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Originally Posted by snowgal
Do you think joining will really make a difference? Today is day 2 on WW and I'm doing alright with my food intake.
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First all you've only been on W/W for 2 days. Stay off the scale between official weighins. And here is why:
Why The Scale Lies by Renee Cloe, ACE Certified Personal Trainer
We’ve been told over an over again that daily weighing is unnecessary, yet many of us can’t resist peeking at that number every morning. If you just can’t bring yourself to toss the scale in the trash, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the factors that influence it’s readings. From water retention to glycogen storage and changes in lean body mass, daily weight fluctuations are normal. They are not indicators of your success or failure. Once you understand how these mechanisms work, you can free yourself from the daily battle with the bathroom scale.
Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Normal fluctuations in the body’s water content can send scale-watchers into a tailspin if they don’t understand what’s happening. Two factors influencing water retention are water consumption and salt intake. Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink, the more of it your body retains. If you are even slightly dehydrated your body will hang onto it’s water supplies with a vengeance, possibly causing the number on the scale to inch upward. The solution is to drink plenty of water.
Excess salt (sodium) can also play a big role in water retention. A single teaspoon of salt contains over 2,000 mg of sodium. Generally, we should only eat between 1,000 and 3,000 mg of sodium a day, so it’s easy to go overboard. Sodium is a sneaky substance. You would expect it to be most highly concentrated in salty chips, nuts, and crackers. However, a food doesn’t have to taste salty to be loaded with sodium. A half cup of instant pudding actually contains nearly four times as much sodium as an ounce of salted nuts, 460 mg in the pudding versus 123 mg in the nuts. The more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is to have a high sodium content. That’s why, when it comes to eating, it’s wise to stick mainly to the basics: fruits, vegetables, lean meat, beans, and whole grains. Be sure to read the labels on canned foods, boxed mixes, and frozen dinners.
Women may also retain several pounds of water prior to menstruation. This is very common and the weight will likely disappear as quickly as it arrives. Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be minimized by drinking plenty of water, maintaining an exercise program, and keeping high-sodium processed foods to a minimum.
Another factor that can influence the scale is glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrate. Some glycogen is stored in the liver and some is stored the muscles themselves. This energy reserve weighs more than a pound and it’s packaged with 3-4 pounds of water when it’s stored. Your glycogen supply will shrink during the day if you fail to take in enough carbohydrates. As the glycogen supply shrinks you will experience a small imperceptible increase in appetite and your body will restore this fuel reserve along with it’s associated water. It’s normal to experience glycogen and water weight shifts of up to 2 pounds per day even with no changes in your calorie intake or activity level. These fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss, although they can make for some unnecessarily dramatic weigh-ins if you’re prone to obsessing over the number on the scale.
Otherwise rational people also tend to forget about the actual weight of the food they eat. For this reason, it’s wise to weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you’ve had anything to eat or drink. Swallowing a bunch of food before you step on the scale is no different than putting a bunch of rocks in your pocket. The 5 pounds that you gain right after a huge dinner is not fat. It’s the actual weight of everything you’ve had to eat and drink. The added weight of the meal will be gone several hours later when you’ve finished digesting it.
Exercise physiologists tell us that in order to store one pound of fat, you need to eat 3,500 calories more than your body is able to burn. In other words, to actually store the above dinner as 5 pounds of fat, it would have to contain a whopping 17,500 calories. This is not likely, in fact it’s not humanly possible. So when the scale goes up 3 or 4 pounds overnight, rest easy, it’s likely to be water, glycogen, and the weight of your dinner. Keep in mind that the 3,500 calorie rule works in reverse also. In order to lose one pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in. Generally, it’s only possible to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. When you follow a very low calorie diet that causes your weight to drop 10 pounds in 7 days, it’s physically impossible for all of that to be fat. What you’re really losing is water, glycogen, and muscle.
This brings us to the scale’s sneakiest attribute. It doesn’t just weigh fat. It weighs muscle, bone, water, internal organs and all. When you lose "weight," that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve lost fat. In fact, the scale has no way of telling you what you’ve lost (or gained). Losing muscle is nothing to celebrate. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns, even when you’re just sitting around. That’s one reason why a fit, active person is able to eat considerably more food than the dieter who is unwittingly destroying muscle tissue.
Robin Landis, author of "Body Fueling," compares fat and muscles to feathers and gold. One pound of fat is like a big fluffy, lumpy bunch of feathers, and one pound of muscle is small and valuable like a piece of gold. Obviously, you want to lose the dumpy, bulky feathers and keep the sleek beautiful gold. The problem with the scale is that it doesn’t differentiate between the two. It can’t tell you how much of your total body weight is lean tissue and how much is fat. There are several other measuring techniques that can accomplish this, although they vary in convenience, accuracy, and cost. Skin-fold calipers pinch and measure fat folds at various locations on the body, hydrostatic (or underwater) weighing involves exhaling all of the air from your lungs before being lowered into a tank of water, and bioelectrical impedance measures the degree to which your body fat impedes a mild electrical current.
