The 5 Hour Rule
 

Hi Everyone!

I need someone to help me refresh my memory! Do I have to wait 5 hours to eat a food I've eaten already earlier in the day for it to not count as double the points? Completely forgot!

O_________________O explain for me further!

!? This rule is news to me! I'm not on Weight Watchers anymore, but my mom is. If anyone can explain it, I'll let her know so she can be more careful (less careful? Haha, I don't know what exactly the rule does)

Here's an example!

For breakfast I had 1oz Mozarella Cheese (which is 2 points) in my egg whites, if I had 2oz it would be more than 4 points because it was doubled. If I wait a certain amount of time, it will count as 2 again but I'm not sure if it's 4 or 5 hours.

I've never heard of the hour rule before. For example I enjoy Clif bars on days that I exercise hardcore. The entire bar is 7 points, but half is 3. Before my workout I count 3 points for half, and 3 points for the other half later on. I haven't had any issues with it before and I seem to be doing well. Maybe its because I am also earning activity points.... not sure. But I will consider this option too as it does make sense.

to me... 2points+2points is 4points lol... that "rule" sounds too confusing


---- i put it into the food tracker.. and 1oz = 2pts... 2oz = 4pts

Not always...and that can lead to having excessive points during your week.


For example...my low fat peanut butter is 2points+ per serving. If I double the serving it's 5 instead of 4. If I have that double serving with breakfast every day during the week, it's 7 extra points that I haven't counted.

mmel is right. You can't just add on, you have to work out what the points would be depending on serving size. If I were to eat my Clif bar in one sitting I would work out the full serving, instead of the half but I only eat half at a time. Peanut butter is a great example. My PB is 3 points for one tablespoon, but is 5 points for 2 tbsp instead of 6 points if you would just add the points together. Really have to watch for serving sizes and calculate the points based on that. Also another fave of mine is a store bought soup, serving size is 1/2 a cup for 2 points, but upgrading to a full cup my soup works out to 6 pts!!!

that's why i let the app/etools count it for me :D

lol, Jinks.

Kim- I have to admit I have not heard this rule before either and I even looked online using a lot of different keywords and nothing. Ask your WW leader? Sorry I couldn't be more help! ;)

i'll ask at my first meeting tuesday (mom and me - just easier than looking for a sitter/relying on husband)

Kim, I've never heard of an hour rule before, but the rule of thumb that my leader talked about was tracking the 2 servings together if you eat them at the same meal, but separate if you eat them at 2 separate meals. That probably translates to about 4 hours, but if i ate a serving at breakfast and a serving for my morning snack, I wouldn't count extra points, so I definitely don't follow a 4 hour rule. I don't often eat the same thing multiple times a day, though, so it wouldn't be an issue counting it either way, I don't think.

I thought the "1 serving = 2 pts; 2 servings = 5 points" thing was due to rounding of the component parts of the PointsPlus formula. I try to just go with the greater amount. After all, it's only myself that I could be cheating on :-)

I have never heard this rule either!

Kim- I gotta say ShadesofGray's post seems to make the most sense for the rule so points don't get more than doubled.

This is exactly what I was going to say. :)

Sometimes the rounding up thing works in reverse, too. I had a slice of wheat bread for breakfast that is 2 P+ and had another slice at lunch, for another 2 P+, but if I had entered them together, they would have been 3 P+. It costs me a point to have them in two separate meals. :)

i'm so confused lol. :dizzy:

I apologize if I confused everyone! I'm being extra careful when it comes to tracking and wanted to make sure I didn't consume extra points at the end of the day.

anyone been to a meeting yet and asked?

Kimberly, you didnt confuse me... the idea does lol. Cause here i am thinking.... right, so... i am starving and i have enough points for 6oz of chicken instead of 3. So i count it as 6 pts. Since 3 oz is 3. I guess thats not really how it goes! But in my newbie defense... i was never told of anything like this!

I count it the way it is calculated, no matter what time of day. So if I eat a serving of cheese which is 2, but then eat another serving, I calculate the two servings together to make 5. It works for me.

Yeah, it's the plan math that can be sort of confusing. :)

Your 6 oz of boneless, skinless chicken breast would be 6 P+ - WW calculates it basically a point an ounce, at least from what I've seen.

This is why I really like having and using the etools feature. I just enter in what I eat and let WW do the calculating for me. Math was never my strong suit - I was an English major. ;)

agreed with the etools, but im personally not finding alot of foods i eat on it

I find it can be tricky sometimes to find a certain food, and sometimes it doesn't have what I'm looking for, either. I either find a close/matching substitute or if I have the NI, add it myself. I'm hoping that as the plan continues, etools will become more comprehensive. What kinds of things are you not finding in the database?

just an example. In law made spaghetti... the sauce wasnt in there.. hunts... i couldnt find green onions.. Just random little things.

e-tools costs more doesnt it? I cant get access for free if i am part of weight watchers?

i thought it was for everyone? o-o Or do you pay as you go? $15 a week?

Yeah, these two are examples of what I was referring to in my earlier post. I use Hunt's products, too, but etools doesn't have any of their stuff. However, I've found that Del Monte has the same products and from looking at the labels in the store, the NI is the same. So I enter DM products.

Green onions are also known as scallions, and that's how etools lists them. That's a case of etools being tricky in how it lists certain foods.

Hope that helps! :)

I pay the monthly fee, which includes etools. I think if you pay as you go, it's extra, but I'm not sure. If you are consistently paying for weekly meetings and the monthly pass is available in your area, then it may be more cost effective for you to do the pass, plus you'd get the etools access. I'd ask your leader since I'm not sure of the specifics and it may vary by area, too.

i kinda just added the green onions in by the NI on the back and have it saved as a fav seeing as i use it so damn often.
also couldnt find meatballs... (homemade - ground beef) so i had to go with patty size... like i said, just a few random things. But i'd written down the can info of the sauce before i came home to get the right number

I didn't read all of the subsequent posts, so forgive me if someone already said this... but I've always heard to "pick a method and stick with it."

For example, if your method is to figure out the points to one serving, and double them if you have two, fine. If your method is to completely double all of the information to get the point value of a double serving, fine.

Same with cutting in half. If you want to cut the points values in half, fine. If you want to cut all of the info in half and calculate, fine.

The important thing is to be CONSISTENT. Either way, you'll make out half of the time and lose out half of the time, as far as points go, so as long as you aren't always switching between methods, choosing the one that will give you more food for the points, you will make out just fine, as things will even out in the end.

This is what I've been told too. Never heard anything about 4 hrs between servings... :?:

That's what I like about eTools and the WW App on my iPhone, it calculates for me :)

But before, when I was doing WW on my own, I would actually go through and recalculate the points based on the meal. If I was having a double serving or whatever of something at a single meal, I'd actually go in and recalculate because sometimes it came out, say, 4 pts or sometimes it came out 5 pts depending on the food. If I was eating a single serving at two different meals I'd just count each serving as a single serving. I guess it comes out to about 4 or 5 hours, but that was never the rule.

I'm re-reading this and it doesn't make any sense, but I swear in my head it does!

I usually wait about 3 hours in order to count 2 portions of something as single servings twice, and from what I've gathered from other members, that seems to be somewhat of a common practice.