I just started this week and they say we won't cover exercise (or get some exercise booklet) for a few more weeks - but I'm really looking to use those points now. I found that really helpful tool online that helps calculate points burned during exercise - all I want to know is - is there a maximum # of points you can apply to your day for exercise? Also, do you need to eat those exercise points the day they are earned or do they bank to the next day?
Thanks for any help.

Abaxius,
First of all, depending on the level of activity and your weight, WW has a slide ruler that helps you determine the number of points you have earned. Second, in one day you can do as much exercise as you like, but you can earn a maximum of 4 activity points. Third, you do not ever have to eat those points. They can be banked, but like all banked points they are yours for 7 days and then they're gone. The way it would work for me would be like this: I'm in the 24-29 point range. When I earn 2 activity points, I add that to the top number. So, my top number becomes 31. If I eat 26 points that day, I can now bank 5 points for a day when I may need the extra points.
Hope this helps. You might want to look at the activity slide at your next WW meeting to get an idea of how WW does this. Also, you'll be getting all this information at your 4th. WW meeting, but it sounds like you are ready to go *now*.
Good luck on this program. It's great and lots of people are successful.

This is something I originally posted a few days ago under WW General, but I think it fits in quite nicely here as well...

quote

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'Compensating' for exercising
Hello all... I've got a question about activity points that I earn. I'm into my 10th week, so I've been counting my activity points for awhile, but there was one thing I was never too sure about.

Some days I go like gang busters and accumulate a lot of them (i.e. yesterday I did 30 min 'moderate intensity' weight training, 45 min 'high intensity' cardio, and another 45 min 'low intensity' walking). For my weight, that works out to be 12 points.

When I accumulate activity points during the day, it's because of a lot of physical exercise - how many points do I then have to add onto what I eat to make up for all this extra energy used up? Or should I be adding any? I always assumed I should, but I don't know how many. Is it '1 for 1' - like if I accumulate 12 activity points, should I eat 12 extra points to make sure my body has enough fuel? Or should I eat a certain percentage extra - like half as many as I accumulate?

Help. Is there any WW 'rule' about this, or does it really just depend on the person?

Thanks.

Christine

This is the reply I posted to Little Engine's other thread. It's straight off the Weight Watcher's web site, so I guess it's the "official" weight watcher's exercise line:


Okay, so you've been around the block a few times (literally, on your now nightly walks), and you know the scoop on activity POINTS — a little extra exercise each day can help keep you successful on Winning Points.

Great! But the question is, what should you do with the activity POINTS you've earned? You have three options:


Option 1: Spend them on food that day. Whether you've been craving chocolate and need the extra spending power or need a post-exercise apple to curb your appetite, when the POINTS are yours, they're burning a hole in your proverbial pocket (not to mention your calorie count).


Option 2: Don't do a thing with them. After all, you don't have to eat more. In fact, activity POINTS earned that are not traded in for food will be more likely to help you lose weight faster.


Option 3: Bank them and decide what to do with them later. If you take an extra-long walk on Sunday (when you have the extra time), you can use the extra POINTS on, say, Tuesday, when you have no time to exercise at all. All told, you can bank up to 28 POINTS a week (up to 4 per day), but you have to use them during that week — you cannot carry them over into the following week.


Whichever option you choose, if you eat within your POINTS range, you will lose weight. But it's good to know that exercise can earn you a few activity POINTS to spend on food, whether you use it this afternoon or after dinner (on the tiramisu at your favorite Italian restaurant).

Spend Wisely or Splurge?
So, you've decided to spend the activity POINTS you earned today. You've been struggling with staying in your POINTS Range, and you could really use the extra food. The question then becomes, should I spend it on something I'm craving (like an extra slice of that birthday cake your colleague brought into the office), or a "safer" non-trigger food (such as an apple).

"It's all about balance," says Leslie Fink, MS, RD, a WeightWatchers.com nutritionist. "Spending POINTS on fruit is nutritionally better than spending them on cake, but staying within your POINTS Range overall will help you lose weight, no matter what you choose." Plus, if you go for the craving quencher, you've, well, quenched a craving — a worthwhile accomplishment in the long run as well.

