No More Points: Why the WeightWatchers model was always going to fail

So it’s game over for WeightWatchers (WW) - they filed for bankruptcy this week, and most are not surprised. The rebrand to WW spelled the start of the end, in an attempt to move gently away from the idea that weight is all that matters, towards a softer happier health ambition. Unsure how to pronounce the new WW brand, people kept on calling it WeightWatchers, and it seems, the brand and the company were pivoted back to where they started.

Of course it was weight loss medication (including Wegovy and Mounjaro) that killed WW and will not only kill other weight management approaches, but will change whole industries. We are already seeing a shift in portion sizes as food and beverage companies look to cash in on new eating habits. WW acquired a Telehealth company to offer GLP-1 prescriptions and even sold a non-medicated program to support people using GLP-1 weight loss mediation, but its rigid points based brand was just too synonymous with the unpleasant nature of restrictive diets to find an audience amongst ‘skinny jab’ users.

Most commentators cite weight loss medication as the death knell for WW, but what if the end for WW was determined long before GLP-1s hit the market in a big way, and was as much to do with consumer health trends? WeightWatchers has always been a points based system; you’re ‘allowed’ to eat a certain number of points a day. Food is allocated a number of points and as a WW member, it’s your job to learn the complex and opaque points system and start counting. It’s confusing, it’s unpleasant, and it’s all rather petty.

Points-based dieting simply doesn’t fit in a world where more and more people are demanding food freedom, not food rules. The shifts in consumer behaviour have undoubtedly come from the Internet, as we are becoming more and more used to solutions that flex around us, not the other way around. People want to lose weight by eating the foods they love, not by counting confusing points and feeling hungry. Through AI, we are used to personalised services that give us control.

Through the Internet we are all used to sharing our stories. In the weight loss space, we are able to learn from each other what works and what doesn’t. There are still communities of people who count calories and macros and steps, but there is an increasingly a shared knowledge that restrictive diets simply don’t work. And that’s whether they are points based, or calorie based systems. For a start such systems defy all logic. I might lose weight eating 1200 calories a day but you may not. I may need to eat a meal containing 500 calories because I’ve expended a certain amount of energy, had a certain amount of sleep and have a certain metabolic rate, but you may not. What we need to eat to lose weight, maintain or gain weight is personal and contextual, so anything that tells us X points or X calories a day is likely to be wrong most of the time. Then we know such systems are simply too hard to stick to long term because they make you hungry for the things you can’t eat. That’s eating psychology at play. If you crave food, there’s usually a reason. Abstinence is usually only successful for a short while.  What drives you to eat at any given time is a unique and complex mix of psychology and biology; points are a really blunt instrument. As more and more us try diets that fail us, and share our stories, we are turning away form so called solutions with diets and meal plans and points and turning to solutions that allow us to eat naturally, to eat with food freedom.

I tried WW once. I had already lost around 80 pounds and found myself at a plateau. The plateau was likely psychological - or my body or my brain just needed a rest at that weight for some reason. I went to WW mainly out of curiosity, it was indeed against everything I believed to be true about weight loss but I wanted to prove myself right, and it was much worse than I had imagined it would be. What was good about it was the people; genuinely caring enthusiastic people who were open and helpful. They looked at me curiously as one of those irritating people who turned up with not much weight to lose. I showed them my ‘before pictures’ and they were more comfortable with me being there and I tried to learn the points system. I bought some extremely expensive breakfast cereal that contained no fat but oodles of sweeteners and other nasties - which mostly went in the bin once I’d got it home. It just wasn’t proper food. My experience of WW is that it was as much a food company as a health company, with complex and outdated pyramid marketing schemes making our group leader appear like a desperate muesli sales rep. The worst thing about it was the venue, I wasn’t expecting a luxury location but seriously? A working men’s club? It was very low vibe. I stuck it out three times, and lost absolutely no weight whatsoever.

Nowadays, if you are taking GLP-1s to help you lose weight, you will know that there’s no need to count points or eat terrible food if you can simply dial down your appetite and the ‘food noise’ that often plagues people who’ve put on weight. You still need to eat well to feel well, but the freedom it affords you is amazing - you can indeed eat what you like, you’ll just want to eat much less of it.

There is also another way to achieve that though, and that’s to find true food freedom. At Eatiful, we’re proud to be part of this new movement in weight care. Our non-diet, non-medication approach based on mindful eating and eating psychology. Our method helps people:

✔️ Eat more slowly and consciously

✔️ Tune into hunger and fullness signals

✔️ Enjoy all foods without guilt

✔️ Lose weight naturally and sustainably

So yes, GLP-1s may have hastened WW’s downfall, but the days of the points system were numbered anyway. The next chapter in weight care will be written by those who offer freedom over fear, behavior change over rules, and sustainability over short-term fixes.

Ready to explore a better way to lose weight? Download the Eatiful app today and start eating mindfully—no points, no diets, just real results.