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Some Successful Weight Watchers Struggle with Transitioning from Points Plus to Smart Points
I ran across this post over at Drizzle Me Skinny, where Kate, a successful Weight Watchers Lifetime Member, explains why she made the decision to switch back to PointsPlus after testing out the new SmartPoints Plan for three months.
She basically sums it up with this assessment:
After about a month of getting into the swing of the new point system I noticed my moods at the end of the day were different, and I was finding myself in the kitchen eating all sorts of snacks I normally never would have, a little of this, a little of that and next thing you know I am easily 10-20 points over my daily allowance of 30SP. This is because I wasn’t buying or making the things I was so accustomed to on my points plus journey… because most things were about 1/3 of my allotted daily allowance. This new habit I had picked up was something I never did on points plus and I can sum that up to “restriction.”
A lot of folks left comments expressing similar frustration that was tapping into feelings of deprivation leading to bingeing and weight gain. Not a good thing! And I’m sure not what Weight Watchers intended. Weight loss is such a mental game!
I know being told I can’t have something is a real problem for me. I have this really spoiled inner child that rebels when told, NO.
So, I’ve learned to appease her by telling her that nothing is off limits provided she is willing to plan/budget for it. Most of the time it works.
This is why Weight Watchers is the only plan that works for me longterm. I can’t live without bread, wine, chocolate, sweets, fat, sugar, pizza or potato chips forever. It’s unrealistic for me and the way I want to live.
Other Weight Watchers Are Seeing Greater Success with SmartPoints
Another commenter’s experience was just the opposite. SmartPoints is working for her:
For what it’s worth, PointsPlus is what knocked me off of my goal weight. I loved the old original points plan and I could NOT make PP work for me. I found myself doing a lot of what you were doing and eventually, I quit WW in frustration of not having any good tools. I happened to join WW again just as they were rolling out SP (I had avoided it because I resented the PP plan). SmartPoints is working really well for me. I think the experience of many of us is: we have made one lifestyle change to embrace a program (Weight Watchers or otherwise) that works for us. We have success, and we find goal. If we are summarily pushed to a new mindset, when we like the one we have — and it’s working for us — we probably won’t like it.
I think this is why I still have good feelings about the old WW exchange plan I followed to originally lose weight and achieve lifetime status. It was very restrictive, but the joy I felt getting slim and reaching goal is what I most remember.
Why Do Some Weight Watchers Programs Seem to Work Better Than Others?
As my leader explained during Friday’s meeting: Weight Watchers has been around for more than 50 years and has changed the program dozens of times to stay in alignment with current dietary understanding, which continues to evolve.
Each and every program worked for the members that followed it. Many of us who have been with WW through the decades have witnessed this first hand.
The key is to lasting success is adjusting the program to best meet our individual needs. Question any group of successful Weight Watchers members and you’ll discover that they’re all doing things differently.
We all know what we are supposed to do – eat more fruits and vegetables and avoid sweet treats. The difficulty begins with actually doing it, as Mindless Eating expert Brian Wansink explains in this interesting article about tricking yourself into eating better:
The thrust of his research directly contradicts the prevailing wisdom in nutrition circles—that the way to improve America’s diet is to teach people about the dangers of trans fats, refined sugar, and white flour. In Wansink’s view, that’s a losing battle—if we were rational eaters, the snack food industry would already be out of business. “There are a million nutritionists out there that tell you to eat an apple instead of a Snickers bar,” he says. “I want to meet people where they’re at.”
Here’s another great article that sums up why Weight Watchers is struggling as a business – because sensible eating and portion control can be boring and hard work. It’s not extreme or sexy. It’s not a silver bullet promising unrealistic results!
Can thinking differently help those struggling with SmartPoints?
I recently had this realization… with Weight Watchers SmartPoints, you can never hit your daily target and still lose weight!
Say What? The SmartPoints Target is a number designed to reflect OPTIMAL/NEAR PERFECT HEALTHY EATING FOR WEIGHT LOSS. So, it’s possible to go way over your target and still lose weight…
I Regularly Exceed My WW SmartPoints Target While Managing to Maintain My Weight
When I first tested out SmartPoints, I began by just eating the way I regularly do to maintain my lifetime goal weight and was shocked to discover that I was consuming 50 to 60 SmartPoints per day!
