Activity points- to use or not to use?
 

I have been in WW for 5 weeks now and in the first few weeks lost 1-2 pounds each week. Since then, I have really kicked up my activity. I now do cardio 45 minutes 6 days a week plus 20-30 minutes of resistance training.
I earn about 55-75 activity points a week, but I feel guilty using them. My daily points allowance is 28.

Problem is, I stopped losing weight :\
Should I be eating more?

A typical day in my food life looks like:

Breakfast-
Feta scrambled eggs w/ veggies 5 pts
-or- Oatmeal with banana 4 pts

Lunch-
Chicken breast without skin/bone 5 pts
+ side of vegetables, usually prepared with olive oil 1 pts

Snacks-
1 cup Kefir sweetened with fruit 3 pts
+ assorted fruit or berries 0 pts
Skinny sugar free latte 2 pts

Post workout- Banana 0 pts

Dinner- Usually end up at 10-12 pts with a combo of 1 serving of protein, 1 serving of starch like rice or potato, 2 servings of vegetable and sometimes a dairy serving.

Any advice would be welcome :)

I find APs to be kinda touchy.

Without the ActiveLink it's hard to actually calculate them correctly. Unfortunately, people tend to WAY over estimate the APs they are actually earning. WW makes an assumption that you are actually meeting a "baseline" of activity on a daily basis.

Honestly, 55-75 APs is most likely way over estimated. I'm in training and do 20+ mile bike rides, 6 mile runs, 1 mile long swims, etc. through out the week and work out for over an hour on a daily basis and earn around 50 APs a week and weigh more than you, but I also have an ActiveLink that calculates my points. I usually don't reach my baseline til about 30 minutes into my workout, as well.

Before I had an Activeline and I went by the WW guidelines I was earning 16APs for doing a one hour spin class, now with my ActiveLink I earn about 6-8APs for an hour long spin class.

I say all of this, not to sell you on the ActiveLink (though I love mine) but if you were to eat back some of your APs I would not eat 55-75.

I eat back either my APs or my weeklies, but rarely both. I also eat them back by adding extra protein to my meals - not on cr*p (for the most part.)

I don't think I am overestimating. I aim for 80% max heart rate in my workouts and reach that intensity pretty quickly since I warm up with resistance training and power walking. At this point I sustain my target HR for 35-40 minutes, regardless how long it takes to get there, then cool down. I don't know much about the active link though, what does it count?

This is what I discussed with my leader this morning. I use barely any extra points, last week I used 3 AP and none of the weeklies. I think adding more protein is a good idea, but not exactly sure how much to add. Even using up the 49 weekly points seems like way too much to me, so I would not even try to eat back all of my AP whether they are perfectly accurate or not.

Yeah, I didn't think I was overestimating either and then I got the ActiveLink and went "WHOA." It tracks all of your movement, your intensity, speed, etc. Most people don't think they're overestimating, but in reality, we are. Like I said, even if I bike 20miles at 18-20mph on a real bike (not a seated, recumbent, stationary, spin, etc.) I also track my heart rate, but I will only earn about 6-7 APs and even less if it's not on a real bike. I'm just saying from my personal experience, 55-75 seems really high.


The best way is trial and error, in my opinion. Personally, looking at your sample menu - I'd gain weight on that because of the high sugar fruit. A lot of WW/weight loss in general is trial and error.

I agree with everything SoMuchFattitude said especially the last part about WW and weight loss in general is trial and error.

Ok, this is unhelpful. I am quite certain about what activity I am performing and at what level, and I do have personal guidance, but thank you.

This helps, I think next week's batch of kefir will have cucumber and dill instead of fruit, and I'll try swapping out a fruit serving for a veg. The banana has got to stay though :)

I think it is best to leave the Activity points alone but make sure you eat your weekly points. I plan a day or 2 a week where I plan to eat my wps and then stick to my dps the rest of the week. If I spread out my wps over the week I do not lose as much/any weight.

I know people sometimes would rather eat their aps and leave their wps, becuase they feel they have earned them. But by eating your wps, you take the guess work out of your AP calculations. I take the high AP numbers as a award in itself.

