I do not have the money in my budget to allow an official registration for WW. However, I have been reading and trying to figure it out on my own. I did WW back in the day when we used exchanges. Unfortunately, I do not have any of the old material. I know it is all basically the same, just different ways of calculating.

According to my calculations, my points allowed are only 17. That sounds very low. I am 55. Currently, not in any formal exercise plan. I do plan on changing that to a daily walking plan. I weigh about 138. (I am only 5' 1.75")

Maybe, this plan of WW is not for me. I know that I need to get the proper amount of protein. I always tend to be low on protein. I am a sugar addict

I would like to try some supplements such as grape seed oil and green coffee bean extract to help with my carb cravings. I know, I am kinda starting another thread under "supplement". But, I want to find the proper diet for me, first, then try something to curb the carb cravings.

Have you thought of counting calories ? It is much easier to find the calorie amounts than finding points for certain foods.

I think starting with counting calories is easier.... I don't think 17 points is even allowed, the less amount of points i heard of was 22/24. Good luck!

I have been doing WW for awhile and the lowest number of points I have ever heard of is 26. It is just not possible to get all your nutrition in with less. All fruit and most vegs are free points so that is such a plus! You get 49 weekly points that you can eat at any time during the week. In addition, you can earn activity points and eat them too if you want to! It has been a great life changer for me. I am healthy and happy and could eat this way for the rest of my life. Good luck to you!

There is a lot of information out there. I do the 'old' plan actually called flex but I have done momentum too. On flex the lowest of low is 18 pts with 35 weeklies to use. Also non starcy veggies are 'free'.

I am about your same age but a few inches taller and I stay between 21-24 pts per day and strive for 4-5 days of cardio/weight training. I have dropped 26 lbs in the past year. I know it is slow compared to others but I can only do so much

Keep us updated

If you are using the current plan then the minimum daily points are 26 and you get 49 weekly point (which are optional to use or not use).

That said, if you haven't followed the current plan before and don't have the materials for it I don't think it is going to work well for you. Further more you either need to have a calculator to calculate points or need to be doing etools through WW. I think there may be some free calculators out there (accuracy not guaranteed).

Sometimes WW is on sale and they have free registration. So you can go to a meeting and pay for one meeting and get the materials. That might be an option.

If not, then as much as I like WW I would probably look elsewhere. If you like doing exchanges I think TOPS has an exchange plan and is much less expensive. The other alternative would be to just count calories or carbs.

So as already posted, 17 pts is wrong... I'm not really sure how you can do WW without the material, even on your own... But I guess like everything... Where there's a will, there's a way....

Like others have suggested calorie counting might be a good place to start... (and that's what WW boils down to...) Don't let a tight budget discourage you... I think you'd be surprised how much you can do on your own with what you have...

Good luck!

I noticed that in the area where I am registration for WW is free right now. You could just have to pay a meeting fee to get materials. So might check in your area to see if they have free registration now (or when they might have it).

I think it's a good idea to go to one meeting and get the materials. I recently joined, but I bought a monthly pass which I am going to cancel and continue on my own. I also can't afford to go continuously. The meetings just don't do anything for me. These people are in a different place than I am. They seem to be there for a social gathering. The reason it's working for me is because I am in the mode to do it, and my determination is high.

For me, it's a personal challenge to stay within my daily points of 26. Twice I dipped into my weekly points...last week at a wedding and this week when the chicken I cooked was so good that I ate all the leftovers. LOL Chicken, being a healthy food, can still cause a weight gain if you eat too much! I learned from that, not to cook more than enough for 1 meal. But that's why the weekly points are there.

I went into Fitday and entered my food for the week, and it seems that my 26 points gives me around 1500 calories per day. I know that depends on what foods I choose for my points. I wouldn't want to go any lower than that.

It's working for me this time when the 2 other times I did WW I was not able to stick to it. Whatever weight loss plan you choose, you have to be mentally ready to do it, and it has to be something you can stick to long term.

Good luck to each of you in whatever choice you make.

You are either calculating your points or calories wrong or you are eating a ton of fruits/veggies.

If I assume that everything you ate was fat and you ate 1500 calories worth that would be 167g of fat and calculates to 43 points.

If everything you ate was carbs and you ate 1500 calories worth that would be 388 grams of carbs and would be 42 points.

If it was all protein, then it would be 35 points.

So, to get to 26 points with 1500 calories the only real way to do it would be to eat roughly 500 calories a day in fruits and vegetables.

I agree with Koshka. Something seems off about those numbers.

I am eating mostly veggies and protein. One or 2 fruits per day because of my type II Diabetes. If I eat bread, it is Nickles 35 Whole Grain which is 1 point per slice. If I eat potatoes, pasta or rice, it is only a small amount for a taste. I calculate my points on the online tracker and calories on Fitday by entering my foods and quantities. I'm not sure what you're saying. Do you think 1500 calories is too low for 26 points? Or do you think I'm eating less than 26 points? Maybe I'm not figuring my portions right.

I lost 5.4 lbs the first week, but I know that just starting out it is mostly water weight. So far on my scale this week it looks like I lost 1-2 lbs.

No, 1500 sounds high. That was where Koshka's fruit/veggie comment came from: while they are 0 points (up to a point), they still have calories. So while technically your tracker potentially shows you ate 26 points, if you ate a ton of fruit that could significantly up the amount of calories consumed without necessarily realizing it. That's why WW advises 3-5 servings total of the 0 point fruits and veggies and after that you're supposed to start counting them. And 1/2 cup of fruit counts as one serving.

Is there anyway you can post a typical daily menu of what you eat?

The one day that came to 1499 calories on FitDay was as follows.

Cheerios/skim milk
1/2 banana with peanut butter (maybe 1 Tbs? I didn't actually measure)

Salad - 2 C lettuce, tomato, carrots, radishes, onion, shredded mozzarella, lite ranch dressing

2 tsp mac and cheese (this was my husbands lunch, and I HAD to taste it LOL)

chicken - leg, thign and 1/4 breast braised in canned tomatoes with mushrooms

mixed vegetables - 1 cup ?

2 fried potatoes

I am new to all this, and I might not be real good at figuring out portions or quantities. I can use all the help with this I can get. For example, I wanted to count the mac and cheese because after all, I ate it, but I counted it as 1 point. The book says 1 cup is 11 points. It is also hard to find that amount on Fitday. You have no way of knowing if the mac and cheese you ate is made the same as the mac and cheese listed on Fitday. Before I started WW I tracked all my food on Fitday and I was curious to see what it would come up with compared to points.

What do you think?

Under current guidelines, 26 points a day is about 1015 calories.

Yikes! I'd starve to death on that.

Anyway, you can find a lot of WW stuff for sale on Ebay or Craigs list. If you really want to do WW, at least get a points calculator, very helpful.

Disclaimer, I have bought all of my WW materials at meetings, but I have seen them for sale at the above mentioned sites.

I've been at WW for a long time, and I would never go under 29/day + 49/week.

"Averages" out to about 1500 cals a day.

I'm a lifetime member, maintaining 11 months!

Calorie counting is a good free option with plenty of sites out there to help you out for free.

It all boils down to what works for you!