That’s way over my suggested SmartPoints target for maintenance! And I’m okay with that.
I eat a relatively healthy diet of mostly home cooked foods with occasional sweet treats. I enjoy a glass or two of wine with dinner most nights.
I’ve been successfully maintaining for several years now the goal weight I set back when I was 28. Could I eat healthier and meet my SP target most days? Probably. Would I be happy? Probably not. And for me it’s all about me finding my happy/healthy balance.
Remember that your daily SmartPoints is Simply a Target you are shooting for. You don’t have to hit it to be successful! You just keep aiming for it! You can never hit it and still lose weight!!
You know yourself best and you should do whatever you need to, modify the program however you need to, to take care yourself. This is your life and you know yourself best!
The Correct Mindset is Critical to Lasting Weight Loss
Weight loss is a MIND – BODY challenge. It’s as much psychological as it is physical. The correct mindset, thoughts and beliefs are just as important (or maybe more important) than what you eat.
Lasting weight loss happens with little incremental behavioral changes.
It takes awareness. It takes time. It takes patience. It takes practice. It takes creating new habits and changing your environment. It has to be a priority. You have to really really want it. You have to be willing to do the work. You have to be willing to learn from your mistakes and be kind to yourself.
There Are Lots of Ways Other Than Weight Watchers to Successfully Lose Weight
And the truth is that there are lots and lots of ways to lose weight. Heck, here’s an example of a college professor who lost weight and got healthier on the junk food diet! You know yourself best so do what’s best for you!!
Personally, I hate that you can no longer use a recipe’s nutritional information to accurately calculate SmartPoints. Recipes must be run through the WW Recipe Builder to accurately determine SmartPoints which is time consuming.
I’m still a huge fan of the overall Weight Watchers model, with the accountability and support it provides. I believe Weight Watchers success is in their structure as a support network.
For me WW meetings are 30 minutes of sanity in an out of control food world. And I love the new WW Connect feature.
What do you think? Has Weight Watchers gone too far with Smart Points? Is it too restrictive? Or sustainable once you get used to it? Is it easier for new members than for those transitioning from Points Plus to SmartPoints?
Please share your thoughts. I really want to know so I can help be part of the solution to our weight loss and healthy eating struggles!
I’ll also continue to provide both SmartPoints and PointsPlus for all new recipes for those of you sticking with the old plan.
PS – If you are tired of calculating/tracking Points or calories, check out why I’ve shifted to Intermittent Fasting after reading Eat Stop Eat!
That you posted this over five months ago and are still getting regular responses speaks, I think. to the frustrations people are having with SmartPoints.
I’m definitely in that boat. I lost 50lbs. back with the old Flex plan about ten years ago, but I gained it all back after having a couple of babies. I tried Points Plus and it worked okay (though still not as well as Flex), but SmartPoints is just not working at all.
I think the reason is that SmartPoints is designed to solve a problem I don’t have. I don’t eat much processed food. I gave up soda when I was 9 years old. I don’t need WW to tell me not to eat these things. And I don’t need to be pushed to eat fruits and vegetables, I eat them all the time. My problem is, and always has been, portion control.
There also has been a lot of research that suggests you need a good amount of fat in your diet for satiety, otherwise you’ll feel…well, binge-y. SmartPoints punishes fat just as it does carbs, meaning that some slices of avocado are as “expensive” as junk food. A theoretically infinite amount of lettuce and bananas won’t get any healthy fat into your diet.
I’m a vegetarian, too, and other people have mentioned here what a challenge that is on SmartPoints.
I also really miss being able to walk into a store and pick up a product, or look at a recipe, and calculate in my head a rough estimate of the points. This made staying on-plan soooooo much easier.
I can’t help getting a little mad at WW when I think about it, and I’m someone who evangelized the program for years after my success on Flex. I understand they want to come up with new plans on the regular to drum up business and seem cutting-edge, and I don’t begrudge them this. But shutting off access to old plans that worked for people is a betrayal, honestly. It’s not like these older plans are dangerous or harmful.
Dear Sally,
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I agree that WW misses the boat with fat.I predict that a few years down the road this will change. In their last round of recommendations the scientists on the 2015 USDA Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, for the first time in 35 years have sent recommendations to the government without any upper limit on total fat. In addition, “reduced-fa”t foods were specifically not recommended for obesity prevention. Instead, the committee encouraged consumption according to healthful “food-based diet patterns.” Unfortunately these recommendations need to trickle down into the US Dietary Guidelines before WW gets on board.
