What's Up with Weight Watchers?

I’ve been intrigued by the new Weight Watchers advertisements. Have you seen them? They now say that diets are bad and it is better to enjoy eating and to change our relationship with food. I couldn’t agree more.

They have adopted a new tag line, Stop Dieting, Start Living which comes right out off the website of Dr. Michelle May, author of Am I Hungry?, who espouses the same non-dieting, intuitive eating and healthy living concepts that I write and talk about. It is great to hear that Weight Watchers, the icon of dieting, now agrees and publicly promotes a change in thinking.

In one ad headline the company boldly states “Diets are Mean” and the subtext says “Weight Watchers isn’t a diet.” In another ad they say, “Diets take away the things we love, then make us hate ourselves for loving them. Weight Watchers teaches you to replace deprivation with moderation, so you can finally learn how to lose weight and keep it off. And then love yourself like crazy for it.” They are absolutely right, but do they back up what they are saying?

If Weight Watchers wanted to really help people stop dieting and start living, they would eliminate the weigh ins and the plans all together. Instead they would teach people to listen to their hunger signals for portion control, learn how it feels when they eat different types of foods in order to discover that healthier foods feels better, and encourage self acceptance at any size.

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