PITTSBURGH -- It allows you to get almost anything you like as long as you keep track of your points and control portion size, but does the ever popular Weight Watchers plan actually work?

Channel 11 put Weight Watchers to the test and asked two of our volunteer dieters to follow the plan. Was it successful?

Colleen Zenobi and Susann Collins are friends and co-workers and both need to lose more than 20 pounds to be at a healthy weight.

Both Zenobi and Collins started the Weight Watchers program with high hopes.

"I realistically think I could do 20 pounds easy," said Zenobi.

"I’d like to lose 20 pounds in 4 weeks," said Collins.

Zenobi is a working mom of two young children. Collins has four children, is a full time college student and works nights with Zenobi. Both want to get slimmer to feel better.

"I need more energy," Zenobi said. "When I carry this extra weight around I just don't feel good," said Collins.

Collins ran in the Great Race three years ago now can’t walk up a hill.

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Click here to view Colleen Zenobi's Diet Diary
Click here to view Susann Collins' Diet Diary
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The Weight Watchers flex points plan assigns a point value to foods. You are allotted a certain number of points per day depending on your weight.

None of the Weight Watchers plans are rapid weight loss plans, but they allow you to eat any food that you want as long as you control and keep track of what you eat.

Another important part of the plan is that you must write down everything you eat.

Unlike any of the other diets we've profiled so far, Weight Watchers encourages members to attend meetings and get support and encouragement.

UPMC dietician Leslie Bonci believes this is a key to sticking with a diet. “Support is such a critical part of being successful when you have other people dealing with the same issue and everybody is in your corner and saying yes you can do it,” said Bonci.

The women believe doing this together has made it easier.

"It really helps that someone next to you is not eating something great, she's eating the same stuff I am so it does help," said Collins. Just four weeks into the diet challenge, Collins has lost 12 pounds and Zenobi 13 pounds.

If you don't like to write everything down or keep track of points Weight Watchers offers another diet plan called the "core" plan. Members are given a list of foods and can eat anything on that list, without keeping track.

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Have words of encouragement for Susann or Colleen? Click here to wish them well as the Great Diet Challenge enters the final week.

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