Basically, it's up to you. Just weigh your options — as long as you stay within your POINTS Range for the day, you're all set to see the scale move downward.

Trial Run
We wanted to see what food we could get for our exercise, so we plugged our weight (130 pounds) and a few exercise routines into the Weight Watchers.com exercise database, then did a little snooping around to find some things we could spend the POINTS we'd earn on. Call it Windows shopping …



If you do this activity … And earn this many POINTS … Maybe you could trade them in for … The benefit would be …
Stretching, 20 minutes 1 POINT ½ cup orange juice Quick post-exercise energy
Leisure walking, 1 hour 2 POINTS Reduced-calorie granola bar Long-term energy boost
Yoga, 1 hour 2 POINTS Hershey's Sweet Escapes Crispy Caramel Fudge Bar It's chocolate
Playing softball, 70 minutes 3 POINTS 1 ounce mini cheese-square crackers Great salty snack-attack craving quencher
Housework — cleaning windows, 65 minutes 3 POINTS 20 peanuts plus 2 tablespoons of rasins Energy boost
Low-impact aerobics, 45 minutes 3 POINTS McDonald's Vanilla Reduced Fat Ice Cream Cone The smell of those fries lured you in, but you don't have to let Mickey D's get the best of you — cool off with this low-POINTS menu option instead.
Brisk walking, 1 hour 4 POINTS Pineapple-Mango Smoothie Immediate energy boost

Is it earn a maximum of 4 exercise points per day or bank a maximum of 4 exercise points per day??

Itryharder says you can earn up to 4 exercise points per day, but the way I read the WW information MillieB posted you can bank up to 4 exercise points per day.

Are people being told different things at meetings?

I think you can earn as many as you want, but only bank/use up to 4 of them. What are you suppose to do, stop in the middle of your walk and have someone drive you home because you've earned 4 points? Being facetious of course, but I think Weight Watcher's real intent is just to get people to be more mobile and their "lure" is an extra 4 points (or approximately 200 calories) added to your daily allowance. We've discussed before that they really don't deal with people who exercise a lot, I think because for the most part, people who are highly active don't usually have much of a weight problem. There are those of us however who exercise every day faithfully and still need to take off some weight. What I've decided to do is to just add points for things that I am doing that are "extra" since I started following weight watchers. After all, I was exercising to a certain point before I started the program and still had a weight problem, so obviously, my body still conserved extra calories as fat. It is a confusing issue for people who are very active, but I think you just have to experiment and do what feels right for you -

Okay, first the disclaimer: I am not a WW leader! I am just a person who has been doing WW for 2+ years (this time!) The following is my opinion only.

I have a friend who is a leader and she gave me this info from her 2000 information.

"As a general guide, WW recommends that an average of 4 activity points per day not be exceeded without seeking the advice of a certified exercise professional as to appropriate training guidelines. Training for a specific athletic event (like a marathon) may cause members to exceed 4 activity points per day. Before increasing beyond an average of 4 activity points per day, it would be wise to consult with a medical professional to be sure there are no indicators that this high level of activity would be unsafe." ... "over time members will discover a balance of how much they like to eat versus how many activity points are reasonable for their particular lifestyle and physical activities"

To me this says only that WW wants you to check with your doctor before you get into doing a lot of exercise (the same disclaimer you see from gyms and other exercise sites/books, etc.) I have never been told anything about how many activity points you can bank being limited. My understanding from the several leaders I've gone to on this journey is that you can earn as many activity points as you want based on the slider, and you can add them right onto your points range, to be used that day or banked. I have found that when I exercise enough to earn say 7 points in a day, I need to eat all of my "original" points plus some of those activity points. The rest I bank, though lots of times they don't get used. The point WW really wants to make IMHO is that additional activity will aid in weight loss and help with maintenance in the long run. In "Thin for Life" by Ann Fletcher, she makes the point that most long-term maintainers incorporate some type of regular exercise into their lives.

