to be sad that so many people still fall for weight watchers food

[alittlethyme]

Its such a con, its not any healthier its just smaller packets for most of it. people would save money if they just bought normal stuff and ate half of it. Although saying that calorie restriction very very rarely works long termterm. Its all designed to make people fail, if it was any good they'd put themselves out of business.

Personally I love their frozen ready meals, especially the salmon and broccoli one. I buy it because I like it, not because I'm trying to lose weight. My mother loves their chicken casserole one, she's 78 not dieting just enjoying a quick and easy lunch.

Low success rate long term I mean.

Sorry alittlethyme I know you are not talking about the clubs but the food is probably promoted at those clubs.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23463006

Keeping the weight off seems to be the big issue.

A 2007 study by Weight Watchers, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, looked at the success of their programme over five years. Dr Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine at Oxford University, has analysed these figures.

"What it shows is that [after] two years… about 20% of them maintain their goal weight. By five years that goes down to 16%," says Heneghan. "So basically you pick the best people, the lifelong members and actually even they struggle, with the majority of people not obtaining their long-term goal weight. After 40 years of them when are people going to wake up and say this is not the answer?"

I have bought ww food in the past. No, I was not being conned. Please don't patronise me. I am able to read food labels and can make an informed choice accordingly.

It's not 'sad', different people manage their diets differently.

I lost 5 stone with weightwatchers and will be going back after the birth of the twins. It's the only thing that worked for me.
I didn't eat their ready meals/ snacks as they give you the tools to work out the points of "normal" food, which in my mind, makes it more likely that you'll stick with the plan. So don't be sad. Really.

I personally think most people with weight problems would benefit from figuring out why they have problems with food (as I am trying to) rather than joining any slimming clubs, which generally have a very low success rate.

It's nice that you care.

I agree with that. I have food problems and the only thing that has worked is reprogramming me. Having smaller portions of junk food might work in the short term, but can't see it doing any good long term.

Quite a lot of 'diet' food is a con. The slimming version of a well-known brand has half the calories and costs a bit more than the usual version. Then take a look at the weight in the packet. Half the weight. It only has half the calories because there's only half as much. They are doubling their profit by labelling it as a diet version.

You have another thread saying davinas sugar free programme is also a con!

Awwww don't be sad go cheer your self up with a suck on a low fat sugar free bit of dust x

I'm curious greyhound do you know if any weight loss programmes have better results, my (unscientific) observations are that nearly everyone who loses weight, be that by following 'diet' programmes or through less faddish healthy eating and exercise lifestyle changes regains the weight. Are those Weight Watchers figures as good as it gets and that the whole diet/health industry is the triumph of hope over experience?

According to some people buying skimmed milk is the same as buying diet food
Have not done ww, but lost 6 stone with sw, I do tend cook food from scratch but not always and barring a few slips over the years I have maintained my loss.
Without doubt the loss was achieved through calorie restriction and later by including regular exercise.
Fact - if you have excess weight it is because you have been eating more cals than you use. Extra cals are turned into fat stores. To get rid of fat you need to either eat less so you use your fat stores, by increasing activity levels you will increase how much fat you burn from those stores.
To keep it off you have to only eat what your body needs to maintain the weight you want to be. To achieve yes it maybe necessary to assess why you ate to excess and change this factor.
Yabu to say calorie restriction does not work.

YANBU OP. Picking a toffee cheese cake at random, there's dozens of ingredients, many of them WTF.

Anyone who reads the ingredients and actually eats the product while claiming to get making an informed choice is at best delusional.

One thing I would add is my initial weightless was 15 yrs ago, at various points I I have gained weight but never the original amount - the most was 1 1/2 stone over a period four years - very gradual. Importantly I am healthier than I would have been if I had never lost any of this excess weight. I am currently 4 pound from my original target weight (Christmas!!) and this will be gone by the end of February.
I can't believe I am the only success story out there...

