Ok, I have searched, I have read all the WW Flex materials and I have read the Wendie plan info and the plateau busting info here. If this question has been answered (and I am sure it has) can someone point me to the thread?

WW official Flex material is sketchy...it sorta sounds like you should consume all 35 weekly points per week as well as meeting your daily point target. However, I have not seen where it comes right out and says so directly.

I have been using almost all, or all of my 35 per week. So far I have had a 3 lb loss the first week and then 1.5 lb every week after that. I know that I should stick with what is working for my body, however, if I reach a slow down point, what is the recommended answer? What is the official WW position even?

I have noticed that folks on the WW website boards seem to feel very guilty when they go over their daily points target. But folks here at 3FC have a more flexible "do what works for you" approach. My attitude thus far has been that if this is something I am going to persist in for the long haul (life) it has to be workable and a lifestyle I can maintain, and if I am too hungry on any given day day I eat more. Or if I just cannot say no to a glass of wine (4-6 oz only) then I have one. Etc. At the end of the week I have used 32-35 of the flex point extras.

Thoughts? Advice? Point me to some printed material on this?

Thanks very much in advance!

You are so right! This is for the long haul, and the more points you consume and still lose means the more you are allowed during maintenance. (maintenance = the rest of your life). WW gave us these to use, and they are built into the program formula for loss.

Even if you do slow down on losing, giving up your extra points probably isn't the best solution. Adding more exercise, rethinking your food choices, making sure of your serving sizes, etc. would be better. I eat all of my 35 extra points by adding 5 a day, for all 7 days. Other people save them for a special day.

Hope this helps.

I also struggle with the extra 35 pts. I have used them and lost, not used them and lost, used them and gain, and not used them and gain. I guess alot of it has to do with "what" you are eating. Our leader encourages us to use them. I think it may be because it gives you the cushion to fall back on if you fall down instead of saying "I went over. I quit." You can just use the 35pts. IMHO they have worked them in to help you be more successful, and it you don't use them while you are eating healthy you will never be able to go back and say "Hey two weeks ago I did not eat those 35pts let me eat them now." LOL would be great if we could and it still work. My body does not lose when I use all of them though. So, unlucky me, Don't get to each as much. But that is okay. Right now I am just struggling to eat all of my regular points due to my shift work at my job. Hope that gives you some different insight.

The week prior to my TOM I must use the 35 flex points because I am truly hungry. Other times during the month it's on a day-to-day basis. Some times I use 5-7 more a day and other days I'm fine with my target amount.

I think we should use them as we see fit and not feel guilty for using them.

I think there's only been one week where I haven't used all 35, or at least come close, like 32 or something. I don't spread them out though, because there are always days in my week when I eat on campus, go out for dinner or to a friend's house, or am craving something with a higher points value. In those cases, I eat some flex points, then the next day go back down to my typical 23 for a couple of days, and then another day will come along and I'll go a little over again. I try to vary them, like have a high day and then a normal day so that my body keeps guessing, as I think this is the basis that the Wendie Plan works on (though I am not following it) and has been proved to work. Some days I only go over by one or two... others I go over by a whopping sixteen, which was yesterday, so I'll be good for a couple more days before I allow myself to dip into the flex points I have left

I'll just go ahead and echo everyone else... They're there for a reason. WW wouldn't give you a supply of points and say, "they're here, but you'll gain if you eat them!" There'd be no point to them then.

Granted, I don't eat them all every week. I've been averaging about 22 of them. I use them in more of a wendie-plan-like formulation, where every other day or so I make sure to eat more and dip into the FPs so that I'm not consistently eating the same amount. I'm usually getting more than my target anyway because I've been exercising regularly.

I definitely don't advocate eating NONE of them, but I think you need to find where you're comfortable in eating the FPs. Find the most you can eat while stilll losing weight and stick with that

This is my first week on WW and I'm glad you brought up the question. I'm actually struggling with eating all my points for the day, let alone dipping into the "reserve". I eat out on the weekends though and I expect I will need to dip into the extra points for that.

The extra points are there for you to use them if you need them. They are not required, but it is recommended that you use some of them to vary your points intake from day to day.

