Weight Watchers - support at last

by Danny
(Ireland)

I started Weight Watchers as a young man. I started out at 18 stone (252 pounds, 114 kgs) when I was 17, turning 18.

I'm sure you can imagine and some of you know what it's like to be that young, still in school and being so overweight.

I tried a few diets and they worked to a degree, for a while anyway. The real problem was my will power. I couldn't last and always faltered, starting back with a snack as a reward.

I was recommended weight watchers by my doctor.

As a young man I was quite embarrassed about joining weight watchers and going to meetings etc. as I had always just associated it with women. I was very surprised to see how many men were actually in the same boat as myself so although the other ladies there were a big support seeing other men doing the same took away the anxiety.

The calorie counting was a big eye-opener for me, I had always just assumed the bigger the meal the more calories and not realizing that my snacks were a lot worse for me than my meals.

Although I've lost the weight I needed I'm still a member and still working on keeping off the weight. Funny as it may sound I suppose it's like being an alcoholic in that I'm no longer eating unhealthily but I always need to keep a watch on it.

Weight watchers is more than a diet to me, it's a real support and community, a network of people just like me. I don't know where I'd be today without it.

Note from Dr. Dan

Danny,

You bring up some really great points.

Counting calories can be a real eye opener. Most overweight people say, "But I don't eat that much." And yet they don't really know what they are eating.

Counting calories does a couple of things. It helps the person actually face things that they'd rather not look at. And it can be quite a realization when you see what you are actually eating.

And you don't have to count calories forever. Once you get an idea of what you are eating your judgement about food is better and you probably don't need to be strict about the counting.

Dr. Dan