I hate weight watchers and as a personal trainer I have seen many a victim of its folly. There you go, I said and used the dirty ‘h’ word, but it is true. In fact nothing turns my stomach more than seeing another points chart, low-fat cereal bar and neurotic, moody woman so pre-occupied with her points tally that she has forgotten to eat that day.
It stinks for weight loss and only this week I read that weight watchers now supports a common fast food chain placing it points system on the menu of burgers and fries.
Give me a break.
If you are looking to lose fat then go ahead, try weight watchers. I guarantee this. You WILL fail and equally IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT.
I mean what is it with this ‘walk of shame’ up to the scales only to be told that you haven’t lost anything.
‘Naughty You’
Immediately your guilt trip surmounts, cortisol levels rise and ironically you turn yourself into a fat storage machine!
How do I know this? Because since I began this profession I have been picking up the pieces. Explaining that the weight you lost that has now been ‘put back on’ was in fact muscle lost as well.
‘You shrunk your engine size by losing fat AND muscle – now it only needs a small amount of energy to run on. Consequently any more surplus energy you put into the engine will be stored as fat’
Your weight will go back on because you become obsessed with just that – weight. No emphasis on your health or even how much fat (which is toxic) you are losing.
Weight watchers is nothing more than a money-making machine with a ‘walk of shame’ to spur you into ‘keeping up with the rest of the group’.
Each week you learn that ‘fat is the enemy’ hence the plethora of pricely sugar-laden cereal bars and desserts that they have to offer and ‘low fat’ is good and that ‘your points budget is sacred’. Lets have a look at this a little closer.
Firstly, before you read this you may want to grab another one of those weight watcher’s brownies – 60 calories and no fat. Are you kidding me? They are 60 caloreies because there is nothing to them! They are dead food. In fact I would hasten a bet that a) they are just fuelling your sugar cravings and b) the body uses more energy trying to get rid of the toxins in the food than it actually provides you.
A points system breeds problems with your nutrition and lifestyle. By providing you with a budget or an allowance for the day you are setting yourself up for disaster.
Classic scenario is this – overweight Weight Watcher hastily wakes and skips breakfast knowing that lunch with work will HAVE to include a dessert and a few glasses of wine. Having done exactly that (notice how your thoughts inevitably become a reality???), you decide not to eat your dinner either, or just much away on a cup of tea and WW biscuit at only 0.25 points. Your water intake for the day has been at an all time low too – only 1 litre for the day. You activity for the day has been that of a sloth moving from car to office from office to home.
Can you see how ludicrous this is?
The individual is skipping breakfast and as we all know if you do this regularly you will make time for ill-health. Equally, skipping meals turns you into a fat storage machine. A point system also avoids the whole issue of QUALITY of food over QUANTITY OF FOOD.
This situation continues. Invariably, from looking at people’s food diaries for years, the weight loss comes quickly from this. You are literally starving yourself to death.
In fact studies have shown that those individuals who yo-yo diet, DIE EARLY. The reason being is that fat is a great storage place for all the toxins that have built up inside you from your environment and food and drink choices.
When you decide to lose weight over burning fat, you shuttle these toxic elements out of your fat stores into your blood streams allowing to wreak havoc elsewhere in your body – namely round your vital organs.
There is no where for this garbage of life to go if you decide to just lose the weight. So, when you stop your weight loss programme you pile the weight back on.
It is a vicious circle.
You need to emphasise fat loss. That way everything becomes metabolised and removed from the body in a safe and effective way. You burn fat and along with it the junk that it has been holding onto.
The most effective ways of doing this is to stop counting points and clean up your nutrition and lifestlye without becoming fanatical about it. Care about your food source, sweat every day, build muscle through resistance training
John Lark is a personal trainer in maynooth.
Go to yourhealthcamp.com to register your interest in his new line of health and fitness bootcamps in maynooth, kilcock, celbridge and leixlip
Disclaimer – Note this is opinion. If you are a member of weight watchers then awesome! Congratulations for taking action which we all know is the way forward. If you need help then drop me a line.
