I was recently researching Weight Watchers points for my previous blog What's Wrong With Calories, when I came across the Healthy Weight Forum.
The Healthy Weight Forum has lots of advice on different diets from the Cabbage Soup diet to the Atkins diet. It does have a disclaimer of kind stating that it does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment and the information on the site is to be used for general knowledge purposes only....
So the calculator provided on the website seems perfectly sensible. In order to calculate how many WW points or calories to consume per day you are required to enter your height, weight, sex, age, activity level and desired weekly weight loss.
First of all, I entered my details correctly. Currently, I weigh 7 stone or 98 pounds or 44.5 kg and am 4 feet 11 inches tall. This means I have a BMI of 19.8 which is a healthy weight for my height.
The calculator said I was allowed 18 WW points per day and an additional 35 points per week for treats should I wish to lose one pound per week. Fair enough, I suppose. I might add though, there is no way that Weight Watchers would allow me to lose weight with them at this weight.
However, I then typed in that I was now 6 stone, and the calculator told me to drop my points to 17 and at 5 stone, I am allowed 15 points. When I am on my deathbed at 4 stone, still wanting to lose 2 pounds a week I am allowed 14 points according to the information on the “Healthy Weight Forum”
Now, the Healthy Weight Forum says this calculator is styled on the WW calculator but it is nothing at all to do with Weight Watchers which is of course a registered trademark of Weight Watchers Inc.
I am aware that Weight Watchers as I mentioned before do not allow people that have low BMIs on to their weight loss programmes and do have measures to prevent this. In fact, when you attempt to join Weight Watchers you must agree that you have at least five pounds to lose and that you are not suffering from either Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia Nervosa.
I do however have it on very good authority that a person suffering from Anorexia Nervosa would
revel in this kind of calculation coming from the Healthy Weight Forum. It is simply not acceptable in an epidemic of eating disorders that this kind of calculator is on the internet, in my opinion. It is wide open to the abuse of young girls and others who have potentially fatal eating disorders.
There does not appear to be anyone to get in touch with at the “Healthy Weight Forum”, it is simply a site that generates income from advertising.
I will be addressing my concerns to WW about this particular issue and hope to update you on my findings in later blogs.
WW was not available for comment.
I first wrote this blog in 2017. Despite my contacting the Healthy Weight Forum directly regarding my concerns with their calculator, NOTHING HAS CHANGED. As of the 30th January 2025, a full eight years later, I added a false weight of 6 stone, which is a BMI of 15.9 classed as severe anorexia and I wished to endanger my life by losing 2 pounds a week. Their advice was to reduce my daily calories to 691 calories.
Words fail me, as to how this is allowed to continue. It should not take much to have that weight flag up, you are severely underweight, so please seek URGENT medical advice.
The site still has affiliations with the big-hitters in the slimming industry such as Weight Watchers and Slimming World. I will not be adding a link to this dangerous site on my site.
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