I think WW caught a lot of flack from the dietary community over flex points since it was based strictly on calories and a person could effectively consume their whole allotment in junk. I hear all the time that people were choosing 2 Points worth of cookies instead of banana.
Now I go to meetings where people talk about eating 5-6 bananas a day, which equates to 500-600 uncounted calories!
Since you are a healthy eater and your issue is portion control, do you think you would have more success just counting calories?
I’m always trying out/experimenting with myself. When I’m in the calorie counting mode on it’s own or to compare with Points, I use the My Fitness Pal app which is free.
It might be worth testing for a few weeks.
Thanks again.
Martha
So glad to find this conversation! In the past, I have lost 7 pounds the first week of Points; 5 pounds the first week of Points+ and 2 pounds the first week of SmartPoints. I am sure some of this is water weight; all of it actually with SmartPoints. I was NEVER hungry on Points; I am starving on this SmartPoints. I am a lifetime member and always bragged that WW was the best “diet” out there–it was a lifestyle that you could live with forever! Now I am not a believer anymore. It is the same as all the other diets out there–low carb–BORING!!!! I have a definitely sweet tooth and am not going to spend the rest of my life not eating any sweets to maintain my weight–LIFE IS TOO SHORT!!! I an switching back to Points+ I guess (since I no longer have my Points materials). Very frustrated. PS: Yes, I KNOW that sugar is not good for me, but in reality I am not going to give it up completely; I don’t want to (and didn’t have to in the past to lose weight on WW) Thank you for this thread!
Hi Diane, Thanks for sharing your experiences with Points, PointsPlus and SmartPoints. You are right that life is too short to live in deprivation and it’s about finding your own “just right.” Best of luck with your return to PointsPlus!
I think your comment above is bang on. You have to change the failure mindset of all or nothing when you practice SmartPoints. And once you do, it works. The plan makes so much sense. I don’t understand people who find it restrictive. I don’t at all, but I am okay with going over my points, too. I weigh myself every day and I can see the hills and valleys that occur in a daily basis and I can tell you that I’ve lost 20 pounds on this (with about 10 more to goal) and it’s been easy. That’s right. I will throw it out there and say it’s been easy. But I cut myself so much slack and have the discipline to not use that as an excuse to lie to myself about what I am eating, but to just pay more attention to what I am eating overall. Sorry that this is stream of conciousness but I just think the new plan is so great!! (And as a disclaimer… It took me awhile to have this attitude. I lost weight on the old points program. And I hated hated hated points plus. And I gradually just stopped tracking when it rolled out and out weight back on. So I get it but I feel like it’s workable if you back away from all or nothing mindsets. This is why your post really resonated with me.) so glad i stumbled across your blog this morning!
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment. Congrats on your impressive 20 pound weight loss! That’s terrific. I love what you say about cutting yourself slack and using the SmartPoints as a tool to guide you through the hills and valleys, but not as an excuse to lie to yourself. I read a great comment in a British WW magazine years ago that really stayed with me. A leader there said that you should think of Points like training wheels, teaching you how to eat and that once you understood that you wouldn’t have to depend on them forever. I loved that because it’s a concept I never heard shared here in the U.S. 🙂 Best of luck with reaching your goal!!
Martha, funny that you would mention WW UK. I find their approach is SO much more in synch with how I see the plan. So much so that I subscribe to the WW UK magazine!!! Thanks for the reply and I love your blog!
This is a fantastic post! I have used WW 3 times. Twice in past on the PP system, and I just re-joined under the new SP program last week. I came back to WW because it has been the most effective program I have tried. In fact, my husband tried to encourage me to use the Lose It! app with him (calorie counter similar to MFP) and I declined saying I know what works for me. Here are the reasons I believed PP worked for me over the calorie counting app:
1. Free fruits and veggies. Because of this staple I knew I could NEVER really starve. After all, I can eat 0-point foods. And there are plenty of times where a fruit snack or rounding out a meal with fruits and veggies went a long way to making me feel satiated. Under a calorie counter those 3-4 servings can add up,
2. I really could eat what I wanted within moderation. And over the long term PP helped me to understand the relationship between food choices and how to manage them.
