I'm on my second day of WW Flex. Had my first meeting on Monday. Just wanted to ask a quick question.

I have been alloted 26pts and today I only ate 21. I'm not hungry and it's 9pm. I don't have to eat another 5, do I?

Should I be working harder to use all the points, or is this okay. Yesterday and today I found myself rationing the points, worried I was going to run out if I ate too much early in the day.

Suggestions?

Nope!! Once you get the hang of it, you will probably be able to get them all in -- it's a good way to keep the weight loss going, because when you hit a plateau, you will have a little room to cut some points. If you start out too low, there is no "wiggle room".

I did the same thing when I started -- I either ate all my points way to early or rationed and had too many left at the end of the day. If you feel like munching at night, have a more calorie-dense, healthy snack. You must be doing an awesome job eating healthy if you end your day not hungry and with points to spare

Don't forget your flex points as well -- 35 per week -- sometimes they come in rather handy!!

Thanks so much for your reply.

Would you mind looking at what I ate today to see if you think there is anything I could be doing better? I feel great, but just wondering if I'm doing things right.

Breakfast: 2 points
Steel cut oatmeal (1 cup cooked)
1 tsp unpacked brown sugar

Snack: 2 points
2 cups watermelon

Lunch: 6pts
1 serving WW Veggie Soup (recipe was in one of the guides)
6 saltine crackers in the soup
1 whole wheat english muffin
1 tsp unsalted butter

Snack: 2 points
2 cups light popcorn
1 WW Giant latte bar

Dinner: 9 points
1 serving homemade cashew chicken
1 WW Giant latte bar

Total - 21 points; 5 remaining

I also drank 3.5 liters of water and .5 liter decaf blueberry green tea and generated 4 activity points.

Suggestions?

Mellie...gonna jump in here...you might think about adding some more protein in the middle part of your day. Especially with the exercise you are doing!

A piece of fruit with 2 T of peanut butter, some almonds, a piece of string cheese or yogurt, might round things out and help you keep energized.

For me (just sayin') I have to watch my sugar and refined stuff. Whole grains are more points but they are worth it for me.

Thank you Manick - I was thinking that might be an issue. I'm not much of a meat fan, so string cheese, yogurt or almonds would be a great addition. Like you, I really watch my sugar and refined stuff - I have PCOS and that stuff goes right to my, well, everywhere.

P.S. You and I have the same starting weight and close to the same goal!

Got milk???

Just didn't notice too much for dairy and maybe a little more in the veggie department. Agree -- not much of a meat fan, I do like the drinkable yogurts.

I'm VERY impressed -- you are eating so healthy -- I've been on WW for 3 months and still am not eating that healthy all the time

You should be proud of yourself, you are really doing a great job....

I think you're doing great!
I think that as you go along on the WW plan, you'll begin to figure out what works best for you as far as how many points to eat, and how to allot them.
Good luck!

Definitely eat your target number of points each day. It's gonna make it tough for you later if you don't keep your intake up now while you can!

I had a quick question though - is 1c cooked steel cut oats really just 1 point?? Somehow that doesn't compute for me but I admit I've never looked it up.

If you hit the end of the day and you haven't eaten all your points, snack on 1oz of nuts - that's 4 points right there, and lots of "good" fat. It's also not a lot of bulk so you won't be left feeling gross for eating when you weren't hungry. Good luck!

According to the online calculator on the WW website, it's 2pts. That's what I've been using to enter my recipes and look things up.

When I first started WW I had a hard time getting all of my points in too. I also came here seeking advice and basically I heard "get in your points.. get in your points" over and over. At first I thought "there's no way I can eat that many points and lose weight. I'm trying to change my lifestyle and forcing myself to eat more is not going to help! These people are out of their minds!" Well of course they were right! I just had to alter my way of thinking. It wasn't about eating as much as you could to get in all your points. It was about finding more nutritionally dense foods.

I had to use 40 points and I was only getting in about 31 a day. To get them all in I changed a lot of what I was eating from the light version to the full fat version. For instance now I eat the full fat laughing cow cheese instead of the light. I also noticed that a lot of the "1 point" foods I ate were full of refined sugar -like the weight watchers cakes and such. Now I eat things that have a heavier caloric value, but are loaded with fiber and protein. For example, a toasted wheat english muffin with a piece of LC cheese on the inside (4pts). Or now I'll have a glucose control Boost right after working out (4pts). After being on WW for 9 weeks I'm getting used to using all of my points, and some weeks I'll even use all of my flex points. I've started to drop the weight a lot faster now -1.5 to 2lbs a week instead of 0-.5lbs.

If at the end of the day I still had more points left, and I wasn't hungry, I would not force myself to eat. This is a personal choice. A huge part of my weight-loss journey has been to train my mind not to eat when I'm not hungry. I would however plan better for the next day to get in all of my points.

Experiment and see what is right for you. Start off with small variations. Maybe you could throw some walnuts or almonds into your oatmeal? You'll get into the swing of things! So far, you're doing great! Keep it up!

Thanks for sharing your story, Krista! You're like the poster child for making sure you get in your daily points! Congrats on your success so far!

Thanks everyone for your tips. I actually found out this morning that I'm supposed to be eating 29 points rather than 26. I had the incorrect "job type" in there - it said I was mostly sitting when in fact I'm a stay at home mom to 2 kids under 2, so I hardly ever sit.

Today I have added some more dairy in the form of string cheese with lunch and some milk in my fiber cereal this morning. I'm going to go to the grocery store tonight to pick up some whole wheat english muffins so I can make an english muffin for breakfast tomorrow and maybe grab some low-fat cottage cheese two.

Here's day 3:

Breakfast: 2.5
1/3 cup FF milk
Fiber Cereal
1 cup watermelon

Snack: 5 points
7 cashews
1 soft pretzel (old habits die hard)

Lunch: 5 points
WW Zero Points Veggie Soup (cabbage, zucchini, beans, carrots, etc.)
6 saltines
1 WW Giant Latte Bar
1 String cheese

Afternoon Snack: 1 point
2 cups light microwave popcorn

Dinner: Approx 10 points
The plan is to have lamb chops, bok choy sauteed in garlic/olive oil and a sweet potato

That will give me 23.5 points. Hopefully I'm going to grab some FF yogurt and almonds for a snack tonight and that should get me closer to the 29 points.

It's amazing how much better I eat when I'm keeping track of it like this. I've always been a fairly healthy eater - I just eat too much.

Mellie - Totally off topic, but I have to ask. What is Mellie short for? My mom is named Carmela and her family calls her Mellie to differentiate between her and her mom (also Carmela)

oohh, Carmela is a pretty name.

It's short for Melissa. My husband calls me Mellie.