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60's and 70's Weight Watchers Food Plans

I'm trying to find the first Weight Watchers diet that Jean Neidich started in 1963.

By Kaye Cerri from Staten Island, NY

Answers:

60's and 70's Weight Watchers Food Plans

Original Weight Watcher's Plan per Day:

9 oz protein; 3 fruits; 3 fats; 2 breads; 3 veggies (at least); 2 milks.

You need to get no more than 30z of cheese a week and 1 of those days you have to eat liver. 8oz of water a day is also recommended. A serving of the above is 3 oz protein per meal, 1 banana is 2 fruits, or 1 apple, and so many berries, etc. Fats are 1 tbs per serving, milk is 8oz per serving and bread is 1/2 cup rice or pasta or 1 piece of bread. (10/19/2009)

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By LINDA ROLINSKI

60's and 70's Weight Watchers Food Plans

No way the original diet was 9 oz. of meat a day. It was 4-6 oz. for lunch and 6-8 oz. at dinner. And this was to be the after cooking weight.

The reason there were lots of recipes with dehydrated onions was that onions were on the limited vegetable list. Not only did that mean they had more calories, but WW's had a rule that you couldn't split them up. So, if you wanted real onions, you had to eat 1/2 - 1 C at a time! And of course, they couldn't be fried. But dehydrated onions were a free food.

Here is the original diet as I remember it. They gave you little blank menus with places to mark off your daily/weekly requirements or allowances, which helped.

Breakfast

  • 1 egg, poached or hard boiled (I don't know why you couldn't have it scrambled on Teflon ware, maybe Teflon wasn't popular enough yet)
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  • 1 slice white or whole wheat bread
  • 1 serving fruit

Lunch

  • 4-6 oz meat or 2 eggs or 2 oz hard cheese or 2/3 C soft cheese
  • 1 slice white or whole wheat bread
  • at least one serving vegetables, unlimited

Dinner

  • 6-8 oz meat
  • 1/2 or 1 C limited (aka #2 vegetable)
  • preferably some unlimited vegetables

Daily Required

  • 1 Tbsp oil (could be eaten to 1 tsp increments)
  • 2 servings dairy
  • 1/2 - 1 C limited vegetable (sorry, can't remember which!)
  • 1 serving of dark green vegetable (I can't remember if that serving of this was 1/2 C or 1 C, either)
  • 3 fruit servings, at least one of which had to be citrus

Daily Allowed For Free

  • 1 C tomato juice

Weekly Required

  • 7 eggs a week, at first, all at breakfast. You could have additional ones at lunch! Later, after the cholesterol scare, you were only allowed 4 per week, all at breakfast. None were required.
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  • 1 meal with liver, beef, or chicken. If beef, it had to be broiled.

Weekly Allowed

  • 3 beef meals for either lunch or dinner but there were 2 rules; 1)all beef had to be broiled so that any grease dripped into a pan and 2)you had to use the low end of the allowance for any beef meal, that is, 4 oz at lunch or 6 oz at dinner. Beef meals included: ground beef, round steak, trimmed completely, lean sirloin, trimmed completely and all-beef hot dogs (2 per meal).
  • 4 oz cheese divided into two meals and only eaten for lunch

Meats Not Allowed

  • pork of any kind
  • deli or meat or poultry
  • smoked meat or any other kind of processed meat or poultry
  • duck
  • wild game
  • lamb (except for Passover! Jean was Jewish, lol. But the once a year lamb counted as a beef meal and had to be broiled like beef). It wasn't allowed the rest of the time because it it more fatty.
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Fish Not Allowed

  • shellfish
  • salmon
  • mackerel

Vegetables Not Allowed

  • avocados
  • potatoes
  • corn
  • yucca and other potato-like veggies

Food Lists

Fruits Serving (had to have one fruit at breakfast; the other 2 could be eaten any time.

  • one small of most
  • 1/2 small banana or grapefruit
  • 1 C strawberries
  • 1 1/2 C watermelon
  • 1/4 medium cantaloupe
  • 1 med tomato
  • 1/2 C most juices except tomato. 1 serving tomato juice = 8 oz

Dairy Serving (could be eaten any time)

  • 8 oz skim milk (originally, only reconstituted dry milk was allowed, but that changed early on)
  • 2/3 C plain unflavored yogurt
  • 2/3 C buttermilk
  • 1/2 C evaporated skim milk
  • 1/3 C dry milk
  • soft cheeses allowed at breakfast or lunch, never dinner
  • 2 T cream cheese
  • 1/2 C or 2/3 C 2% cottage cheese or Farmer's cheese (depending on which meal)
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  • hard cheeses to be eaten at lunch only and limited to 4oz/week
  • 2 oz cheddar, mozzarella, American, Swiss, etc. (this was before low fat cheese much, much later they were allowed and you got double)

Oils: 1 Tbsp per day with meals (could be split into increments of 1 tsp)

