Sport & Fitness

WeightWatchers
This UK stalwart has been around since the ’60s and has a million members at any one time. Over the past decade, members have collectively lost 122 million stone.

The WeightWatchers philosophy is one many Britons feel most comfortable and familiar with. It’s simple enough: if you’re big, and don’t want to be, you’ve got to stop stuffing your face. It’s all about dieting. But it’s an approach that’s in danger of looking outdated. For the uninitiated, the group weigh-ins sound like public shaming: ‘Ooh, Pam, you seem to have gained two pounds this week. And you were doing so well…’ What’s more, as women who have lost a lot of weight quickly can testify, it’s no good weighing less if you’ve got untoned bingo wings swinging in the breeze. More importantly, recent studies have shown that, without exercise, fat can accumulate internally around your organs even if you look slim on the outside.
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These days WeightWatchers does encourage its members to exercise more, and provides nutritional information and healthy recipes. You can now opt for a Core Plan diet that allows you to eat freely from a list of healthy foods. Weigh-ins turn out to be very encouraging: no one is going to shout your weight out. (This is similar to the other UK weight-loss ’60s veteran, Slimming World , which also operates an eating plan with no ‘obligatory’ exercise programme).

In addition to the Core Plan, Weight Watchers still practises the original ‘points’ system most people have heard of (both diets are also available to follow online). With this, you’re allowed to eat any food as long you don’t exceed your points allowance, which is determined by your height, weight and other factors. The system is well-known and well-loved, with its own food range widely available in supermarkets. A brilliantly comprehensive points book lists all the everyday branded items that most people actually buy. It might be better to eat organic chickpeas, but isn’t it more useful to tell most people how many points (or calories) are in a tin of baked beans?

Women who’ve tried the points diet like it because you can eat the same food (just far less of it) and it’s possible to ‘cheat’. In theory, you can save up your daily points allowance by starving all day and then blow the lot on chocolate cake and booze in the evening. Brilliant.

WeightWatchers (0845 345 1500/www.weightwatchers.co.uk).

Joining fee? £9 (free until February 10), plus weekly meetings costing £4.95.
Pounds lost in three months? Sticking to government guidelines for sustainable weight loss, members aim to lose one to two pounds a week. So, 12 to 24 pounds over three months (if you have that much to lose).
Good for Those who benefit from group support. No tricky-to-find or expensive ingredients to buy either.