Weight Watchers Points Plus

Weight Watchers have overhauled their points system and come up with a completely new program - called Points Plus (or Pro Points in the UK).

The previous Points formula (started in 1997) took into account Calories, Fiber grams and Fat grams. The PointsPlus formula uses Protein, Carbohydrate, Fiber, and Fat grams.

Weight Watchers have spent a number of years testing the new program (at the Medical University of South Carolina among other places). According to Weight Watchers the trials resulted in "an improvement in behaviors that help people maintain weight loss and a reduction in the desire to eat when there's no physical hunger or need for food." (src).

Critics of the previous Points formula claimed that it did not accurately differentiate between more nutritionally dense foods, and "empty calories". This is due to the heavy weighting of Calories over other nutrient measures.

When we have a 100-calorie apple in one hand and a 100-calorie pack of cookies in the other, and we view them as being "the same" because the calories are the same, it says everything that needs to be said about the limitations of just using calories in guiding food choices.

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