Weight Watchers had said that the new program for 2016 was the
“biggest change in 50 years.” All right. Finally some information. The
new Weight Watchers program coming out in December is called Beyond the
Scale
TM by Weight Watchers. While I don’t know all the details there are 3 parts to it that I’ve seen.
First, we will be eating what Weight Watchers has trademarked as SmartPoints
TM and activity will earn us what Weight Watchers is calling FitPoints
TM .
SmartPoints are similar to PointsPlus except they also take into
account sugar and saturated fat. I played around with the calculator a
little bit. I put in a food that was 5 points under PointsPlus and
which is 5 SmartPoints. However, that food has low saturated fat and
sugar. If, for example, I said all of its fat was saturated fat and all
of the carbs were sugar, then the food would be 9 SmartPoints! So,
while I haven’t figured out the formula yet it is clear that saturated
fat and high sugar will really increase the SmartPoints value of the
food.
For me, this probably doesn’t make a whole lot of difference. I
don’t eat beef and my saturated food intake is not all that high. I
also don’t eat a lot of added sugar any more. But, I can imagine that
for some people this will be a huge change. I actually think it is a
great
change. I’ve long felt that one of the downsides of PointsPlus was
that it didn’t do enough to encourage healthy eating and that it
disadvantaged even healthy fats. I think SmartPoints is a real step in
the right direction. And, it is significantly different from just
counting calories since it is a real melding of the concepts of both
eating fewer calories, but making sure what you are eating is a
healthier food choice
The amount of SmartPoints you are given (both daily and weekly) is
based upon a personalized lifestyle assessment. It asked various
questions about activity and the types of food I ate as well as wanting
to know how much weight I wanted to lose. I am on maintenance, but for
this I said I wanted to lose 15 pounds.
The result is that it says my Daily Points are 30 (they are currently
26), and my weekly points are now 28 (down from 49)! I think part of
that is based upon the fact that I said I mostly sit during the day.
This reminds me a bit of the old days when your points range was based
in part on your level of activity. (I don’t know if level of activity
is a factor on how many SmartPoints you are alloted, though). As to how
the daily points equate to calories per point, I can’t tell that yet.
Like I say, for a number of foods I eat there is no difference. But,
for foods that have high sugar and high saturated fats, I think they
will be higher SmartPoints.
The next part is that activity will earn FitPoints. I’m not sure yet
whether this is simply Activity Points with a new name. It was
indicated that we would receive a FitPoints goal but I don’t seem to
have one yet. If I do, I haven’t found it.
The third part of the program is apparently based upon being, well,
happy. That is, if you take care of yourself and are happy, then you do
better in taking care of yourself. What is being done to help with
that is unclear to me.
So, there you have it.
How do I know this?
First, Australian Weight Watchers site has a page talking a little about the new program, entitled “
Are you ready for great change?”
Basically, it said that there are 3 pillars to the program which are
food, fit, and feel. SmartPoints nudge “you toward nutritious foods
that are lower in sugar and saturated fat and higher in protein.”
Then, activity earns FitPoints. The site says you get a weekly FitPoints goal.
The third part is Feel and states that “happier people make healthier
choices.” It says the program will start next week and that an email
will be sent how telling people how to do their personal assessment.
(Note that this is in Australia so the procedure may be different in
other countries).
I also lurked for info on the Weight Watchers UK board where a member
said that their leader had said that fruit was still zero point, but if
placed in a smoothie would be counted.
Now, how did I do the assessment and how am I using the calculator? I set my computer’s date for December 12th.
To do this, I right clicked on the clock and selected adjust
date/time and then set it for Saturday the 12th. I first tried setting
it for 12/6 and that didn’t work. It just called up the calculator we
use now. My Weight Watchers week, though, starts on a Saturday. So the
first Saturday after 12/6 is 12/12 so I set the clock for that. When I
did that and logged in, I got the screen giving me the information
about the program and then it asked me to go through the assessment. I
did that and then got the screen showing my daily and weekly Smart
Points. I then to the calculator and started calculating points.
Lots to be said about the program and my thoughts even at this
point. But, I want to get this information out since I know people are
interested in it. In brief, I love the idea of SmartPoints and how they
are calculated. I love the personalized setting of Weekly Points. I
am not sure yet how FitPoints differ from Activity Points. I think
having a goal for them is a good idea, but not a huge game changer. The
Feel part of the program is something that I agree with (happier …>
healthier choices), but not sure how specific this will be in terms of
what we will do differently.
Is it the biggest change in 50 years? I’m not sure. On the fitness
part, it doesn’t seem like it but there may be stuff I don’t know yet.
On the SmartPoints and how they treat sugar and saturated fat? Maybe.
For some people it will be a huge change. For me, probably not so much
since I already didn’t eat a huge amount of those foods. But, for
someone who does…this will be big. I like it so far.