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Public
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"Watch Yourself Change"
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1963
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11 Madison Avenue<br /> New York, New York 10010
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Linda Huett, President & CEO<br />Ann M Sardini, Vice President & CFO<br />Thilo Semmelbauer, COO<br />Robert W Hollweg, Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary
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Weight Loss
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46,000 (as of 2003 )
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, founded in the
1960s by Jean Nidetch, is a company offering various
Dieting products and services to assist
Weight Loss . It started as a discussion group for how to best lose weight. It now operates in about 30
Countries around the world, generally under the name "Weight Watchers" translated into the local
Language . Its most prominent
Celebrity Endorser is
Sarah, Duchess Of York .
Varying on location, Weight Watchers generally offers two distinct programs:
- The POINTS program
- The Core program
The programs are supplemented by optional support groups which meet regularly and provide ground assistance to those trying to meet weight-loss goals.
The POINTS system is, in essence, a simple way to quantify a participant's caloric intake and energy expenditure. Various servings of food are assigned a specific number of points, and various types of exercise are assigned negative numbers of points; a program participant is allocated a certain number of points per week, with that number based on the individual's current weight and weight goals.
The effect of this is that the participant is not restricted from eating any specific type of food, but they must stay under their total point value for the week. This stands in marked contrast to diet approaches such as the
South Beach Diet or the
Atkins Diet , under which some foods are completely forbidden and others are permitted in theoretically unlimited amounts. The participant's ability to factor exercise into the plan increases its flexibility: the participant can eat more points as long as they offset them with exercise, or eat fewer points if they prefer not to exercise.
Many Weight Watchers proponents enjoy the POINTS system precisely because no food is out of bounds, as long as it is eaten in moderation, and because exercise can be factored in. (In the
UK , Weight Watchers advertises under the slogan "Where no food is a sin"; this is a reference to its chief competitor
Slimming World 's system of giving some food "sin" values.) Others, however, dislike the record-keeping that the plan imposes on the participant, who must essentially keep track of the points value of everything they eat; they prefer other plans that place restrictions on types of food rather than amounts of food.
The formula for calculating the POINTS content of a specific food serving uses a formula described in US
Patent 6,040,531:
:
Where ''p'' is the number of points, ''c'' is the number of
Calorie s, ''f'' is the grams of
Fat , and ''r'' is the grams of
Dietary Fibre (if the dietary fibre is greater than four, use four).
In part as a response to the popularity of plans like Atkins and South Beach, Weight Watchers has recently developed a separate plan, known as the Core Plan. This plan classifies certain types of food as "core," and permits participants to eat core foods with the restriction that they should only eat these foods "until satisfied, not full." Core foods are a list of healthy foods from all the food groups, including fruits, vegetables, fat free dairy, lean meats, and whole grains. Non-core foods are assigned the usual point values, and participants are given an allottment of 35 non-core points that they can eat in a week.
==
link title on weight) that can be used or not used during the week.
In August of 2004 the TurnAround Program (a registered trademark) was introduced which not only incorporated the Points and Core food plans but is intended to assist people with developing an overall healthy lifestyle. The program includes healthy food intake but also includes following 8 Good Health Guidelines, activity and member support. It is through all of the aspects of the program that members are able to not only reach their weight loss goals but to make permanent changes to support lifetime weight management.
From
1978 until
1999 , the Weight Watchers company was owned by the
H. J. Heinz Company , which continues to produce packaged foods bearing the Weight Watchers brand name (and with points values clearly identified). Weight Watchers was acquired in a
Leveraged Buyout in 1999 and
Went Public in
2001 .
Current members of the
Board Of Directors of Weight Watchers are: Philippe Amouyal, John Bard, Raymond Debbane, Marsha Evans, Jonas Fajgenbaum, Linda Huett, Sacha Lainovic, Sam K. Reed, and Christopher Sobecki.
