WeightWatchers files for bankruptcy

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The Weight Watchers point system is so much better than counting calories and every fad diet out there. It's a shame they had to be an infinitely growing business instead of just a helpful organization. Can you imagine if Alcoholics Anonymous incorporated and started selling alcohol free beer and other nonsense, then folded up and disappeared? Who's that helping? Once again the pursuit of capital above all else has resulted in neither.
- The counterpoint is that the organization was only ever formed in the first place because someone had an idea and figured they could make enough money with it to be worth the time and effort necessary to get the idea off the ground. And now that they have gone out of business, you yourself can emulate the idea and give it away for free if you so choose.
- Once they’re gone, can someone just replicate their approach in a free app? With real food and not their overly processed slop.
  
  The points system is easily emulatable. I used a sliderule type tool when I was forced to do it as a slightly overweight child, so it should be something you could accomplish easily enough with a spreadsheet. It looks like there's a few apps that do it unofficially (itrackbites, points watcher) and a few related GitHub projects.

6 comments