I followed WW At Work for 12 weeks using Simply Filling Technique - which I LOVED! Lost 15 lbs. in 11 weeks (yay me!). Unfortunately, the weight has not move for 6 weeks. No straying off plan and have had no change at all.
Last week I decided to counts points. 29 per day plus 49 weeklies. My sister has been calorie counting since January and has had great success. She had 15 lbs. to lose and has achieved her goal. She asked if maybe I was eating too many calories. She's not familiar with WW at all and doesn't quite understand the concept of not counting for fruits/veggies. So I thought I would experiment to see how many calories I'm actually eating with PP+.
It turns out that between the time I get up and the time I get home from work (i.e. just before dinner), I generally go through 900 calories. At 1500 per day, that leaves 600 for supper and evening snack. I enjoy 6 oz. glass of red wine with dinner (my daily treat). Here is my sample menu from yesterday:
Breakfast:
8 oz. skim milk - 2 points
Kashi chewy trail mix granola bar - 4 points
1 light string cheese - 1 point
(this is my usual Monday to Friday breakfast. The Kashi bar and string cheese is a perfect breakfast for me to have at my desk, and the nuts and seeds keep me satisfied for a couple of hours)
morning snack:
banana
lunch:
sandwhich made with multi-grain bread 2 slices - 3 pts.
4 slices 98% lean deli meat - 2 points
1 tbsp. fat-free Miracle Whip - 1 point
salad made with: 1 cup diced raw cauliflower
10 cherry tomatoes
1 stalk celery, diced
1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil - 1 point
balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper to season salad
2 cups watermelon chunks
afternoon snacks: (I'm at work until 6:00 p.m. so I have 2 afternoon snacks)
1 cup seedless grapes
1 orange
supper:
Salad made with -
1 cup bulgur - 4 points
2 chopped hard boiled eggs - 4 points
2 cups shredded red-leaf lettuce
1 cup baby spinach leaves
balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil - 3 points
1/2 cup fruit flavoured 0% greek yogurt - 2 points
6 oz. red wine - 6 points
No evening snack - points and calories used scared me!!!
so my daily total points were 31 points - used 2 weeklies
total calories for the day was: 1605
Some days this week when I dipped into my weekies by 4 to 6 points, my calories went up to 1800-1900. My weigh-in is tomorrow morning. I still have 25 weeklies left over and I've gone over 1500 calories every day. I figure that if I'd have eaten all 49 weeklies, I'd be over 2000 calories per day.
I also exercise 5 days a week (WATP - 3 miles), but don't use the APs.
One of my friends recently asked how many calories I eat per day on WW Points Plus. I had no idea, so I plugged everything into fat secret and totaled it up. A normal day for me with 29 WW points is about 1,600 calories (see tracker below from the day I used). I didn't really know how many calories I should be eating, so I referred back to my TOPS books to find out. According to TOPS I should be getting approximately 1600 calories, plus about 400 calories for when I exercise. So about 1,600-2,000 calories a day (my exercise is light, about 3-4 times a week). So my WW points are matching up with my calorie intake and I'm good with that.
Sample Tracker Day (from 5/24/2011)
Target: 29 Points+
Breakfast:
1/2 Cup Skim Milk 1 pts+ (85 calories)
2 packets of instant, low sugar oatmeal 6 pts+ (240 calories)
1 granny smith apple 0 pts+ (~70 calories)
1 Tbsp Better n Peanut Butter 1 pts+ (50 calories)
Thanks for your input MrsD! Honestly, I'm not questioning WW's calculations, but stalling for 6 weeks just got me thinking about the whole "calories in - calories out" thing. I'm very happy with my new healthy habits and I plan on seeing this through!
Have you talked to your meeting leader about plateaus? Have you gone over your past weekly trackers for weeks you lost weight? What have you changed and what haven't you changed?
We were actually talking about this at my weeks meeting. Not only is it important to track every BLT, but you can/should track other things too. We talked about writing a goal on the weekly tracker (there is a space for it up front); writing your weight change for the week on the front before you file it away (+/-); writing your emotions before/during/after you eat; gauging how a food makes you feel (e.g. more energy, keeps you fuller longer, tummy ache, etc.); tracking your steps from your pedometer; tracking your activity for the week; the list can go on and on!
Do you have eTools? Can you do meetings? Or do you have a combo of both already?
I haven't been to a meeting since our At Work Group session ended. I've been on my own with the tools I have. I have every tracker from day 1 and I'm still racking on my own. Since the beginning I was following Simply Filling Technique (SFT) - keeping a watchful eye on portion control. Although SFT's advantage is not having to write things down, I always did. The first 15 lbs. came off in 11 weeks and then it stopped. For the past week I've switched to counting my 29 dailies plus 49 weeklies (I used 30 of them). My scale finally shows a drop of 2 lbs. since last Thursday. YAY!!! However, I have started incorporating 45 minutes of WATP this week. I think it's the exercise that's doing the trick. My food intake cannot be healthier.
I see from other posts that I'm not the only plateau-ing. The important thing for me is to keep on with what I'm doing. Maybe my body needs to adjust (settle into) its weight every 15 lbs. or so. If today's weigh-in is any indication of what's to come, I'm on the right track.
Thanks so much for your input. Makes me not feel so alone in this.
I'm so glad the scale finally caught up with you! I was very glad (and humbled!) to read your menu. you're right -- you can't be eating healthier. It's nice to have a model of what that means!!! Good luck to you.
Yay!! Glad I came back to a note of weight loss! You're right, it's probably the exercise! The first 4-6 weeks of WW I wasn't exercising simply because it was still hard for me at the weight I was at and it was still winter here (which = bitter cold and feet (TONS) of snow outside. Walking the dogs was the only real exercising I was counting. When early spring came, I was out walking at least a mile for 3-4 days a week. Now I'm up to at least 3 miles every time I walk and I'm getting into workout DVDs for when it's rainy out! Anyway...with the extra moving, I've noticed bigger losses at the scales! YAY!
I kept fighting it thinking that I would rather lose weight first without any exercise because the day I stopped, all the weight would come back on. Then I "grew up" LOL and accepted the fact that exercise should be an integral part of my life, whether I liked it or now. I'm hitting 50 in a couple of months and my bones will thank me later WATP is not brutal on the body but it does get me in a good sweat and it's over in 45 minutes.
I'm much happier doing the DVDs inside - I'm in Quebec, so I know what you mean about cold winters - our snow matches your snow!
Simply Filling/PP+/Calorie counting
WATP is not brutal on the body but it does get me in a good sweat and it's over in 45 minutes. 