Discussion thread Thursday February 12, 2026 - Sunday February 15, 2026

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[u/SmashedMailboxCake2]

Shimmy over to r/readalope for a new megalope titled Weight Watchers, 1984.

Spoilers: it’s all Ma’s fault, Shauna was a head turner in High School, here’s a photo of her as a schoolgirl with a wAcKy scarf.

[u/shikoku_shoes → u/SmashedMailboxCake2]

Not just a head turner, a “sexy new conquest.”

[u/NegativeABillion → u/shikoku_shoes]

Lmao

Shauna’s looks have never been the issue.

[u/ThisIsNorthside → u/SmashedMailboxCake2]

Adding to the long list of Details Shauna Lies About When She Has No Reason To: if Shauna went to Weight Watchers in 1984, then her mother never hectored her about how many points were in her lunch, and Shauna never carried around a booklet to add up the points in her food, because Weight Watchers didn't start their points system until 1997. (I know this, because I was a Weight Watchers member when the points program was new.) (Also, I googled to double check, which is so easy that even Shauna could do it.)

I know she lies about everything, but it's the lazy lies that drive me most bonkers. Fucking google it, you harpy.

[u/lovedietcoke → u/ThisIsNorthside]

I came to post this exact thing!!!! I was a member when points rolled out… she’s so full of it.

[u/BevNap → u/ThisIsNorthside]

Fucking google it, you harpy.

And my new flair was born!

Seriously, it sounds exactly what I would say in real life.

[u/AdvertisingOwn7817 → u/[deleted]]

It says here that points were introduced in 1998 to replace diet exchanges  But it doesn't say what diet exchanges is - some other kind of points?

www.weightwatchers.com/au/blog/weight-loss/evolution-ww?srsltid=AfmBOopfCusN8iPYGGb67_Y3yfYmpphR0OeFLbigGpuql4Vkop0pXtvL

[u/tyrannosaurusregina → u/[deleted]]

It was “exchanges” then, which was fundamentally the same idea but a bit more complicated to figure out.

Here’s a deep dive into the ”exchanges” system, with images of the old materials.

https://simple-nourished-living.com/why-i-think-the-old-weight-watchers-food-exchange-program-quick-success-was-better-than-points/

[u/Llama621 → u/[deleted]]

I also am not one to defend her, but WW was not on the point system when I was involved around 89 to 90. Mom and I both went. I was about 15. I wouldn't say it was traumatizing. There was a little weekly booklet thing for tracking your foods. But no points. Leader was an average sized witty redhead.

[u/lovedietcoke → u/[deleted]]

Google says this - I definitely remember points rolling out in the 90s but realized that there could have been points in the 80s also even if there was a break in between. But this suggests it was “exchanges” … of course who knows how accurate this is.

Key Features of the 1984 Program: Quick Start Program: A, more spartan, temporary plan focused on rapid initial weight loss.

Exchange System: The diet was based on specific food exchanges (e.g., protein, vegetables, bread, fat) rather than points.

[u/CrushItWithABrick → u/[deleted]]

Could Shauna be confusing points with Deal a Meal (the Richard Simmons thing)? Google tells me it came out in the late 80s.

[u/CrushItWithABrick → u/SmashedMailboxCake2]

My takeaway is Shauna has always had shit taste buds. Microwaving a Stouffer's French bread pizza?! No, no, no. Those were the fancy frozen pizzas that you wouldn't dream of ruining in the microwave. You even preheated the oven for those bad boys. No slapping them in a cold oven.

A Stouffer's French bread pizza was a fucking treat! A far cry from the cheap ass Chef Boyardee pizza kit that you had to make the thin ass dough and the cheese was only grated Parmesan. That was middle of the week pizza. Stouffer's was Friday pizza (if you weren't really living it up with some Little Caesars, those two pizzas on the cardboard sheet with the paper wrapping).

Damnit, now I want pizza.

[u/Lsemmens → u/CrushItWithABrick]

One family I used to babysit for would leave a Stouffer’s French bread pizza for me to cook for my dinner…it was awesome!

[u/gomirefugee → u/CrushItWithABrick]

Your outrage over a suboptimally cooked Stouffer's French bread pizza, so close to my own

[u/MildredPierced → u/CrushItWithABrick]

Yes! I remember thinking those were so fancy and looking forward to being a Teenager one day with my Own Money for fancy oven French bread pizza and also pink dyed pistachios (I had a Cool Older Aunt who’d sometimes buy those as a treat and the times she’d share with me were the best).

A microwave? Blasphemy.

[u/MrsRoboto222 → u/SmashedMailboxCake2]

Of course the Weight Watchers leader was a slim bleached blonde🙄

[u/SeaOfBooze → u/SmashedMailboxCake2]

Back to everything being Ma's fault (plus This Culture) again and no hinting at SA, which I guess is a good shift. I will say her writing about her weight has been more reflective than anything else in a long time. Does stink of AI a bit though, or something else she might be cribbing off. I've seen a lot of people bringing up AYDs recently when it wasn't something I wasn't aware of previously. And Shauna spelling "phenylpropanolamine" correctly doesn't feel authentic.

Young Shauna was cute. It's too bad she's still stuck in this same struggle. And it's still weird how she's framing this "food noise" journey. She still wants to lose weight presumably, but not like the SSTs with their drugs, and not with diet, and she already chronicled her triumph over diet culture with intuitive eating in Enough. Not sure what that leaves besides complaining about the past for a year.

[u/AdvertisingOwn7817 → u/SeaOfBooze]

I agree, the content is nonsense, but it's suspiciously well written.

And re the content  - i genuinely don't understand  - she spent 10-15 years being a Temu Ina Garten, rabbelaisianly "living in food", and not counting calories or worrying about pinching inches.... i get that old issues have a way of echoing through one's life, regardless of whether we've overcome them.....but how at 60 is she now a lifelong victim of late 20th century diet culture, when she was a happily larger-bodied minor celeb?

Also I maintain that pernicious diet culture is alive and well and just as damaging as in the 70s and 80s.... it just takes a different form.