Mindset, Activity & Sleep | WW UK

WW supports members in a holistic approach to weight loss, through food, activity, mindset and sleep. These four areas impact both weight and wellness and have benefits on and off the scale.

Food, specifically a healthy pattern of eating, is at the core of your journey, helping you reach your weight goals and supporting whole-body wellness, including heart, bone, and brain health.

Regular physical activity increases the quality of your life and is among the most important things you can do for your health. It not only increases your fitness and physical function, it decreases your risk for certain chronic diseases and improves your overall well-being (specifically your mood and sleep). Plus it helps you lose 20% more weight than focusing on food changes alone, and is the single biggest predictor of who keeps weight off long term.

Mindset (how you think) drives the things that you do. Increasing awareness of your thoughts, feelings, and actions, and how you think about yourself and your journey, helps you set realistic goals and handle the inevitable ups and the downs that this journey brings .

Sleep plays a critical role in weight loss and is fundamental to wellness. Science tells us that when you get healthy sleep, it’s easier to eat well, move regularly, and have a helpful mindset. What’s more, you’ll feel better, have improved immune function, think more clearly, and your mood will improve.

When it comes to building healthy habits, what’s in your head is just as important as what’s on your plate. Becoming more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions - accepting yourself for how you are now, and thinking realistically with the big picture in mind - can help you take the steps needed to reach your goals, no matter what comes your way.

That’s why WW provides you with a range of science-backed techniques to help you shift to a more helpful mindset. These techniques are rooted in cognitive behavioural, acceptance-based psychology sciences and are shown to make the weight and wellness journey easier.

One way to dive into mindset techniques is through The 5-Minute Coaching, available right in your WW app. Developed by our team of behaviour change experts (and featuring content from our partner, Breethe), these audio lessons are specifically designed to help to bring these techniques to life for you in as clear and direct a way as possible (while still having fun). As you listen, you are guided through questions and reflections, visualisations, short brainstorming techniques, breathing exercises, and more with the goal of putting a few extra tools in your toolbelt to help you along your journey.

Topics include:

• The Science Behind PersonalPoints™
• Adapting To Change
• Manage Eating
• Help for Stress

At WW, we want you to think about exercise and activity as more than just your gym workout or how many calories you’re burning at any given time. You know when you take a long walk for fun — not just for “exercise — and you’re surprised by how good you feel and how the tension and stress left your body when you heard your favorite song? That’s not a coincidence — studies show that being more physically active can help people feel calmer, happier, more confident, and strong.

In a nutshell, we want you to enjoy your activity instead of what you think you “should” do. Studies also show that’s the key to making activity a regular part of their routine. Plus, when combined with a healthier diet, increasing physical activity can lead to a 20% greater weight loss than just changing your eating habits alone. Physical activity is also the single best predictor of long-term weight loss maintenance.

Activity gives you incredible health benefits, reduces stress, helps you feel comfortable in your own skin, boosts your energy… and it helps you maintain weight loss, too. That’s a win-win followed by more wins.

Our approach to fitness is simple: it’s about pleasure, not pressure. Do what you like, when you like, as often as you can. Start by sitting less and moving more. Once you get into a routine and start to realise the benefits of exercising, you’ll soon enjoy it. Until then, you may need to keep reminding yourself why it’s so important to you. You need to stop seeing activity as a chore. Instead, think of it as an opportunity for some me-time, or a chance to catch up with friends.

Keep a fitness journal, writing down what kind of activity you’ve done and how it made you feel, and make a note of non-scale victories, such as dropping a dress size. And remember, exercise doesn’t have to be done in a gym. You can start out just walking around the block.

If you’re not currently active or you don't exercise much, we suggest you spend the first few weeks getting to know the WW programme before layering on activity, since it is best to focus on one new habit at a time. If you’re already active, feel free to keep it up. Ultimately, as this is YOUR journey, you should start when you feel ready.

If your fitness device has the option to track activities like cycling, yoga, or Zumba (either through auto-detection or through the device’s app), then that information should sync seamlessly with the WW app. However, if you have a device that does not have the option to track those types of activities, then that info won’t be sent to the WW app and you’ll need to track it manually. For example, some older trackers may only track your number of steps whereas some newer ones have the option to track yoga, strength training, etc.

Simply tap on the idea, read the instructions, and get started!

Yes, syncing a fitness device will work the same way as it does now.

Sleep is more important to a healthy lifestyle than ever, and we’re delighted to continue to prioritise it.

• Easy sleep tracking: You can track your sleep in the app either manually or through your wearable device - whatever way works for you.
• Tools for a healthy bedtime routine: WW can help you create a custom bedtime routine and help you connect a good night’s sleep to your overall weight-loss journey.
• Exclusive content from WW X Breethe: Drift off with soothing sounds to help you relax and unwind, curated specifically for WW members by Breethe.