Here is the reason I am not loving SP vs PP:
1. I feel like the foundation on which WW rests (that makes it successful for so many) is that it allows for freedom of choice and lifestyle. SP is so restrictive that it doesn’t really allow for that any more. Sure, you CAN eat that bread, chocolate and wine, but you won’t be eating anything else. And here’s the thing: while SP may be edging people in a healthier direction than PP did, PP still nudged you in the right direction. Moderately. You couldn’t have loads of sugar and saturated fats with PP either – that would also rack up points. But you could choose to have some.
Where I think WW may have gone wrong:
It almost seems like PP could have been stage 1 of a weight loss program and SP could have been stage 2 (or likewise an alternative choice for people looking for more optimal, but restrictive eating standards). They took away moderation. And we all know, that is key.
What I am going to do about it:
I did find that PP had some pitfalls. Perhaps it awarded too many weekly points. I found that under PP I could eat my daily 28 plus the weekly 49 (all of ’em) and as long as I didn’t dip into my earned activity points I lost weight at a steady rate.
I did not do any fancy calculating to compare points under the PP vs SP system, but here is what I intuit about it – I used to get 28×7=196 + 49 = 245 per week. Now I get 30×7=210 + 21= 231. That’s automatically a difference of (-14) per week. In addition, the point values on MANY things have gone up. By my estimation (not actually calculated) it’s about a 20% difference. 20% of my old PPV is 49 points. 49+14=63.
By my standards I am getting 63 fewer points per week – that is more than two days worth of food! So as I experienced with PP, I may need to adjust SP a bit to work for me. I can tell you I will definitely be consuming every SP I have in a week and I WILL be eating the equivalent in earned Fit points as well. If I need to add more points from there, so be it. But I am bummed because the psychology of banking unused points (PP) feels a lot better than adding on additional ones (SP)-whether I’m loosing weight or not.
Hi Jenny,
Thanks for sharing your fantastic “insights” regarding PointsPlus and SmartPoints. Since so much of weight loss is “mental” some folks are really struggling with the more restrictiveness of SmartPoints. There’s no doubt about it. I regularly exceed my SmartPoints allowance but don’t worry about it as long as I am maintaining my goal weight. I realize it’s not as easy for newer Weight Watchers who can get caught in feeling like “failures” when they exceed their daily or weekly budgets.
I really lost years ago on the Momemtum program. But about 10 pounds from my goal weight the scale wouldn’t budge. Just wouldn’t move! I had left the program since then trying to go it alone. I’ve gained it back of course. I did try the points plus last year but didn’t like it at all. I’ve now just ordered the smart points and I’m excited to see how it goes.
As far as the less sugar, that’s great news! I feel like it’s wise as sugar is actually a drug! That’s right, studies have shown its more addictive than cocaine. If you leave sugar out of your diet, in a few days, you won’t even want it. My husband isn’t on any program and he’s been cutting back sugar saying that sugar causes pain in his joints. Since he’s cut back, the pain is gone. Wholesome, clean, sugarless, foods are best for all of us.
Since I’m wanting to put good things in this body I’m really hopeful this program is gonna work, and I’m only rejoining because they made it a more healthy mindful program!
Hi Jennifer, thanks for your thoughtful input! All the best with SmartPoints 🙂
The new smart points program seems very restrictive. No sweets it seems like or u spend all ur points! The best program was the old points! Someone needs to get in there and change it back!
Hi Jill,
Smart Points is definitely more restrictive than points are points plus!
I started SP a week ago and am really concerned about this new program. About ten years ago I lost 50 pounds on WW. I started gaining it back a few years later after an injury prevented me from running, then the following year new job and city, and then the following year a bad emotional breakup. I now have about 100 pounds to lose. At 5’3″ and well over 200 pounds I still only get 30 SP. with the new point system foods that used to help me, like lean cuisine, are now 9 points, nearly a third my daily total. I know some of my food choices aren’t as healthy, but they have helped me practical ways, like running around all day, coming home at 10 and being too tired to cook. This plan doesn’t seem to be as flexible, and also I can’t calculate points on my own because the formula is so mysterious. I only lost 1.5 pounds my first week. I thought heavier people lost faster than that and I’m feeling like I won’t be able to do this program.