  • vegetable, salad, or olive oil
  • mayonnaise (no low fat or fat free back then; later allowed to use low fat and count it as 1/2 the fat as in regular)

Limited Vegetables:

  • peas
  • onion
  • Lima beans
  • pumpkin or other squash
  • carrots (I think)

Unlimited Vegetables

Those unlimited on most diets (celery, lettuce and lettuce family, broccoli, cabbage, green beans, bell peppers, tomatoes, cauliflower, turnips, beets, etc)

Unlimited Dark Greens vegetables

  • broccoli
  • spinach
  • kale
  • collard and other greens

Free Foods:

  • herbs
  • mustard
  • Worcestershire sauce
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  • boullion, chicken or beef
  • dehydrated onions
  • diet Jell-o
  • diet soda pop
  • tea and coffee, no sugar or honey
  • diet sweeteners
  • 8 oz tomato juice (this could also count as a vegetable or fruit. If you drank it as a fruit at breakfast, then you could have 3 fruits to snack on between meals or at night.

Condiments Not Allowed:

  • catsup
  • barbeque sauce
  • commercial salad dressings
  • tomato sauce or paste

Later Changes

Eggs: After the cholesterol scare, they changed egg requirements to 4/week. You could have them at breakfast or lunch (1 if breakfast, 2 at lunch). You only options for breakfast were 1/2 C soft cheese or 2 oz protein with your bread and fruit. Later still, they changed it so that you could have cereal, more on that below.

Low fat products; They pretty much didn't exist until the 70s. When they started to be available, changes were made slowly. For example, you could use diet margarine and diet mayo and they were worth half the fat. But, you didn't really need more, so most people didn't.

Alba and cocoa powder; Alba was a chocolate mix drink that was allowed early on because it wasn't higher in calories than regular milk and contained all the nutrients, supposedly. At some point, an allowance of cocoa powder was made. I can't remember the amount, but you mixed it with hot water, a pinch of salt and sugar substitute for cocoa.

Tomato sauce: Commercial tomato sauce wasn't allowed since it had added sugar. To make tomato sauce for anything, you had to use your cup of tomato sauce, boiling it to reduce by half and adding Italian seasonings and if desired, sugar substitute.

Early 70s Changes;

Allowed you to eat diet cheese for twice the bang and allowed you to use some previously illegal grains, potatoes, cereals.

Three times a week only, for dinner or lunch and in the place of your serving of bread at lunch, you could have:

  • oatmeal, equal to no more than 120 calories
  • dry cereal, no sugar, no more than 120 calories
  • 1/2 C cooked rice, wheat, or other grain
  • 1/2 C cooked egg noodles
  • 2/3 C cooked macaroni
  • 1 ounce corn meal
  • potatoes, equal to no more than 120 calories

Legumes and peanut butter came in the mid 70s and I don't remember the rules. (01/04/2010)

By lindij

60's and 70's Weight Watchers Food Plans

Recipes: I have more in an old recipe box that I will look for. I just remember these that
I still sometimes cook:

Pizziolas 60s thru 70s):

  • 1 slice bread
  • tomato sauce (made from reduced tomato juice and herbs)
  • 2 oz Mozzarella or for a switch, cheddar, grated

Very lightly toast bread, don't brown it. Just make it dry so that it doesn't get soaked up when you add, tomato paste, spread over it. Add Italian herbs, to taste, on top and - grated cheese. Place under broiler til cheese melted.

Buttermilk Chicken Lunch (60s thru 70s)

  • 4 oz chicken breast, cut into 1 oz pcs.
  • 2/3 C buttermilk
  • chives
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • dehydrated onions
  • 1 slice bread, crumbled

Dip chicken in the buttermilk and then in the bread crumbs. Place into a small casserole dish or pan that has been sprayed lightly with Pam (not really allowed til later, but...). Then mix remaining crumbs and buttermilk with the Worcestershire sauce and chives and pour over the chicken.

Bake on 400F til chicken is cooked through and "crust" has browned. Sound terrible, I know, and maybe it was, but I ate it all the time. Compared to the fish 5 times a week, it was like a gourmet meal, lol. And not liking milk, I was always trying find ways to use my dairy requirements up.

Cola Chicken (not very healthy, but not bad tasting).

  • 1 can diet cola
  • 4-16 oz chicken breast (4-8 for one, 8 -16 for two of you)

Place seasoned chicken in a slow cooker and pour the cola over the top. Cook on slow 4 hours. "Kinda" like BBQ, lol.

(01/05/2010)

By lindij

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June 18, 20162 found this helpful

Very informative. Thanks.
Two thoughts: 1)the old plan works FOR ME because it nudges me into a lower carb, more veggies regimen. I also like filling in those little boxes and I quit eating when they are full.
2)as to the liver, which few actually ate regularly, remember that people were not taking mega doses of vitamins in the 70's. Many popular diets these days caution users to take vitamins to supplement the diet. And WW was ahead of the game on fish recommendations!

