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New My WW 2020 Program Changes: Rumors and Social Buzz
It has been more than six months since Weight Watchers launched its new Freestyle Program with its greatly expanded zero points food list, so it seemed like a good time to step back and do a review.
Is WW Freestyle successful? Too free? Too restrictive? Just right? That all depends on who you talk to….
Just take a look at some of the comments I’ve read:
Weight Watchers Freestyle Member Reviews…
“The new freestyle plan is right up my alley. I’m someone who already eats eggs, chicken, and beans and now they count as ZERO SmartPoints. Freestyle is cleaner. The less packaged processed foods is better.”
“I joined WW back in February 2017 so far I’ve lost 50 lbs. I really like the sp system but with this new system I just don’t know. As someone mentioned before I like being able to track everything and with my points decreasing to 23 I’m not sure I will continue to be as successful. I don’t really eat much eggs, beans and chicken. So this wasn’t really a hit for me.”
“Love freestyle. No longer feel punished by eating healthy foods – instead, I feel rewarded! Freestyle pushes you to eat healthy foods but leaves room for indulgences. I ate a 6-course dinner at a French restaurant, including 2 glasses of wine for New Years and didn’t gain—-because I planned for it and have been adjusting my other meals/activity for the week accordingly. I never feel hungry. If I’m out of points for the day and hungry, I can eat fruit and yogurt, white bean chicken chili, chicken salad, or tofu veggie stir fry for zero points. What?! it’s crazy awesome. I love it.”
“I love Freestyle. I have had no problem switching to it and in fact find it easier. I love that I can add peas and corn or chickpeas to my salad and not have to count those points. I really feel I am eating better than I was before and the rollover points saved me during the holidays. I actually lost weight.”
“I don’t like Freestyle. I am already sick of chicken, chicken, chicken, eggs, eggs, eggs. I can’t afford fish or sea food more than once a week, tops. I have not lost any weight on this plan, despite careful measuring and tracking. It is super boring. There is no “fun” in it. I feel like this narrow way of eating is being forced on me. Instead of teaching a healthy way to eat and then letting us adapt it to our own culture and way of eating…we are given ultra limited choices…chicken….and vegetables and fruit. I can barely swallow these foods already, I am so sick of them. I just want a glass of MILK! I want a HAMBURGER! Once in a while, I want something SWEET! I want VARIETY! Maybe some PIZZA or a TACO! I could do all of things when I was at 31 points. I can do NOTHING at 22 points. I just want to give up.”
“Not liking it, too much like Atkins. I am eating more fruit, than with the old system, and I like the eggs, but not the beans. Honestly I just feel like I’m starving all the time.”
“LOVE the new plan. Lost 7 big ones so far! (started in late November) I am a vegetarian and love legume-based dishes, so this is just in my wheelhouse, and most seasonings don’t add points. No deprivation or cravings. Big love!”
Why Are Some Succeeding on WW Freestyle While Others are Struggling?
How can it be that some people are struggling with Weight Watchers Freestyle while others are succeeding? Some love it. Others not so much.
The truth is that there is no one way to lose weight that will work for everyone. Lasting weight loss requires finding habits and behaviors that you can commit to for the long haul, a lifestyle and way of eating that work for YOU and YOUR LIFE.
The best way to lose weight is the way you can stick with! You need to lose weight your way.
For many people Weight Watchers is the way.
Weight Watchers has been around for more than 50 years. During that time, the program has changed drastically and vacillated in its degree of restrictiveness.
The original WW Program from the 1960s was extremely restrictive and became gradually more flexible as an exchange based diet, reaching it’s pinnacle of freedom in 1997 with the introduction of original Points Plan, which was essentially a proprietary way to count calories.
In 2010, the PointsPlus Plan introduced a new calculation, the concept of power foods, and Zero Points fruits and vegetables.
Many members struggled with the transition from Points to PointsPlus and again in 2015 with the transition from Weight Watchers PointsPlus to SmartPoints, when the points values of foods high in sugar and/or saturated fat went up.
Suddenly, for many members what had been a manageable way of eating felt much more like a DIET.
With all these different WW Programs/Plans some have thrived while others have floundered. Why?