This has really worked for me! I earn between 30-50 APs a week and eat all my WPs in 1-2 planned days and I continue to lose 1.5-2lbs a week.

You do have to play with it a bit but it is worth a try.

Another vote for the trial and error part.

The only thing I was going to add is that it looks like you are eating more servings of fruit than of veggies and that sometimes can be an issue. I know it is for me. Thanks to the tracking I learned that too much fruit is a trigger for me (I want to eat other sweet stuff) and it slows my weight loss.

Try cutting back on the fruit, say no more than 2 servings a day and add at least that amount in veggies and see what happens over the next couple of weeks.

Are you eating your weekly points? They are there to be used, so use them. And check in with yourself a couple of weeks down the road.

You could also plug your food and your exercise calories into a calorie counter to get a feel for what you are doing in terms of calories and see if that gives you any insight.

In my past diet lives, I remember that once I got the hang of the food, I would start to exercise. This ALWAYS stalled my weight loss. EVERY TIME.

One theory is that you are switching out muscle for fat - have you taken your measurements? You might be leaner.

I think also once you get more active, you might have to increase your water intake, even if you are already drinking a lot of water. Maybe that will help?

The last theory is that you eat more because you are more active, but it doesn't sound like that's the case.

Sorry, I can't remember what I did with prior diets (actually, this is probably about the time that I gave up LOL)

If you are truly earning 55-75 AP a week, only eating your DP and not touching your WP, I have no idea how you can even function. So if you're not completely exhausted and dragging, then something is being figured incorrectly (either AP, DP or both).

Thanks! This is a good idea. I probably won't mess with the settings on my app but I will be sure to keep any additional points I use under 49. I really hope to not add anywhere near that, maybe an extra egg or small bit of meat or beans a day is all I think I would need.

I think I'll try reducing the fruit for a week or so before I increase points, and give a little more thought to protein and veggies and how I use them :)

Yes, I am a reformed Atkins dieter so I had to know that the promise of fruit was too good to be true lol

I will try cutting it down for a bit and see if that helps.

No, I haven't been using more than a few extra points here and there over my daily 28. My group leader gave me the impression that they were more for a special dinner out or occasion, rather than every day/week use. I'll read up on what the official stance is on it though.

That's also a great idea. I can plug them into the food counter on my fit bit app and see what it looks like. Thanks!

I keep meaning to take my measurements but I haven't. I think that will at least help me feel better since I can actually feel less bulge in my sides and butt. I'll take some time to do that.

I started exercising about 4 weeks before starting WW, but right about that time I decided it was time to kick it into full gear, so there might be a connection of some sort. I think I drink tons of water but I'll keep an eye on that too.

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...

I have not touched my AP so far, and try not to go crazy on the EPs either.

Wondering if you are not losing because you are gaining muscle weight from all the working out...and that's a good thing, right :)

I could be off here, but here goes.

Most fitness tracking devices take into account the data you input about your height, weight and age. That given, it takes into account your BMR. Yours would be "around" 1600 calories. That would be the amount of calories your body would need to maintain your current weight, if you did not get out of bed all day.

Most fitness tracking devices, will not start giving you credit until you have reached a baseline, that is based on your BMR, which is based on the data you have provided.

Even my cheap ole WW pedometer figures the baseline in first. I don't start getting credit until I've reached somewhere in between 6000 and 7500 steps. Depends on how many are done in chunks of time.

The truth is, most of us, woefully underestimate our food intake, and way over estimate our calorie burn when working out.

You can have all the workout gadgets in the world, but none are totally accurate.

I faithfully wear my pedometer and my WW Active link and I lift, heavy! 3 times a week, and walk/run the other 3.

I do keep track, but I never eat those back. Weight loss is done in the kitchen, and fitness is done working out!

I look at it as 2 separate things.

What are doing that you burn 700+ in a workout? Just wondering?

I did 2 miles on the treadmill at 3.9 at a 4 incline, and then, lifted a total of 5000 pounds, plus lunges, planks, and my stability ball routine, the other day, and no way did I burn 700 calories!