How WeightWatchers Points work for weight loss | WW NZ
Eat what you love with Points
How our WeightWatchers® Points system makes weight loss deliciously simple.
The Points system explained
The WeightWatchers Points® system is our way of making nutrition science for weight loss simple! We look at the complex nutrition info (calories, saturated fat, protein, sugar and fibre) of every food and drink and distill it down to one easy to understand number: the Points value. Saturated fat and added sugar drive up the Points value; fibre, protein, and unsaturated fats drive it down.
How do Points work for weight loss?
You’ll get a customised daily Points Budget to spend, plus a list of 200+ ZeroPoints® foods that you don’t have to track. As long as you stay within your Budget, you’ll be on the way to reaching your weight loss goals. The WW app will keep track of it all for you—no mental math required!
Points give you eating flexibility
How you eat Monday - Friday is probably different than how you eat on the weekends and that’s OK! Points are designed to be flexible. You'll get an additional weekly Points Budget. You might want to enjoy a few extra Points each day or save them up for the weekend—you choose!
What a day on Points can look like
How many Points do I get per day?
After joining WW, we'll give you a customised Budget based on your current age, height, weight, and sex assigned at birth—i.e., your individual metabolic rate. You’ll choose what to eat and we've got plenty of healthy recipes and meal plans to guide you, plus our app will help you to calculate and track your Points.
Every recipe has a Points value
Your top questions, answered!
Points are an evolution of our scientifically backed nutrition system that has included PersonalPoints, SmartPoints and ProPoints. Points are our unique counting system designed to nudge you towards nutritious, healthier foods that help you lose weight while making nothing is off -limits.
Anything you want—really! On WW, nothing is off-limits. Just track each food, stick to your Budget, eat ZeroPoint foods, and watch the weight come off.
We have hundreds of meat-free recipes that make a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle and weight loss totally possible—and delicious.
When it comes to nutrition, calories (aka kilojoules) don’t tell the whole story. Our Points algorithm factor in calories, but also protein and fibre, and they differentiate between natural and added sugars, as well as unsaturated vs. saturated fats. Your customised Points Budget will guide you toward a healthier pattern of eating so you’ll lose weight and feel good. Just eat, track Points, and lose the weight.
No, the Points system and algorithm, which makes healthy eating simple by boiling complex food label data into one easy-to-use number, is staying the same. Points are still calculated based on a food’s calories, protein, fibre, unsaturated fat, saturated fat and added sugar. Our Points system is informed by the latest nutritional science, and more than ever before, our current Points system factors in the most important nutritional inputs for health and reflects healthy eating recommendations. Points nudge you towards foods linked to better health (that most people don’t eat enough of, such as diary, fibre-rich foods, veggies, and wholegrains) and encourage less of the nutrients linked to poorer health (that most people eat too much of, such as added sugar and saturated fat). PersonalPoints are now just simply Points, the name may have changed, but the algorithm didn’t.
U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025. 9th Edition. December 2020. Available at DietaryGuidelines.gov.
U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025. 9th Edition. December 2020. Available at DietaryGuidelines.gov.
Points make healthy eating simple by using the latest nutritional science to simplify complex food label data into one easy-to-use number that helps you assess a food on the spot. Every food and beverage gets a Points value based on six components. Calories are part of the equation; saturated fat and added sugar drive up the Points value; fibre, protein, and unsaturated fats drive it down. Our scientifically-proven system is designed to guide everyone toward a healthier pattern of eating with foods that are higher in fibre, protein, and unsaturated fats (the better-for-you fats) and lower in added sugar and saturated fat (the less good-for-you fats).
We start with a scientific calculation of your metabolism (based on your age, height, weight, and sex assigned at birth) then adjust it based on the ZeroPoint food list and your weight goals (weight loss or weight maintenance). Everyone’s Budget is personalised to them and designed to promote a healthy rate of weight loss (for most people, that’s 0.5 to 1 kilogram per week, although you may see more at the beginning.)
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