Abstainers & Moderators Require Different Approaches to Weight Loss
Then it hit me. I thought back to a post I wrote back in 2013 after learning about the difference between Abstainers and Moderators and why it is a key to weight loss success.
Some people – Abstainers – do better with firm dos and don’t. Others – Moderators – do better with freedom and choice.
So a Moderator tends to do better managing the occasional sweet treat and resents the excessive SmartPoint price assigned to it. While an Abstainer may do better giving up certain sweet treats altogether.
A Moderator may do well managing an expansive list of zero points foods, while an Abstainer may do better with a plan defining exact portion sizes.
This helps explains why some people are thriving on WW Freestyle and other people are struggling and why on one weight loss program is never the solution for everyone.
Please share your review of WW Freestyle
Love it? Hate it? Why???
WW Freestyle 2019 Program Changes
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I loved it while nursing! I lost quite a bit fast! But now I have less than half those points. I am disheartened, more tempted to cheat, and struggling to lose the weight. I do need motivation to reign in carbs and sweets, but being able to enjoy a slice of pie now and again without starving would be nice! I also think that I succeed better in warmer months when I can get out and get more fit points!
PS I love eggs, but I am getting sick of them! I miss oatmeal!
Hi Nathana, Thanks for sharing your experience. I think it’s important to realize that on the new WW Freestyle plan your daily target, is just that a target! Which I talk about here in this post – https://simple-nourished-living.com/weight-watchers-beyond-the-scale-smartpoints-update-with-marth/. It is possible to go over your daily target and still lose weight! For the program to work long term we need to figure out how to eat what we love in moderation. If you miss oatmeal, I encourage you to eat it!! – All the best, Martha
I hope WW reads these posts. Going into the negative, is not really a reasonable solution. WW, or weight watchers as it used to be known, has taught people for years to stay within their budget, and now there’s this strange encouragement to go negative and it’s “OK.” Or eat an egg! It’s really disheartening for those of us who’ve been long-term members, successful members (70lbs, but since Freestyle, up 12…). The new freestyle is much too restrictive, definitely more protein oriented, and if that’s not the way you eat, it doesn’t work and you feel defeated and like you’re on a diet, especially when you see your points in the negative. Beans, chicken breast, eggs, enough! I’ve used a different app now and it is working far better. I still go to the meetings, but have considered leaving. I committed to Weight Watchers, not WW. Thankfully, I have a super “coach”. After seven years, to go into the negative because I ate chicken thighs, is really silly. I have no problem tracking everything I eat and was encouraged to do so by Weight Watchers FOR YEARS! I completely miss the prior (smart points) program. I have now gone to the app itrackBites to follow the prior program. That works far better for me and weight watchers, or WW, should allow for a choice, especially for all those members who have been members for years and have dutifully made changes as weight watchers has progressed over the years. I have switched as things have changed and I really tried with Freestyle, but this one doesn’t work for me or for five other people who I know who’ve been going to weight watchers and had success for the past 3+ years, all five have put on 10+ pounds since the new program, because it feels like a diet. I’m certain that it works for some of the people, but it doesn’t work for everyone and it’s not fooling anyone with how it’s hitting the current fad of the protein diets. I anticipate that 2 to 3 years out, many of the people who have lost weight, will have put all or most back on, because it’s too hard to live that way. WW, please consider allowing more options with the program. And the “wins” aren’t wins when you’re gaining. Not nearly as healthy as I used to be…?
I feel the exact same way you do. I would rather count everything and be able to eat everything. This new plan is too restrictive. I had 1 Pepsi and it cost me 10 points. Needless to say I gave up that day because I only get 23 points a day. Free style reminds me of Atkins or ketosis….I refuse to do those because of the restrictions. Now here goes ww doing the exact same thing. Hince the reason behind the name change . It no longer has the same concept it once had. This new plan has caused me nothing but grief and do overs.
I reached Lifetime with SmartPoints and Simply Filling and lost between 45-50 pounds that way. Then my weight crept up, so I decided to rejoin. So bummed that they discontinued SF. It was a way to encourage mindful eating, and mindfulness in general. I’m not sure how to begin tracking points now because 1) it’s been a while and 2) with SF I only tracked some foods. Right now, I only have 23 points/day, and it doesn’t feel like enough. I’m foregoing half and half in my coffee because I’d rather use the few points I have towards something more interesting.
