Looking for the Old Weight Watchers Exchange Plan? (2024)

To keep track of what you ate during the day, we used an exchange checklist that was handed out at meetings. The checklist gave you the freedom of checking off what you ate and helped you track how much water you drank during the day, so you could make sure that you were meeting all of the minimum nutritional requirements you need.

Since there were weekly restrictions on the amount of eggs, red meat, and cheese you could eat, the checklist made it easy to keep track of those too.

Unlike the current SmartPoints program, the Old Weight Watcher's Exchange Plan was simple and guaranteed that you were eating a healthy, balanced diet.

The following list of food exchanges is what we ate in the '80s.

Keep in mind that many of the diet foods available today were not available in the '80s, so they are not directly included in the following plan. For that reason, I have included the approximate calorie count for each exchange, so you can adapt the following weight-loss plan to fit in with your tastes, preferences, and lifestyle.

Also, note that this is not the Quick Start Diet program that came out much later.

If you're looking for the plan that introduced floating exchanges, click on the link in the above paragraph. In that post, I talk about the three quick-start programs I am aware of, lay out the formula for each one, and briefly explain how Weight Watchers eventually evolved into the points system they use today.

In this post, I'm going to talk about the exchange diet that I know very well.

Although there are a lot of similarities between the two Weight Watchers plans, the Quick Start programs are quite different. They don't have as much structure and are far easier to abuse than this one is.

Protein: 9 exchanges for women, 12 for men.

One protein exchange was:

• 1-ounce of cooked meat or poultry
• 1-1/2 ounces fish or shellfish
• 1/4 cup tuna
• 1/4 cup cottage cheese
• 1 egg
• 1-ounce of low-fat cheese like skim-milk mozzarella or Parmesan cheese

Protein choices included:

• meat
• fish
• skinless poultry

that was:

• boiled
• steamed
• grilled
• baked on a rack
• broiled

For example, you didn't brown ground beef in a skillet. You formed it into a large patty, broiled it on a rack until it was medium rare, and then crumbled it up for your tacos, spaghetti sauce, or a casserole.

(However, I never actually did it that way. I just sauteed it in a skillet, drained the grease, and still lost the weight I needed to lose.)

A protein exchange was equal to 70 calories.

All of the serving portions within this group were approximately the same number of calories. This is why you didn't have to count any calories. The exchanges do that for you.

To make counting poultry exchanges easier:

• 3-ounces of raw dark-meat poultry with bone
• or 2-ounces of raw poultry breast with bone

was counted as 1 protein exchange.

In addition:

• 4-ounces of raw boneless meat or poultry
• or 6-ounces of fish or shellfish

was counted as 3 protein exchanges. This was due to shrinkage during cooking.

A quarter-cup of shredded or finely diced cooked meat or poultry was also 1 exchange.

One serving of liver per week was mandatory.

So was 3 servings of fish.

Eggs and hard cheese were limited to 4 exchanges per week.

Red meat was limited to 12-ounces per week.

The limitations were due to the amount of cholesterol in those foods. At that time, it was thought that excess dietary cholesterol caused blood cholesterol levels to rise.

Today, that has been scientifically proven to be false, so many people who have returned to this plan have ignored these strict weekly regulations for limiting cholesterol intake, and they have still been very successful in losing weight.

Milk: 2 exchanges for all adults, 3 exchanges for youth.

One milk exchange was:

• 1 cup non-fat milk
• 1/3 cup of non-fat dry milk powder
• 1/2 cup non-fat evaporated milk
• 1 cup non-fat plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup reduced-calorie pudding made with non-fat milk
• 1 cup "diet" hot chocolate made with non-fat milk

(Artificially sweetened, flavored low-fat and non-fat yogurt cups did not exist back then.)

A milk exchange was equal to 90 calories.

Later on, when the Quick Start program was implemented, a workaround for using low-fat milk was introduced. But in this initial exchange program, we were only allowed to use non-fat milk.

I did try to drink the non-fat milk allowed, but it was pretty disgusting, so I started choosing the pudding, diet hot cocoa, and Weight Watchers' brand ice cream instead.

Non-starchy Vegetables: 4 exchanges minimum.

Non-starchy vegetables could be eaten freely, but the minimum had to be eaten every day.

Non-starchy vegetables include:

alfalfa sprouts
artichoke hearts
asparagus
bamboo shoots
bean sprouts
beet greens
bok choy
broccoli
brussels sprouts
cabbage
cauliflower
celery
chives
collard greens
cucumber
eggplant
green beans
kale
leeks
lettuce
mushrooms
okra
onions
peppers
pumpkin
radishes
sauerkraut
scallions
snow peas
spaghetti squash
spinach
summer squash
swiss chard
tomato
turnips
wax beans (yellow)
zucchini squash

An exchange was:

• 1 cup of leafy greens
• 1/2 cup of cooked or raw non-starchy vegetables
• 1/2 cup vegetable juice

A vegetable exchange contained 25 calories.

