Former Fat Guy Blog

Real People Real Results - Understanding how food, fitness and mental attitude affect weight loss

Poll: Does Weight Watchers Really Work?

I’m wondering if Weight Watchers actually works, if it teaches health or just portion control. Weight Watchers was my first experience with dieting and I went as early as grade 5. I was 175 pounds at the time and my mother thought that I shouldn’t be so heavy. She first took me to the doctor who told her that I would “grow into it” as I got older. She didn’t think that was the right answer and so we joined Weight Watchers together.

[UPDATED: see my note and link at the bottom]

I barely remember the food program as my mom handled that part, but I did go to the weekly weight ins. I remember taking more and more pieces of clothing off each time we went in, and even began removing my keys, my wallet, my belt, shoes and socks to get that extra quarter pound.

I know little of Weight Watchers now, but I’ve heard that it’s mostly about portion control and little about health. I admit, I do not know their current program, so I want to ask the question. Does Weight Watchers work? are you currently following the program and are you getting results. More importantly, are you learning anything about health and nutrition, or just about portion control.
does weight watchers really work
It’s my belief, and the basis of what I teach my clients, that a successful program should educate the user about health principles that they can take with them wherever they go. I believe that it’s more important to fully understand how digestion works, how to support the colon and manage blood sugar as well as making nutrient dense foods the primary focus of your meals.

So what about Weight Watchers? I know it teaches portion control, but what else? If you’re following the program, are you happy with the results and if you’re a former member of Weight Watchers, why? Did you lose weight and leave the program or get pissed off at them?

In the poll below, please choose any and all answers that apply to help myself and others understand.

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If there is more to Weight Watchers, either good or bad that I’ve not included in the poll options, please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Update: I have a few friends and clients who use weight watchers for support and accountability where they are in the world. They’ve been filling me in on some of their experiences.

First: have a read of and the psychological impact the scale has, when weight watchers clients are exercising and gaining muscle weight.

Second: I just learned some alarming things about the beverages weight watchers recommends. I’ll be writing a post on that soon.

Poll: When Do You Find Time For Exercise?

Exercise can be done nearly any time of day. Morning Cardio or weight training can be done before work, on an empty stomach to burn more fat, or if you’re especially rushed, can be done over a lunch hour while at work. Popular gym times are also in the early evenings before supper as people working out are on their way home for the day. Then there are the evening trainers who get to their workouts after supper because it’s the only time they have left.

Stay at home moms find a way to fit exercise into their busy schedule in their basement, front room or improvise a workout at the park while the kids play on the jungle gym.

I’ve always said that there is no wrong time to train, just better times. Never exercise on a full stomach because your body is busy digesting and try not to exercise before bed because the body wants to settle down for the evening.

Everyone is different, we all have our reasons for training when we do. It fits into our schedule, it’s easier, or we have to get it done before the end of the day to support our goals.

I’m curious:

[poll=10]

as always, leave a comment with your thoughts about the best time to train or anything else.

Would You Buy An Electric Car

Last week, Scott Bird’s article on showed the advantages and disadvantages of electric cars. The first comment on the post was from a fellow who owns a ZAP and pointed out that a few of the cars on Scott’s list aren’t commercially available yet.

It got me thinking about what the consensus is about the viability of electric cars. Would you own one? The price of oil cracked $100 recently, then fell back to the mid $90’s and environmentalism is becoming more of the “in” thing.
how often do you eat salad
There’s still some minor drawbacks of course such as re-fueling them, their speed and range, but overall, if you live in a decent sized city, an electric car might just fit the bill.

It brings me to this weeks poll

[poll=9]

How Often Do You Eat Salad : Poll

Dark leafy greens have the highest nutrition density scores based on identified phytochemicals, antioxidant activity and total vitamin and mineral content. We should be eating dark leafy greens with each meal or at least a few times per day for optimum health.

According the Dr Joel Fuhrman, author of Eat to Live, Raw leafy green vegetables such as dark green salad mix, romaine lettuce, kale, collards, dandelion greens, mustard greens, spinach, Swiss chard, parsley and daikon greens fit the bill, with solid green vegetables being second highest on the chart.
how often do you eat salad
Now, knowing that, do you eat them on a daily basis?

Would you know Kale if you saw it on your plate?

Or do you even eat vegetables at all?

It’s a good question and the source of this week’s poll.

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Taking vegetarianism out of the picture for a moment. If you choose to eat meat (I do, on occasion), does this mean that you forgo including an abundance of dark leafy greens or other vegetables? or do you round out your meat consumption with high fiber vegetables and the nutrient dense vegetables as suggested above?

I’m curious.

Can You Be Fat And Happy? Is Weight Loss Related to Confidence Or Happiness?

Can you be fat and happy, or is obesity and weight gain related to poor self confidence, attitude and being unhappy? Do you find that when you’re in a good mood, your confident and successful that you lose weight easily and effortlessly?

This is a completely subjective question of course. People can be rich and successful in the eyes of others but still have a good amount of weight to lose.

Your thoughts?

A simple question on weight loss and happiness being related

[poll=7]

Inspiration


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Determination


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Satisfaction


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