Also, I cook a LOT at home and plan to go to culinary school in the fall. It’s tedious to have to spend 5 min creating a recipe in the app so I can track it. When I go out to eat, it’s almost never to chain places, so I have to guess. Fortunately I only have 10 lbs to lose, so I’ll hopefully finish in a month before discontinuing and finding a new maintenance plan that isn’t WW.
So glad to know that I am not the only one that is totally bummed with Oprahs diet changes. )obviously it’s not working for her either!) The PP worked so well for me & I got many people to join. I don’t know where to go now. Such a bad diet!
I made Lifetime in the late 80’s, so I am a long time Weight Watcher. I am seriously thinking about ending my subscription, though I’ve stayed 10 lbs above my goal for nearly 10 years. When I returned to WW 4 years ago, I was making progress toward losing that 10 lbs. Since Smart Points, it’s been all downhill. Make no mistake, Freestyle is a DIET and a restrictive one. I prefer “counting” all the food I eat. I eat a great deal of chicken , for example, and by not counting it, I end up taking in more calories by using my points for other foods. If I choose to have dessert on Saturday night, my weekly points are short as even 1 cookie is 5 or more points on average. This latest rebranding nonsense is like a red flag because I’m so angry that the program has become unworkable. Meeting attendance looks like it is down and many of us spend our time complaining about our frustrations. I don’t like the diet and restrictive feeling of Freestyle and I am tired of paying my hard earned dollars to lose and regain the same 3 lbs.
Hate it! I previously lost weight on PointsPlus and hat smartpoints! Super restrictive and charges outrageous amounts of points for some food so you have no room for anything but vegetables. It is so imbalanaced that I don’t take it seriously- I know the point apportioning to a food was so disproportionate that even being ‘out’ of pointa I could go over and be fine. That undermines the whole system and it’s just discouraging to see negative numbers that don’t need to be there. Comparing head to head with MyFitnessPal this week in a performance and motivation test
I Love the Freestyle program, I do believe that some may be overeating the zero point foods , therefore they are eating more calories. Even the zero point foods need to be consumed in moderation. Zero points does not mean zero calories.
I was super successful with their Points and PointsPlus programs. Everything since then has been a disaster. I even contacted Weight Watchers to see if there was any way to go back to the old program (I did everything online so I didn’t have the books) and they said nope. I miss the old programs!
I terminated my WW subscription after 4 months of Freestyle. It’s not for me and I was just throwing my money away. There are no “free” foods, I don’t care what food plan you follow. I lost 40 lbs on Before the Scale, this new plan is a diet, not a lifestyle. I joined WW for a lifestyle. It is restrictive and just not sustainable. It’s sad, because I really enjoyed the previous plan and ate a large variety of foods and still stayed within my points, and lost weight.
I’ve since switched to the Lose It app and am looking into NOOM and the Optavia plan.
You might want to check into the iTrackBites app, where you can us one of the old WW systems.
I completely agree with your assessment. I had been on Weight Watchers Smart points for several months in hopes of losing weight for my son’s wedding. By the time the wedding came I had lost 25 pounds and it was coming off at about 2 pounds a week. I continued and reached a loss of 45 lb and had about 25 more to go. Weight Watchers switched to Freestyle and I once again began overeating, all zero point foods! For instance, an afternoon snack was plain Greek yogurt mixed with salsa and vegetarian refried beans. But I ate a whole bowl full of it! And now instead of eating 3 oz of chicken breast for 3 points I ate as much as sounded good. I went back to picking while preparing and all my old bad habits. I know I still needed to be mindful of calories, etc, but that’s not where my mind worked. Smart points was perfect for me. It sickens me that Weight Watchers can’t acknowledge that different people are successful on different plans and allow us to choose the one we want to do. I can’t make myself do all the work again that I had done to make myself be successful on Smart points such as scanning barcodes in the grocery store for 2 hours. I gained 35 of the 45 pounds back and I am heartsick.
I do not like this plan to restricked