Hello! I just started WW again after a lengthy break. I lost over 40 lbs last time I did WW (over 2 years ago), and I've only re-gained about 8 of those lbs since (I maintained just doing exercise since then).

Last time I was on WW, I ate MOSTLY pre-packaged food and ate out and just ate single things (yogurt, baked potatoes, cereal, etc.), I didn't make many recipes on my own.

I want to make my own recipes and figure out their points. Does anyone have a quick way of doing this, or guesstimating? I'm NOT looking for points formulas, I already know how to figure out points of things based on their nutrition information. I just want to know if anyone has a way of adding up all of the points of all the single ingredients and figuring out the single servings points values. I feel like it should be easy to figure out, but I can't wrap my brain around it....

If you join WW.com they have a recipe builder,you can punch in your ingredients and how many servings and it tells you how many points it will be.Don't want to join? The message boards on their site are free.I spend a lot of time on recipe review.I have tons of recipes with points if you are interested.

I was afraid you would say that. I just feel like this is the downfall of the WW program. I really cannot afford WW online, I'm a struggling waitress/student, and I like to cook on my own.

I made this meal last night, here is the link to the recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/fo...iflower-102405

Not a WW recipe, no nutrition facts to go off of. I'm pretty sure it's pretty low in points, it's a fairly healthy recipe with mainly just the veg. oil and potatoes containing any countable points at all, but I have no idea how to estimate it.

Not sure what you mean by the downfall of the program,I mean they are a business selling a product.If you want nutritional info there are a lot of sites out there that can you can use to get the info.
As I said the message boards are free with lots of great recipes and I am willing to share mine with you.

That entire recipe is about 14 points. I think that you can buy a points booklet somewhere, which would only be a 1-time fee and you could reference it.

Another option would be to read nutrition labels and count calories and fat. I know that you don't want to take the time to do this since you are very busy, but you kind of have to. Maybe you can take one evening or morning a week and figure out your weeks menus in advance. Takes time, but it's worth it!

I don't think I'm making my point clear. All the free recipe sites are great, but I like to make my own recipes. I guess I have to figure out the nutritional content of every ingredient, multiply by the number of servings and then divide it out into servings, which is fine, but I thought maybe someone would have some tips on how to guesstimate.

The downfall of the program was I guess a poor choice of words. I'm way too poor to pay for every part of the program they want to sell me, so I'm just a girl trying to make the program work for me without spending TOO much money.

I don't know anything about weight watchers so this might be irrelevant but I'll share anyways. I asked my friend who is in the absolute best shape of her life what her secret is. She said exercise and the Eat Clean Diet. There is a monthly magazine and Tosca Reno who is amazing made a with that explains the whole concept really well. I just bought all of her books and finally feel like I have a handle on how to eat well. Anyways I hope that helped even though it wasn't what you were looking for.
Oh and you can get the book used on amazon for a fraction of the price.

Yeah no, if you can't afford WW online (I can't either, brokeass college students hollaaa) you have to find the points of all the ingredients, add together, and divide.

If you get it all in front of you with a piece of paper and calculator, it actually doesn't take more than 10 minutes. It's just a pain in the butt. And to be honest, I've had access to the recipe builder, and I prefer doing it by hand just because I have the ACTUAL label in front of me, since calories and stuff can vary.