Weight Watchers Points

The Flex Plan (From Wikipedia)

Under this plan, participants are assigned a set number of Points they are allowed to consume per day based on their gender, height, current weight, age and how active they are. The number of Points allowed may be increased with sufficient exercise, as in the Core Plan. Participants are given an allotment of 35 "flex" Points, that they may use above and beyond the per-day Points, that can be eaten at any time during the week.

The Flex plan is, in essence, a simple way to quantify and track a participant's calorie 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 day, with that number based on the individual's current weight.

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 he offsets them with exercise, or eat fewer points if he prefers not to exercise.

Many Weight Watchers proponents enjoy the Flex Plan 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 Weight Watchers Core plan, or other plans that place restrictions on types of food rather than amounts of food.Read the rest...