Weight Watchers’ premise begins with education. A member will learn how to make the best choices which include the appropriate selection of foods, combined with exercise while “learning” to “enjoy” both. It is a well known fact that those who “understand” what and why they are doing something are more inclined to succeed than those who are simply directed to complete a rote activity. A member shares his or her experiences with other members and camaraderie of members forms and becomes a force unto itself.

Unlike most weight loss plans or “lose weight through exercise” programs, Weight Watchers is a lifestyle adjustment; a paradigm change. Weight Watchers recipes offer, rather than pre-prepared and pre-packaged foods that place the onus of calculation, preparation and consumption squarely on the shoulders of the member and not the vendor, further reinforcing the notion that those who “understand” are more likely to succeed.

Perhaps what makes Weight Watchers such a long enduring success is that they in fact do place the primary responsibility on the member or participant, rather than the entity attempting to sell a “cure-all panacea” for weight loss and overall health and well-being.

Weights Watchers can lay claim to a lengthy list of testimonials attesting to the success of their program. What Weight Watcher’s alumni will espouse in their testimonials is that the foremost benefit of their membership is, and always has been “knowledge” about why they were overweight and being “educated” on how to lose their excess weight. More importantly, they came to understand the habits and lifestyle that made them overweight in the first place and what changes they needed to make to deep the unwanted weight off and be and feel healthier.

Weight Watchers is not just a weight loss program. The world is full of “programs” that promise and sometimes fulfill, though more often than not only temporarily. It is human nature to fall back on comfortable habits at the first and most convenient opportunity.

Weights Watchers differs because it is a “lifestyle” change, a paradigm shift. There is personal responsibility, personal accountability and checks and balances by virtue of the fact you have a built in support system that consists of others just like you. In other words, a member has “peer support”, “peer understanding” and “peer pressure.” Those three combined “peer” elements, much like those of Alcoholics Anonymous” are the basic ingredients for success.

Human nature dictates that we will raise the hackles of resistance when being told what to do by those in a position of instruction; however, we are quick to learn and quick to engage and accept that which emanates from our peers, particularly when our peers speak to us from personal experience.

Weights Watchers is not the panacea for weight loss or physical fitness, but it does place the responsibility for a person’s overall health and well-being where it belongs…on the individual member, which is where it belongs. That is the singular reason for Weights Watchers unparalleled success.