I'm in Vermont, telecommuting and enjoying the Green Mountains while my wife teaches at the Bread Loaf School of English , a Middlebury College program in which students, mainly K-12 teachers, can get a Masters degree in the course of five summers. Students and faculty have meals in a building that served as a summer Inn a century ago. Last night at dinner two faculty members I was sitting with began to talk about how many Weight Watcher "points" the different foods had. They graciously allowed me to grill them on their experience with weight management. Here's what I learned: Neither had succeeded in maintaining weight loss on his own. While they did not care for the meetings associated with the Weight Watcher program, both found the weekly "check in" helpful. I probed. Did they have an extended conversation with the person who weighed them? No. Was it always the same person? Yes, usually. But they did not appear to find the relationship itself important. I...