Hi! I was reading the journals today and someone said they had managed to bank points? I am confused? I didn't know there was such a thing? I do the flex plan and I use my palm with the e tools on it to track my points. I get 28 points. Frequently I only use 25 or so. It never carries them over or puts them somewhere for me to use later if I want? What am I missing? Just wondering

I was told at my meeting that you can't save your points each day - if you don't eat them then you lose them.

anybody else know anything about this?

girly, it is possible they are following the plan before Flex which was Winning Points which gave us a range and what you didn't use between min and max for the day you could bank. These 'banked' points are exactly what the 35 FlexPoints (WeeklyPointsAllowance) points are. We used to be able to bank those to use later in the week but many got behind and did what we called 'reverse banking' so W/W went to Flex and gave us what we could bank for the week up front instead.

Also those 28 TPs you get are the bare minimum your body needs to function you should try to not go under at all for 2 reasons...doing so will slow your metabolism and the more you eat while losing the more you'll get a day at maintenance.

Along the same lines of cell phone companies eh? If you don't use it you can't roll it over.

And nights and weekends are not free.

Okay, well, I probably would not have used them anyway. Thanks for the info. I meant to ask at my meeting but forgot.

Kelly, I know what you are saying about needing to use those points. I have been trying to get past the fear that if I actually eat all of my points I will still lose. This week I am going to really make sure to get in all of my points. I guess I worry because the fat grams are so flexible and there are tons of free veggies and I just keep thinking I won't lose weight if I do too much. It is all in my head. I need to get a grip.

Girly, here is some info to read that may help you with understanding why you need to eat those points (I've posted it several times):

How may calories do you burn in a day?

It's important to know your metabolic rate so you can balance enger in (the food you eat) with the energy out (how active you are). Because of different activity levels, each person's metabolic rate is different. Follow these steps to calculate the the amount of caloires you burn in a day. Remmeber, if you eat more than the calculated amount of calories, those extra calories eventually get stored as fat.

1. Convert your weight from pounds to kilograms by dividing by 2.2 (2.2 pounds = 1 kilogram). So, a 130-pound woman would weight 59 kilograms.

2. Women: Multiply the results of Step 1 by .9 (59 x .9 = 53). Men: Skip this stpe and go directly to Step 3.

3. Multiply the results of STep 2 (or Step 1 if you are a man) by 24. This gives you the minimal number of calories you need to survive, or your RMR (resting metabolic rate) (53 x 24 - 1272 calories).

4. To calculate the extra calories you need in order to perform your normal activites, you must calcualte a certain percentage of the RMR. Then add it to the RMR for that day's calorie needs. For example, a relatively sedentary day--say, a lazy Sunday spent watching TV or laying around--would require only a 20 percent increase in caloire expenditure (1272 x .20 = 254 extra calories). So, 254 added to 1272 equales 1526 calories.

Activity levels vary depending on how vigorous an activity it is and how long you're active. Here is a general rule of thumb based on nutritionists recommendations for energy.

Sedentary (sitting, standing, watching TV) = 20-30 percent
Light activity (housecleaning, golfing, garage work) = 50-60 percent
Moderate activity (skiing, bicycling, dancing) = 60-70 percent
Heavy activity (football,s occer, basketball, jogging) = 90-100 percent.

Additionally, low calorie diets (under 1200 for women and 1400 for men) are not the way to go because you don't get enough folic acid, magnesium and zinc along with putting your body in a perpetual state of starvation.

here is some approximations put out by W/W on what the calories = points are:
20 = 1150
21 = 1200
22 = 1250
23 = 1300
24 = 1350
25 = 1400
26 = 1450
27 = 1500
28 = 1550
29 = 1600
30 = 1650
31 = 1700
32 = 1750
33 = 1800
34 = 1850
35 = 1900

in general terms (it can be a bit more or less depending on the fat and fiber intake) however these do not include the 200-250 a day that W/W built into the program for free veggies? As you can see for an even low active person 18 points a day (1050 + 200/250 = 1250-1300) is just very, very minimum. If you look at Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) many of us need to be much higher than that. My next part will be how to determine how much you burn. If you don't factor in activity that will be your BMR needed to just lay, breathe and have your heart pump your blood.

