Pro vs Smart Points
Early in 2016 Weight Watchers (WW) changed their programme from Pro Points to Smart Points and there was a lot of debate as to whether we liked it or not. I was in favour of the change yet my sugar loving Weight Watcher buddy Judith was not. The general gist of the change was foods that were high in protein were given a lower number of points and foods that were high in sugar content were given a higher number of points. I know exactly why Judith wasn’t a fan. If you liked your little sugary snacks in the day you were going to have to plan your food carefully to be able to still squeeze them into your daily allowance. An example of the change is a Curly Wurly, this was always a winner on WW because it was only 3 points. On the new system it’s 6. But I totally get it. The new WW plan has been written to encourage lower sugar intake and higher protein intake. I fully embraced it and saw it as an opportunity to get a few more pounds off by trying this new ‘recipe for success.’
If you have kids that go to school or have watched mainstream TV with adverts you’ll have seen the Sugar Smart ads and know there’s an app to show you just how much sugar is (sometimes hidden) in products. My little boy had great fun with the app scanning the barcodes of food items in the cupboard. It was only when he discovered how many sugar cubes are in a bottle of tomato sauce (his absolute favourite thing) that he lost momentum. Haha! We also have a great visual display in our Dentists Surgery that shows how much sugar is in fizzy drinks. Horrifying, Enough to make you think twice before pulling that ring pull.
They say that sugar goes straight to your midriff. Who are ‘They’ and is this true or just an urban myth? Not sure. However, I can say I had immediate renewed success when WW shifted over to Smart Points with a 3 pound loss in the first week. This is a big loss when you’re already at goal weight so the results were clear to me. It works!
The new system gives me 30 daily points and 49 weekly extra points so I guess you do have a few more to play with than on Pro Points if you are still partial to a sugary snack. The secret to success is plan plan plan. If you’d like to see how I spread out my Smart Points, click here to see a typical weekly meal plan.
