I had my second weigh in since starting weight watchers last night. My starting weight on 1/5/11 was 266. My first weigh in on 1/12 was 266.8. Yesterday, I weighed in at 266.2. Well, I just realized that they have listed my weight loss as .4, but wouldn't it be .6? Regardless, I still weigh .2 heavier than when I started two weeks ago, which I know is nothing much but I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what I am doing wrong. The first week on weight watchers I did not start an exercise routine. Last Friday I joined the local YMCA. I have exercised every single day since at the Y. That Friday night I did 45 minutes of cardio and a half hour of light swimming. Saturday morning I did an hour of Zumba. Sunday I did cardio/light weights and an hour of light swimming (some laps, mostly water weights for resistance as I walked in the pool). Monday night I did 45 minutes of cardio and swam and Tuesday night I did Zumba again. My food intake has been right on plan. I had one "unhealthy" item since my last weigh in and that was a chocolate chip cookie from Subway. I thought that we weren't supposed to deprive ourselves on this plan. Is that why I'm being punsihed? Surely a cookie is not 30 activity points...****, I didn't even use all of my weekly's. I feel like I'm eating WAY more food than I ever have before. Has it ever taken you seasond WW'ers this long to start seeing results? I just signed up for a monthly pass last night and I'm wondering if I shouldn't find another program because maybe this one just isn't for me.

I have a blog (address below) that shows you what a typical day of my food intake/exercise routine looks like. If someone would please take a look at it and maybe point out some things I could do differently it would be greatly appreciated.

The old version of myself when previously attempting weight watchers would have quit right then and there yesterday after that meeting and headed straight for the drive through at McDonalds for a 10 piece McNugget with Fries. But I didn't do that. I went home, made some shrimp, a small baked potato, and carrots with a vitatop cornmuffin as a treat and headed up to the Y for personal training and cardio. I'm giving it EVERYTHING I have but I'm seeing no results. My scale at home even weighed me TWO pounds heavier than it did yesterday morning. Sigh.

Hi Toni! Don't give up, this program works. Are you consistently going into your weeklies? maybe one day try just using your dailys and see how you feel. I know that when I use my weeklies i tend to not lose weight (both on the old program and the new one), so I try to stay right at or a little under the dailys. Do you eat fruit at every meal? One of the things that I picked up from reading the skinny bi*ch book, is to eat fruit by itself and then to wait 30 minutes before eating anything else. Fruit digests really quickly on its own, (its why you sometimes get that empty, hollow, hungry feeling if you eat it and then don't follow up with something else a little later) If you eat fruit with other foods it stays in your stomach longer, ferments and takes a lot longer to digest. When you eat it alone and then follow thirty minutes later with another food, it can really jumpstart your metabolism, esp. in the morning! Most mornings I'll eat an apple and then 30 minutes later follow it with 2 boiled eggs and I'm completely satisfied until around noon. It might be a good idea to look at your post workout snack too...it looks like a meal to me! It'd be a shame to burn those calories in your workout and then eat them back afterwards. Maybe eat the apple and then follow up with a (bigger) handful of almonds, and skip the toast with the cream cheese. Don't worry so much about the points on almonds...they're good for you and they can make you feel really satisfied, just on their own. This was long, but I hope it helps...you can absolutely do this! Don't give up!

Ugh....can anyone help me who actually FOLLOWS weight watchers and knows what they are talking about? I am supposed to eat 42 points a day.

Anytime you start an exercise program, your muscles retain a great deal of water - it's why often when just starting out, trainers tell you to not weigh for a month - that's how long it takes to start dropping that weight - but with the food intake more limited than before, you should start seeing the scale trend down before long.

Eat ALL your daily points - sounds like you're doing everything you need to - but hang in there. Don't let it mess with your mind. This is something you're doing for life ... GREAT JOB in skipping the McD drive thru and looking for a solution. Sounds like your body is just hanging onto more fluids and drinking more water doesn't remove it from the muscles, per se ... so don't torture yourself with too much water ... you'll see a "whoosh" here before long!

