Weight Watchers PointsPlus Unveiled

For 13 years, the essential principle of the Weight Watchers plan has been "calories in, calories out" -- using a slide rule or online tools to calculate how many "points" any given food or beverage contains based on calories, fat and fiber allowed dieters to stay within a daily points goal to control their calorie intake and lose weight.

Now, Weight Watchers has announced that their new PointsPlus System will take into account foods' overall nutrition, helping members to create a diet with a healthy balance of protein, carbohydrates, healthy fat and fiber. The message will help dieters understand that using their points on a nutrient-rich food is a better choice than using the same number of points on something not-so-nutritious. The new plan also takes into account how hard the body has to work in order to use the energy from a given food and there remains a focus on choosing filling foods over those that leave you hungry sooner rather than later.

I have often spoken highly of Weight Watchers and am excited to learn more about the changes. I must admit that I'm one of those "change is scary" people, and I really liked the Points version, but I think it will prove to be a good change.

For me, the best part I've heard -- so far -- is that most fruits and vegetables are going to count as zero points! I think this will be excellent news for those find any diet tough to stick to due to hunger pangs -- they'll be able to reach for fruit and most veggies any time to curb their appetite and stay on track on the new plan.

If you currently attend Weight Watchers meetings or follow the program online, what do you think of the changes?

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