That being said - everyone is different! From the very beginning, if I used more than 15 of my extra points a week I would not lose. So I try not to go over that number. If eating them all is working for you (you are still obtaining a 1-2 pound loss per week) then I wouldn't change it. Why fix something that isn't broken?

If you start to plateau, there are a few things to consider about the WW program:
1. You should be re-taking your POINTS quiz on your birthday, when you reach a new "decade" (ex: go from being in the 180's to the 170's), your normal daily activity level changes, or if you go from a nursing mom to a non-nursing mom or vice versa.
2. If you aren't exercising or are only exercising a little, try upping it.
3. If you are eating a lot of your flex points, try lowering the amount of them you consume every week.
4. Make sure you are following the 8 healthy guidelines

Nelie - Want to tell us what a normal day looks like for you? Are you following the 8 healthy guidelines every day? Maybe we can help you find ways to reach that target every day

8 healthy guidelines? (gulp)

Well actually I know I need to increase my fat consumption.

Morning - fruit/veg smoothies (8+ cups of spinach, 10 baby carrots, apple, 6 stalks of celery, half a cucumber, 1 banana, 1 cup of blueberries, 2 cups of strawberries) This actually makes a lot of smoothie and I drink them throughout the day but mostly morning.

Lunch - salad (romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery) with "chickpea salad" which is basically 2/3 cup chickpeas, mustard, celery, capers, dill, pepper. 1/2 large potato or 1/2 sweet potato.

Snack - 1 cup of celery with 10 baby carrots. Peach and tangerine.

Dinner - salad with 1/2 large potato.

Dessert - 1/2 cup Soy yogurt with 1/2 cup of blueberries and 50-100 calories of whole grain cereal.

The soy yogurt is mainly where I've been getting my fat but maybe 1 tbsp of peanut butter would do or some walnuts.

Granted I have quite a few points right now (28). And on tuesday, I found myself having 14 points leftover and not being hungry. I am always up for eating my soy yogurt with blueberries though so that bumped it up a bit

Nelie are you a vegetarian? I was thinking of giving you suggestions, but before I can I want to know the answer (since there was no meat in your day!). Also it looks like you *might* have gotten about 16 points in there. That is not much at all!

I went and added all those foods into the online tracker and it came out to 21.5 points and I'm allotted 27 points per day. And yeah, i'm not eating any animal products (no meat, dairy, eggs).

Good discussion so far, thanks everyone! I find the more information I have the better! Jaime, you actually made a point I had NOT considered even though now that you've put it out there I think "Uh, well duh!"
Well, yes....now that you mention that...
Also what Jane said...IF I can eat them and lose, I can eat them and maintain! And again, WW is not putting them out there and then not letting us use them! Riiiiiiiiiiiiight!!
I think that I hang out with alot of people who have less to lose than I do and I hear about these choices they make that just don't work for me!

MK-thanks for those very sensible suggestions! I will refer to this when I get there!

More thoughts or experiences on this subject?

Ok, so I'm very new at the whole points thing, but are you KIDDING?? Of course I use all my points, usually even more, and I'm STILL hungry a lot of the time!!

20 points a day just feels like nothing! Clearly I need to do a little more work on doing the points the right way; this week, I'm just trying to track and figure out how to do this.

Anyway, answer to your question is that I absolutely use all my flex points!

Nelie-

The nuts sounds like a good idea to up your points a little bit for the day! Sometimes I spread them out over my day, some on oatmeal, some on salad.
Almonds are 23 nuts for 4 pts, or almond butter is 2.5 pt per Tablespoon. Walnuts are about 5 pts per oz.

Also olive oil! I make big trays of roasted veggies which keep for a few days so I can eat them for multiple meals and use 1-2 T of olive oil which is spread throughout the servings, it bumps up points for each serving and is good for you.

And of course, nuts and 1/2 oz of vegan chocolate chips, which many of the semi-sweet variety are, those are a favorite!

Manick,

Thanks, those are good suggestions. Ooo chocolate chips. I actually buy dark chocolate bars but haven't dipped into them yet.

I would also say you may need to see how your body reacts to the points level you are given. I think the points level is a good estimate but points + flex may be too much for some (and maybe too little for others). I think overall you are making good progress so I wouldn't worry about it.