What is the WW Diet Plan?

The WW (formerly Weight Watchers) diet plan tries to promote healthy living by encouraging its dieters to make better food choices and to exercise more. They use a points system (SmartPoints) for food and have three different methods for how to follow the program. The WW program also has an app you can use on your phone that helps you track your activity and food intake, as well as personal diet coach suggestions.

How Do You Implement the WW Diet Plan?

The WW diet has three different color guides (blue, green, and purple) that help guide you toward your health goals. Each plan has a different number of SmartPoints allowed per day, along with a number of ZeroPoints foods which cost none of your SmartPoints.

ZeroPoint foods are those that you don’t have to track or worry about consuming too many of them. The ZeroPoint foods differ in each of the three programs, hence why having the app can make your life easier to figure out which foods are your ZeroPoint foods.

SmartPoints can be spent on food that are not on your ZeroPoint food list. The SmartPoint value of different foods vary depending on the calories, fat, protein, and sugar content of the food. For example, a regular Snickers bar costs 7 SmartPoints. A ground beef hamburger patty (3 oz.) is 5 SmartPoints, though that T-bone steak (3 oz.) will cost you 7 SmartPoints. A tablespoon of hummus will cost you 2 SmartPoints.

So long as you stay within your daily SmartPoints budget, no foods are prohibited which makes the WW diet plan appealing to many people.

The Green Plan

The Green Plan offers the smallest list of ZeroPoint foods and the largest daily points budget with a minium of 30 SmartPoints. ZeroPoint foods on this program include over 100 fruits and vegetables including apples, onions, bananas, cauliflower, pineapples, zucchini, and many more.

The Blue Plan

The Blue Plan (also known as the Freestyle Plan) offers more ZeroPoint foods than the Green Program but fewer than the Purple Program. The minimum daily SmartPoints program is 23 points. The list of ZeroPoint foods is over 200 items and includes eggs, beans, shellfish, guava, limes, pickles, non-fat yogurt, and many more.

The Purple Plan

The Purple Plan has a daily SmartPoint allowance of at least 16 points and a 300+ food list of ZeroPoint foods. It has the largest list of ZeroPoint foods but the smallest amount of SmartPoints. Some of the ZeroPoint foods on the Purple Plan include potatoes, fish, legumes, whole wheat pasta, air-popped popcorn, sweet potatoes, and string beans.

How Much Does the WW Diet Plan Cost?

WW offers a number of different payment plans depending on what you’re looking for. In-shop costs may be an additional charge, however, and vary based on your location. The following are the digital costs for the app.

• Weekly: $4.61
• 1 Month: $19.95
• 3 Month: $54.84
• 6 Month: $119.70

Note that if you cancel early, you’ll be charged an extra fee of $39.95.

Pros of the WW Diet Plan

• Tracking Food: If you’re using the app, it’s relatively simple to track your food intake, SmartPoints, which foods are your ZeroPoint foods, how many SmartPoints you have rolled over from the previous day or week, etc.
• No Prohibited Food: No food is prohibited on the WW diet plan, so long as you stay within your SmartPoints allowance. This is appealing to a number of people who say that they cannot give up a certain food.

Cons of the WW Diet Plan

• Cost: The WW diet plan requires a subscription that, while not overly costly, does require weekly, monthly, or yearly payments. In-person or in-shop meetings are an additional charge.
• Complications: If you aren’t willing to pay for the app or go to an in-store meeting, it may be difficult to constantly be manually checking to see how many SmartPoints a food item is or which ZeroPoint foods are available on your plan. You may also have to manually keep a list of how many SmartPoints you’ve got left for the day or week which may become tedious.

Books on the WW Diet Plan

• Weight Watchers One Pot Cookbook (Weight Watchers Cooking) (Weight Watchers): “With every day so busy, wouldn’t you just love to throw everything in one pot and have dinner ready? With Weight Watchers® One Pot Cookbook, you’ll find 300 super-tasty and healthy one-dish recipes that the whole family will love. These no-fuss recipes are more than just easy—they are healthy and nutritious, as they come from the culinary experts at Weight Watchers.”
• Weight Watchers Slow Cooker Cookbook 2020: The Complete Weight Watchers Cookbook & Mouth-Watering, Easy and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes with WW SmartPoints (Brown): “This book not just gives you a prolog to Weight Watchers, additionally goes top to bottom to make you comprehend the new Weight Watchers focuses framework, SMART POINTS and how it’s not the same as Point Plus. You will receive some easy and simple recipes here which you can cook for your family and yourself while not worrying about anything else as they are slow cookers! The recipes are for both vegans and non-vegetarians who like to relax and cook for a pleasurable meal.”
• Weight Watchers Freestyle Cookbook #2020: The Complete WW Freestyle Recipe Cookbook – with 200 Delicious & Healthy SmartPoint Recipes- 30 Day Easy Meal Plan (Cook): “Martin Cook brings together the newest and latest Weight Watchers Freestyle Recipes for rapid weight loss and better lifestyle. This program will help you save time, healthy lifestyle and lose weight permanently with many Zero Points recipes.”
• The Guilt Free Gourmet Cookbook Volume 1: Low Calorie and Point Cooking Guide for the WW Green, Blue & Purple programs (Guilt Free Gourmet Cookbooks) (Hallak): “The ultimate low calorie and point resource, for Weight Watchers members. This cooking guide is filled with cooking tips, ingredient suggestions and basic recipes that will help you succeed on the Weight Watchers (WW) myWW plan. Rather than throwing a giant book of recipes at you, this guide TEACHES YOU how to modify your meals yourself through in-depth guided tutorials and recipes, with detailed step by step instructions, using over 390 color images.”

Evidence-Based Studies on the WW Diet Plan

• Good Short Term Weight Loss: “WWO produced significantly more weight loss at 3 months relative to Control, but not at 12 months” (Thomas et al., 2017).
• Overall Weight Loss: The average weight loss for participants on the WW diet in a weight loss study was 10.8 lbs. “For each diet, decreasing levels of total/HDL cholesterol, C-reactive protein, and insulin were significantly associated with weight loss” (Dansinger et al., 2005).
• Weight Loss at One Year: “At 12 months, Weight Watchers participants achieved at least 2.6% greater weight loss than those assigned to control/education” (Gudzune et al., 2015).