Eat Better

What does it mean to eat better?

It means making nutritious choices that help you live healthier, feel satisfied—and lose weight. But it’s not just what you eat, it’s how, why, where, and when you eat. We want to help you nourish your whole self and get to a healthy mindset about food and eating. Because in the long run, that will help you lose weight—and keep it off for life.

The SmartPointsTM plan nudges you toward better-for-you choices by assigning a SmartPoints value, based on calories, saturated fat, sugar, and protein, to every food and drink. Foods that are lower in added sugar and saturated fat are lower in SmartPoints values; foods that are higher have higher SmartPoints values.

You can “spend” your SmartPoints Budget—your daily SmartPoints Target plus your Weekly SmartPoints—however you like, keeping in mind that to lose weight, you’ll want to stick to your Budget.

3 simple ways to get started eating better:

1. Stick with tracking. It helps make you aware of what and how much you’re eating—and the more frequently you track, the more weight you can lose.1 Tracking can also help you be more mindful of food choices and portion control, as well as unhelpful habits and triggers. The Tracker on weightwatchers.ca and the mobile app make tracking easy (for subscribers).

2. Eat slowly and mindfully. You’ll enjoy your food more, and you may even eat less.2

3. Choose what you like. Deprivation may backfire in the long run.3

1. Burke LE, Wang J, Sevick MA. Self-monitoring in weight loss: a systematic review of the literature. J Am Diet Assoc. 2011 Jan;111(1):92-102.
2. Arch JJ, et al. Enjoying food without caloric cost: The impact of brief mindfulness on laboratory eating outcomes. Behav Res Ther. 2016 Apr;79:23-34.
3. Arch JD, et al. Energy depletion by diet or aerobic exercise alone: impact of energy deficit modality on appetite parameters. Am J Clin Nutr. 2016 Apr;103:4-1008.