We all have a built in safeguard against eating a bushel of oranges a day - Fruit is a natural laxative - you eat too much of it and it's not pretty.

I've had to "tweak" the program to get it to work for me, but I don't necessarily blame the program for being broken - I chalk it up to individual differences. I do better with "cycling" - some do better with the same amount every day.

Also, something to note - on the previous plans they stressed that you MUST EAT ALL OF YOUR POINTS. One of the major changes of the Points Plus system was that it was no longer a huge requirement for you to eat ALL OF YOUR POINTS. If you have 29 points a day, but you're not hungry after 24/25/26/27/28, that's okay. There are days when 29 points are too many for me - so I just stop eating. As long as I get in all my fruits and veggies (usually a 2/3 or 1/4 split), I don't consider it a bad thing.

Oh well. I always ate too much fruits since I started. I always have from 1 to 3 portions that I shouldn't eat as ''free''

Still better than eating chips to me lol!

I get 4-5 servings of fruit a day. Servings, which is not the same as pieces. The banana I have at breakfast and the large apple I have with lunch are 4 servings right there. And I've managed to do just fine losing weight, even when I sometimes have MORE than 4-5 servings a day and only rarely eat veggies.

The program isn't broken, it's all about individual needs. Some people can eat all of their weeklies and lose, some people can't eat any or they gain. In stellarosa's example, some people need to cycle their points while some can eat the same amount every day. So, yes, personal tweaking may be needed, but that doesn't mean the system is broken.

I'm the last person who would ever claim that it is easy. But just because it is hard to make the right choices doesn't mean one can't do it.

I don't know but I find the blame being put on fruit... strange. I mean you have your daily points and weight watchers built in to your daily total points to account for your fruit.... so if they took off the free fruit, all of our totals would go up by 5 points or more. If you are really eating so much fruit that you are gaining that means you have to be going over that "fruit point" cushion by quite a bit or maybe you need to consider that those foods are not best for your body. I have to keep my grains low or I have a hard time losing, others probably have the same problem with fruit and sugar. Small adjustments are key for all of us. :)

It's not about "blame" or that fruit is bad or anything. There ARE changes to the program coming and my money is on that there will be a cap on fruit. I'm speculating as to what and why.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2851...all-transcript

"...improving what we believe is the best student activity behavior modification program in the world by launching at the end of 2011, a new version release of PointsPlus which will include improvements and new features"

"On the innovation front, we are looking forward to improving upon our highly successful upgrades of our points program Pro Points and Points Plus. All of our markets are playing meaningful version upgrades design to further improve what has already becoming a very most popular program ever."

I'm just talking in general, there is blame all over the boards in regards to WW and fruit. :)

Capping fruit would be the opposite of what the plans to do tho, convince you to eat more fresh foods. I think they are more likely to just give points to a select few high sugar fruits (like bananas) similar to what they do with vegetables.

I meant I thought they'd cap the free fruit. Like you'll get 3 servings of fruit free, rest have points. Or maybe have bananas and melons have points but leave apples & other higher fiber fruits at 0. I guess we'll just have to wait. But I love guessing :)

Personally, I wish that your first two servings of oil were 0 points (even if that meant lower points like 27 instead of 29). I think that would motivate people to get those healthy oils in more.

I think that is a great idea :yes:

I think that's a fantastic idea, too!

I just want to add my experience since I am on WW for a while now:
I should add that I am using an old, old WW formula because I didn't want to re-learn values. Anyways, it is only based on calorie and fat. Not fiber. I am still losing at a decent rate. Fruit and veggies (apart from bananas and potatoes) are completely free. However, as I found out in a kiwi-crazy week that doesn't work for me. At all. So now I eat one piece of fruit for free and count 1 point for all additional pieces. Veggies are still free. That works.
However, as I get closer to goal I find that WW points are too foggy. Even with fiber and GHG. I don't get any details on nutrients (sugar, iron, sodium,...). It works but I want more. So I started calorie counting via MyFitnessPal too. Now I am tracking my WW points (since it just works) and the nutrition on MFP. Double work, but also double win! You can be right on plan with WW and totally off with sugar or sodium, carbs or fat. Incredible insight!
I decided to continue WW until I reach my goal (never touch a running system!) but will switch completely to calorie counting when I start maintaining. I just want a deeper knowledge on what I am eating.

Oh and regarding fruit being a natural laxative. That is not the case for everybody and every fruit. Just saying, don't count on it...

Personally I don't really think there should be zero point veggies and fruits. They aren't zero calorie and so I think they should be counted. That said, I understand why they don't. They want you spend 250 calories eating veggies and/or fruit not eating a candy bar. In the old days (when I became a lifetime member), they dealt with this by requiring you eat a certain food composition through using exchanges.

They ultimately changed that and it had good parts to it (you can customize a diet for you -- I eat lower carb and am totally on program while someone else could eat low fat be totally on program) but had negatives (you can eat a very nutritionally deficient diet). So WW came up with the GHG but, frankly, sort of with a wink and a nod. They say you should do those things but they don't really say that you must do them.

Anyway, I sort of think that non-starchy veggies can be zero point (have been for a long time with no problem) but that zero point fruit is a problem for many (not me, I like veggies more than fruit). I would be shocked if they suddenly went back to counting all fruit. I think it is more likely to either be putting a limit on zero point fruit - (2 or 3 servings) - with points counted above that and/or counting certain fruits (bananas, for example).

I also wouldn't be surprised to see them drop the number of daily points and setting a lower minimum. 29 points as a minimum seems too high. They could also adjust weekly points somewhat or have them vary.

Right, but foods are higher points now - or have the potential to be higher if you take into account the protein/carbs.