Weight Watchers 2016 Update: SmartPoints (2024)

Happy Weekend Everyone! Today marks one of my favorite days of the year when I get to geek out as Weight Watchers unveils their 2016 Beyond The Scale Program Update. I love the anticipation of finding out what will be new, holding new books & Cookbooks! in my hands and scouring over every detail as I find a new sense of motivation. I’ve been working this program since I was 15 years old and every year I get just as excited as the last. Yep, I am totally a little things person and I can admit that ~ It’s super easy to get me birthday presents too!

Thanks everyone for sharing in the excitement this morning when I posted my initial thoughts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc…..It was so fun to read all your comments and see you all get just as excited as I am.

Are you all ready to hear what is new with Weight Watchers 2016 Program changes this year, especially, since they have made the bold statement that it’s the Biggest Change in 50 years? Me too, so here we go!

Your Weight Watchers online and the WW App will update with your information on your Weigh In day (if it’s Tuesday, then, you will not see this until Tuesday). Mine is Sunday so I saw this today. Also important – WW Mobile and WW online are working even though their app has not worked all day.

Here is what you need to know:

• Everyones daily points and weekly points allowance targets are personalized based on the Self Assessment and will not be the same for most people.
• Pointsplus is out, Smartpoints are in. What are Smartpoints? Basically Weight Watchers is steering everyone towards a Simply Filling lifestyle, indirectly. The new Smartpoints give lower points values to lean proteins and higher points values to high in sugar/saturated fat goods.
• The most important thing ~ Fruits & Veggies are still zero points! Even better – fruits will finally stay at zero points even in recipes – woohoo!
• Yes, the Points values are changing ~ it’s a new formula which means over 50% of points changed.
  • You can see most lean proteins going down and in crazy, awesome ways. Shrimp, Turkey and most seafood are 1 SmartPoint (SP) for 3 oz. while chicken drops to 2 SP for 3 oz. Lobster eaters 5 oz = 1 SP!
  • Dairy products are going up ~ my nonfat latte and favorite fa*ge 0% Greek Yogurts with fruit are increasing anywhere from 1-3 points – sad!
  • On the other hand, avocados and wine are the same while sushi did not really change 🙂
• Power Foods are now hollow green circles and the healthy guidelines are gone. I am bummed to see my little check boxes and smiley faces letting me know I made good choices disappear. At least we still have Bravo stickers.

You will have to update any foods you have manually added to your tracker to add in the saturated fat and the sugars. For recipes, these “should” update automatically when you log in.

In the meeting, you will get the Weekly, an awesome plan guide that has some pretty amazing photography, NEW recipes and quite a few great ideas as well as this handy pocket guide.

It’s important to know that the values in this guide are averages of at least 3 products. If you are like me, my mouth hit the floor when I saw 1 1/2 oz chocolate = 12 SmartPoints. I quickly opened up my WW mobile app in the meeting and checked that Dove Dark Chocolate Promise = 2 points (previously 1) and could breath again.

The lesson I learned from that is to be sure to check out the nutrition label for what you are eating as it may be less than the averages and in some cases dark chocolate is less than milk chocolate.

The next most important thing in my book is that Weight Watchers kept the Simply Filling Technique. Nothing has changed when I glance through the materials for this. I will say the above pocket guide gives you more details on page 34 then there little glimpse in the plan guide does on page 62.

The other big change relates to FitPoints aka Activity Points. Believe it or not, but, the way the FitPoints are calculated is changing too and will change from week to week to be personalized to how much activity you do.

While there is an emphasis on using a fitness tracker (FitBit – my favorite!, Jawbone ~ Sorry, Active Link is out), they do provide guidelines for any and all activity (Fun Activity is encouraged!) so you know how to rate/log it if you are not syncing with an activity device.

To give you an idea, here are some examples of how the FitPoints (FP) are changing.

For those with iPhones, there is a new app just for you called “Fit Break” that includes over seventy 1 minute videos to get you moving more ~ hopefully they unveil it for Droid users too.

I really do love this year’s Plan Guide. Here is an index of what is included along with some of my favorite things.

Advice on how to spend your daily SmartPoints target. If you prefer not to snack, then, just add your snack points to whichever meal you want “more” points that day.

There are so many delicious meal, snack and recipe ideas to try. I am glad to see no repeats of the prior years so everything “feels” like it’s new. I think I need to bring pb banana sandwiches back into my life for only 4 SP.

I need this lunch too ~ hello Chicken Nachos…?

This will probably be my snack all week in the AM with a hard boiled egg (still just 2 points) in the PM.

And the dinner I want to have tonight.

The meal builders are awesome for helping you pick ingredients you have on hand and essentially build a meal.

The top 100 tracked foods list was fun to read. Of course most are fruits and veggies (good job everyone!), I have to admit, I kinda liked seeing french fries and cookies make the list too. Real foods and on program 🙂

For those wondering what I bought….I am pretty sure you can guess the Year Round Fresh Cookbook.

I love the idea that all recipes are based on what is in season. I am super bummed they didn’t include a Simply Filling section though which means you will have to break each recipe down yourself.

I was intrigued by the Weight Watchers Starter Kit but when I found out there was a $5.00 off coupon in the Kit for the above Cookbook I was sold!

Here is what you get in the kit:

• A fun reusable bag
• Super cool cutting board that has built in measuring cups
• A collapsible bowl with a 4 oz collapsible container
• One awesome 12 Week Tracker
• Fresh & Easy Cookbook!
• Coupons for another tracker, the cookbook, WW Meeting Snacks and WW store products.

The expandable bowl and cup.

Fun cutting board with the glass containers being measuring cups. I do find it sorta funny that most things I put on a cutting board (i.e. fruits, veggies, herbs) do not necessarily need measuring. I still like it!

The journal – it’s top notch. I love the quote on the front, that each day has something new on it and that you can fasten/carry it with you.

There is a section to document your food, activity, recap your week and more.

Last but not least….my favorite quote in everything I read today. I seriously want to make this my new tag line! 😀

I will not be going back to update any of my recipes for SmartPoints but will make sure I add SmartPoints for any new recipes going forward. Luckily almost all my recipes include the nutrition facts so you should be able to calculate the SmartPoints.

What do you think of the new program? Share away!

Have a great week all….my next post up will really be those homemade Turkey Apple Sausage Stuffin’ Muffins.