I do follow weight watchers, and I am being successful with it. You asked for suggestions and help and I tried to offer the knowledge that I have. If you choose not to accept it, thats fine, no hurt feelings, but do you really need to attack me? I understand you are feeling frustrated with your weight loss, we have all been there. I get that you aren't eating toast and cream cheese, I know what wasa toast and laughing cow are. I eat them, but I don't eat them everyday. I was trying to suggest that you focus on the more nutrient dense foods. I'm doing weight watchers because it keeps me aware of what I'm eating and I like it, but I'm a vegetarian and I follow a more mediterranean style of eating. This is what works for me. When I responded to you I felt really positive, and I just wanted to help you. Now I feel like I should've just kept my mouth shut and let you go on your unhappy way

I don't see how my response was attacking you, and I apologize if it felt that way. I am just completely frustrated and wrought with anxiety because I'm really starting to believe that there is something very wrong with me that no matter what I do, I cannot lose weight. It took me almost four years to go from 308 to 266. I wasn't following a regulated diet, but I exercised. I've been tested for thyroid issues and nothing ever showed on my tests except for a low FSH level, which my doctor didn't seem to be worried about and he sent me on my way. That was about two years ago. I have an appointment tomorrow with my gyno and I'm hoping she will be able to see if there could be other reasons why I'm not having any luck.

I am struggling with depression and this whole experience does absolutely nothing to lift the cloud that I feel hangs over my life. I wonder how much more I can take. But I'm so glad it's working for you. That's great.

Just checked your blog. The only thing I see is that perhaps your sodium intake might be a little high, but couldn't really tell without reading labels. I know that for me, most commercially prepared food items.(popcorn, baked goods, etc) slow me down in my weightloss. Not sure why, unless it is the salt. I avoid 'em.

Good luck.

Hi Toni

I looked at your blog... way to go on skipping McDonalds. (Although if you go for breakfast I can suggest the new oatmeal - nom nom nom awesome!) To be honest, I'm a little nervous about responding to you after seeing your reaction to Sarah's advice (not cool, btw), but I'm gonna give it a go, as we seem to have similar weight loss histories... just keep in mind that the great thing about WW is that each of us works the program in our own unique way. If something's not working for me, I change it.

First of all, that does seem like a lot of food like you said! One of the tricks I have found while losing 50 pounds has been that I have had to learn to listen to my body. It sounded so easy when my WW leader said it, but it's not. For some reason I don't have that normal person's cue to stop eating when I'm full. I would eat to the point that I was uncomfortably full or nauseous... don't get me around the chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant, I'm a disaster! Also, I'm a late night eater/snacker, and would totally go to the fridge to eat ice cream at the end of the night if I had points left. But this does not lead to weight loss for me. Yes you have points left, but what you use them on is important too.

As my WW leader put it, the great thing about the new plan is that you don't have to eat all your points for the day. She told us a story about how on the old program she had forged a path between her bed and the fridge just to meet her daily points total. But now she listens to her body, and if we're hungry, we should just go to bed! Love that advice!

As far as your after workout snack goes, i love those Wasa light n'crisps myself! and one of those with the laughing cow is good, but I have started putting peanut butter instead. It is higher in fat, and higher in points, but still as filling. This could reduce the quantity of your after workout snack. One thing I've found is that I need a snack before I workout, not after, that helps too, because when I snack after, for some reason I don't lose. Dunno why. What works for some does not work for others.

So I guess my best advice is trial and error. Try it one way one week. If that doesnt work switch it up! OH and my other best advice, cut down on the fruit and INCREASE the veggies as snacks. Ooh and watch the BLT's (bites, licks and tastes) they add up QUICK! It made a difference for me. Best wishes on your journey!

Thank you guys so much for your help! I really do appreciate it. I know I didn't come across the way I had intended and I really didn't mean to be hurtful.

