[beckyfurn]

Hi! The whole points thing confuses me! Can anyone tell me how many calories there are in 1 point? I'm in the UK by the way... and not a WW member (where I'm sure they give you all that information!), but I'm thinking about it, and would like to un-confuse myself before I rake out loads of cash! Thanks very much

[Trish O]

It can vary a little because the fiber abd fat content of a food item can alter the number of points for an item, but I have found that a good rule of thumb to go by when I am forced to estimate is 50cal for every point. If something has a really high fat content I would add a point to that item. If it hasa really high fiber content, I may take a point away. Usually not as this system is only used for emergency estimation.

Hope that helps.

Trish

[beckyfurn]

Thanks Trish - you've helped a lot!

[elisa822]

I'm not sure if this is a perfect formula but it's pretty darn close, just a little difficult while you're standing in the grocery store trying to figure out what to buy....

#of calories + (fat gramsX50) - (fibre gramsX50) divided by 50 equals the number of points

if you understand that, here's an example for 250 calories with 2 grams of fat and 1 gram of fibre it would be....

250 + 100 (fatX50) - 50 (fibreX50) = 300 divided by 50 would be 6 points.

Did I totally confuse you or is that helpful at all? When you join WW they give a points calculator (really just a slide ruler) which helps and there's also some points calculators on line that give really exact calculations here's a link.....

http://www.angelfire.com/co/mtrevino/points.html

hope this all helps,
Elisa

[Bumby]

The formula is different in the U.K. I believe they consider saturated fat only, and not fiber.

The US formula is something like cal/50-fiber/4+fat/12, BUT
a simpler way is:

-start with calories
-subtract 10 x fiber grams (max of 4 g--ignore anything over 4)
-add 4 x fat grams
-divide total by 50 and round

Check this against your slider--it works.

[Suzanne 3FC]

My brain hurts

[trixiepup]

why do different countries have different ways of calculating points? i mean, being fat is being fat, and i would think that using one method would work world wide, cuz businesses and living are so global now....?


andrea

[Trish O]

I think part of it is the nutritional information available on food items in different countries. In the US they show the fat, fiber, and cal for all items...I think. I can not think of one that does not have the nutrition information on it. In the UK, I think they have a diffrent regulation and show less info or something. So the slider would have to be different to reflext that. That woudl make the program points a little diffrent to reflect the diffrent slider calculations etc.

Anyway, I think that is the issue...the nutritional information available to the consumer.

Trish