Weight Watchers syncs with Fitbit and Jawbone

NEW YORK — Weight Watchers on Thursday announced seamless syncing with popular activity monitors and apps, including Fitbit and Jawbone, bringing to fitness wearable users the opportunity for a more complete and integrated weight loss experience.

 

Making changes to food intake and increasing physical activity can result in greater weight loss than physical activity alone. In fact, multiple studies show that people lose, on average, three times more weight by combining diet and exercise than through exercise alone. 

 

The integration will allow activity tracked from top devices to be automatically converted into activity PointsPlus values and updated in the Weight Watchers subscriber app. Combined with the Weight Watchers database of more than 200,000 trackable food items (with PointsPlus values verified by a nutritionist), members can now have a comprehensive and accurate view of both sides of the energy equation — food consumed and energy burned.

 

"Losing weight and keeping it off is best achieved by focusing on both eating and activity, and most of us need skills and support to do both," said

Gary Foster, chief scientific officer at Weight Watchers. "Weight Watchers helps people make better food decisions, and devices and apps monitor activity. Integrating them can equip people with an ideal combination of resources to achieve their goals."

 

Integration with Fitbit and Jawbone is a significant move by Weight Watchers towards integrating with third-party open APIs, and more popular devices and apps will follow soon.

 

"Weight Watchers understands that support and livability are critical to weight loss," said Catherine Ulrich, chief product officer for Weight Watchers. "By helping our members sync with whichever activity tracker or app they choose, we're bringing more flexibility and personalization to our program. We know that some of our members are already using monitors like Fitbit and Jawbone, and they'll appreciate being able to see their activity seamlessly tracked within the Weight Watchers experience. We also look forward to welcoming a broader community of users to Weight Watchers where they can access the full suite of support, advice and tools to support their weight loss goals."