Weight Watchers Goes Veg

The perfect way for vegetarians to shed unwanted pounds

“How many points is that?”

That’s a common question heard around the United States indeed, around the world—and it has nothing to do with a game of gin rummy. It’s all about the wildly successful Weight Watchers Points program, in which dieters are assigned a certain number of “points” per day that equal the amount of food they can eat. Each food is pre-assigned a “points value,” and dieters keep track as they go along to make sure they stay within their allotted number. The Points program was introduced in 1997, and, since then, almost 8 million Weight Watchers members have lost more than 79 million pounds using the plan, according to Weight Watchers.

If you are on a vegetarian regimen, finding a weight-control program can be more than challenging. The popular high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets making the rounds simply don’t work for the vegetarian because there are not enough acceptable food choices. But Weight Watchers, because of its emphasis on a varied diet that concentrates on calories, fat and fiber, is completely adaptable to the vegetarian lifestyle. All foods are allowed, as long as the dieter stays within his or her point range for the day.

Weight Watchers has a history of great cookbooks that go along with its 38-year-old program. We scoured the company’s Versatile Vegetarian: 150 Easy Recipes for Every Day (Hungry Minds, 2001), and found four simple recipes aimed to please even the non-dieter at your table. Give them a try—one bite, and you’ll know you can keep New Year’s new-you resolution.