Tale of 2 W/W Friends - why eating less than TPs can be deterimental.....
Here is another reason why many leaders encourage the use of eating all or most of your points:
A Tale of 2 W/W Friends (to show why eating less isn't always the best):
I have 2 close friends who started W/W back many years ago and followed 2 different views to the program.
My first friend ate only 18 point a day (keep in mind they started back with ranges with 1-2-3 Success) and only 18 points a day. She one thought it would be easier for her to follow a smaller number (even though she should have started in the 26-33 point range) and thought she couldn't eat anything above her MINIMUM a day in points. She made goal and when she tried to start adding points she could only eat a maximum of 20 points a day to maintain. Anything above that (including APs) seemed to make her gain. She eventually had to use a doctor, nutritionist, registered dietican and much help from her leader to deal with the gains while she started to add points back in. It has been over a year and she is now up to about (as of today 2/13/05) 28 points a day after many months of only 26 points a day.
My second friend ate 1 range higher than she was told to (for example when she was supposed to be 26-33 points she ate 28-35 points), she always ate all her points and any APs she earned. When she hit maintenance her MINIMUM points a day became between 35-40 plus all the 35 FPs/WPAs we have. She also at first thought she couldn't eat above her minimum for the day because she had a minor gain, maintain and then a small loss but after that she started losing.
The second friend had to adjust her metabolism and did it while she was losing and the first friend has to do the adjusting now and it is harder for both her body and her psyche.
Don't be afraid to adjust your body with your losses using your WPAs/FPs and APs by giving it a minimum of 2-3 weeks....a month is better. One thing here is that there are some who truly cannot use all their points but the majority fi they would give it a good chance to adjust their metabolism would/could/and should be able to use their points.
How may calories do you burn in a day?
It's important to know your metabolic rate so you can balance enger in (the food you eat) with the energy out (how active you are). Because of different activity levels, each person's metabolic rate is different. Follow these steps to calculate the the amount of caloires you burn in a day. Remmeber, if you eat more than the calculated amount of calories, those extra calories eventually get stored as fat.
1. Convert your weight from pounds to kilograms by dividing by 2.2 (2.2 pounds = 1 kilogram). So, a 130-pound woman would weight 59 kilograms.
2. Women: Multiply the results of Step 1 by .9 (59 x .9 = 53). Men: Skip this stpe and go directly to Step 3.
3. Multiply the results of STep 2 (or Step 1 if you are a man) by 24. This gives you the minimal number of calories you need to survive, or your RMR (resting metabolic rate) (53 x 24 - 1272 calories).
4. To calculate the extra calories you need in order to perform your normal activites, you must calcualte a certain percentage of the RMR. Then add it to the RMR for that day's calorie needs. For example, a relatively sedentary day--say, a lazy Sunday spent watching TV or laying around--would require only a 20 percent increase in caloire expenditure (1272 x .20 = 254 extra calories). So, 254 added to 1272 equales 1526 calories.
Activity levels vary depending on how vigorous an activity it is and how long you're active. Here is a general rule of thumb based on nutritionists recommendations for energy.
Sedentary (sitting, standing, watching TV) = 20-30 percent
Light activity (housecleaning, golfing, garage work) = 50-60 percent
Moderate activity (skiing, bicycling, dancing) = 60-70 percent
Heavy activity (football,s occer, basketball, jogging) = 90-100 percent.
Additionally, low calorie diets (under 1200 for women and 1400 for men) are not the way to go because you don't get enough folic acid, magnesium and zinc along with putting your body in a perpetual state of starvation.
And one more thing here is some approximations put out by W/W on what the calories = points are:
20 = 1150
21 = 1200
22 = 1250
23 = 1300
24 = 1350
25 = 1400
26 = 1450
27 = 1500
28 = 1550
29 = 1600
30 = 1650
31 = 1700
32 = 1750
33 = 1800
34 = 1850
35 = 1900
in general terms (it can be a bit more or less depending on the fat and fiber intake) however these do not include the 200-250 a day that W/W built into the program for free veggies? As you can see for an even low active person 18 points a day (1050 + 200/250 = 1250-1300) is just very, very minimum. If you look at Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) many of us need to be much higher than that. My next part will be how to determine how much you burn. If you don't factor in activity that will be your BMR needed to just lay, breathe and have your heart pump your blood.
From Page 16 of the Weight Watchers Getting Started Week 1 Booklet (verbatim):
"Keep in mind...Stick to your daily POINTS Target to keep your metabolism going, to carry out bsic bodily functions, and to lose weight at a safe and healthy rate. Eating below your daily POINTS Target on occasion is OK, but you should not go below a daily POINTS Target of 20."
And if you follow a Points Pie (I'll post in a minute) you find that if you are truly eating balanced there is not reason you should ever fall below 20. W/W revamped their program when a study about BMR revealed that 18/19 points a day was way too low to keep a person's metabolism from slowing down. You say you can get under 23 point a day (I'll post a story called Tale of 2 W/W Friends in a minute also) is because you have slowed your metabolism down by 'starving' (for lack of a better term) by eating such low points in an effort to lose.
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My leader always tells people to eat at their minimum target everyday as you don't lose if you eat less than that.
