I just started WW a few days ago and I feel like I am constantly eating. I am starting with 41 points and I just feel like I am eating a lot and still have a few points left at the end of the day. Is this normal? I guess I will find out if this is working for me next Tuesday when i way in for a second time and see if there was any weight loss...
I started with 51 points, and there were certainly days when I wondered how I was going to eat that much.
It all depends on what you're eating. Some days points will go faster than others.
Keep in mind that you don't have to force yourself to eat if you aren't hungry.
If you need suggestions on how to have some snacks that are going to use up points without causing you to feel stuffed remember some of the following: nuts, peanut butter, healthy oil servings (added to meals), dried fruit, avocado.
There is a learning curve. Intuitively, you're going to choose low fat, no fat options, but at the end of your day if you find you've not consumed your points allowance, you're going to have to adjust going forward. Know that you can choose regular foods instead of light--for instance, whole milk, cheeses, yogurts, breads, cereals. That is one way to get those points in. Of course, as you lose weight, the amount of points drops and you may then wish to return to eating low or non fat options. From prior diets, we have learned to grab veggies and fruits, which now have no points, so that is counter-productive to the WWPP program since you don't want more "calories", but usable calories that count towards points consumption. Try having some nuts or microwave popcorn. I have read that some people count points for fruits after 2 or 3 portions (anyone else want to comment on that?).
If you are stingy with your points during the day and find you have an abundance of points at the end of the day left to consume, you've got to look at what you're eating, as well as how much. You may find that you deprived yourself of something (a dollup of sour cream perhaps on a potato or regular cream in a coffee, allfruit on toast) when you could have afforded it just fine at this point in your journey. It isn't always going to be that way when you lose points!
Review your tracker and play around with your menu. I'm sure there are different choices you could make to get all the points in.
Last edited by 124chicksinger; 09-02-2011 at 08:43 PM.
I had problems sometimes getting all my points in when I first started. I started with 41 as well!
Some things I found helpful:
Points Plus Getting Started booklet, pg. 60: "Suggested Daily Points Plus Targets breakdowns by meal" - as the title states, this is entirely suggested, but having an idea of what I should be aiming for at each meal helped a LOT with keeping me close to target. There is no 41 pts breakdown on the table so I took the column for 39, and wrote them out on a sheet of paper, and just added those 2 more daily pts to my day, I think 1 to lunch and 1 to that 3 point snack. Then instead of thinking about getting "41 points in," I just worried about a lunch around 11 pts, a snack around 4 pts, etc. It just seemed easier to tackle. I still keep a sheet of paper on me that has all those values broken out for me all day.
As mentioned above, fuller fat versions of foods, especially dairy. For example if I get a Fage 0% Cherry Pomegranate (Greek yogurt with the filling to mix in) it's 3 pts, but if I eat a full fat Fage Cherry, it's 6 pts. But it's the same amount of food, and it's still a dairy product for your good health guidelines. Some salad dressings can also be quite high when they aren't light.
Nuts, peanut butter, etc as already mentioned. My favorite was just to measure out some walnuts and chop them up, add them to a yogurt, salad, etc. 14 half walnuts is already 5 points, look how easily just a little bit of nuts will go a long way with using points.
Don't sweat it if some days you don't hit that, the important part is to at least just try and plan for it. And make sure you try to get the good health guidelines in too.
New to Weight Watchers
