I don't think it's all that bad. It seems the app (despite the "weight watchers" name) is geared more towards directing kids/teens towards healthy habits, rather than diets and weight.

I think kids are getting fare more dysfunctional habits at home - either eating too much processed junk, or stupid fad diets like keto/low-carb. Those messages are FAR more unhealthy, rather than merely encouraging people to eat their fruits and vegetables - as often as they want, as much as they want.
And that they don't need to cut out anything completely - but adjust the ratios.

That said, I have a hard time thinking this WW promotion will be successful w/ young people.

Clearly, parents and doctors need help with teaching kids about healthy eating and movement. There is nothing wrong with good tools. Weight Watchers is notoriously sensible, flexible and health-focused. Nothing wrong AT ALL with tools that help parents and doctors work with kids to learn healthy food habits.

I'd rather see a parent using this kind of tool than taking no action to help their kids. Childhood obesity is very much a problem for a lot of kids and teens.

I think it sounds great! Wish I would have something like that as a teen. Pasta IS a yellow light food. Sounds like it teaches portion sizes and moderation ie have red foods and get less of them allotted in the weekly budget.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know. I’m shocked at the number of overweight kids and teens I see.

+1

Agree. O.P. if you want to be angry, be mad at their families for feeding them that garbage. Kids are so overweight and adults too. It is really sad.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know. I’m shocked at the number of overweight kids and teens I see.

+1

As someone who was overweight at that age I think an app based approach to healthy eating, and for the kids who need it, loosing weight is great. Whatever gets through to kids to help them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know. I’m shocked at the number of overweight kids and teens I see.

It's the parents' job to educate their kids on eating well and making good decisions about nutrition. Kids should not be on apps counting calories.

The parents are usually obese and are the ones stocking the house with crap food. Watch Fed Up on Amazon- it's really frightening. Kids that are 15 and so obese they may qualify for bariatric surgery perhaps should be on apps counting calories.

I’m not furious. As an adult currently using Noom, I have previously used a program through my employer called Omada Health. Omada didn’t work for me because it is not focused on weight loss - more on diabetes prevention. I can see some combination of the nutritional lessons from those programs and the idea of seeing how much red/yellow/green foods you eat being helpful to educate kids while not focusing heavily on weight and calories. Some teens might really want help, but would feel more comfortable using an app and talking to people online than going to “fat camp” or a weekly meeting. I’d rather my teen got solid advice than search the internet and fall into pro-Ana and other dangerous stuff. I think if they can keep the focus on functional health - blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol- and minimize the weight aspect of it - it could be helpful. When talking to adults I am often floored at how little nutritional knowledge they have or how bad some misconceptions they have are.

This is the main thrust of what the app does per the article:

"Using a searchable database, I could input pizza or pineapple or cookies, and that food’s corresponding colored light would appear directly beside its name. Another screen showed how to measure portion sizes by hand — a fistful of rice or pasta, a cupped hand of chips — while an interactive game called “Red Raisins” encourages kids to identify “red” or “green” foods by sight. I was granted four servings of “red” foods a day, and when I told the app I’d binged on cookies and peanut-butter sandwiches, it told me that I should try some green foods, and adjusted the number of “reds” I was allowed to eat for the rest of the week."

So learning about portion sizes and generally how much to eat of different foods? I'm ok with that. They should program it so you can't input underweight stats and ask to lose more weight, though.

Weight watchers encourages healthy eating habits. I don’t have a problem with it.

Did you read the article? They aren’t counting calories. The foods are grouped into red, yellow and green categories to steer kids to healthier food choices. And yes it’s parents’ job but clearly many aren’t doing it. Probably from all the restaurant and prepared foods those parents are serving.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know. I’m shocked at the number of overweight kids and teens I see.

It's the parents' job to educate their kids on eating well and making good decisions about nutrition. Kids should not be on apps counting calories.

I don’t know. I’m shocked at the number of overweight kids and teens I see.

Yeah, NO to this. Yes, children need to be taught how to eat healthy. NO, they should not be placed on a diet!

https://www.eater.com/2019/8/15/20807563/kurbo-by-ww-weight-loss-app-for-kids-teens

I am so disgusted.