I tried looking online to see what PointsPlus is about since today is my first day, and I've seen many many complaints about people not losing/gaining weight. I even payed to join Weight Watchers today, but I don't see the point if I'm not going to lose anything. I do not want to waste time, because I've wasted enough already. It says I need 26 points, but that seems too much. That's even more than what I ate of Weight Watchers and that definitely didn't work. Ugh. Is anyone else finding that the point system works? Maybe I should just reduce it to 21 points? Ugh. Just kind of frustrated

Hi Kassi,
I've been on weight watchers for the last 2 months and I've had a loss every week. It looks like you don't have a lot to lose, so that may be a little slower for you as everyone is different. Yes you get more points than the old system, but most foods cost more points. except your fruit and most veggies, which are now free. PLEASE don't do it if you aren't going to follow the plan. I've been in meetings and women would cry because they weren't loosing. Only to find out they weren't eating their points. Their thinking that if they ate less, they would certainly lose more. Not the case. You must eat your daily points for it to work. Whatever you decide to do, good luck!!

Points Plus works the way it should. No complaints. 26 points is the minimum you can have now and it's what I have as my daily allowance. I've been steadily losing weight by doing Points Plus. I love it.

Okay, I will try to follow the plan and see what happens. Is it okay if I don't eat a lot of fruit on the plan?

I don't eat a lot of fruit, to be honest. I'm lucky if I can get in 1 banana per day!

I don't like a lot of fruits but some people notice less weight loss when they eat a ton. I'd keep it to 3 fruits and start counting fruits after that. But if you have the choice between cookies and fruit, take the fruit. WW does work if you work with it

ww points translate to about 40 calories each. that puts you at 1,040 a day. Do not eat less than that! yes you will see the scale go down but you will be burning lean muscle mass and not fat. I saw in another thread you plan to work out so also add your workouts to your tracker and you will get more points which are at your discretion to use. but if you are somewhat of an athlete you really need to not go under your 26 points a day.

Like anything in life, you will get the results you work for. WW does work, but you can't expect to follow the plan half the time, eat what you want or barely exercise. I follow the plan exactly as set by WW and have always managed to lose weight. Often those that don't see the results they want while on WW are usually not following the plan in one or several areas.

When I first tried/joined WW last year, I remember doing research and finding many negative reviews about WW. But after being on WW and finding success in my own weight loss journey, I can honestly say that I don't regret spending one cent I've put towards WW. Again, its all in following the plan.

I've lost 135 pounds on Points Plus, so yes it definitely works. And eating fruit isn't a requirement, they just have the 0 fruit has an option to help you make better choices if, say, faced with apple versus chocolate (don't worry, sometimes I choose the chocolate!) Just remember that WW recommends 3-5 servings of fruit and veggies combined and 1 serving of fruit is 1/2 cup.

Like anything else, WW works if you put the work in and follow the plan. That means hitting your Good Health Guidelines as well.

I saw a lot of complaints about not losing/ gaining online as well. But when I looked at the dates it was from when points plus first came out. Back then the minimum was 29pts but they changed it down to 26. So that would make a difference.

It really does work. Stick to your 5 fruit or veg, it does not matter if it is more veg then fruit. That is up to you.

Work the program because the program works.

Yesterday I ate 28 points and that was 1060 calories. If you eat the minimum of 26 points you will be under 1000 calories unless you eat quite a bit of fruits and veggies (yesterday was unusually low fruits/veggies for me). I am not a huge fruit fan but do like vegetables so work to eat a couple of fruit servings (usually a serving of grapes and a serving of berries of some sort).

Wow I had no idea the calories in 26 points was that low! No wonder why they say you can have as many fruits/vegetables you want. Also, I love coffee and that is probably the only thing that keeps me from eating bad things. Should I really keep track of the creamer I put in it? Is it really enough to make a difference? I don't put that much in it and it only has like 20 calories

Yeah, at 39 pts, I'm eating about 1700 a day currently. Which is roughly 40 cals.

If you look at WW patent application it determines points based upon 35 a point. They calculate your total energy expenditure based upon you being low active (if you are less active then that can be why you don't lose weight since you never meet that baseline - higher active is no problem since you can earn APs). They then apparently deduct 1000 from that daily number to theoretically lead to a 2 pound weight loss each week. Then they divide it by 35. That gives a points per day for you to eat to have that loss. However, according to the WW article on Wikipedia they they deduct from that 7 and deduct 4. The 7 seems to be for the weekly points which average to 7 per day. The 4 may be for veggies/fruit.

So for me if I do the calculation it would call for me to eat a minimum of 24 daily points. However, WW sets a lower and upper bound for points so my actual minimum is 26 points a day. Basically if the formula would call for your minimum to be less than 1000 calories a day then your minimum will be 26 points.

Things that appear to be the case.

They work to achieve a 2 pound a week weight loss and assume that you eat all of your weekly points and some amount of fruits and vegetables.

Reasons people may not actually lose that 2 pounds:

1. They don't expend as much energy as WW assumes they will in the formula. When I got my active link I found that wasn't meeting that baseline. I now have had a fitbit for a few days and it tells me how many calories I burn (using a formula to get the basal metabolic rate) and it is less than what WW is assuming. This is because I am more sedentary than WW assumes unless I really really focus on burning more calories.

2. Their metabolism has a lower TEE than the formula would predict. There has been some research showing that people who have previously lost weight (probably most WW members have done so at some point in the past) have a lower metabolic rate and don't burn as many calories as all the formulas would predict. One article I read found a reduction of about 30% in non-resting energy expenditure for weight reduced subjects.

3. Eating more fruits and vegetables than WW anticipated in determining the formula.

4. Having a 26 point daily minimum when the formula would call for something lower. I am not suggesting eating less than 26 points a day since good nutrition and eating a sufficient amount is very important. But if you fall in this category you may not lose 2 pounds a week even with following the program.

For me I fall within 3 of the 4 (I don't eat significantly more fruits and veggies so that doesn't apply to me). All of this probably explains why I was losing close to 1/2 pound a week.

Thank you so much for explaining that in detail. I'll try to find out what works and what doesn't. I'd like to reach my goal by the beginning of summer.