Points Pies

Balanced (under 250 pounds)

Complex Carbs/Grain Based Foods – 8-9 points a day
Protein-rich Foods – 6-7 points a day
Fruits and Veggies – 0-3 points a day
Fats, added sugars – 2-3 points a day
Milk and Milk Products – 4-6 points a day

20-28 points a day

Higher Protein (under 250 pounds)

Complex Carbs/Grain Based Foods – 5-6 points a day
Protein-rich Foods – 9-11 points a day
Fruits and Veggies – 0-1 points a day
Fats, added sugars – 2-4 points a day
Milk and Milk Products – 4-6 points a day

20-28 points a day

Higher Carb (under 250 pounds)

Complex Carbs/Grain Based Foods – 9-10 points a day
Protein-rich Foods – 5-7 points a day
Fruits and Veggies – 1-3 points a day
Fats, added sugars – 1-2 points a day
Milk and Milk Products – 4-6 points a day

20-28 points a day

-----

Balanced (over 250 pounds)

Complex Carbs/Grain Based Foods – 11 points a day
Protein-rich Foods – 10 points a day
Fruits and Veggies – 3-4 points a day
Fats, added sugars – 2-3 points a day
Milk and Milk Products – 4-6 points a day

30-34 points a day

Higher Protein (over 250 pounds)

Complex Carbs/Grain Based Foods – 8 points a day
Protein-rich Foods – 12 points a day
Fruits and Veggies – 2-3 points a day
Fats, added sugars – 4-5 points a day
Milk and Milk Products – 4-6 points a day

30-34 points a day

Higher Carb (over 250 pounds)

Complex Carbs/Grain Based Foods – 13 points a day
Protein-rich Foods – 8 points a day
Fruits and Veggies – 2-4 points a day
Fats, added sugars – 3 points a day
Milk and Milk Products – 4-6 points a day

30-34 points a day

A Tale of 2 W/W Friends (to show why eating less isn't always the best):

I have 2 close friends who started W/W back many years ago and followed 2 different views to the program.

My first friend ate only 18 point a day (keep in mind they started back with ranges with 1-2-3 Success) and only 18 points a day. She one thought it would be easier for her to follow a smaller number (even though she should have started in the 26-33 point range) and thought she couldn't eat anything above her MINIMUM a day in points. She made goal and when she tried to start adding points she could only eat a maximum of 20 points a day to maintain. Anything above that (including APs) seemed to make her gain. She eventually had to use a doctor, nutritionist, registered dietican and much help from her leader to deal with the gains while she started to add points back in. It has been over a year and she is now up to about (as of today 2/13/05) 28 points a day after many months of only 26 points a day.

My second friend ate 1 range higher than she was told to (for example when she was supposed to be 26-33 points she ate 28-35 points), she always ate all her points and any APs she earned. When she hit maintenance her MINIMUM points a day became between 35-40 plus all the 35 FPs/WPAs we have. She also at first thought she couldn't eat above her minimum for the day because she had a minor gain, maintain and then a small loss but after that she started losing.

The second friend had to adjust her metabolism and did it while she was losing and the first friend has to do the adjusting now and it is harder for both her body and her psyche.

Don't be afraid to adjust your body with your losses using your WPAs/FPs and APs by giving it a minimum of 2-3 weeks....a month is better.

The final thing to remember is W/W is in the business of making money off our losses. Why would they give you points you couldn't use...because if you didn't lose or maintained all the time you'd quit and they'd lose money. The program has been researched by many MDs, RDs, Nutritionists and is a sound healthy way to lose at a healthy rate. Eat your points...the longer you don't eat them the longer it will take your body to adjust to eating all it could be.

