Weight Watchers – Downtown SF

This is my 3^rd (maybe 4^th, who keeps track) Weight Loss Journey with WW. I lose it— I just cannot keep it off. But this isn’t about me, it’s about how awesome the Tuesday 12pm Meeting is. Barbara and Virginia are 2 of the best leaders I have ever worked with. This includes one of the meetings I would go to in NYC which was led by a VP of WW who «kept in the game» by leading one group a week. Anyway, I find them both to not have only good advice but to be exceptionally compassionate, thoughtful and inspiring. Virginia weighs me in every week and I feel like she genuinely cares about my weight loss. One of the things you report on is your «mood» level. I am rarely a smile guy and Virginia ALWAYS gets me to smile. Anyway, as a guy 17.6 lbs down in 8 weeks (You knew I’d slip that in) I just cannot say enough good things about this meeting. Thanks!

So yeah. Out of ALLLLLLL the possible places that I constantly eat at, I get to be the Duchess of Weight Watchers. Ha!
For me, WW just works. It fits with the way I think about food. It allows me the flexibility I want to eat out, to cook, to splurge and treat myself DAILY. And I’m still losing weight!
The meetings are good and help to refocus me if I’ve had a bad week and/​or give me tips for dealing with the struggles of weight loss. I usually go at lunch to either Kelly or Susan’s meetings. My recommendation would be if you go to a meeting and you don’t get what you want out of it, try a different leader.
Thank you WW for allowing me to go to soooooooo many other places in SF to eat!

I absolutely love the Weight Watchers program. I have successfully lost 70 pounds while on this program and attribute a HUGE chunk of that success to my WW leader, Kelly. Kelly is without a doubt the greatest thing to ever happen to Weight Watchers. She is hilarious, positive, supportive, upbeat — everything you could ever hope for in a leader. I don’t know what I would do without her. I know I probably wouldn’t go to meetings, that’s for sure. Check out her Tuesday class (at noon) in the financial district. Trust me, you won’t regret it. I call it my Lunch Time Happy Hour — because I always leave smiling after an uplifting hour with Kelly!

I am afraid to write this review because I ended up sitting behind a pillar last meeting and could not see a thing because it was so packed. Also, sorry to the people I tripped over to get back in there.
I have been doing WW off and on over the past few years and had never found a meeting that I really enjoyed. It always seemed like I couldn’t relate to any of the leaders. That is until I met Kelly. Who ever thought you could make weight loss fun and funny. Having her as a leader has made my occasional week’s gains less painful. She encourages me every week to keep at it and reminds us to do something for ourselves at least once a week if not every day. I will always remember the day that she said that there is always going to be something… no time, too much stress, a parent who’s dying … there will always be an excuse as to why you can’t do this for you now. I also appreciate the discussion of the group, although currently it seems like most of the group are newbies (with a new year’s resolution and motivation), I look forward to a few months from now when they really begin to struggle muahahaha (evil voice). I love when we share new ideas of food because I always get stuck eating the same thing and always get new exercise ideas and motivation from them.

Over the course of 18 months, I successfully lost 100lbs with Weight Watchers and I attribute a big part of my success with my meeting leader, Kelly! Kelly has meetings Tues-​Thurs from 12:00pm — 12:45pm at the downtown location on 1^st st between Market and Mission. Just as the another contributor put it, she is REAL. She approaches the idea of changing your lifestyle in order to reach physical and emotional goals with an incredible sense of humor and a compassion which always makes you feel like she just «gets it». I have maintained my weight for over a year now and I still find value in attending meetings at least 1 – 2 a month. I am always so tickled by how much insight and laughter abounds at almost every meeting I attend.
After a lifetime of gaining and losing weight, struggling with emotional and philosophical issues around concepts of beauty, and eventually questioning the authenticity of «me», I have found something simple and straight forward that works! I have learned to love myself more, forgive myself so I can move forward, and to take control of my relationship with food which now includes an understanding of nutrients as fuel for the body as well as a greater appreciation for food as a source of pleasure.
Thank Kelly!!!

