I wouldn't say completely exhausted, but there have been some rough spots.

Really, I do not understand why it is so hard to believe. I'm not guesstimating, I am saying that that my heart sustains 158-167 bpm for 45 minutes per day. Based on my resting heart rate that puts me well within 80-85% of my max heart rate which qualifies as high intensity cardio. Added with the circuit training/ or resistance + walking that I do to warm up for 30 minutes each day, when I plug those numbers into my WW mobile app, that is what I come up with each week. I have a heart rate display and timer in front of me the entire time while I work out. I am not simply believing I am doing cardio because I jumped on a bike or treadmill.
My leader knows what my activities are and what my points are and has expressed no kind of disbelief. And to be honest, I came asking for some advice from those who might have had similar experiences and overcame them, not to be told that I don't know exactly what I am doing with my own body.

That said, I know for sure I am not doing this process perfectly (obviously lol), so any constructive advice is very welcome.

I've actually just joined WW this past week with my Mom, because she wanted some moral support... So I thought why not... And I've been counting calories as well to see how they compare to points values... And so far for me 1 pt is averaging out to about 35 calories or so... and for the few things that I have been entering in the Activity points calculator I've been finding them overestimated... So I've decided for now I'm going to stick to my daily points target and that I'll have to dip into my weeklys for those few extra hundred calories on some days, but I'M NOT going to dip into those activity pts unless I absolutely have to, and then only for a few "emergency" pts... If I really need to...

Common sense tells me that between all the calories in my dailys and weeklys if I start adding back all those "Activity" points there is just no way I'll be in a calorie deficit for the week.... and no deficit = no weight loss

How many calories are you burning during your workouts? I train with a HRM too , what I would do is estimate points earned based on calories burned... And since I've found for me 35 calories is about 1pt... And then add up all my calories from dailys and weeklys and activity calories as well to see what it was adding up to and see if it was still creating a calorie deficit for the week....

When I'm not losing... The first thing I do is look to see if I'm creating enough of a calorie deficit in my diet or in my exercise... But usually I find that I'm not creating enough of deficit in my diet...

The promise isn't really too good to be true since you can eat fruit. But you have to be careful about the type of fruit you eat. Look to higher fiber/ lower sugar options like berries are ones to eat try to eat. If that isn't an option, go for the high fiber fruits like pears and apples (with the skins).

Especially at the beginning of the weight loss journey, measuring is just as important as the scale since as we all know a pound of fat takes up a much larger amount of space than a pound of muscle. But the scale will stay the same since a pound is a pound. So if you are "swapping" fat for muscle, you may see a stall in the scale but your measurements will get smaller.

According to my fit bit logs I burned an average of 2432 calories a day last week overall and 700+ of those calories while working out.

I'll keep track of my calories on top of points to make sure there is enough of a deficit, there might well be too many calories mucking things up.

That's true, I should stop slacking in that aspect. I can't tell how much muscle I have (it's hiding under there!) But I can definitely feel a firmness in my tummy and thighs that wasn't there before.

I don't ever eat my activity points. I do hot yoga, which *apparently* burns 500-1500 calories per class. That's a huge range, and I have absolutely no idea how much I personally burn. So I tend to go with the lowest number (500 calories) if I want to track my activity points. I also walk 40 minutes every day and would never count that.

In fact, with the Activity Link tracker, I read something about how that 40 minutes that I walk is just normal, baseline activity and the activity link wouldn't even count that, it would only start giving me AP after I walked and started the hot yoga.

So, that tells me there are too many variables for accurately counting my AP therefore I just don't count them and don't eat them. Period.

I do eat half of my weekly 49 points and that seems to work. I lose more weight if I eat about 15 of them only, but even eating 20 or so works too. Eating the entire 49 for me doesn't give me any loss.

You don't need to be so defensive about people saying counting activity points can sometimes not be accurate. They're not "accusing" you or trying to make you feel bad. You asked a question and we are answering you and giving you suggestions.

I think in general counting activity points CAN SOMETIMES be inaccurate so it's safer to use and count your weekly 49 because they are firm points that are easy to track. That's all.

I burn 800-1000 calories in my spin class and only earn 6-7 points with my ActiveLink, before my ActiveLink it was 16 points according to the WW calculation.

WW assumes you are reaching a "baseline" of activity. The bare minimum of activity that you should be reaching on a daily basis. You don't start earning activity points until you reach your baseline.

Breathingspace is exactly right with the comment, "In fact, with the Activity Link tracker, I read something about how that 40 minutes that I walk is just normal, baseline activity and the activity link wouldn't even count that, it would only start giving me AP after I walked and started the hot yoga."

A person with a desk job that takes the elevators and parks as close as they can to their office will take MUCH longer to reach their baseline than the person that is a nurse, walks in a hospital all day, takes the stairs and parks further out. The desk job person will have not burn nearly as many calories as the nurse will when they both get to the gym.

I'm trying to help. I did the same thing where I was convinced I was earning 70+APs a week and I was stalling in my weight loss and was really upset about it. I talked to my WW leader (who's lost 134lbs) about it at length, as she is also an endurance athlete and she told me I was undoubtedly over estimating my APs and recommended the ActiveLink. Last week I ran 10 miles, biked 40 miles and swam 1800y through out the week. I only earned 44 activity points.

