Flex plan points

  • Hi everyone!
    I have been MIA for the past few weeks, but I am still reading the posts and counting points. The issue is that I am not loosing!! I am following the flex program and I think my points are off. I am 150 lbs, 22, run about 4 times a week for 30 mins. I eat 22 points a day plus the 35 flex points a week... but I usually have about 10 flex points left over by the end of the week. Am I eating too much?! I am not loosing any weight and i am following the points very closely. Maybe my math on the point calculation was off... any help appreciated
  • Are you drinking enough water, or eating too much salt? Those things throw me off. I don't have my flex point quiz in front of me to double check your points, but I bet someone else does.
    Good luck!
  • I think your base points are correct (22 per day). That doesn't take into account the exercise you do, since generally you calculate activity points using that to give you a few extra points on days you exercise. If you feel you are eating too much, why not cut back 5 or so flex points this week and see how it goes? Alternately, what foods are you spending your points on? Quality tends to count just as much as quantity does for a lot of people. Are you eating lots of refined white flour and sugar? Pre-packaged, high sodium foods? Are you getting the 8 Healthy Guidelines in each day?

    I think of it like a puzzle... move the pieces around enough times and eventually you'll find out what fits!
  • I don't really know what the 8 healthy guidelines are... but I eat from all the food groups, is that basically it? I also drink about 1500ml of water a day. I have recently become hooked on Fibre 1 bars, I eat about 2 of those a day and they are 2 points. They are 150 calories though which is more calories than you'd normally get for 2 points, maybe that is the issue. I have also been eating raisin bran cereal in the morning with milk and only counting 2 points because it is so high in fibre... maybe that is another mistake. I am going to only allow myself 30 flex points from now on... and make a daily goal to not go over 26 points. Hopefully that will work!!
  • Sorry if that last bit was confusing... my daily points are still 22, but with the flex I included I will try to not go over 26
  • I would literally recheck the point values on EVERYTHING you are eating. Make sure to measure, measure, measure. I don't think that 2 points for your breakfast is really two points.

    You are at that 150 mark too. 150 is where I ended up quitting WW (I got preggo) but I could NOT seem to break that 150 mark for the life of me...never knew why but didn't care at the time because I was excited to be having a baby! Good luck to you!!!
  • Yep - recheck your raisin bran breakfast. Just because something is high in fiber doesn't mean it's necessarily low in points (I mean, that's often the case, but if you are eating a large portion, you'll be surprised - especially since there is a cap on the number of fiber points you can count). Break out the measuring spoons and cups and get back down to nitty gritty portion size measuring and re-checking all of your points.

    As for the fiber one bars, I'm pretty sure the oats/chocolate one counted up as 3 points when I figured it, but the caramel one was 2. Then if I had more than one in a day, the caramel one was 5 for two, oat/choco 7 for two (if you double the nutritional info for one and figure the points from that, you'll see it puts you into a new points value. I do this when I am eating more than one serving of a food, especially "diet" foods that have been engineered to fit into certain categories). Does that make sense?

    Hopefully a combination of getting back to basics and dropping a couple of FPs will have you losing again, then you can start adding back in those FPs if you are comfortable.
  • Thanks for the advice on the fiber 1 bars.. I never even thought of that! Clearly I am in the dark on a lot of WW info... I have never been to a meeting or anything, everything I know was from "free" online sources. This morning I measured my cereal and I think I was going a little big on the portions before... not by much, but enough to add up. Hopefully with measuring this week I will see some progress, I will keep you all posted.
  • Going to some meetings might be a very good idea just to get you over this hump.
  • I would also actually COUNT the raisin bran breakfast Points accurately. If you are counting it as 2, and it is really 4 or 5-a small discrepancy like this every single day can make the difference in whether you are losing, or staying the same. It could be the equivalent to a 100-150 calorie difference every morning.