[morrigan]

I am having a tough time.

I am doing 26 points. If I have 16-18 left by dinner, it seems ok. But if I eat more in the morning it is hard. I know that everyone should spread themselves out into mini meals all day long, but if I do that all day - then I only have 8-10 points left by dinner, which doesn't seem enough.

How do you distribute your points over the course of a day?

[Chubbymama30]

What are you eating at dinner that needs 18 points? 4 oz chicken or pork is 3 points. 1 cup of pasta or rice is 4pt most veggies are free whole wheat bread 1pt per slice..... so say if you have chicken rice and broccoli and a slice of wherat bread..that would be 8pts put sauce on pasta for total of 9pts. or have fish veggies and salad for 5 pts or.....meatloaf 5pts and mash potatoes 4pt for a total of 9 points. Just a few suggestions...I have many more..lol. Good luck and keep up the hard work.

[cherrykissez011]

I have 26 points also, i usually have 2-4pts for breakfist and 6 pts for lunch so that leaves me 16-18 for dinner and snacks. the first week is really hard but this is the end of day 6 for me and ive adjusted well so its not so bad anymore

[susie_sunshine]

I have a 3 or 4 pt breakfast- usually an egg on 1/2 an eng muffin. Then a 4 or 5 point lunch (sometimes less if i only have soup) and a 8 or 9 point supper! Sometimes i splurge with a cookie for dessert. That leaves plenty of points for inbetween meal snacks! The only time i keep more than 10 points for supper is if i'm going to drink with with dinner or later that night!

[Kelly_S]

Breakfast - 4-5 points
Midmorning snack - 1-2 points
Lunch - 6-8 points
Midafternoon snack - 1-2 points
Dinner - 8-12 points
Evening snack - 1-12 points

I earn between 3-5 APs a day to help; I also divide up my FlexPoints by 5 a day and if I use them fine, if not they roll to the next day or if I use more than 5 I take away equally from the remaining days of my week.

Also I want to add that you may be hording your points just in case. You'll find you won't be as hungry if you do at least a decent amount of points and utilize your 2 healthy fats as wells as your dairy servings during the day.

There were some great suggestions for lower point meals....you just need to plan. If you want your dinner to be the largest meal plan your other meals around that.

[morrigan]

Snack when I get home 3-4 points
Bread 2-3
Meat 4-6
wine 2-4
salad dressing 3-5

If I go on the upper end of any of those, or want seconds -- then poof -- 18 points easy.

Last night, for instance
chicken 4
wine 2
noodles 2
olive oil 4
veggies 0

then 1 bar and a big glass of milk (I thought that would fill me up) = 6

then more chicken 5

Today was no problem. I had basically the same original dinner and I feel completely satisfied. How hungry I am really varies from day to day.

[healthyme60]

Breakfast - 5-7 points
Midmorning snack - 1-2 points
Lunch - 5-8 points
Midafternoon snack - 1-2 points
Dinner - 8-12 points
Evening snack - 1-2 points

I find that if I don't eat well in the a.m. that I am starved by dinner time. I strive to get in all my fruits and vegetables and milk servings. I don't always get my 2 teasps. of oil though.

[Lilion]

Hi! I just moved down to 28 pts and I'm having a little trouble there too.

breakfast: 5-7 pts
snack: 1-2 pts
lunch: 6-8 pts
snack: 1-2 pts
dinner: 8-10 pts

That's 21 to 29 pts per day. Usually I fall somewhere in between and usually have enough left for a 2 - 4 pt ice cream bar or pudding for dessert. Thank goodness for flex points - I never used to need them.

30 was easier!

[wendytexas]

Hi all! I'm a WW staff member and wanted to see if I can help some of you struggling with the points. I'm wanting to lose 5 lbs. gained since I started taking some meds in November, so I went back to weight loss points (22) last week. I was eating 28-30 points + all 35 FPs to maintain.

Here's what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast: lowfat cojack cheese bar (2), South Beach Wheat Crackers (2)

Lunch: Smart Ones Salisbury Steak (5), green apple w/fruit dip snack pack from Walmart (2)

Snack: South Beach oatmeal choc chip cookies (2)

Dinner: WW Chicken Tetrazzini -- great recipe from WW mag (5), salad w/Naturally Fresh lite ranch (2), Pillsbury parm-garlic breadsticks (4)

Snack: WW Cookies 'n Cream Bar (2)

Total for day = 26
FP used = 4

I have found that many of the South Beach food items are very filling and low in points b/c they are so high in fiber! I wish all of you the best of luck -- learning how to get the "most bang for your points buck" is a learning process, but it does get easier over time...so hang in there !

[Thinfor5Minutes]

It's much harder to eat with that few points available. OP (Morrigan, I think), I think you just need to re-think your serving sizes. Your salad dressings, for example, seem like a huge amount of points. I use 1 Tablespoon of low-cal dressing and spread it all over my entire salad. You get used to savoring the taste of the veggies rather than the taste of the dressing. Maybe shake the dressing and the veggies in a plastic bag before putting it in your bowl to make sure the dressing is dispersed evenly throughout the salad.