Calculating Recipe Points
 

Hi, I'm new to WW and am a bit frustrated. Why does everyone say this is so easy? Of course I am mathematically challenged).

I bought the food and restaurant books thinking it would make things a breeze, but they have so many sections just trying to find a roast beef sandwich took me 15 minutes. And the restaurant book doesn't have many NYC restaurants in it, and the ones they have are outdated and missing some of the foods I eat. Ok, sorry I was venting.


But, I just made some pasta and want to calculate the points per serving (big pot), but how do you all do this?

Do you add the calories and fat and fiber for all ingredients together (thereby only getting 4 grams fiber) or do you add them all separately, use the fiber for each then combine them?

And what if you eat two servings of stuff (why don't the books have 1 serving points AND 2 servings points (since you can't use the fiber twice)? Do I have to have two calculations for every recipe, just in case I eat two? And when can you have a second serving and count the fiber again? 1 hour? 1 week? 2 years from now? I find this very confusing and wish they would just drop the whole fiber issue if they're going to make it this complicated.


Well, you guys seem to have it all figured out. Any advice to make me less cranky?

Try Dottie's weight loss zone and the restaurant"s own web sites.If I don't find the answer there, then I make my best Guesstimate!Pasta is 4 points per cup, cooked, that's in the books. Good luck!

Ok this is really easy. You don't need to make it harder than it really is.

Sometimes you will need to do a guestimate on restaurants but try this website http://www.dwlz.com/restaurants.html as it has over 300 restuarants with points.

The Food Companion and Dining Out Companion are only printed once a year and tend to not have alot of stuff listed or errors. It is best to use your point finder and the nutritional info.

There are two ways to do points for the servings you eat when you eat more than one serving. You need to decide on one way to do it all the time and continue to do it that way.

1) You can figure the points per serving and multiply it by the number of servings you eat

or

2) You can total up the calories/fat/fiber (capping at 4 grams) and then use your point finder to figure the points.

Each will have some advantages because 1 1-point serving + 1 1-point serving does not always equal 2 points. Sometimes it will be 1 or 2 or even 3 points. Because of the rounding up and down that W/W does it does eventually all balance out. This should help you with your frustration with fiber also by picking one way to calculate your points.

Now if you have a serving for lunch and a serving for dinner then that is 2 separate eating times and you can use your 4 grams for each.

On that big pot of pasta are you eating it all or do you want to figure servings? 2 ounces of dry pasta is 4 points. It cooks up to roughly between 1 and 1 1/2 cups of pasta. What I have done is taken all the different types of pasta I use and measure out 2 ounces dry and cook it up and see how much it actually yields and I know that that is 4 points (I've written this down for reference).

On recipes you can figure points one of three ways:

1) list the points per ingredient; total it up and divide by the number of servings

2) list the calories/fat/fiber for each ingredient; total up all the catagories and divide each by the number of servings and then use your point finder

or

3) get a program like Mastercook and enter the recipe and number of servings and let it do all the math for you.

Hope this helps you.

Wow
 

Hey Kelly, you're like some kinda duck in the water (or am I mixing my metaphors up??).


That was very helpful. I guess it makes more sense to do like you say and have Masterwhateveritis (I know it came w/my computer) add it all up for me. I guess you then can use the fiber that would come with whatever you decided was a serving. So, (am I getting this right?)

You add all the calories fat & fiber, then say you decide you have five servings, you just split them all by five and enter into point finder and there you have it? I guess you can do that if it is five servings, but not if you eat the whole pot!


Ok, I'm on the road to weight loss and creativity.

I have to say, you people are all inspiring. Gosh, you've all lost so much weight.

I've been hearing so much about Atkins being the only way to lose weight in the media lately, I was getting really worried as I'm not a big meat eater. I can't figure out how this guy can be getting so much positive publicity all of a sudden when he just had a heart attack.

Although, not to knock the whole low carb idea. My sister went on Atkins, but she modified it to make it more healthy and has lost a ton of weight and looks healthier than I've ever seen her look.

Thanks for your help.

It is a matter of balancing your eating (carbs, protein, dairy, veggies/fruits, and fats). Trying to stay way from refined carbs that tend to digest easily and eating more whole grains. There is some basis for fact in what Dr. Atkins says but it is more eating less calories than you expend.

IMHO, I don't really care for either the Weigh Of Life program or the Atkins program. I don't think that either of them really teach anyone how to modify thier behavior in prder to maintain for life. they both seem to focus more on what you CAN'T have instead of what you CAN or SHOULD have.

Just Thoughts,

-Nate :cool:


And for what it is worth, I like WW beacuse I CAN have my cake and eat it too...with a dollop of ice cream, thank you very much (even B & J, daw-gone it) :D