Hi DC,
Thanks for sharing your experiences so far. 1.5 pounds is still a great weight loss. I believe that the slower you lose the weight, the easier it will be to keep it off. It’s important to remember that with SmartPoints there is no real correlation between points and the calories. It’s possible to exceed your SmartPoints budget and still be on track calorie wise depending on your choices. You may want to track for a few days with the free app MyFitnessPal and see how it compares to SmartPoints for you. It’s extra work but can be very informative. Hope this helps.
I just re-joined WW after being gone for three years. I was a lifetime member back in 2011 and reached goal when they rolled out points plus. I loved WW so much, I even became an employee as a receptionist for a few years. WW really works. I have returned because I haven’t been at goal for over two years. I quit working for WW when I started working full time. I am only 7 pounds from my goal weight, but I can’t do it on my own. I was completely thrown off at first, but I am starting to realize (as I did the first time around), that I can’t keep trying to eat what I did before and make the points work. Bad food will never work on any point system. I am taking some time to look at some blogs for new ideas and your recipes look fabulous! I am excited to start on this next phase of my WW journey.
Hi Shanon,
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. Congrats on your decision to rejoin WW! Your story sounds so much like mine – a lifetime member and former employee 🙂
I think I used to feel bad about myself that I couldn’t figure out my weight issues on my own. Now I know that I need the discipline and support that WW provides and I’m not ashamed. It’s smart to do what we need to do to take care of ourselves!
You are so right that it’s impossible to make bad food work with any point system or healthy way of eating. The key is to gradually replace the not so healthy choices with better ones in a slow and steady way.
Best of luck.
I’m cheering for you!!
I’m new to WW so I haven’t used anything except Smart Points and I don’t understand why people are saying it’s hard. I eat pretty much what I want and many times, I don’t even use my points for the day. I have no idea what any other point program was like but I think SP is great and I KNOW I can lose weight this way because I don’t feel deprived. I don’t even know what people were eating before if now they’re eating 50-60 points on the SP plan by eating the way they did on their old points system plan. Sure, it cuts back on sugar but other than that, I don’t see it cutting back on anything else and we could all do with a limit to our sugar.
Hi Kristen, Thanks for sharing your experience. So glad to hear that WW is working for you and that you know you can lose weight because you don’t feel deprived! That is so awesome!! A huge part of weight loss is our mindset and yours seems like it’s exactly where it needs to be. I wish you much success 🙂
I’m super new to the SP program. I’m just finishing my first week and will have my first weigh in tomorrow. I’ve done various incarnations of WW over the years and never really saw much success. That was mostly on me though since I was bad about sticking with it and didn’t find that the groups in my area were very supportive. I did lose 40 lbs a few years ago counting calories and working out a ton, but an injury derailed me and I ended up gaining it all back, and then some. So now I’m at my highest adult weight ever and needed something to get me back on track, and I knew WW had revamped things. Personally, I’m loving the new “Beyond the Scale” materials. I love that it’s not all about the scale. I know it wasn’t before, but now it seems more apparent. I love that they didn’t immediately set a 5% or 10% goal the second I walked in the door.
As for the SP themselves…I’m happy with it so far. I’m sure I’m still in the honeymoon phase, but a big reason I’m at WW is because I was eating too much, and particularly too much fat and sugar, so a plan that helps me limit those better is good for me. One thing I didn’t like about PP was that half of the meetings seemed to be spent either selling WW products like smoothies or candies, or members swapping ideas for how to have the most junk for the least points, usually desserts. I like that with SP, there’s still nothing off limits, but it’s a lot harder to make things like dessert a daily occurrence and instead makes it what it should be, which is an occasional treat that you enjoy and then move on. Personally, I’m planning to give SP a fair shake. Maybe I’ll feel differently in a few months but right now I feel like I can work with this plan. That said, if people saw better success with PP, then I think sticking with whatever works for them is the smart way to go. It’s just unfortunate that they can’t do that and still have the same support from WW (online or meetings or whatever).
Hi Vanessa,
Thanks for weighing in with your views. The more perspectives we are able to share the better. I’m so glad you are loving the new “Beyond the Scale” materials. I agree that making the scales less important is key to lasting weight loss success. I wish you much continued success 🙂