I'm doing Weight Watchers right now. The first pounds were easy, but keeping them off & loosing that last 5-10 pounds is another tale. No doubt about it, weight loss & long term maintenance are work.
Going to the meetings for the encouragement and having that weekly weight register are useful for motivation & keeping on track. The program gives good guidance on healthy eating & weight loss. It's not a gimmick. Still, I'm not good about writing down what I eat & calculating the points. I do find I've virtually eliminated fried foods, grilled cheese sandwiches, and morning break treats. I do well when I walk by the snacks. I'm eating lots more fruits & vegs.
If there's a weakness to the program, it's the flexibility. Instead of counting calories, it's calculating points. Nothing is completely off limits. It's just that you can use up all the day's points really quickly with junk. The temptation is to look at the flexibility & forget to add the points. The person who got me involved was forever telling me I could eat something I was deciding to decline with focus on the flexibility.
Sometimes it seems an expensive way to get weighed, but I'm doing better with the accountability.