OK - I've been doing the Weight Watchers program and exercissing for 8 months. When I'm doing cardio, my heart rate is 90% of max - what I would consider vigorous. However, my perceived level of exertion is moderate - I'm breathing heavily, but can still talk (I attribute this to my greatly improved fitness level).

Activity POints based on the "moderate" or the "high" level? I just don't see how I can get "more vigorous" without going into an unsafe heart rate!

Hi Bethel. I don't know if I'm gonna be of much help here, but thought I'd share my thoughts. I have been on WW for over a year and am losing very slowly. I too have increased my activity and am in better cardiovascular health than I have been in my life. I could not force myself to eat all the activity points that I earn. What I do is stick to my normal daily points. However, I eat one or two snacks a day and don't even count them in my points. Here are some examples of my snacks.......small fruit smoothie (I do check nutrition info and stay around 3 or 4 points), whole wheat crackers with laughing cow cheese on them (3pts), cottage cheese with fruit (3pts), a pria 110 calorie bar (2pts), deli lunch meat (2pts).

Here's the only bad thing......for awhile there I was not losing weight and was working out like crazy and eating my minimum. I think this was prohibitting me from losing. My body thought it was starving. I guess there is a fine line and you have to find where it is for you.

Perhaps you could calculate the points using moderate and if you feel famished increase it to the higher level??? Good luck!! --Amy

ps spell check not working. Sorry for any errors.

You have to kind of play around with it to see what works, I think. I stopped trying to figure out how many activity points I was actually earning, and started just giving myself 4 points every time I worked out. It seemed to work out to one point per 100 calories burned, and with my workouts I definitely burn at least 400 calories every time. I run, I do high-intensity cardio, etc., so I burn lots of calories. I'm probably technically earning more points than 4, but I just picked 4 as the limit. It's working for me so far. I get 24 points, but I eat 28 on most days because I almost always work out. I figured out that this range allows me to consistently lose weight. You may want to assign an activity point value to your regular workouts and just eat those points and forget the perceived level of exertion and all that. It's easier. If your weight loss stalls, then you can reevaluate.