I lost 5 stone on biwi low carbing threads a few years ago. Also got into exercise ( running) another MN thread.... C25k

Kept it off by still doing not of above but instead of staying low carb I'm paleo/clean eating. In other words, incorporating fruit and legumes. Lost another half stone

Running London marathon in a few months! Who's have thought! Not me...

Surely that goes for any sort of ready meal and snack foods? I'm pretty sure the majority of people realise that they are paying over the odds for something convenient- quick and easy to cook/ prepare and with the points value clearly displayed. We pay more every day for takeaway foods and pre-made cakes, it's cheaper and healthier to make everything ourselves from scratch but we pay more and sacrifice a few health benefits for convenience.

If anyone has used the points system with WW they don't make it difficult work out that their foods may have the same point value as an "ordinary" item.

NUME from Morrisons is cheaper and has all their items marked with WW points value, if anyone is interested.

Lol, I've just remembered how I used to eat a low fat weightwatchers yoghurt every single day when I was losing weight a few years ago (nearly 5 stones) .
Don't be sad for me, OP.

Water, Skimmed Milk Soft Cheese (21%), Toffee Sauce (12%, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Invert Sugar Syrup, Condensed Skimmed Milk, Sugar, Water, Butter (Milk), Salt, Stabiliser - Pectin, Preservative - Potassium Sorbate, Flavouring), Digestive Biscuit (10%, Wheat Flour (contains Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Sugar, Wholemeal Wheat Flour, Palm Oil, Partially Inverted Sugar, Syrup, Raising Agents - Sodium Carbonates, Tartaric Acid, Emulsifier - Mono and Diacetyl Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, Salt), Brown Sugar, Sugar, Fructose Syrup, Inulin, Yogurt (Milk), Skimmed Milk Powder, Wheat Flour (contains Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Decoration (Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Whole Milk Powder, Whey Powder (Milk), Cocoa Mass, Emulsifier - Soya Lecithin, Flavouring, Colour - Paprika Extract), Maltodextrin, Margarine (Rapeseed Oil, Palm Oil, Water, Emulsifier - Mono and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Modified Potato Starch, Glucose Syrup, Whipping Cream (Milk), Palm Oil, Glucose Powder, Milk Proteins, Modified Maize Starch, Whey Powder (Milk), Pork Gelatine, Emulsifiers and Stabilisers - Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, Locust Bean Gum, Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Flavourings

Which ingredients on there is it that you take issue with, Ilkley? It doesn't look very nice, with all those thickeners, but everything on there is something I recognise, and the list is long because they've expanded out the ingredients of things like vitamin-fortified flour, margarine, and toffee sauce. I wouldn't eat it but I wouldn't say anyone who does is delusional.

just gone through that list and there are nine different types of sugar in one product am so glad im a skinny and dont have to even check meals or treats like this

Thanks for posting the list Fail, I was on ipad and couldn't work out how to just post the ingredients.

I just believe in eating real food made with real ingredients and would rather have a slither of cheesecake made with cheese, sugar, biscuits etc rather than a factory made product containing things like:

Emulsifier - Mono and Diacetyl Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids
Margarine (Rapeseed Oil, Palm Oil, Water, Emulsifier - Mono and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids),
Modified Potato Starch
Palm Oil,
Pork Gelatine,
Emulsifiers and Stabilisers - Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, Locust Bean Gum, Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Flavourings

Although I suppose you are going to tell me that these are all the chemical names for lemon juice .

And anyway, it's excesses sugar and processed carbohydrates that are mostly responsible for making people fat rather than fat itself, so the idea of removing fat and replacing it with Nine Different Types of sugar is rather unhelpful.

I loathe the whole diet industry to be honest.

It's not the only industry to make money from people's misery and insecurity but my God it is a powerful and misleading industry.

Thankfully it's not all that difficult to educate yourself these days and when I decided to seriously tackle my weight / eating habits I was able to do so in a healthy and sustainable way.

