I count calories. It's so straightforward for me. Calories in vs. calories out. I eat between 1,500-1,800 calories a day. I use Nutridiary.com to track my numbers/goals/stats. I like it. It does all the math. That's a good thing for me! Put in your stats and goals and you get the numbers that you need to eat and burn each day. 1,800 sounds like a good starting point for you. I haven't done WW before but from what I've learned/heard the point system starts by taking the caloric value of a food...add a bit for every gram of fat...and subtract a bit for every gram of fiber...then you have your "point". Roughly 50 of these "adjusted calories" equals one point. So for you that would roughly be 1,650 calories a day. BTW - WELCOME to the boards!

Nori:
Thanks for the welcome and the helpful info!

Nori:
Thanks for the welcome and the helpful info!

Karen: I'm a calorie counter. In the past I have always set my calorie count too low and I didn't stay on the diet very long. I'm now on 2000 calories a day. I'm never hungry. The weight will come off slower but it took me a long time to put it on. As you can see from my ticker, I have alot of weight to lose. So far I've lost 7 lbs since Aug 3rd. According to the FitDay calorie counter, to just maintain my weight I would have to eat over 3000 calories, so I can afford to be on a higher calorie count diet. As the weight comes off, I'll get adjusted to eating less and healthier and will be better able to reduce my calorie count lower in steps to wean myself off all the food I used to eat. From what I have been reading from other ladies, they allow a little more now because they want to be able to reduce their calorie intake when they hit that plateau and not restrict themselves to an unhealthily low calorie intake. This works for me and I'm feeling really good about this new eating plan. I'm wanting to learn how to eat live and not live to eat. This works for me. I hope this helps. Do what works for you.

Thanks, I may try the WW points for a week or two longer and then maybe see about 1800 cal. max a day with exercise and plenty of water and see what happens. Good luck to all of you on your journey!

I like WW because I like the support and rewards. As far as counting calories vs. counting points, WW factors in fiber so there really is no set calories = points ratio. I do Core so I don't even count the points anymore (except for non-Core items).

Whatever you decide to do, make sure you're following healthy eating guidelines.

While there isn't an exact points/calorie ration, the range is roughly between about 35 - 90, and the average is about 50. It really is ultimately calorie counting, it's just a short cut, and a way to discourage high fat foods, and encourage high fiber foods.

I like it as compared to calorie counting, because I can do the math easier in my head at times that journaling is inconvenient.

I use WW points myself to keep track of what I'm eating. As above posters mentioned, it discourages high fat foods and encourages high fiber foods, but in the end I think it pretty much balances out and is not too different from calorie-counting.

Doing WW points I have to read the nutritional info and calculate the points in my head anyway, but I've done it for so many things so many times that I know a lot of foods by memory. I prefer WW points just because the numbers are smaller and thus are easier to remember as I often just do the logging/journaling in my head. It's much easier for me to remember that I've eaten 10 points so far today as opposed to, say, 763 calories. However, writing this all done makes me realize that it's somewhat ironic that I take the time to exercise my brain by calculating out the points for foods (using the equation) but I don't like to exercise my brain by keeping track of calories for foods....

To each her own!