Nutrition & Weight Loss - How to use the weight watchers core plan

My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a registered dietitian with the Austin Regional Clinic, and I'm going to talk to you about how to use the Weight Watchers Core Plan. Weight Watchers actually has a couple of different programs. Their Flex Program is the one most people are familiar with. It's based on a point system, where you have a certain amount of points that you can eat over the day. The Core Program is quite a bit different in that you're not really counting points. You're not keeping track of points, but you're using more whole foods. And this particular plan really focuses on a lot of very healthy, naturally low-fat or low calorie foods. And it's a lot of fresh food, so you're going to be using things like complex carbohydrates that are coming from fruits, vegetables, whole grain products. And you're also going to be using very lean sources of meat. So this particular program can be very useful for somebody, for example, who has diabetes and is needing more of a healthy eating plan, and they need to be more focused on their overall food choices, not just limiting total number of calories. So the Core Program can be very useful for a variety of health conditions. The other thing with the Core Plan is it does incorporate the other Weight Watchers principles, as far as making sure that you are including some physical activity. That you also have support around you, and that you also make sure that you are eating on a regular basis, every single day. That you're not skipping meals. So the Core Plan can be very useful for, again, a variety of conditions as well as actually losing weight.