Our leader told us that we must use our daily points, but the weekly and the activity points were optional and if needed. I will feel a lot better about not trying to eat so much after my workout. Usually I do that because after lunch I have anywhere from 19-22 points left for the rest of the day and I don't like to have a heavy dinner, so I try to sparce them out through an afternoon snack, dinner, then a post workout snack. Unfortunatly, my workouts are limited to evenings, I work until 5. My workout "snack" is my supper. I'll try skipping the fruit at night and only having one snack (maybe just almonds, or maybe just wasa) in stead of all of that at once.

I did make an appointment with my gynocologist tomorrow. I'm having a health issue which I'm starting to think is connected to what is going on. I never got my period this month and I was due December 26th. I'm not pregnant, and I have a history of ovarian cysts. I had been tested for irregular cycle two years ago by my family doctor, and he said the only thing that came up on my labs was a low FSH level. I'm starting to wonder if I may have PCOS. I'm going to ask for every test possible tomorrow to rule that out if possible. I would kind of be surprised if I had that because I don't have excess facial hair. Oh well, we'll see.

Again, thank you kindly for your suggestions. I'll tweak what I'm doing and report back next week! (((HUGS)))

I don't think the problem lies with what you're eating but I do think you are not eating enough. If you are working out that much and not eating your AP's it very may well be the problem. Since I started Weight Watchers I've eaten my daily, weekly, and activity points and still continued to lose at a pretty steady rate.

Good luck at the doc's! Hope everything turns out ok!

While you're there you might want to have them check your hormones, thyroid, and blood sugars, just to rule out any issues with that, as problems with those can definitely slow your weight loss! (I'm a diabetic, it's a PAIN)

No hard feelings...be happy with the progress you've made. Not going to McDonald's is HUGE and you should be proud of yourself. You've lost 42 lbs. who cares how long it took, you lost it and it hasn't come back in 2 years. Just keep making small changes and you will get to where you want to be

You've gotten some good feedback, but I just wanted to chime in that I also eat my most of my weekly points (all but 4-8 of them) and have been losing at a pretty steady clip.

You can up your points without more food by choosing real eggs (not eggbeaters), whole milk yogurt, salad dressing with oil, real cheese not fat free/low fat.

A few of those changes per day and you'll be at your daily point limit.

You could always just try it for a few weeks, and then as your point limit drops as you lose weight, you can just move to lower fat foods again.

Hi Kim!
Thanks for your input. I think this is the hardest thing about coming to message boards and looking for input. Some people are telling me that I am eating too much and I should cut back and then you say eat all your weekly's and activity points, which would mean I would be eating significantly more than what I eat now.

I honestly am not sure how I am going to get it in any more food. I am going to be very detailed with my tracking, including exact times of workouts and what exactly it is I am doing and I will sit down with my leader next week after class and ask her to take a peak. It's probably just going to be a situation where I have to play around with it to see what makes my body respond the most.

I am happy for my fellow meeting members when they announce their losses week after week, but I can't help feeling extremely embarrassed and ashamed of myself knowing that I did everything I possibly could and my results are bleak. I forced myself to attend that meeting last night and I fought back tears the whole meeting.

WARNING: This is SO TMI...

Are you drinking enough water and eating your daily minimum of 2 tsp. of oil? If your body is not used to consuming a lot of fiber, you can get "backed up" if you don't pair the fiber with lots of water and the oil. Too much fiber can cause the same issue as not enough fiber if you are not drinking enough water. I have had 2-3 weeks throughout the last few months where I just felt "full" and did not lose well. Then I was able to get things moving and lost more the following week. Just a thought...

Water helps with the sodium issue, too.

Separate from above -- do you enjoy all the reduced fat or fat free items that you're eating? Fat is not the enemy, so if I had additional points left over at the end of the day, I would switch out some of these things for things with a higher fat content. Like reduced fat cheese for the fat free cheese. Enjoy your food (maybe you are, if so, ignore this)! Weight Watchers is all about eating in a healthy way, but not depriving yourself.