I agree - I think WW is trying to get people up and moving. The problem a few of us are having is WE ARE exercise professionals (I've been an aerobics instructor for 16 years and I've been discussing this issue with another member who's a personal trainer), we are overfat, and we're having a hard time figuring out how many points to eat per day to accomodate our "over exercising". I think what it comes down to is we all just have to experiment - just like your quote says: "over time members will discover a balance of how much they like to eat versus how many activity points are reasonable for their particular lifestyle and physical activities".

Hi all,
I gave a generic answer to the question. What I was trying to say was that WW allows you to count (earn) 4 points a day in activity points. If you exercise as much as you want and calculate it on your slide ruler and it comes to 6 points, it still counts as 4 (like fiber over 4 points, still counts as a max of 4 points).
Then beyond that, you can add those points to the top of your point range or bank them, etc.
I have absolutely no experience with exercising a lot, so I'm glad those gals replied. I had no idea this was so complicated.
Good luck everyone!
234/211/thinner

Where in the Moving On book does it say that? I couldn't find it. All I found was the warning not to overexercise to eat more and to consult with an exercise professional or your doctor if it is safe to earn more than an average of 4 points a day. Nothing that you can't count more points if you earn them. I might have missed it. If so, could you tell me the page where it is stated. If not, I am going to continue to count the activity points I earn, which are up to 9 a day.

Additionally, why would the activity point calculator have more than 4 points on it, if 4 is the max? I mean, the new points calculator only permits you to enter up to 4 grams of fiber to allow for this rule. Logically, the activity points slide rule would max out at 4 points, if they only wanted you to count four.

Also, I know for a fact that my leader counts more than 4, as well. I just received an email from her this morning in which she stated that she earned 8 points this morning on a LONG walk. I've not seen the "rule" of limiting your points to 4 anywhere else except this board.

So, I'll keep adding up the points. I don't always use them, but on a weekend such as this one when my husband and I build flower beds from scratch (we have a new house with sod all the way up the foundation) and I work at a moderate pace for 6 hours, I do need a little extra fuel than my regular points allow.

Kim

268.75/221.5/140 (down 47.25 lbs since 1/3/01)

I got my information from the Weight Watcher's web site - it was an article they published last week. As Itryharder said, she got her information from her Weight Watcher's leader, who got it from her year 2000 materials. I think if what ever you're doing is working for you, DO IT! Never mind what the "rule" this year is, after all, they change/update the program yearly to keep up with what their research and members say is working or not working. Again, the problem some of us are struggling with is we exercise a lot and have for years even with a weight problem. SO - we're trying to find that balance and make it work for us too -

I don't have an activity points calculator as I am doing this from home. Would someone be so kind to give a quick rundown of activity, times and points accumulated. It would be greatly appreciated as I am fairly active and try to exercise several times a week and I haven't been really using my activity points so far.

Thanks!

It is calculated based on your weight, the intensity of the exercise and the duration. Without a calculator you can not be exact, but a good average is 1 point per 20 minutes of moderate exercise.

Thanks for everyone's insight. Like MillieB said - I am still trying to figure out what works for me and my active lifestyle. WW is great at getting people to begin an exercise program, but they fall short when advising people who workout more intensely. My problem is that I haven't found what works for me yet.

Exercise is the easy part of the weight loss battle for me. On my light workout days I earn 6-7 points. On hard workout days earning 10-12 points is not uncommon.

Getting this much activity per day and trying to eat 22-27 points per day to stay in range was just too hard to maintain over the long run. I mean I was always hungry - true stomach hunger because I was not giving my body enough fuel to keep me going through my workouts. I used sheer willpower to stay on plan during a year long plateau where I could not lose any more weight (I was still 20 lbs from the highest end of my goal weight range). And after this year long struggle my willpower slowly disappeared. And I slowly gained back half of the weight I originally lost.

I am now trying again. What is different this time is I am now experimenting with how many activity points I can eat and lose weight. Maybe this way I will still provide my body the fuel it needs and then it won't slow my metabolism and I can avoid that horrendous plateau.

I have not yet found what works consistently for me yet. And this is why I am so interested in that others are doing with activity points.