Weight Watchers and Slimmers at War

As ESSEX is dubbed an obesity "time bomb" after figures revealed nearly a quarter of people are dangerously overweight.: meanwhile Rosemary Conley declares war on Weight Watchers today

"Our slimmers consistently achieve astonishing weight losses because my diets are based on calorie counting! I really question whether WeightWatchers understand the mentality of the dieter with their U-Turn on their calorie based principles." says Rosemary Conley, CBE

Claiming herself to be the UK's leading Diet and Fitness expert, Rosemary Conley, remains strong in the belief that calories are the way forward and that they are the only way dieters will lose vast amounts of weight at a sensible pace and keep it off.

WeightWatchers is meanwhile apparently discarding its famous fat and calorie-based 'Points' plan, in favour of a new points system that allows alcohol and fast food.

"Tell this to a dieter, struggling to shift the weight, and they will think that they can do it every night. Dieters don't buy into the concept that this is reserved for special occasions only. Fast foods, like burgers and beer, offer little nutritional value to someone on a health kick. In addition it encourages dieters to eat junk food instead of selecting healthier meal options."

Leading UK Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston says they are both wrong.

" The trouble is everybody is different. The jigsaw puzzle that leads to successful, sustainable weight loss has a big piece that is based on emotional wellbeing and the psychology of motivation and compliance. There's no doubt that some people do respond well to the group support of weightwatcher's approach and the dictatorial Rosemary Conley approach. Certainly exercise is another important part of the weight loss jigsaw, but for many people neither approach is perfect or sustainable" Yvonne reveals.

There are a number of underlying health problems that can either thwart sustainable weight loss or make it frustratingly much more difficult than usual to deal with - these health conditions should be ruled out first.

Calorie counting is a very simplistic way to lose weight and can lead to easier weight gain in the future. Great for weight watchers as you have less chance of ever being able to leave the club but not the best for you.

It's nutrients your body needs not calories, so the Weight Watchers change is sensible but not if they still refuse to remove nutritionally worthless foods from the basic concept and opt for quality rather than quantity.

Likewise Rosemary's 'fruit is evil' approach is equally over simplistic and based on the assumption that all dieters are stupid.

By far the most successful sustainable method of weight loss is to educate yourself about what your body really needs and why, if you felt you had to see your nutritionist every week for the rest of your life we would feel we were not doing our job.

Of course some people don't want to think for themselves but we find when people actually understand the way to eat and why it's important and then start to feel optimally healthy rather than just 'not ill' they are far more self motivated.

"We rarely need to see clients more than 3 to 4 times unless there's a serious health condition to deal with, empowering patients to be in charge of their own health is much more fruitful not just for weightloss but optimal health too." says Yvonne.