I hope someone out there can help me. It's my first week and I'm going over my food journal and realizing that's it's quite inadequate for keeping track of things like banked points over the course of a week and recording when you go over on any given day. I hope people can follow this... it's my points for the first few days of this week - please take a look and tell me if I'm carrying things over wrong. BTW, my limit is 26-31 pts

My first day didn't get off to a spectacular start.

Saturday - 34 pts (3pts over max)
Sunday - Used 28 as my new 'max' for that day (31-3 I went over Sat.).
Actually used 30 pts (2 pts over new max)
Monday - Used 29 as my new max for that day (31-2 I went over Sun.)
Actually used 26 pts - (finally) got to bank 5 pts.
Tuesday - Used 36 as my new max for that day (31+5 banked pts)
Actually used 26 pts - banked 10 pts (36-26)
Wednesday - Used 41 as my max (31+10 banked pts from Mon & Tues)
Actually used 33 pts - banked remaining 7 pts (41-33)
Thursday - Used 38 as max for today, and so far I've only used about 12 of
those. I expect to have more left over for tomorrow.

Is this anywhere close to being right?? I was getting confused earlier in the week because the journal doesn't really give you space to track these things - and it becomes quite confusing if you've been doing like me and going over some days, banking on other days, etc... And I haven't even started to worry about any activity points I earn and bank, which comes in a few weeks. I ended up developing my own little journal that makes it much easier for me to see my points max on any given day - because so far it's never the '31' I'm supposed to have. I will know that my little journal is working if I can get someone else to check what I've been doing and they agree that it makes sense.

BTW... I do realize that any banked points left by my next weigh in (Saturday) do not get carried over.

Thanks for all your help!

Christine

I think you never paid yourself back for the 5 points you went in the red on Sat/Sun. You saved them Monday, which should have put you back at zero, but you recorded it as +5.

I haven't seen the newest version of the journal. I use a notebook. At the top of the page I put my exercise for the day and how many points I earned. Then I put my range for the day (e.g., if I've earned 4 points, I add 4 to the top and record it as 18-27). Then I have a space to check off water, milk, fruit/veggies, and fats (I am trying to add fat consciously).

Then I record my food and points.

At the bottom, at the end of the day, I put a total. Then I have a space at bottom left with three lines: Bank (that's the balance I have in the bank, starting at zero on Mondays), Today (that's what I didn't use today OR how much I went over), and Forward (that's what I'll be carrying forward to the next day).

In your case, your bank would have been:
Sat 0, -3, forward -3
Sun -3, -2, forward -5
Mon -5, +5, forward 0
Tue 0, 5, forward 5
Wed 5, -2, forward 3
Thu 3, ???

I don't bank points. I know I should, but I've found that over time, I always eat the low end of my points M-F and the high end of my point and over a few sometimes on the weekend.

I do 123 and use 20-27 pts per day. M-F I tend to eat around 22. But Sat and Sund I can eat up to 35 some days! I don't beat myself cuz it all comes out in the wash.

Besides...on the days that I eat 35 points....I'm still eating 10 times better than I was without WW at all!!!

You're on the right track. I've just restarted this week after a year. I feel great and really enjoy the points system. There is so much info about it on the net too! I know there is a new points system, but heard it hasn't changed too much from the old. The old worked for me so 'stick with what you know' i guess.

good luck!

Amy T

Welcome to WW.

There's nothing wrong with the way you're calculating, but I just wanted to let you know there that you don't need to change your "maxs" on a day to day basis, just as long as at the end of the week, you have 0 or more banked points.

You can bank points and use them all up later in the week, or reverse-bank (WW doesn't approve, but sometimes this is what is appropriate, like what happened to you on Saturday), and eat less anytime during the next week. For example, you went over on Saturday by 3 points and lowered your max for Sunday. You don't really need to do that (although I think it's great for disipline), as long as sometime in the next week you "make up" for the 3 points extra eaten on Saturday.

Me? I always have the same range, 18-23, and keep a separate running total for banked points.

Good luck to you.

I use the points calculator. I LOVE it I just enter my points as I eat them thru out the day and it automatically keeps track of my points AND my banked points. I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend the $40 on it, but now that I have it Iwould never give it back. It automatically computes foods and tells me how many points they should be (although I also use the scale to see just how close they are to being the next pt value up) and it also records and keeps track of my weight loss and tells me how close I am getting to the %10. Oh, and it also keeps track of how many glasses of water I drink. I absolutly Love it. It really makes the math easy.

Now, I do keep track of everything on paper too, just because I like to look back and see what any given food's I have eaten and what the pt value is ETC.

This really works for me. Good luck!

(hugs)

Angie