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.
aphil , 10-07-2008 08:49 AM
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.