Weight Watchers Online Reviews | free online weight watchers
Weight
Watchers Online is one of the most respected names in the weight loss industry.
Unfortunately, the more basic tools provided by their nutrition therapy service
pales in comparison to some of our higher-ranked products. Weight WatchersOnline does not offer custom meal plans, shopping lists or exercise programs.
They do encourage exercise however; their online program only provides a few
tips and articles about exercise programs and regimens.
The focus
of this popular program has always been food related, like eating better and
staying full longer. They are traditionally known for the “point system.” Each
food is assigned a point designation and your job is to only eat your allotted
points.
Their
online program includes thousands of recipes, meal ideas, a meal tracker, dining
out guide and more. Although they give you the freedom to make your own
nutritional choices, we would like to see an option for them to customize a
meal plan for you. To some dieters having something that tells you what to eat
and when is easier. The Weight Watchers program highly encourages all members
to exercise. The Fitness and Health section provides tips, stories and news
about fitness and working out. It helps you understand the importance of
fitness, but they do not help you create custom workout regiments like our
higher ranked services.
This
program has always been about support and community. The support you would get
from going to weekly meetings has been carried over to their online nutrition
therapy service. The strongest aspects of the online program are the message
boards, which allow you to swap recipes and get to know other dieters in your
area.
You can
also find blogs, groups, and challenges. Although we would like to see a little
more “online” community in the form of chat rooms, live chat and professional
guidance, we suspect Weight Watchers is reserving that kind of interaction for
their weekly meetings and would rather you participate there than online.
One of the
best tools offered by Weight Watchers Online is the ability to access your
account through your smartphone or portable device. This includes iPhone and
iPads, tablets, android devices and Blackberrys. It has the most comprehensive
portable support out of all the online programs we reviewed. For more
information on the iPhone app read our Health and Fitness iPhone Apps Reviews.
However, we
were a little disappointed at so few additional tools. Weight Watchers Online
does include a weight tracker and BMI calculator, but we were surprised they
didn't’t include a daily journal or shopping lists. They emphasize their point
system, but we would have liked them to include some additional calculators for
calories, carbs and protein.
We found
this service friendly and easy to use. However, like many other nutrition
therapy services, they do not provide you with much access to the website and
features without signing up for a membership first. There are two subscription
plans, monthly and quarterly.
After your
first three months, if you signed up for the three month plan, you are automatically
switched to a monthly plan with monthly billing. If you would like to continue
your three month billing cycle you will have to manually change it in your
settings. Should you decide to drop the service, there isn't a long term
membership requirement, so you can cancel at anytime.
The Weight Watchers Online nutrition therapy service is not a
bad program, but it seems they would rather you do the traditional program that
includes meetings in your local area. The online program and meetings program
are not interchangeable and payment for one does not constitute permission to
use the other. However, if you decide to sign up for the meetings program they
do offer eTools similar to the online program.