No one is trying to be ugly to you or "criticize" you. We are very friendly, supportive, helpful group here. I, for one, am speaking from personal experience regarding eating back my APs. My first problem was that I wasn't properly calculating and thought I was working out enough when in reality I often was just reaching my baseline. Now, I make a point in getting up from my desk during the day and moving. Food wise, I actually eat all of my weeklies and about half of my activity points and consistently lose between 1.5-3lbs a week. I eat when I'm hungry and I eat to fuel my body. I don't eat junk. I've lost over 100lbs. Again, we're just trying to help. :)

This is a really interesting question that I've often wondered what others are doing (I only do WW online). Glad I'm not the only one who has a hard time getting a good grasp on my APs. Since the app doesn't have 'roller derby' as an option, I've mostly been using the calculator to break up my practices into guestimates of how long was low/mod/high impact. Doing it that way I get maybe 4-10 APs / 1.5-2 hour practices BUT If I just used the next best thing in the app (inline skating?!?) I'd be giving myself 19-25 points each practice :S

Anyhow, as for do I eat my points? I'm one of those people who like to eat the APs first cause I earned 'em. But I rarely eat all of them, so even if I am still overestimate somehow, I can dip into my weeklies. So far, its been working for me, agree with everyone else - trail and error.

I don't have a FitBit... although, I probably get one just to try it out... But I do use a Nike FuelBand and I wear it all the time and it definitely has gotten me to me more "active" during the course of my day on top of all the running and other training that I do... but I don't really use it for that... I track my "real" training with other various HRM's that I have... but it's been my experience so far that the FuelBand and other "activity" trackers that I've tried out really overestimate calories burned...

The question I would have is if you're burning 2432 a day are you eating 2432 a day? Now of course I know nothing is ever that exact... but I would guess that would be what would have to be going on to not be losing with all that exercise that you're doing...

And this is just from my personal experience, but I've found that sometimes the more exercise I do the harder it seems to lose weight.... It helps me maintain great.... but when I start really exercising more I find my appetite much harder to control.... consciously.... but also unconsciously (I really start taking more "little" bites here and there without even realizing it... lol...) Don't get me wrong exercise is great and I truly believe it's what has helped me maintain my loss so far.... but I'm starting to think that the only way I'm gonna lose the rest of the weight that I want is my cutting some more calories... or as the case is now since I'm doing WW again is really watching my points... Hope this helps...

This question came up in my class last week. My WW leader says she only eats her activity points if she feels like she needs them. She's very intuitive though (been at goal for 11 years) and can gauge what is right for her. For her, it's just a case by case basis. She said one of the other leaders at our location only eats activity points earned over 5 per day, and that it works out right for her. Maybe you can choose a goal and try it for a week, and adjust from there?

Good luck! :)

Lorefield - I have a fitbit and an ActiveLink both. I find that with the fitbit (which I like more than the ActiveLink) what works best for me is to count my calories (I count them at myfitness pal -- I also record WW points at WW) and to set at Fitbit what calorie deficit I want each day (in my case I set 750 calorie deficit). I still count my WW points, of course, and use my Active Link but it is another check to see if what I am burning at Fitbit creates the deficit that I want. So far (I've had the fitbit a month) I've found this quite accurate at forecasting my overall weight loss.

One point for activity is earned for approximately every 100 Calories of effort. Given that 1 PointsPlus could be approximated as 40 Calories, consuming activity points would still create a calorie deficit.

The main difference in calculating points for me, personally, is that I can't start tracking points until I have met my "baseline" activity level required for the day. This is where the active link helped me the most. I didn't realize how sedentary some parts of my day were. Essentially, I need to burn about 4 points, or 400 calories to hit my baseline. Only after that can I start working toward earning activity points.

Whether or not you use an activelink, this site explains it best to me: https://www.getactivelink.com/help/a...vity-base-line

They talked a lot one day at a meeting about how manually calculating they always came up with more activity points until they figured out their baseline better.

Hope this helps!

Oh! And never forget biology! I thought I was insane and no one would believe me about how I didn't really eat a lot. As it turned out, I had some chemical imbalances: thyroid, insulin, and others. I didn't want to take prescriptions daily, but just balancing my thyroid helped to lose weight , and other improvements, without changes. The weight loss was slow so I started a diet, finally with hope. If you are feeling misunderstood or disbelieved, talk to your doctor. There could be more going on that just diet and exercise.

Good luck!

Yes, the one area where the ActiveLink was worth what I paid for it - even if I discontinue my subscription - was in showing what is necessary to meet my baseline. I found that with my sedentary life I wasn't meeting my baselines.

I am a bit bemused though that when ActiveLink says I have or haven't met baseline seems a little off based upon what Fitbit says I did. I trust the Fitbit calorie burn as it matches up with my experience. For example, there was a day where I just met my baseline on the ActiveLink, not below or above it. Fitbit said I burned about 1885 calories. OK. But on several other days that I burned similar calories (the days were very similar with me basically walking around the house and then going for a 40 minute walk on a set path I walk that is similar each time), I didn't meet baseline. For example, yesterday I burned about 1865 calories and ActiveLink says I was only at 71% of baseline. Today, Fitbit says that as of now I have burned 1550 calories so far today (I have been on the 40 minute walk as usual) but I am at 69% of baseline which makes no sense compared to yesterday (that seems about right on the baseline but then yesterday's baseline number made no sense). Maybe The ActiveLink is starting to malfunction...