I've been super strict with my points most of the 4+ months I've been doing WW. Most of the time I hit my daily target (which is now 29, but was 32 when I started) and that's it. I think I misunderstood that part, that the weeklys were intended to get your extra calories in...

However I've stalled out for about 6 weeks now and some people are suggesting that maybe I should be eating more. If I start using *some* of these weeklys will that cause me to gain weight? As in, hopefully my body hasn't grown accustomed to eating less? I hate to micromanage this, I just really want to get back on track. You understand! lol

I use more than half my weekly points every week and I've shown a loss every week - 23 pounds in 10 weeks.

Sometimes your body gets used to the amount of calories you are eating and changes your metabolism to work with what you are eating (ie: 1600calories in = 1600 calories of work done by the body). If you increase what you are eating, it can encourage your body to kick up your metabolism a little and get you back on the losing side. Usually restricting more when you are at this level will cause you to continue to plateau or gain as your body can go into "starvation mode" and take all the calories you put in and store it in fat for future use. I personally find that increasing what you eat can sometimes help the weight loss, as long as you don't go crazy with what you're eating. Good luck!

alot of people will tell you to eat more. i cant.
i will not physically lose weight if i touch my weeklies. (my daily is 32 now. was 34). If i go over more than 6 points of my weeklies - even when i work out super hard - it just wont happen that week.

Maybe try to eat more, but in one day, or 2 - people do it all the time, its called the wendy plan, where you zig zag your points around to keep your body guessing. If you gain weight, (give it a week dont give up after one day), then you know that, that doesnt work

I think what it comes down to is that right now you're at a plateau, and so trying -anything- one step at a time is what we have to do in order to figure out what is going to work to bust through said plateau.

But, you're going to have to do it with a "2-3 week try" mentality in mind. For example, I think that adding in extra points is a good start. I've heard from a number of people that adding in extra calories... for whatever reason!... caused them to start losing weight, again.

So if you start there, give to two to three weeks to see how it pans out. If you start losing some weight...excellent! It worked! If it just causes you to gain or doesn't quite bust through the plateau... then it's onto the next idea. And so forth and so on.

Just keep going forward. I realize it's easy to say "don't get frustrated", and much harder not to actually get frustrated.

While the scale is one tool we use to measure our success... we have other tools. Use a measuring tape to see if you're losing inches. Set up some goals for yourself that have to do with eating healthy meals, staying on plan, and exercising a certain number of minutes per week. And reward yourself when you achieve those goals!

Stick with it. Eventually you will find the key to this puzzle and you'll be that much happier you kept at it!

Lovely, this is the 2nd post (today) I've seen that you've given FANTASTIC advice. Are you a leader in training?!

jhinako: have you read this plateau busting ideas thread?