Many of you Weight Watchers fanboys and fangirls are not going to be happy with my assessment of Weight Watchers for vegetarians or vegans. But this post is not for you. This post is for folks earnestly seeking a method of weight loss that fits within their vegan and vegetarian ideals.
That being said. I recognize that Weight Watchers works for many people and like most diets it doesn’t work for some people either.
Weight Watchers can be a very useful tool for those who need weekly weigh ins or appreciate the support either in person or online of an extensive community.
The thrust of my argument today is that you can lose all the weight you want without expensive and complicated programs and it is my opinion that Weight Watchers is unnecessarily complicated.
First a splash of cold hard truth in the face about weight loss. Weight loss is easy. It is a function of the body using more calories on a daily sustained basis than it requires for functioning. In easier terms. If you need 2,000 calories a day to stay the same weight at the same activity level, and you eat 1,500 calories per day you’ll lose weight over time.
Problem with that is that you can’t patent something so obvious and simple. Weight Watchers in order to sustain it’s business model requires patent protections as do most businesses. If I set up a weight loss program just based on eating less I wouldn’t have a viable business. So Weight Watchers has developed their PointsPlus system which is patent protected.
To be fair, I haven’t tried Weight Watchers and so these are only my opinions based on research that I have conducted myself.
Weight Watchers has earned their success honestly but for the simple matter of weight loss, I don’t see why you need to complicate things unnecessarily by using a points system to determine how many of what foods you can eat and how many calories you need.
If you need a system like that then go for it. Weight Watchers from what I can tell allows you to eat pretty much any food you want. As such, you can customize Weight Watchers to fit your vegetarian and vegan diet if that is your choice. However, I believe you will be greatly limited if you choose to eat any of the Weight Watchers convenience foods.
Also, because Weight Watchers is aimed at the sheeple i.e. the general majority, most of their recipes as you’d come to expect are aimed at people who eat animals and their products. You might find that your vegetarian and especially vegan diet is not well understood. So be prepared for that.
Maybe some of you will find the Weight Watchers point system worthwhile toying with to figure out how much food you can eat and what kinds of foods. As a vegan and vegetarian you’ll be pleased to know that you can stuff yourself with most veggies and fruits and from what I gather many of them are considered 0 point items.
The bottom line is that Weight Watchers is a sound method of losing weight if you feel that what they have to offer is valuable and helpful to your needs and weight loss journey. I think the best part of it is the support that you can experience online and through their in-person meetings. However as vegetarians and vegans be prepared to explain your dietary choices and understand that you will likely be the only vegan in the meeting. So that support might be lacking or insufficient for what you were hoping.
For those of you who are looking for a simple way to lose weight that is vegan focused, then come back tomorrow as I’m going to write a longish post on how to lose weight for vegans and vegetarians that is FREE and doesn’t cost you a penny except for what you buy to eat.
Oh yeah, my weight loss for vegans program will let you eat anything you want. I’ll tell you more tomorrow. In the meantime you can read my free vegan weight loss diet plan. It’s an introduction. Tomorrow’s will be longer.