Starchy vegetables like corn, peas, potatoes, winter squash, and traditional mixed vegetables (canned or frozen) were part of the bread exchange due to the number of carbohydrates and calories they have.

Fruit: 3 exchanges for women, 5 for men.

Medium-sized fruits like apples and oranges were 1 exchange.

Small fruits such as apricots, plums, and tangerines were 1/2 of a fruit exchange.

One-half of a grapefruit or 1/2 of a medium banana was one exchange.

Grapes were about 15 grapes, if I remember correctly.

Frozen or canned fruits were 1/2 cup per exchange, but they had to be unsweetened or packed in juice.

Splenda-sweetened canned fruit didn't exist back then, but would probably be allowed today.

A fruit exchange was equal to 60 calories.

Bread: 2 to 3 exchanges for women, 4 for men.

Most of us who came from a low-carb background tried to stick to the lower amount of bread exchanges, eating 3 servings of bread only occasionally. Since breads and rolls come in different sizes, we were counseled to purchase breadthat contained 80 calories or less per serving.

Bread can be a bit tricky, due to the size of the loaf, the amount of air in the bread, and any extras it has like raisins.

A bread exchange contained 80 calories.

The serving size of breads and rolls was:

3/4 of an ounce

The reason for this odd serving size was because 3 tablespoons flour was the standard exchange they measured breads by.

Most dark breads back then were not really made from whole wheat flour or whole grains. They were made with all-purpose flour that was colored brown, so the loaf was light. A 1-pound loaf of bread was typical.

If you went with a low-calorie bread, which was popular at the time, you could eat 2 slices for one exchange, provided the bread didn't exceed 40 calories per slice.

Small hamburger buns and hot dog buns (the cheap, soft, fluffy kind) were 1-1/2 exchanges, while the large adult-sized buns are 2 servings.

Some Weight Watchers leaders balked at that ideaand told us to ignore the calorie count, but that wasn't how the reading materials told us to approach the plan. Small buns back then were only 120 calories, so a lot of us ignored the leadership and counted them as 1-1/2 exchanges instead of two.

Large burger buns or higher-quality hot-dog buns were heavier and more calorie-dense, which is why they were 2 exchanges.

Higher-calorie breads, such as English muffins, were also 2 exchanges, but you could eat 1/2 a muffin for 1 exchange at breakfast.

Cold cereals, crackers, and dry pasta was also 3/4-ounce per exchange.

You could have 1/2-cup cooked cereal, pasta, or rice.

Potatoes were 3-ounces per exchange, so a medium 6-ounce baked potato was 2 bread exchanges.

Other options were:

• 1/4-cup cooked beans, lentils, or dried peas
• small 4-inch pancake
• 1/2-cup mixed vegetables
• 2- to 3-cups air-popped popcorn

Lack of choices in the bread category wasn't because a particular food wasn't nutritious or was fattening. Allowable items were limited to individual foods that Weight Watchers personnel had studied and evaluated for their nutritional content when compared to bread.

When I first started the program, for example, tortillas and taco shells were not allowed. Later on, a corn tortilla or hard taco shell was added for 1 exchange, as was a small 6-inch flour tortilla.

Fats: 3 servings per day for both men and women

A fat exchange was:

1 teaspoon of butter, margarine, oil, or mayonnaise

Reduced-calorie fats like tub margarine and light mayonnaise were 2 teaspoons per exchange.

Reduced-calorie products are whipped with water, milk, or extra air to make them lighter, fluffy, and cover a larger area when spread on toast or crackers. They don't work well in baking due to the extra liquid and reduced-fat content but were nice to spread on bread or vegetables.

Salad dressing was also 2 teaspoons per exchange since dressings often contain other liquids besides oil or mayonnaise.

A fat exchange was 40 calories.

The basic diet for women, if you just ate the bare minimum of exchanges required, would be about 1370 calories. The third bread exchange would take your daily total to 1450, and additional vegetables over the minimum would raise it even more.

This made the exchange plan approximately 1500 calories.

The basic diet for men contained about 1860 calories.

Traditional low-calorie diets were 1200 calories per day back then, so the Weight Watchers Exchange Plan allowed more food than your average weight-loss diet, which many dieters found very attractive.

Despite the higher calorie count, the diet worked very well. I was able to get down to 160 pounds quite effortlessly before the body started kicking up a fuss and I hit my set point.

