a co-worker of mine was on WW last spring and lost 36 pounds. i have not joined or attended any meetings but i have all the paper work. (my co-worker let me borrow hers) i have never really looked into WW b4, of course i've heard about it but i am a lil confused about what the point of the program really is. to my understanding all you really have to to is stay under your point avg. each day and you will lose weight? i workout an hour everyday now so that means that i get to add 4 more points to my avg. do i get to eat these points or are they jus there?? i know i need to find some kind of way to eat my "35 extra points" a week. but is that really all there is to it?? to me it really sounds simple, but i've never really been a "big" eater. i just don't eat right and i rarely ever eat three complete meals a day. i would really like some advice. i hace avoided WW for years because i thought you had to eat the pre-packaged meals i see in the freezer at wal-mart and they can get a lil expensive, but now that i have actually learned a lil bit about it, it really sounds simple. my current goal is 165 pounds. this is the weight i must be before i can enlist in the united states air force.

W/W is based on a daily minimum called Target or Daily points --this is teh bare minimum your body needs.

They W/W allows us to earn more on a daily basis with exercise called Activity points

Plus they give us points to make the program liveable for the week called Weekly Points Allowance aka Flex Points

Both the Activity and Flex points are OPTIONAL (not extra) but most of find we lose better whwen we use them than if we didn't eat them.

I'm pretty new at this jusj5571, but this is how it was explained to me: You get X number of points per day. You write down everything you eat and subtract that food's point value. When you're out of points, you're done eating. There's a "points finder" they give you at your first meeting, plus there are guidebooks you can buy that are very helpful.

I started 5 weeks ago and have lost 13 lbs. Slow and steady is the key.

AWESOME! The USAF is the BEST! Good luck on reaching your goal!

As far as points, you need to make sure you are accurately accounting for your points. I find it works really well to weigh/measure pretty much everything. Sure, 15 of a certain potato chip might be 1 pt, but I would dig through the bag to find the 15 Biggest chips (which would probably be 2 pts worth) And, the best part about WW is that you can eat whatever you want. I had a double steakburger with cheese & fries at Steak 'n Shake yesterday (26 points and darn well worth it and ok since it was my Super Hi day on the Wendie Plan) Just keep a journal and track your points.

Terry

can i ask a ? i dont mean to doubt you but how can all that only be 26?

The Steak n Shake website is pretty fabulous in that it gives the nutritional info for everything on their menu and will add your whole meal up for you. I just checked and based on a double steak burger (I didn't account for extras or condiments) and a regular order of cheese fries, according to the WW formula for figuring points, it does in fact come to 26.5 points (by my calculations).

Man, that sounds so good now...

I think everyone has pretty much explained the program to you very well. It is that simple. And b/c it is so simple and most of LIVABLE for the long run it is the most successful weight loss program out there. Much of what we pay for in meetings and stuff goes back into cutting edge nutrion and weightloss research.

You keep track of your food like you would your check book. You have 26 points (which is my target), and everytime you eat you subtract it from your balance, just as you would every time you removed money from your bank account. When you're at zero you stop. The idea is to eat all those points...not to stay under as you stated above.

Like Kelly said your target is the bare minimum you need. Flex points (the 35 extra ones) are there for you to use as you need them. I save mine for the weekend so I can eat out more. Many people alot themselves 5 points a day and use them that way.

Your workouts boost your points. Your body is expending energy in that workout and needs fuel to keep going. So WW allows you to earn activity points based on your body weight, intensity of teh workout and the duration of your workout. You can eat these the day you earn them.

I am not sure what stuff you have, but to do the program you need the points slider/calculator/finder, as well as the activities one though it is not as vital as the food one. Beyond that the week one book is helpful as it has the tools for living ect. The COmplete Food Guide and Dining Out Companion (usually $8-10 each depedning on your area) are HIGHLY recommended.

I hope you give the program a try! Best of luck!

The items i recieved from my co-worker were:

Complete Food Companion
Dining Out Companion
A small dry erase card that i count all my weelky points on
The points finder
The points booster

I keep the points finder and the dry erase card in the black slip cover and both are very helpful!!! I workout everyday and that allows me an extra 4pts a day. It seemed simple at first but a lot of my favorite foods at home at like 10 points!! I see it really teaches you to eat more sensible!! Thanks for all the help ladies!!! Does anyone know some good 0-point foods??

It sounds like you have what you need to get started then as for zero point sfoods, it's mostly limited to veggies

These are my favorites...
Salad Greens
Green Beans
Broccoli-I add this to frozen entres, baked potatoes, casseroles
Cauliflower-same as broccoli
Spinach-I add it to soups, eggs, casseroles to give a little bulk without adding points
Green Peppers
Zucchini
Summer Squash

Try some WW zero point soup! You can probably find the recipe by searching the forum, or check WW recipe section of the forums.

Also La Tortilla Factory makes a whole wheat/low carb/low fat garlic herb tortilla that is zero points for one. If you eat two they are two points, b/c the fiber caps out at 4 grams and these have 8 per tortilla. I love them with 2 egg whites scrambled (zero points), and a slice of 2% american cheese 1 point for a one point breakfast burrito.

But there are TONS of great 1 and two point things out there!

pickles

beets

My fave munchie is a ff whole wheat tortilla with 6 slices of Hillshire Farms honey ham & ff mayo. 2 pts!

I forgot about pickles...but only dill not sweet, the sweet ones have points. Dill pickles make a great zero point snack!

Sorry. Didn't mean to start anything.

And, yes, the Steak 'n Shake website it great. I love how you can customize your meal to get the exact NI. Pizza Hut has that also. Along with all of the "Yum" brands. Go here to check it out:

http://www.yum.com/nutrition/default.asp

Wow! Thanks for sharing that site! I didn't know that it existed, let alone that you could find such specific info about those restaurants! It's definitely bookmarked for me, though! Thanks for sharing, Mom!

A zero-point food that I really love is baby carrots. I used to hate carrots of any kind, but you can eat as many of these and feel satisfied. Plus they crunch, so you get the chip/cracker effect. To dress them up, I use a little ff dressing that is usually no more than one point.

If you eat more than one serving of a zero point food in one sitting I think you are supposed to count the points. 3 servings of baby carrots is a point or maybe two if I remember correctly. Same thing with Fat Free Cool WHip...1 serving=0, 2 servings=1, and 3 servings=1 as well.