I’ve been back to WW for a few months, and after trying different days at the downtown location, I’m a HUGE Kelly fan! She’s there on Tuesday & Wednesday… fun, REAL, don’t try to push all the WW products on us, and pretty good at controlling the group chat. I also like that WW finally went electronic, much better for checking in. I also like (as another reviewer said) that the downtown/​lunch hour groups seems to be more focused, not as whiney as I used to find the weekend/​evening groups.
The downside? the room for the meeting… people all sit on the aisle, and don’t particulaly like it when you have to crawl over them to get in when you arrive after them!

I just want to say thank you for your help! my entire family is involved now and we have a weekly competition for the best healthy recipe. The winner get a piiece of bacon! 3 points! My Mom lost 4.5 Lb just at the very begging. We’ll see is she can keep it up.
Your food line is great! We will follow the program. Thanks again.

Near and dear to my heart.
Not the most organized looking place, but great people there who have been enjoyable and inspirational to work with.

So I move into a new area, get a new job, whatever. My self esteem is a little in the gutter because I feel a little paunchy (this comes hand-​in-​hand with moving to my new area). I make the walk of shame to the local WW, which is conveniently located just a few blocks away. Right away I felt like I was joining an underground society because it’s crammed into a little nook that I’ve walked past many times but never noticed.
Here’s the kicker. I like going now. I make a bee-​line on Monday around 11:45, co-​worker I coerced into joining me in tow. We go through the miserable process of being weighed in (very efficient, yet very dehumanizing), then fight to find a seat that doesn’t require craning your neck at an awkward angle. After a bit of group therapy, we get a rousing pep talk about how we can really take care of ourselves this week. Cause it’s hard to do this kind of thing on your own. And Susan is fantastic, and at the same time, very approachable.

Yeah, that’s right. I’m in FPA (Fat People Anonymous) and proud. As anyone who’s tried to lose wight knows, it’s not easy. I’ve been coming here on Wednesday afternoons for a while now, and while I’m not at my goal weight yet, I really do think the support you get while doing the program is the thing that will make it a permanent change for me.
Susan hosts my meeting and she’s unbelievably peppy and motivating. As I normally hate pep and motivation, I was tres skeptical when I started and prided myself on being one of the people who «wouldn’t drink the kool-​aid». Surprisingly, the meetings really have been a huge part of what’s kept me going back, even when the scale has made me feel like quitting. The support you get goes a long way to shifting the focus to the whole person and changing your perception about food. It’s not just about what you do or don’t eat. I can see why this program has worked for so many people. I’m still a work in progress.

I like having to come to meetings to get weighed in. Super excited the first two weeks into it when i lost 3 pounds… super bummed when through thanksgiving i gained those pounds back. Oh well… start over iguess. I like the scale to the oz… makes me feel progress even if its just .5 lbs.
its also around the corner from my job, at lunch time! perfect. this location is also right next to a japanese place that has points on their menu! how handy!

I found this location to be disorganized. A different ‘group’ leader each week, and when the regular leader came back she didn’t get through all the items for the meeting and would release us without covering everything. I felt unsupported and when I asked for a refund they refused.

The downtown SF Weight Watchers is in a retail space in the Financial District, which means that it has some very important positive aspects: 1) They have all the scales, administrative equipment, and products there all the time, 2) there’s no «traveling camp» aspect to it (like meetings that are hosted in spaces like churches or the Century Club, etc.) so there’s no people in the area that are there for some other function gawking at you as you get weighed, 3) the meetings are set up for people who work in the area and are populated *mostly* by sensible office-​worker types who have places to be at the end of the 30 minute meeting, so there’s less support-​group or coffee-​klatsch nonsense. There are meetings every week day at 12:15 (lunchtime) plus one morning meeting (currently 8:00 on Thursdays) and one evening meeting (currently 5:30 on Wednesdays), and nothing on the weekends. It’s really all about fitting into work schedules.
Gail is the leader for the downtown location, and she’s been working for Weight Watchers for a long time. She has a no-​nonsense approach that some people probably like (it’s not my favorite), and will often say things like «We’re not here because we’ve been eating too many carrots. Uh-​uh.» She’s often funny, in an acerbic way. She’s not good at controlling the people that want to talk about themselves, which means that she often doesn’t get to the assigned topic for the meeting. Plus you have to listen to someone go on and on about stuff you don’t care about. If you’re looking for star leadership, head to the Stonestown WW location. But if you just need to get the materials, meet some people who are in the same boat as you, and have the enforced accountability of getting weighed each week, you can’t beat the Downtown location.