How does this work?
 

I've been doing ww at home and noticed that alot of you are counting calories. I am averaging about 1500 calories a day on my plan. Does that sound right for someone of my weight? How do you know where to start and at what point you lower your daily intake? On ww your points seem to change at every 24 pounds lost.

It's not just how much you weigh, but how active you are as well. You can use one of the sites like dailyplate or calorieking to get an *estimate* of what you should be having (although they seem uniformly high to me) to maintain.
Then you shave calories off that and try it out. If you lose, great - keep going. If you don't lose, then lower the calories a 100 or so and see what happens. It;s a bit of trial and error to find the right zone for you.

Some people find a set point, say 1400 and never end up going below that while continuing to lose weight. Others need to keep dropping their calories as they lose. It's very personal and there is no right or wrong answer.

And personally, at 240 - I think those calories seem a bit low. Does that count your weekly flex or AP points?

well, everybody is different, but I am eating 1400-1500 calories a day at 156 pounds right now and losing 1-2 pounds a week, so it may be kinda low? I was doing about 1600-1700 when I was in the 180s. your activity level might affect how many calories you can eat and still lose, I'm doing 3-4 hours of cardio every week and at least 30 minutes of strength training. How are you feeling on the 1500 a day? Are you tired and hungry all the time? If so, you might think about upping your calories a bit. You may want to talk to some folks on the weight watchers boards to find out some low point higher calorie foods if you do find yourself hungry on those calories. I know from a strictly calorie-counting standpoint foods higher in protein and fiber tend to satisfy hunger better. good luck, trial and error seems to be the best way to figure it all out sometimes, I've tried a dozen online calculators to figure out what I should be eating and they vary really widely.

My last weigh in was 241 almost a month ago and I have been walking 30 minutes per day. I do alittle bit of exercise videos but not much because I have just not built up to it yet. Since I've been doing the ww at home, I started myself out at a higher number of points for my weight because I felt like the food intake drop would have been too much. I eat (ate) like a football player! *lol* I only paid attention to the points at first and then I started logging calories, fat and fiber per day as well just to see what my intake was. That is when I noticed that the calories seemed kind of low. I am not adding in my weekly flex points during the week because I mostly need them on the weekends because that seems to be when I slip. I'm not hungry most days because I try to eat something every few hours and drinking all the water. Today though, I have felt like I'm starving. I think it's because I changed my breakfast around and ate something that costed more points but was not as fullfilling as my normal oatmeal. I go to the ww forums sometimes but it seems like there are not alot of ww people on here...I get more of a response from you calorie counters! *lol*

I will know what I have lost for the past month at my doctor's visit next Tuesday. I have been staying off the scales so I would not get discouraged at the gain/loss for losing weight and building muscle. My mind is fragile right now and I don't want anything to bend it the wrong way! ;)

I'm a little taller then you but I started at 1900-2000 calories at 269. Now I am 1800-1900 calories at 233. These ranges work for me but I also work out 5-6 times a week. Like lori and carol said it really is all trial and error. In my opinion it's better to start higher because don't you want to be eating the most you can and still lose at a healthy rate? Plus if you start higher you have room to lower your calories as you go. Just an idea.

Or ... you can put the foods you normally eat in a day into a calculator and see how much that is ... and just cut from there.

Wendy - Are you posting under the WW Flex area? There's a pretty active Flex Talk chat! And, I find people are pretty responsive. Perhaps less people post, but you'll get quality opinions/answers :D