Swapping a full fat ready meal for a low fat ready meal is not solving anything is it?

Low fat/low calorie foods are equally as bad, so not sure why you've picked on Weight Watchers. I used to buy lower cal crisps and quickly twigged that the reason they were lower calorie was because half the bag was blimmin' air!

YABU with your patronising 'feeling sad'. It's good that people are making an effort to address their weight issues.

The biscuits in the cheese, sugar, biscuits cheesecake will be just as likely to have many of the same ingredients, unless of course you're planning to make your own biscuits in order to make this single sliver of homemade cheesecake.

Sugar appears multiple times on their ingredients because there's sugar in the digestives they've used, sugar in the toffee sauce, sugar in the decorative squiggle, and sugar mixed in with the cheesesque substance they've used.

I'm sure you already know what gelatine is

As I said I wouldn't eat it - it looks a bit manky, and I would prefer full fat tasty cheesecake to thickened, gelatinized cheesecake (not that I eat desserts as I'm a diabetic), but it's very rude to say that anyone who thinks they're taking an informed decision to eat it is deluded. Nothing on the list is poison.

I just believe in eating real food made with real ingredients and would rather have a slither of cheesecake made with cheese, sugar, biscuits etc

But that's comparing apples and oranges - a full fat cheesecake bought from a shop (with 272 calories compared to the 185 that the one you linked to) contains:

Cheesecake Filling (49%), Strawberry Compote (30%), Digestive Biscuit Crumb Base (21%), Cheesecake Filling contains: Full Fat Soft Cheese (Milk), Sugar, Water, Greek Style Natural Yogurt (Milk), Palm Oil, Cornflour, Whey Powder (Milk), Dried Egg Yolk, Emulsifier (Mono- and Di-Glycerides of Fatty Acids), Citrus Fibre, Acidity Regulator (Lactic Acid), Strawberry Compote contains: Water, Strawberry, Sugar, Strawberry Purée, Rice Starch, Concentrated Lemon Juice, Flavouring, Colour (Anthocyanins), Digestive Biscuit Crumb Base contains: Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Sugar, Palm Oil, Rapeseed Oil, Demerara Sugar, Invert Sugar Syrup, Water, Dried Skimmed Milk, Raising Agents (Sodium Bicarbonate, Ammonium Bicarbonate).

NB Many of these ingredients would be present in a home-made cheesecake unless you make your own cream cheese and digestives. These include: Locust bean gum, stabilisers, palm oil, Malic Acid, Ammonium Bicarbonate, Dried Skimmed Milk etc.

Anything which has been processed will contain these kind of ingredients, not just Weightwatchers or low-fat ones. I don't think anyone is suggesting that pre-prepared diet food is as nutritionally beneficial as a plate of steamed veg, but if you want a ready meal then why would a WW one be 'worse' than a full-fat equivalent?

I can't truly believe this makes anyone sad, other than in the way you tilt your head and say "oh that's so sad" in a terribly patronising 'I'm smarter than you' tone of voice.

If someone wants to buy WW food and drink, just let them. It's no one else's business and certainly not something anyone needs to trouble themselves feeling sad about (if they really do).

I lost 4 stone doing weight watchers a few years ago and have not regained that.

When you do WW, they don't promote ready meals. They promote eating lots of veg and protein and cooking from scratch. WW ready meals are there for times when you'd have a ready meal- for convenience, when you're in a rush, when you can't be bothered.

I don't see how that's hard to understand. Fat people aren't thick you see, they understand ingredients lists too.

I can't truly believe this makes anyone sad, other than in the way you tilt your head and say "oh that's so sad" in a terribly patronising 'I'm smarter than you' tone of voice.

If someone wants to buy WW food and drink, just let them. It's no one else's business and certainly not something anyone needs to trouble themselves feeling sad about (if they really do).

Exactly!