I just started the WW points plus program online earlier this week. I'm not used to inputing everything that I eat. It's taking some getting used to. For those who have reached their goal weight, do you have to continue counting points? Or do they transition you to eating without point-counting somewhere during the program? I can see myself eating this way for the rest of my life, but I'm not so sure about counting points forever.

Hi Shadowcat. I'm surprised no one has answered yet, but I think a couple of things happen. Once you learn the program, you know the points. We tend to eat similar menus repeatedly. So on that note, eventually you aren't looking up every bite you have and also become secure in your usual routine. While I've just begun losing, by the time I reach my goal, estimated in the spring of 2012, I hope to know enough that keeping track of the foods/points becomes second nature, but not "all consuming" like it is at the moment.

To not track everything you eat, however, there is an alternate WW program called Simply Filling Technique (SFT) where you don't need to track the Power Foods (unless you want to, and there may be a learning curve). On SFT, you eat from the Power Foods list for most of your consumption. You also get Weekly Points for the "extras" and 2 teaspoons of oil daily do not come from those Weekly Points, but a 3rd or 4th teaspoon would come from your Weekly Points. From what I understand, and there are others here who can better advise you, when following SFT, you eat much "cleaner" because the processed foods aren't Power Foods. Now, for instance, all of the dairy products on SFT are fat free. For example, if you consume whole milk, for instance, you have to use your Weekly Points and keep track, but skim, no tracking needed. So, pretty much only have to track the Weekly Points for the foods that are not Power Foods. The caveat to this program is that you are to eat when hungry, and to satisfaction. Now, that is fine for a person who does not have the confines of a schedule where breakfast, lunch and dinner are generally timed according to a job, etc. BUT, planning b/f/d and 2 snacks is a fair place to begin if you switch to SFT.

I am NOT doing SFT, but I am looking into it. I don't know what information is available particularly to online users about SFT. I am an at-work user with free website etools, and it was a bit of a chore to find the information, but I did by rummaging around the site a bit.

There are people better equipped here at 3fatchicks to answer your question(s) about maintenance, and if you want to find out more about SFT.

Finally (jeez I'm a talker...lol) good luck on your WW journey. The folks here are very knowledgeable and you will find them of great assistance in your efforts.

On maintenance you get an extra amount of points each day. How much will ultimately depend on what it needs to be to maintain you. So yes (if you aren't doing Simply Filling) you count points. You don't have to right down what you eat but you do count points.

Now -- that said -- no one sends the WW police after you if you don't track your points eaten. There are people who are losing weight and keep track in their head and don't write down.

If you aren't gaining weight and are maintaining then that is fine. The problem is that a lot of us find that our eating creeps up when we don't count our points.

I'm a regained lifetime member. I quit counting (exchanges back then) and regained. I suspect that when I get back to goal I will keep counting since I think I need it to structure my eating. But not everyone is me and some people could do it by frequently weighing themselves for example and cutting back if they start gaining.

I weigh daily. If I weigh more than 118 (my "hard stop" goal) in the morning, I plan a low-points day and track every bite. If I'm comfortably under goal, I just "eat sensibly" and "make good choices." But since I'm often eating (for breakfast and lunch especially) stuff I already know the ppt value for because I've eaten that meal many times, I kind of know where I am most days even without writing down everything.

For instance, I just had a 280-calorie breakfast that I know counts 8 ppts. I'm not going to bother writing it down, but I might click it into my clicker counter just to make it easier for me at dinner time tonight when I'm thinking about what to make. Knowing that, for instance, I had an 8 ppt breakfast and maybe a 10-ppt lunch will let me know that I would have 11 ppts left for dinner even if I were trying to lose. So since I'm not, I'll make a "healthy" dinner, have a salad with it, use lowfat dressing and eat a reasonable portion of whatever's for dinner, and feel pretty confident that I can have a glass of wine. But I probably won't bother tracking those dinner/wine points since I'm well under goal right now.

Val

Thank you everyone for the info. I guess I will just have to see what works for me when I get to my goal. In the meantime, the point-counting is getting easier as I become more familiar with the points values of the foods I regularly eat.

I am thinking about this too since I am closing in on goal weight. I like WW and I could do it for maintaining too since I know the points values by heart. However, I think WW doesn't go deep enough into details. I am talking about different components like sodium, iron, vitamins, etc. So now I am actually checking out calorie counting on MyFitnessPal. You can track your food (all of it incl. veggies, salt, spices) and they split it out into the different nutritional categories. I plan on doing that parallel to WW to make sure it works but later drop WW. I just don't want to stall or mess up my losing streak ;-)

I count calories to on livestrong and it is useful to get that information.

i am a daily weigher as well. I found this spreadsheet where you also plot your weight on a line graph. Its a very good visual of what is going on and as a math teacher, I love it I don't count pts. I pretty much eat simply filling foods and have recently incorporated one splurge day a week and have managed to maintain my weight.

I am thinking about joining weight watchers and am wondering, how time consuming is it to log all your food daily.. I guess after you got used to it, it wouldn't be a big deal..

Thanks!
Ronnie

A few minutes for the whole day, if that.

AT FIRST it takes time. At first there's a lot to absorb, and enter into the system. So it takes patience and effort, but the good thing is that motivation is usually highest at the start, so it's more like a fun game. It takes a couple of weeks to get everything in order and start to remember a few things.

Once you get used to it, though, not more than 5 minutes a day all added together on average, really. It becomes a habit, and you just "write it before you bite it" consistently.

I've tracked literally everything I've eaten now for 5 whole months, and I don't even "think" about it that much. If I'm about to eat something, I open up my tracker (I use an application on my iPhone) and track it. No big deal. It's automatic.

The risk of not counting is that you will slip and eat more and regain. And even if you don't eat more, sometimes your body just adapts and you start to gain on the same amount of food. That's exactly why keeping weight off is a lifestyle, not a diet. It never ends. A few people have bodies that will only hold a small amount of food, no extra cravings, and they can resist the social influences "oh just one piece; it's a birthday cake!", but they are more the exception not the norm. That's a big part of why so many people think woohoo they are done with the diet and then later look back and realize they are bigger than when they first started that diet.

One of the fellows in my WW at-work meeting has maintained his loss (Momentum plan) for a good year and a half now. He has not switched over to PP, he is still following his maintenance plan and said that only now he has started to not track daily. Again, that is because his weekdays are pretty consistent food wise. Every time I've seen him eat lunch, it is exactly the same. Watermelon cubes, yogurt and cereal with berries. I don't know about his breakfasts or dinners, but he has said that during the week he is on "auto pilot" and doesn't need to concern himself with his program, because it doesn't really vary. The weekends he pays better attention, and might treat himself depending, but basically he has this down and is letting go of the tracking just a little bit by not worrying about the weekdays.

To maintain you have to do exactly the same things as you did when losing - get in you 9 GHGs, count your points, exercise and journal.

I do some of these things. I basically am on autopilot during the week. I eat the same breakfast, lunch and dinner so there is no point to writing down those pts every day. Some people need variety but I'm one of those people who are all about routines so it works for me. As I said, on Saturday, I have a splurge day and then go right back to my routine on Sunday.

I confess...I am also a daily weigher. I feel like I am on Auto Pilot with eating, it is a life style change and I think the longer I stay on WW you would think I would learn a new way of eating and no I do not plan on counting points the rest of my life. I will change my eating habits, keep track of my weight, and exercise my than I do now.