Keep in mind, I'm only 5-feet tall, and at that time,Weight Watchers meals didn't have any built-in method for reducing calories as you lost the weight.

You kept the same calorie count throughout your entire weight-loss phase, and there was no help for situations like when your Leptin level decided to tank or when you reached energy balance or set point.

This is the point where I started to maintain. I didn't know anything about:

• Leptin levels
• effects of yo-yo dieting on the body
• the way the body defends it's fat storage
• how the body reacts after you lose a lot of weight
• how many calories it took to maintain 115 pounds

I had no tools to work with other than the exchange diet itself. I thought the diet had stopped working, so I gave up.

Today, I'm much better educated on what's going on physically and what you can expect. What I should have done was simply cut out some of the fruit and bread.

In addition to the basic diet, the plan also allows for up to 550 extra calories per week that can be spent on anything you like. These extra calories amount to 75 calories per day.

These calories will bump your daily calorie totals for all Weight Watchers foods to about:

• 1445 to 1525 for women
• 1935 for men

Depending on your actual food choices, of course.

Carbohydrates were much lower than your typical 1200 calorie diet and about one-half of a standard American diet, as defined by today's standards.

This was during the time when the basic four food groups were considered the ultimate authority on nutrition, so people didn't eat as many carbs as they do today.

The extra weekly calories Weight Watchers allowed were for small amounts of condiments, a bit of real sugar, or anything that wasn't on the list like potato chips and even cake, but you could also spend your extra calories on another exchange per day if you were still hungry.

As the exchange plan began to evolve with the Quick Start era, the extra calories drastically increased, but when I first started the Weight WatchersExchange Plan, they were only 550 per week, about what you'd spend on an average slice of cake.

That wasn't much when you consider how sparse the exchange lists were back then, but learning how to combine exchanges into recipes and how to count the different exchanges in a product helped a lot.

Weekly calories could be spread throughout the week, some of them saved until the weekend, or spent all at once on a slice of birthday cake or a nice evening out.

Calories, however, cannot be rolled over into the next week. That would be stretching the rules a bit too far. The body will store all of the calories you don't use within a day or two.

The idea is to exchange your daily habits and lifestyle for something healthier.

I have been searching online for quite some time to find the original Weight Watchers Checklist that specifically deals with the original exchanges and limitations that worked for me, but most people don't remember that checklist.

Most people remember the Quick Start Weight Watchers plan instead.

There are a few of the Quick Start checklists available online. They have fewer exchange boxessince Quick Start gave you the freedom to use floating exchanges.

The original Weight Watchers Exchange Program did not.

Weight Watchers Quick Start Program Checklist

Combining exchanges is where a lot of people get confused.

By itself, the exchange lists were simple to follow. That wasn't real life though.

People wanted to know how to count the exchanges when eating out, as well as how do you convert your favorite recipes into Weight Watchers exchanges?

It wasn't complicated to do, but it was definitely different than most people were used to, and it took a bit of math to figure it out.

The exchanges were based on the diabetic exchange program, but since most people weren't diabetics, they had to learn how to use exchanges in recipes and products.

For example:

If you whipped up a batch of muffins, those muffins would include flour, milk, fat, an egg, some sugar, and maybe some mashed fruit or vegetable. You would have to figure out the total number of exchanges each ingredient added to the entire recipe and then divide those totals by the number of servings the recipe made.

Weight Watchers recipes and products made that chore easier by telling you how to count the recipe or product in your daily totals, but if you wanted to convert your own recipes into exchanges, there really wasn't a best way to do that.

For me, it was easier to take everything in the recipe that didn't easily divide by 4 (a quarter of an exchange) and place it into my weekly extra calories. It created fewer headaches and frustrations doing it that way.

Recipes do have to be played with a bit to make them fit nicely into the formula.

You'll find the same thing with products like tomato sauce that don't fit the basics.

Back then, we used canned tomatoes whipped up in the blender for a sugar-free tomato sauce, but it wasn't as convenient, nor tasty as the real thing. It took several hours to boil a spaghetti sauce down to the point where it was thick enough to use.

In doing research on the Quick Start Program, I found a lot of people on the web who just used the calories assigned to each exchange section and built their own list of portion sizes and exchanges from that.

Many of them have told me that it's working quite well for them doing it that way.

There is a lot of conflicting information about the Quick Start Programs on the web, however. People remember different things. This is because the Weight Watchers Exchange diets were actually divided into three different programs.

There was the Weight Watchers Quick Start Program,and then
Quick Start Plus followed a year or two later. Still later, a third program surfaced.

After reading through several forum posts and visiting the various links that people provided there, I've been able to piece together what the parameters for those different diets were.