I am looking for general information about WW and the difference between the flex vs core programs

I can not afford to join and even if I could there are no meeting anywhere near my home. The online is out of my budget too but I thought if I purchased the starter kit on ebay I could move forward with help from the forum.

I understand there are point values to each food and that you should have so many servings of fruits, veggie, dairy, protein and fat each day. Could you tell me what the guide lines are and how would I calculate how many points for my weight? What are exercise points and how are they used?

sorry this is so long but thank you in advance

I think the At Home kit you want to purchase explains everything.

Core doesn't use points, they follow a plan that is similar to South Beach, where you eat unlimited amounts of normal portion sized foods from a Core Foods list. You do get a weekly amount of points to use for non Core foods.

Flex has a formula that tells you how many points you should eat per day, if you go over those points, you have the extra weekly points as well.

Both plans allow for Activity points where you get one point for every 100 calories you burn. Each point can be used to eat extra food on top of your daily points allowance. They must be eaten on the day you earn them though.

The kit should explain all the ways to figure out all the points and stuff, or you can do an internet search for the formulas you're looking for. I don't know them off the top of my head and I don't think I'm allowed to tell you anyways.

Hope this all helps!

Thank you for the information

Nancy, I have been doing the diet since April 2008 and have lost almost 40 pounds. I do flex, and I haven't been attending meetings or doing it online. I didn't have a lot of cash either. I got all the basics from a good friend of mine, and looked up the rest on the web. All you need is a regular old calculator, because the patent is online for free. I do wish, in hindsight, that I would have got the starter kit, but I have done just fine without it.

wow 40lbs since April, you are inspiring me. Well today was really my first day and I am keeping a food journal with the points I have eaten and an exercise log. From everything I have been able to find I should eat between 22-27 points a day and so far all I have gotten in is 17. Should I eat when I am not hungry to get those extra points in? I also walked for 45 min at a light to moderate speed (I have a calf injury so I did not push myself)

Do you have any examples of how a typical food day should look?

Hey Nancy! I too am using Flex and am doing it without meetings. I did join 8 years ago and am using the materials from then - it has changed but not much. I started on April 8 and have lost 48 lbs so far.

You can find info on the net for what you need and there is a lot of info here on this site too.

Check out the Flex forum. There is a thread there that members post their daily menus. You will find a lot of info there with examples and there are some really good ideas if you are stuck in a rut with what you eat. Plus the recipe area is full of ideas too.

Thanks Chey! I have looked at the reciepes and even tried some--the family thinks they are great. I bought an old weight watcher cookbook a long time ago but a lot of the things in there are not something that I could get my family to try or ingredients I can afford so I will work to find some foods that will make up my 'core' menu's and go from there

Nancy-
WW is a great way to lose weight! I know you can do it at home if you stay motivated!
A typical food day for me looks like this:
(I am not really into non-fat stuff and would rather eat less of "the real thing" than plenty of non-fat stuff, but different things work for everyone...)

Breakfast: (2-4 pts)
Usually a cinnamon nutri-grain eggo (I cannot live without these when counting my points. They are so tasty and only 1 pt) and a string cheese,
or sometimes a small bowl of cereal and a little fruit.

Lunch: (5-8 pts)
either small bites (which I count) of everything I'm feeding the kids, a nice little salad, a meat/cheese/lettuce sandwich or half a pb&j and some veggies, etc.

Snacks (2-6 pts during day):
Fiber One bars, string cheese, some crackers, some carrots, fruit, a pudding cup, etc. I usually aim for 2-pt snacks.

Dinner: (7-15 pts)
Pretty much the same thing everyone else is eating, because I knowingly don't make high-fat stuff that I can't turn down. I just eat a little more of the veggie part of the meal and a little less of the main course. For example, we had spaghetti (with semi-homemade sauce, and barilla plus pasta - awesome stuff!), small pork chops/baked potatoes/veggies, grilled chicken/brown rice/veggies, and sausage gravy over biscuits (half fat Jimmy Dean sausage, small biscuits - carefully calculated my points/portion)/asparagus for dinner in the last several days...
The hardest part is calculating the points per portion of the stuff we normally eat, but it's worth it, because if I don't count, I know I'll "cheat" after dinner.

Sometimes I have 2-3 pts left after dinner for a snack, but not usually.

I hope this has been a little helpful. WW is more a way of eating most of the time rather than a "diet" for me, so I try my best to make it work with normal food and just be smarter (and accountable!) with the types of food I eat and the portions. And I have to know which things I simply cannot control myself with and not bring them into the house... (very much chocolate, salty crunchy chips and cheetos, cake, homemade cookies, etc...) Because if it's sitting around all day, I WILL eat it.

Good luck!

thanks ctrsara It really does help to see what others are doing and eating. I have been trying a few different WW receipes in the eve on the family and they are enjoying them too. Then I take the left overs to work for lunch the following day.

Sunday will be my fist full week and I am getting excited about my first weigh in then I will finally put up weight loss ticker. I feel like I have lost a little but then who knows with me.

If you have any great family food ideas please feel free to pass them on

hi i'm a south beacher. i've been on the beach for over 2 years. i lost 70 pounds. i've stalled for a long time...losing very slowly now.

what i've done is go back to counting points (i even started going to meetings) and i'm eating my beachy (read core) foods and counting them as flex points.

so i'm doing a hybrid of both really.

best of luck to you.

Congrast on the 70lbs! It seems you have found a system that works for you. I have tried southbeach and liked it but it was hard for me to do with my family. So far I am liking ww flex the points are easy for me to keep up with and I bought the points book and dinning companion off ebay they look like they will help a great deal. I was also able to access ww website and use there point tracker...not sure how I backed into it but I did. So during the week while I am working I have a pretty good set of core meals but he weekends are still going to be tough to figure out.
I will have my first official weigh in (at home) Sunday morning I cant wait to see if this, being my first week, will have some results