7 Insider Tips to Get Weight Watchers Lifetime Membership

Here’s everything you need to know about Weight Watchers lifetime membership, with insider tips on getting and maintaining it.

If you belong to WW, I’m sure you are curious about how people get to Lifetime and tips about Weight Watchers Lifetime membership so you can achieve it, too. I became a Lifetime member and in this post I’ll talk you through what Lifetime is, important insider hints for getting there, and why it’s so beneficial.

Is WW Lifetime Membership Going Away? {Updated September, 2023}

In March of 2023, WeightWatchers made the announcement that they are closing hundreds of in-person Workshops and Studio locations. Get details about WW closing studios here. This obviously affects Lifetime members if they are not able to weigh in at a meeting.

Will WW be ending Lifetime membership? No. At this time WW is continuing Lifetime membership.

At the time of the WW meeting changes, if you did not live within 50 miles of a meeting and were currently a Lifetime member, your free membership was be extended for one year.

As of September, 2023, WW has stated that Lifetime members now must weigh in once a month at a WW meeting in order to maintain their Lifetime status. As of the time of updating this article, WW has NOT announced that they are ending the Lifetime program. Stay tuned, and we will update you if further changes are announced.

What is Weight Watchers Lifetime Membership?

WW Lifetime status means you have achieved your goal weight and have the skills to maintain it.

Besides the obvious benefit of being at goal, the biggest reason to get to Lifetime is that you get your WW meetings and digital tools for free. Yep, you can attend WW meetings for free for the rest of your life for as long as you have Lifetime status and are within your goal weight range.

Getting to attend for free is a pretty big deal so it stands to reason that Weight Watchers has some parameters in place that you need to reach in order to maintain Lifetime status.

Let’s dig into what those are more specifically, and then I’ll share some insider tips that I didn’t know (and wished I had!) about getting to Lifetime.

How Do I Achieve WW Lifetime Membership?

According to WW website, here are the requirements to achieve Lifetime status. Be sure to keep reading because I’ll share a bit more about important strategies for making sure you reach all of these milestones.

1. Be 18 or older.
2. Join as a Workshop + Digital member. (Lifetime is not currently available to Digital-only or Healthy Habits members.)
3. When you join, you must have at least 5 lbs to lose and a BMI over 20.
4. Reach your goal weight within a healthy BMI.
5. Complete the 6-week maintenance program. That means at least 6 weeks of maintaining your weight goal.
6. Weigh in at least twice at your Workshop.
7. Be no more than 2 lbs over your goal weight at the final maintenance weigh in.

Getting to Weight Watchers Lifetime

Even though I lost the majority of my 100 pound weight loss many years ago, I didn’t actually achieve WW Lifetime status until last year.

In addition to therapy for weight loss, I used the Weight Watchers online program.

Although I felt great, was competing in triathlons, and enjoying life at close to goal, I continued to be about 20 pounds over the Weight Watchers goal weight range for me.

Last year, I made some additional changes to break a weight loss plateau, got to my goal weight with WW and then achieved Lifetime.

Achieving Lifetime status was a fun personal achievement since I’ve been a WW member off and on for much of my life, although I will be honest and say it was stressful, too. While it feels like a great personal achievement, it also didn’t change much about my day to day life.

Insider Tips About Weight Watchers Lifetime

Now that you know the official WW stance on what it takes to get to Lifetime membership, let’s talk about a member perspective on reaching it.

1. You must attend meetings to get WW Lifetime.

Although I’ve done WW both online and meetings, the majority of my time has been with the online program. Even though I’m sure it was stated in the materials somewhere, I didn’t really understand that you can’t get Lifetime status if you are online only.

As long as you remain ONLY online, you will have to keep paying a monthly fee. I wish I had understood this so that I could have planned to return to meetings earlier.

You have to lose at least 5 pounds at meetings, so you don’t want to get to your goal weight then attend meetings because you’ll need to lose an additional 5 pounds. Five pounds might not seem like much, but when you are at your goal weight, that can feel like the biggest mountain to climb.

On the other hand, if you attend meetings and get to Lifetime, you can have digital tools (online membership) for free.

2. Once you get it, you always have Lifetime membership.

After you’ve achieved Lifetime, you will forever be a Lifetime member according to WW. You can be someone who got to Lifetime 30 years ago and is 100 pounds overweight and still be Lifetime.

However, if you are more than 2 pounds over your goal weight, you have to pay for meetings.

3. After getting to goal, you have to stay within 2 pounds above or below at the 6 week weigh-in to get Lifetime status. 

Here was another little tidbit I didn’t understand until it was time to maintain.

At the weigh-in where you get to your goal weight, the clock starts on your 6 weeks of maintaining. During the first 5 weigh-ins, it doesn’t really matter if your weight fluctuates above or below your goal weight. However, for the weigh-in at week 6, you have to be within a 2 pound range above OR below your goal weight in order to achieve Lifetime.

So, not only do you need to take care not to gain weight, it’s important not to keep losing weight either. Honestly I found this highly stressful and would not want to do it again. Most of us have bodies that our weight fluctuates by 5-8 pound and this is normal. Mine sure does. Staying tightly within a 2 pound range was stressful to me.

The good news is that if you don’t get to your goal weight range at the 6 week meeting, you can keep going back every week and re-weigh until you reach it.

4. You must weigh in once a month to maintain Lifetime status.

If you want to maintain Lifetime status, you must weigh in once a month and be within no more than 2 pounds above your goal.

After you’ve achieved Lifetime, then you can continue to lose weight. You can be 10-20 pounds under your goal if you’d like (as long as it doesn’t drop your BMI too low), but you can’t be more than 2 pounds over.

If you miss weighing in, you’ll need to pay for the next meeting.

5. Your goal weight has to be within the Weight Watchers goal range.

WW will tell you that you get to choose your goal weight, which is technically true. You can set your goal weight for any weight you personally want.

However, in order to achieve Lifetime you have to be within the weight range that Weight Watchers gives you.

6. You can change your goal weight with a letter from a doctor.

If you feel the WW goal weight range for you is truly unhealthy, the program will accept a note from a medical professional stating that a different weight is medically appropriate for you.

My understanding is that WW now allows the note to be from any medical professional, like a doctor but could also include a nurse practitioner or dietician.

7. You can attend as many meetings as you want.

This is a hidden gem fact that many WW members don’t know. You can attend as many WW meetings per week as you like. You can attend a WW meeting every day if you need it.

However, members who are not at Lifetime can only weigh-in once a week and Lifetime members only weigh in once a month.

With these 7 insider tips about WW Lifetime, you have the information you need to reach your goal weight, go through the maintenance phase, and get Lifetime membership.

Are you a WW Lifetime member or want to achieve it? Share about it the comments below.

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How to Maintain Weight You’ve Lost – Step by step strategy to weight maintenance – from someone who has been maintaining weight loss for almost two decades.

What to Do When You Regain Weight – You’ve regained weight you had lost? Don’t freak out. It happens to all of us. Here’s a guide to losing the weight again.

10 WW Recipes Using Ingredients Found In Your Pantry – No time to get to the store? Use these recipes and stay on track.

Top 10 Best Weight Watchers Products to Buy on Amazon – WW Must Haves! – Great WW products to purchase on Amazon.

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WW Purple Plan Ultimate Guide – Recipes, Tips, & Meal Plans – Your complete weight loss success guide to WW Purple plan.