High point allowance

  • Today at my meeting, a woman who started last week (and lost the same 7lbs that I did!) posed an interesting question that I'd like to be able to give her some advice on. She's probably around 450/475 lbs, and she asked how she could eat that many points in one day without feeling stuffed and generally crappy. No one had advice for her because no one had ever had that problem (one woman made a well meaning but rude comment of "we all wish we could have that problem")

    Has anyone ever gone through this? And how did you get past it? I want to be able to give this woman some advice so she doesn't get discouraged because I'd love to see her in 2 months after she takes off a few more lbs!
  • Maybe suggest high point food like avocados (make guacamole or add to sandwiches or meals/dishes), peanut butter, a bit more olive oil on veggies/meats, using full fat items like milk, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, etc. Hummus is a good choice since can add olive oil to it.

    That's all I have for now! Good for you for wanting to help. Maybe she will stick with WW because of that.
  • She can have the full fat and higher calorie but healthy items now like a dense Multi-grain bread with a serving of peanut butter in each slice. That's about 16 points, which would be two meals for me. She wouldn't be overeating but she would be getting quality fulling calories in.
  • Very thoughtful of you to think of this woman and want to lend a hand!

    I -did- have this problem when I first started out, and sometimes still do.

    Handful of nuts like walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts. Full fat dairy products like milk, cheese, yogurts. Avocados. Dried fruit. Peanut butter, almond butter. Heftier whole grain items like thick multi-grain breads.

    So many ways to get in the total amount of points a healthy way.

    Don't have to start out by slimming down every single portion, either. Sometimes at my highest I ate two servings of healthier foods. Still lost weight!

    Also, making SURE to get in those good-for-you oil servings by sneaking them into sauces or topping salads with it.

    I hope she keeps at it. She can do it!
  • Ditto things mentioned above. Peanut butter or other nut butter is good, lots of points (average of 5 pp per 2 Tbsp) for little volume. And nuts in general. Easy to throw over salads, stir into yogurts, cereals, oatmeal, etc.

    Full-fat dairy, more points for the same volume. I know with some of the Fage yogurts, non-plain, for example, it's literally double the points for a full-fat yogurt vs a 0%. Same amount of food though. If making oatmeal with water, use milk instead.

    I think the suggested daily points plus target breakdown in the Getting Started book is really helpful too (page 60). The chart ranges between 29 points and 71 points daily. Tweaks can obviously be made if someone wants to eat more at certain points in the day, or if their value falls between two values on the chart. But it's a lot easier to figure out an x-point meal or snack than staring at that entire lump sum of points.

    I still keep a version of my breakdown by my desk, and if I go under or over what I allot for a certain meal, I adjust another meal in the day accordingly.

    Btw that's really nice of you to want to help.