Many people who say they can't use their points have not given it 100% try. Many times our metabolisms are so screwed up from fad dieting or ultra low cal/point eating that when we eat all our points for 1 week it maintains or shows a slight gain. This may even happen for a few weeks (I always tell people based on a class I took) to go at it for at least 3-4 weeks before saying "I can't use all my points!"

i'm always interested in these RMR discussions. using kelly's calculations, my RMR requires 2268 calories. and i'm moderately active on most days, so i theoretically should be able to eat roughly 3000 calories a day.

now, i've actually had my RMR measured - it was about 1680. a BIG difference... and if i eat that much, i gain.

so i don't have much faith that these things actually work. i hope that they might work for others, but i haven't seen it...

I will tell you this comes for a nutritionist for weight loss calculation text book. I have seen it be very close. Remember those calories are TO MAINTAIN not lose.

I was just figuring it for a friend of mine who is 180 pounds.

Her RMR is 1767 calories and her activity level is the moderate which adds 1060 calories. So that to maintain her weight she would need approximately 2727 calories a day.

So she is in the 24 TPs range which is approximate 1350 calories (not counting the 200-250 a day for free veggies) and then her APs which is about 4 a day is an additional 230 calories and her approximate 5 FPs a day she uses is another approximate 287 calories for a total of what she uses a day about 2067 a day no count calories for the free veggies. So it is pretty close.

The other thing to bring into play is METABOLISM in general. Remember the more muscle you have (by doing both cardio and weight training will increase this as eating the proper amount of food points/calories) your body will burn more and more efficiently.

I know when I was at a higher weight it didn't work out as well because my fat to muscle ratio was so high...but now that I am getting fit and healthy with diet and exercise it is almost exact.

I think that while this caluclator is a good "guideline" that it isn't an exact science. There are other calculators that I personally think are more accurate-and add in age, height, and other factors as well besides just activity and weight.

There are a lot of variables that can change your metabolic rate as well-such as age. A 16 year old teenage girl is going to have a faster metabolism than a 50 year old woman of the same height, weight, and activity level.

There are also going to differences due to people having different body types being the same weight-the whole ectomorph/endomorph/mesomorph thing-some people are naturally more muscular than others-even if their activity levels are the same.

Also-the activity part of the calculator is pretty "generic" as far as the activity goes. You can have two people in the moderately active category-but it doesn't differentiate for the different types of activity. Two people can do 7 hours of exercise a week-but if they are doing different activities-one could very well burn a lot more calories and be building a lot more muscle mass.

By THIS calculator (and I only used the 60 percent activity level here-and I exercise an average of 1-2 hours a day and am active throughout the day as well) it has my metabolism at burning around 2566 calories a day.

To do the whole "take 500 calories away each day to safely lose 1 pound a week" (because a 3500 calorie deficit equals losing 1 pound) that would have me eating 2066 calories a day to lose weight approximately.

In my personal experience-eating 2066 calories a day is "maintenance" level eating for me-not for weight loss. (When I maintained my weight loss before I became pregnant with my second child-I maintained my loss by eating 2000-2400 calories a day and continuing my exercise regime. )

To lose I have to eat between 1400-1800 a day-varying depending on my exercise for that day.

I have seen a calculator recently either in Shape or Fitness magazine that was a little different-and it included height, age, etc. into the equation as well-and at least for me it came out a lot more in the range that is more accurate for me.

Yes that is another factor but in general what is posted is what the majority of trained dieticians and nutritionists use...I was just giving general info.

Aphil - you hit the nail on the head! There are just too many variables to follow a generic guide, and as you mentioned, age is one of them. At age 51, I am in a whole different level than I was in my 20's, 30's and even 40's.

Also, I never did believe the "reduce your diet by 500 calories a day to lose a pound a week" guide. At my highest weight, using that theory, I would have only gained a little slower.

And for a whole new spin on this, read this post about studies on how our metabolism is thought to change after weight loss.

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51478