 
July 15, 20230 found this helpful

I was ON WW in the 70s. What you have listed as protein serving 4-6 @ lunch and 6-8oz @ dinner was the suggestion for MEN! Women's program allowed only 2-4 oz protein (cooked meat, fish or poultry), OR 2 eggs OR 2 oz hard cheese. Or any combination like 2 oz cooked meat + 1 oz hard cheese.
Dinner portion for Women was 4-6 oz cooked meat, fish, or poultry. So YES total portion for women was 6-10 oz of cooked protein per day. 1 oz of that protein may also have been eaten for breakfast. Like one hard cooked egg + 1 slice of Canadian bacon on toast for breakfast. I was a very good program! I had NO problem getting 5 fish meals in per wk, as well as 1 liver meal (usually at dinner so I could have 6 oz cooked liver and get my iron for the week). Then we were also allowed other choices for protein like cooked chicken w/o skin or fat, lean pork, lamb or once week you could have cooked dried beans as your protein. If you wanted to put a little lean meat in with beans use 1/2 lean meat portion and 1/2 cooked dried beans portion. I actually PREFER this program to the the newer program. The point system gets confusing to some people. One lady in our class couldn't understand why she had gained that week when she hadn't "cheated" Turns out, ONE PORTION of watermelon had been labeled 0 points. She had eaten a WHOLE watermelon thinking she didn't have to account for those points because it was a "free" food!

 
July 24, 20230 found this helpful

Thank you so much . This is the only plan I was able to loose weight on and keep it off. eating whole food. thanks for your help.

 
January 6, 20180 found this helpful

I was on the WW diet in 1972- 1974) Best thing ever! Beets were also on the #3 veggies (limited). I remember having salmon and mackerel. The only limit to fish I remember was shellfish. If you had tuna (since it was before water pack) you had to rinse it very well. 1 remember making the morning legal danish -- 1 slice of dry toast with 1 Tbsp. of cottage cheese mixed with artificial sweetener and cinnamon, put under the broiler until bubbly. We felt so very decadent!

 
December 5, 20180 found this helpful

I remember eating a lot of brussel sprouts. Were they a #4 (they called those vegetables)?

I lost weight but the thing I missed most were crackers.
Easier to follow without so many choices.
I thought tuna had less fat than salmon, therefore I ate a lot of tuna for lunch. For dinner, I had baked fish. It wasn't too tasty, but it kept me full.
I love fish so 5 times a week was easy for me.
Eating fruit 3 times a day was very healthy. I went thru the winter without one cold. Of course, I was much younger.

 
January 10, 20211 found this helpful

I just came across this thread but wanted add I was on WW on 1972 when I was 14/15 yrs old and I dropped 80# very easily. Of course, at that age I was active and walking everywhere. No one had a car yet. THAT helped so much I think in addition to having a higher metabolism. I have been on and off WW through the years and about 4 yrs ago I again lost #80 (magic number I guess) and AGAIN went back to old bad habits. Following the green program at that time or maybe the blue one. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

 
Anonymous
June 23, 20230 found this helpful

I remember the toast with cottage cheese. My favorite was chicken with dehydrated onions and canned mushrooms and bean sprouts. It was so good and it was a large serving. I had it a couple of times a week. I lost 43lbs I joined the week before Thanksgiving of 1974

 
February 18, 20220 found this helpful

I cant express how happy I am to have found your post!!! i lost 60 lbs in the late 60s and kept it off for a long time i have not been able to find the old plan.. yes It worked so well for me. I would be so happy if you were to find any old recipes! Remember how many people ( out of necessity ) came up with great recipes.? Wish Ihad,ept them. Again thank you soooo much!.

 
February 18, 20220 found this helpful

I will love any of your tips and memories!

 
May 31, 20220 found this helpful

I lost 56lbs in the 1976. Of course I was younger. I forgot the liver meal. Back then my husband hunted deer and we ate the liver. Now we don't. I think this plan would be keto now. Which I was thinking I should follow again.

 
July 11, 20220 found this helpful

Where is tuna fish or fishes a week?timbi

 
November 5, 20221 found this helpful

So interesting to see others looking at the vintage version of weight watchers. The one thing I liked about the plan was the structure of meals. If I messed up at a meal it was easy to get back on track at the next meal. When WW switched to exchanges it was harder for me.
Did I bend or break a lot of the rules? Of course! But it still worked - tho being only about 1200 calories is probably the key.

 
April 23, 20230 found this helpful

Yes, thank you for this! I had a pink booklet from the 70's and I don't know where I put it so this is great as a reminder. I remember a recipe that had ground beef, after it's drained, than some rice (uncooked) and tomato juice with spices--and probably those dehydrated onion lol). It was pretty good and I made it frequently, just don't remember much about it, but I may experiment to try it again. Again thanks for this!

 

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