If the thought of being pinched, dunked, or gently zapped just doesn’t appeal to you, don’t worry. The best measurement tool of all turns out to be your very own eyes. How do you look? How do you feel? How do your clothes fit? Are your rings looser? Do your muscles feel firmer? These are the true measurements of success. If you are exercising and eating right, don’t be discouraged by a small gain on the scale. Fluctuations are perfectly normal. Expect them to happen and take them in stride. It’s a matter of mind over scale.
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Originally Posted by snowgal
I've been trying to lose weight on my own for 38 days and finally broke down yesterday and joined WW. I work out 5x a week at Curves (doing 2 circles instead of 3) and, from what I can tell, I have been eating within or close to within my points (including water, fruits & veggies) the whole dang 38 days.
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You can't be close or within your points if I understand what you are saying. Your Daily Points aka Target Point are your bare minimum and except on an occasiaonlly basis you need to eat each and every one of those. If you are active then you need to eat some if not all of your Activity Points. And the majority of us lose better or at least more consistent when we eat most if not all of our Weekly Points Allowance aka Flex Points.
Finally I am going to post 2 things one is about analyzing what you are doing and the other is on the 8 Great Health Guidelines --- see if you truly are dong the program 100%:
1) Where in your points are you eating? Most people find they lose better when eating above their TPs by using APs and FPs to give a higher or moderate day. Especially if you are exercising you need to eat toward the high end and not the low end. The reason is because your body thinks it is starving and slows down your metabolism and holds on to the calories you intake.
2) What are you spending your points on? Review POINTS PIES Also make sure you get in some REAL fat (preferably in healthy fats but also butter, margarine, mayo, real salad dressing, etc). I had subconsciously removed almost all fat from my diet and had plateaued for SIX (count them 6) months. Make sure you get in some fat.
3) Are you drinking your water?
4) Are you eating alot of processed foods (canned, frozen, etc.) which contain alot of sodium which causes water retention. What about diet sodas? They can cause bloating and water rentention.
5) Are you exercising? Have you taken your measurements to see if you are building muscle while losing? Remember muscle weighs 2.2 times more than fat for the same amount of space (that does not mean muscle weighs more than fat pound for pound but volume for volume it will be heavier) however remember it takes many months to build muscle. If you just started exercise or have made a major change to your routine you can be retaining water. If you are exercising remember to eat high in your point range.
6) Are you journaling? This includes every BLT (bite, lick and taste). Those BLTs can add up in 'hidden' points.
7) Are you calculating points correctly? Ninety percent of new members don't count points correctly. I have a favorite muffin and until last week (I've been on program for almost 2 years) I just realized my 3 point muffin is really 6 points because it is 2 servings. Make sure you use the nutritional information rather than the 'generic' list W/W puts out. You'll find alot of differences.
Once you have analyzed these things then you need to start playing with the program to adapt it to you and your body. Like reducing the carbs and increasing the protien and stuff like that.
For onlines here is how to get to them:
You may visit the Web site and read 8 Great Health Guidelines. After you log in, it can be found in the Select a Resource dropdown menu located in the Shortcuts toolbar on the left hand side of the page. Click on Weight Loss Topics of the Week in the My Plan section of the dropdown menu. On the next page you will see the View Topics Archive link in the box on the upper right side of the page. Click the link to be brought to the topics archive. 8 Great Health Guidelines is the first first link on the archive list.
For e-tools and meeting people it is page 34 in your Week 1 booklet.
1) Eat at least 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day (in general 1 serving is 1/2 a cup except for 100% juices where it is 3/4 cup or leafy veggies where it is 1 cup).
2) Choose whole-grain foods such as brown rice, oats whenever possible.
3) Include 2 servings of milk products (which in addition to 1 cup of milk is: 16 fl oz unsweetened cappuccino, 2 cups cottage cheese, 1 1/2 oz hard (think parmeasan) or semi-soft (think American) cheese, 1/2 cup ricotta cheese, 1 packet reduced calorie dairy shake, 12 fl oz unsweetened latte, 12 fl oz fast food milk shake, 1 cup fat-free sugar-free made with skim milk pudding, 1 cup yogurt or 1 serving W/W smoothie)...3 servings if you are a teen or over 50.
4) 2 tsp healthy oils (such as canola, olive, sunflower, safflower or flaxseed)
5) Ensure you get enough protein
6) Limit sugar and alcohol
7) Drink at least 6 glasses of water (8 ounce glasses and 1/2 of those can be decaff, no alcohol beverages such as juice or milk)
8) Take a multi-vitamin daily
HELP! Just started WW yesterday!
That is what we are here for!! Any questions at all feel free to send me a personal message!! I dont have a buddy at the moment, did have one but then she never posted, so if you would like to be my buddy that would be great! we can chat a bit everyday, let me know!! Maybe we can set a time that we would both be online and message each other. I have yahoo messenger which is free, so if you want to let me know! If not that is ok too! Have a good night!! Michelle
