Why Weight Watchers Won’t Watch Me Ever Again

Weight Watchers.  Is there a more familiar or beloved program for losing weight in North America?  The illusion of it’s benign nature is deeply imbedded in our culture.  Even just hinting on my Facebook page this week that I was planning to write this post elicited emotional, sometimes angry feedback.

I’m writing it anyway.

And I’m going to keep writing it, as it turns out.  I’d love for you to be the first to read the next instalment.  Make sure you sign up here so you don’t miss it!

People are attached to the ‘sensible’, ‘balanced’, and ‘sane’ approach to losing weight that Weight Watchers markets as their program.  “The program works” they say.  And it does, for a time.  Weight Watchers helped me lose weight three times in fact, this article is about the first.  The problem is that you can check out any time you like but you can never leave, man.  Once you have had success on the plan you are a lifetime member whether you ever manage to make it official or not.  Weight Watchers is always your friend, it will always take you back when you’ve lost your way.   It forgives you, for failing, every time.

And that is where the problems lies.

It’s insidious.

You didn’t fail, your program did.  <—Click to tweet!

There is nothing sensible, balanced, or sane about this business model that is designed to make you fail, repeatedly, and then upon your failure blame yourself rather than the program.

It’s actually kind of brilliant.  They are in the business of making money and are pretty damn good at it.

The first time I used Weight Watchers to lose weight was in 2002. 

I was 23 years old, and at 5’8” some would say I carried my 145lbs pretty comfortably on my frame. 

At that time in my life unhealthy people surrounded me with a lot of opinions about what I should look like.  I believed I was fat.  Because I was actually quite thin the Points allotment I started with based on the program calculations was already far too low calorically. 

My work and personal life suffered a lot through this time.  From the starving I suppose.

It’s not Weight Watchers’ fault that I had no business being on a diet at all.

At this point in time food quality was not a big consideration in the program, and the lowest fat, lowest calorie option was always considered the best choice.  I was averaging 800-1200 calories a day from all the wrong sources. Vegetables were considered a Points free food at the time but fruit was not, and I didn’t eat much veg ever in my life.  As a kid who didn’t learn to cook from her parents, frozen diet entrées were a staple.    It’s not Weight Watchers’ fault that I made these choices, they only armed me with the  Calories + Fat – Fiber = Happiness equation for success with weight loss.  I was free to do whatever I wanted with the information and my sliders and daily log books (yes, this is before smart phones when we actually had to do math to find the Points value sometimes and needed to carry a pen to track).  That was the beauty of the plan though, right?  That we could have that brownie if we wanted it?

I remember exactly what I ate for breakfast and lunch every day for my first 16 weeks with the program.  Breakfast was one piece of Bowness Bakery Rye toast (1 Point) with a 1/2 teaspoon of Kraft peanut butter (Less than 1 Point), lunch was a can of Campbell’s fat free soup (2 Points) with lots of hot sauce and two saltines (1 Point), or if I knew I was going to be especially “good” at dinner that night a Lean Cuisine frozen entrée (Sweet and Sour Chicken – 4 Points, Three Cheese Ravioli – 6 Points). For dinner I usually ate a cheeseburger and fries (14 Points) or a slice of pizza (8 Points) or some other fast food or take out option.  Why not,  I had only eaten 6-10 Points worth of food all day, I deserved the treat.  And every single night without fail I would have a turtle (3 Points).   If you are keeping track that was 15-21 Points most days.

At the time we were encouraged to “carry over” Points if we managed to get through a day without eating our allotment. 

I got used to the hunger pains.  I started to feel powerful when I could resist them.  And so damn weak if I caved and ate a bite of anything that wasn’t planned in my little book.  A failure.

I often went to sleep hungry, but I had won.  I had saved three more Points for my binge on Wednesday night (immediately after my weigh in and meeting, no matter what the scale said), and it was going to be epic (60ish Points in one sitting.  FULL.  FINALLY).

It’s not Weight Watchers fault that the pressure of having to weigh-in while a room full of other weight loss warriors tried to look ANYWHERE else often caused extreme anxiety and extra purging for days in preparation.

You can opt out of weighing in after all…you don’t HAVE to be watched.

I got really good at eating like someone was watching.

I got REALLY good at carrying over Points.

I got really good at not eating at all most of the time.

I also got really good at consuming 3000 or 4000 calories in one sitting without tasting a thing once a week.

It’s not Weight Watchers’ fault that they taught me how to purge with extreme calorie restriction, and then binge binge binge.  Banked Points were a girl’s best friend.  

It’s not their fault that people on the fringe have experiences like mine.

I lost 17lbs in my first round of 16 weeks with Weight Watchers.   A totally, sane, sensible, balanced amount of weight, right?  At 128lbs I was nearly skeletal.

I was tired all the time and very unhappy.  I thought I was depressed but looking back I think I was just starving.  Wasting away.

Yep. I lost a totally sane, sensible pound of weight loss per week on the program.  I gained an eating disorder that I would flirt with for the next 12 years.

But it was ultimately my fault for the choices I made with the information I was given.  For giving in to my human nature and finding the cracks and holes and cheats in the system, for choosing the frozen convenience food over the salad.  I didn’t yet understand the difference between “can” and “should” and I trusted the guidance I was receiving from this “trusted” source.

I still believed that the laughable number of calories they would have me diligently counting for years to come were enough to sustain my health.  I didn’t yet understand that food quality is so, so important.

I was unhappy and naive.  Just the kind of person that the industry preys on.

I know the program has made changes over the last decade.  I did it two more times, so I know from experience. I will write about those experiences in the weeks to come too.  Make sure you don’t miss an update by Clicking Here.

Thanks for reading.  If you can relate or have someone in your life that you think might, please share this story by clicking here to tweet!