BANGOR – Waving a tiny American flag, Dawn Cowan promised Bangor-area members of Weight Watchers “more freedom” through a new diet program the company is rolling out this week all across the country.

Speaking at the well-attended noontime Thursday meeting at the Airport Mall site, Cowan, one of several Bangor-area Weight Watchers leaders, presented the new Turn Around program. Four years in development, Turn Around offers participants the option of using Weight Watchers’ tried and true points system – which allows all foods but requires careful planning, tracking and portion control to keep the pounds peeling off – or a new, eat-’til-you’re full Core Plan that offers fewer food options but requires no daily record-keeping.

“Notice this doesn’t say, ‘Eat ’til you feel stuffed,’ and it doesn’t say, ‘Eat as much as you want,'” Cowan joked with her audience. “It says ‘Eat until you’re satisfied.’ We’re going to help you get in touch with knowing when it’s time to stop eating.”

Weight Watchers has never promoted the discouraging and tedious approach of simply counting calories, but has relied instead on systems that are simpler, healthier and, somehow, more fun, according to Jackie Conn, general manager of Weight Watchers of Maine, headquartered in Falmouth.

“People who lose weight and keep it off are people who do it in a way they’re willing to keep on using once they’ve lost their weight,” she said Thursday. Conn, who travels to Bangor every other week for a brief appearance on a local television newscast, came up earlier than usual to sit in on the meeting.

For most of the company’s 40 years, she said, members used the food exchange system developed by the American Dietetic Association. But in 1997, Weight Watchers introduced its popular points system in a plan called “1,2,3 Success,” which assigned a certain point value to virtually every food imaginable. The point system, still in use, allows dieters to eat whatever they want as long as they don’t exceed their daily allowance. Members use a variety of clever, colorful devices and journals to keep track of their intake. The Turn Around program incorporates the latest version of the points system, called the “Flex Plan.”

Weight Watchers members who dislike keeping such strict tabs on their intake, or who don’t trust their self-discipline, may elect to use the Core Plan instead. Core Plan foods are, generally speaking, unprocessed, high-fiber, low-calorie and low-fat – fruits and vegetables, broth-based soups, whole grains, lean meats and fat-free dairy products. These common-sense foods can be consumed as needed to satisfy hunger and meet nutritional goals with no need to record or budget, according to the new plan. Any additions, including routine niceties like butter and cheese as well as the occasional ice-cream splurge, are allowed – but these non-Core foods must be tracked using a modified point system.

Conn said the Core foods are selected for their low “energy density” – low on calories, high on volume – as well as for their minimal “abuse potential.” For example, she said, whole wheat bread, while certainly a nutritious choice, is not on the list because it’s too tempting to “pig out” on it. In the Core plan, all bread servings must be tracked.

“Some people are looking for a simple approach to losing weight,” Conn said, using the popularity of low-carbohydrate diets as an example. “The Core plan is simple to use without eliminating any food groups.” Conn said the plan’s uncomplicated design doesn’t mean it’s easy to stick to – that’s where Weight Watchers’ weekly meetings come in. Like Cowan and Conn, all leaders are successful Weight Watchers participants themselves, and offer personal experience, empathy and encouragement to their members while challenging self-defeating thinking patterns, Conn said.

Despite the current fixation on weight control, Weight Watchers enrollments peaked in Maine and nationwide in 2002, Conn said. Membership in Maine throughout this summer has held steady at about 5,000, with a predictable jump coming up after school opens. January, Conn said, is when most people sign up.

More about the new Turn Around program can be found at Weight Watchers’ Web site: www.weightwatchers.com