How I Make Weight Watchers Work for Me

In previous iterations of the Weight Watchers program fruit was never “free”, only most vegetables were free. Fruit being free was a game changer for me because when I wanted to snack, fruit was always an option. I got down to my Weight Watchers goal weight using Smart Points and was cruising along with the program. In December 2017, Weight Watchers unveiled a new program called Freestyle and everything changed.
Freestyle had a larger list of “free” or zero point foods that included things like chicken, turkey, eggs, tofu, beans, lentils, and edamame. The Daily Smart Points dropped to a lower number based on height, weight, gender, and age. Previously I had been allowed 30 Daily Smart Points but now I was down to 23 per day. Given that I don’t eat meat, the “free” foods weren’t that great for me. I found myself eating a lot of eggs which can get old after a while. I’m not a fan of beans (it’s a texture thing) but I loved edamame. I was also a big fan of tofu but didn’t want to eat it every day. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make this new Weight Watchers program work for me.
I tried different things – tried eating within the 23 points and was starving by the end of the day. I tried switching to “Maintenance Mode” where I could pick how many points I wanted to eat in a day and set that to 30. The only problem there was I had to go into the Weight Watchers application and create Points listings for foods that were now deemed zero Points. I finally settled on
morphing the two methods together to make it work for me. Like anything in life, weight loss is about what works for you personally. Anything can be retrofitted to work for you.
How I follow the plan now is I start out the day aiming for 23 Smart Points. If I get through breakfast and lunch only eating foods with Smart Points assigned, i.e. no “free” foods, I can opt to utilize those 7 Points for dinner unless it’s going to be made up of a lot of “free” foods. Basically I track the “free” foods and adjust accordingly so that I utilize what would have been 30 Smart Points under the Beyond the Scale plan. While this may be more complicated than it should be, it’s what helps keep me on track while still enjoying the foods I love.
Below are two daily menu examples of typical foods I eat. These show how I make the program work for me and my regular eating habits using the methods I described above:
“Good” Freestyle Day/”Good” Beyond the Scale Day
Breakfast: 12 Smart Points
Salt Bagel – 8 Smart Points
Chive Cream Cheese – 2 Smart Points
Skim Milk for coffee – 2 Smart Points
Lunch: 3 Smart Points
Cooked Shrimp – 0 Smart Points (BTS: 3 Smart Points)
Cocktail sauce – 1 Smart Point
Dannon Yogurt – 2 Smart Points
Fruit – 0 Smart Points
Snack: 0 Smart Points
Scrambled Eggs – 0 Smart Points (BTS: 4 Smart Points)
Dinner: 8 Smart Points
Homemade Lasagna – 6 Smart Points
Salad with Dressing – 2 Smart Points
Total for the Day: 23 Freestyle Smart Points/30 Beyond the Scale Smart Points
“Bad” Freestyle Day/”Good” Beyond the Scale Day
Breakfast: 12 Smart Points
Salt Bagel – 8 Smart Points
Chive Cream Cheese – 2 Smart Points
Skim Milk for coffee – 2 Smart Points
Lunch: 8 Smart Points
Leftover Lasagna – 6 Smart Points
Yogurt – 2 Smart Points
Fruit – 0 Smart Points
Snack: 3 Smart Points
Low-fat Chips – 3 Smart Points
Salsa – 0 Smart Points
Dinner: 7 Smart Points
Boca Spicy Chik’N Patty – 3 Smart Points
Italian Dressing – 2 Smart Points
Wonton Strips – 2 Smart Points
Salad – 0 Smart Points
Total: 30 Freestyle Smart Points (23 Daily + 7 Weekly)/30 Beyond the Scale Smart Points
You might be asking why I do it this way, why not just do the maintenance method workaround I talked about above. I tried that but it was a mindset thing for me. I don’t consider myself in Maintenance so I didn’t want to “mark” myself as Maintenance even though I only do Weight Watchers Online. For me it’s all part of the little games I play in my own head to make it work. It may sound silly but given how important mindset is to this process, it’s the method that works for me. You may find that another way works best for you – that’s okay. Your weight loss journey is yours alone and you should do whatever it takes to make a program work for you.