that utilizes the in-person workshop you actually weigh in with what is called a WW guide at the workshop and that weight is tracked right there with that individual. Now this can make some people uncomfortable some people don't want to step on a scale in front of someone else and track their weight and some people don't hold themselves accountable enough to weigh in every week at home and track it in the app but WW says in order for you to be successful you should weigh in one time per week. Another thing I want to address is sometimes for some people the scale can wreak havoc on how the rest of their day goes their week goes their month goes so if you are someone that struggles with seeing that number on the scale that maybe didn't do you any favors weighing in once a week could be a big con for the WW program. The next con is there is very limited evidence for cardiovascular benefits of being on the WW program. The program offered little results when it came to stabilizing blood pressure and cholesterol compared to other lifestyles or ways of eating that are out there for example if you're someone that wants to reap the most cardiovascular benefits you would want to gravitate towards something similar to the Mediterranean diet. Unfortunately WW hasn't been found to have a lot of cardiovascular benefits. The next con may actually be that the program gives you too much freedom. As silly as it sounds too much freedom can really be the Achilles heel for a lot of people. The ability to choose whatever you want to eat whenever you want to eat can be a little bit too much for some people. It's completely possible and very common for people to use their points on less nutritious foods. Lots of processed foods or they're looking for lower point options fat free sugar free and these are much less nutritious full of chemicals and not foods that we should be putting in our body all of the time. So that extra freedom that is given to choose whatever foods you want to come up with low point foods or low point dupes can actually backfire and you may be consuming a lot less nutrient dense unhealthy food than you would be if you were given a specific food list to eat off of. And the last con is probably the most concerning con for me and this is that WW can lead to unhealthy eating habits and an unhealthy lifestyle. There's a lot of concern that counting points can actually lead to an unhealthy relationship with food. A lot of people save up their points to binge on unhealthy foods later they look for those WW dupes like fat free and sugar free and chemical filled foods and a lot of members gravitate towards processed foods that are generally low in calories but high in points so a lot of people will suffer from not eating enough on the WW program. So although they give you zero point foods that are healthy and nutritious if you don't lean on those foods for the majority of your meals chances are you're not eating enough calories maybe you're choosing unhealthy foods or restricting certain foods that can lead to binging so there's a big concern on whether or not following the WW program actually can lead to an unhealthy relationship with food. So now that we've discussed the pros and the cons I hope that you can walk away with a little bit more knowledge in the bank when it comes to the WW program and like I said if it's something you're considering you can weigh out the pros and cons and decide if this is truly the best program for you. We're all different some of us thrive on the program some of us struggle on the program and a lot of people under eat and develop an unhealthy relationship with food based on the program. Now if you've been on the program for a while it's time to maybe take a look at these pros and cons and reassess and decide if this continues to be the right program for you. No one can tell you what to do no one knows you and your body better than you do so deep dive into these pros and cons and make the best decision for you. So if you enjoyed today's video don't forget to give it a big thumbs up and if you're new or you haven't yet subscribed I would love to have you here hit the subscribe button and don't forget to click the bell right next to it so you never miss a single video. Check out the description box down below for nutrition coaching both my recipe and lunch ebook links discounts to all my favorite healthy things including that free month of the WW program so you can try it out and last but not least head on over join us on facebook we'd love to have you thank you so much for watching and i'll see you all next time bye