I joined a Weight Watchers group last year and one of the items I bought from their 'shop' inside the meeting was a Points Calculator. Weight Watchers is a diet plan which gives every food a points value, the dieter is given a daily recommended points limit based on their height, weight and level of activity - providing you stay within your points limit you should lose weight. When you join you'll be given a pack which includes a cardboard 'wheel' to help you work out the points, but this Points Calculator is so much more accurate and easy to use.

Costing around £10 I did feel it was expensive considering I was already paying my £5 weekly attendance fee, but after just a couple of days I realised it was worth it's weight in gold. Weight Watchers change the appearance of the calculator every twelve months or so, the one pictured is quite an old design but considering they all do pretty much the same thing it doesn't really matter if you're using an older one or a newer design.

The Points Calculator is a clever piece of dieting kit. You simply type in the calories and saturated fat content of whatever food you're looking for and instantly it'll tell you how many points are in that food. You then have the option to track your points consumption on the calculator itself, or enter it onto your tracker sheet using the olde worlde pen and paper method. I got into the habit of doing it all on my calculator as it's such an easy way of tracking how much I was eating and drinking, it really is a case of pushing a single button to deduct the points in your dinner/snack from your daily total and not have to worry about passing your daily limit.

It also works as a standard calculator, which is what I'm using mine for now I've fallen out with Weight Watchers.

When you receive your Points Calculator you'll get a very comprehensive instruction manual, and for that reason I won't bore you will all the dull ins-and-outs of the machine - I can say it's incredibly easy to use though and once you've had it for a couple of days I'm sure most people will be able to find their way around the calculator without ever needing to refer to the manual. One aspect I did find a little tricky was when it came to me adding on the points I had 'earned' through exercise, but that could be because I'm a lazy sod and rarely built up any activity points to get to know how that section worked!

Quality-wise it's great. The buttons all push down smoothly and are sensitive enough that you don't need to practically break a finger to input your information. It uses quite a lot of battery power and I had to replace the watch-type battery twice in the few months I was using the calculator regularly - saying that, my mum is still attending Weight Watchers and when she mentioned the same thing to her leader she arranged for the calculator to be exchanged as this is apparently a common fault and it should not eat batteries like this.

The hinge which holds the lid in place can also be a bit temperamental, although it doesn't feel on the verge of breaking or snapping it does go loose very quickly - and even quicker if you leave it to rattle around the inside of your bag between uses. The screen is large enough to be clearly visible even in fairly low light, it also manages to pack quite a bit of information on certain screens without ever looking cluttered or messy.

If you are following the Weight Watchers plan I highly recommend you purchase one of these Points Calculators. It makes life far less stressful and also means you don't have to remember to cart a pad and pen around with you to write down all the tidbits you munch on throughout the day - I mean, if I'm out for the night I don't want everyone to see me scribbling down how many voddy and cokes I've had and it's much more discreet to simply enter the relevant details into the calculator.

They also hold their value nicely so if you've finished with Weight Watchers you'll easily be able to sell your calculator on Ebay and sometimes even make more than you originally paid for it!