WW & Calorie Counting

  • As a present to myself, I plan to buy a FitBit Flex. I thought it was super neat that they are compatible with MyFitnessPal and so I started counting my calories in addition to tracking my points. When I get my FitBit Flex, I will be all adapted to MyFitnessPal. I thought it would be good to also monitor my sodium intake.

    Most of the time, my points and my calories are pretty in sync. However, I eat 0 point fruit for snacks which add up to quite a few calories in MyFitnessPal. It gives me the impulse to limit my calories to meet that goal, which occasionally means I'm leaving 3-7 points on the table.

    I know a few other ladies track points and monitor calories. Do you use all your points, calorie limit be damned, or do you find that limiting your calories leaves points on the table? And have you been successful losing weight this way? I have been very successful with WW and have completely re-learned how to eat, portion sizes, geez, everything! But I find myself becoming a slave to MyFitnessPal.
  • I also will be getting a Fitbit here soon (I can't wait OMG!!), and thought about counting calories along with the points, just to see how things measure up. How many fruits do you find yourself eating throughout the day? I try to limit it to 1-2 servings, with the rest of my snacks being veggies, since I know the fruits have more sugars and calories.

    I've never used Myfitnesspal, so I don't know how it works specifically. But I would probably try to balance between the two...if your calories show that you have hit 1500, for example, but you still have 7 points left to eat, maybe eat 3 pts worth of fiber/protein to keep you fuller? I'm not sure how that would balance out specifically, but that's probably what I'd do lol!
  • I do exactly what you do. That is, I count calories using MyFitnessPal and sync that to my Fitbit and I also count WW points. Basically - for me - the most important part of it is the calories and Fitbit. That is - my goal on Fitbit is to have a 750 calorie a day deficit between calories burned and those eaten which would be a loss of 1 1/2 pounds a week. Notes that I want to average a 750 calorie a day deficit. If it is a 500 calorie deficit one day and 1000 the next that is fine.

    I have found that if I achieve that then if I also record my WW points I am within my WW points overall (on some days I use some weekly points). Basically if I do the above I usually end the week having used about 20 of my weekly points.

    I do find it helps to record the WW points since the WW points due to weekly points are more focused on the overall week. So if it is 2 days into the week and I've used up say 25 of my weekly points then I know to eat more on the light end (daily points met of course) for the rest of the week.

    Remember that fruit while zero points isn't zero calories. So, yes, I do consider fruit calories which looking at my Fitbit and my calories eaten. I mean, let's say I want to meet my 750 calorie deficit each day (on average). If am have that deficit and then eat 100 calories of fruit then I have a 650 calorie deficit so I need to get more activity or I will have to eat less the next day to make up for it.

    I don't think there is really a big issue if you eat a lot of fruit one day and say are a point or two shy of your daily points on WW if that is an occasional thing. If you are constantly below your daily points on WW due to eating a lot of fruit, then you need to be thinking about what you are overall eating and whether you are eating too much fruit and aren't eating enough protein or enough fat. Look at the good health guidelines and be sure to meet those.
  • I did the same thing at one point just to see if I was getting enough calories..and it was pretty close