WW? Points Plus confusion!

[town hall]

Double-posting to bump.

This isn't really connected with points, but I thought this would probably be the best thread to put this in anyway.

(Hopefully, anyone who finds the topic of weight loss triggering wouldn't read this thread anyway, but if you are, please know this post may be problematic.)


How did you decide what your goal weight was going to be?

Because I joined WW online only, I haven't had any guidance from a group leader, so I just picked a goal weight (145) from somewhere in the middle of the 'healthy' range for my height. However, my Wii Fit tells me my ideal weight (whatever that means really) is 149. Not a vast difference, but I'm at 150 as of this morning, and I can't decide whether to continue or switch to maintenence.
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[milyssa]

town hall, since WW uses BMI as a guide for healthy weight (and honestly they are rather conservative with it: the U.S. government says that you can be between 18.5 and 24.9 on the BMI and be at a healthy weight, but WW says you need to be between 20 and 25), the suggestion I was given was to aim for the lower end of that range: 20-22 since I am young (joined at age 23) and would like to have babies, will hit menopause, etc. eventually and aiming for the lower end of the range would give me some 'wiggle room' to eventually gain small amounts without immediately being overweight. Is the 5lb difference between your WW goal and your WiiFit ideal a difference on the BMI chart? Is the number 145 something you would just like to see on the scale? Will that 5lbs possibly let you drop a clothing size (and do you want to)?

Those are the things I'd think about. I've been struggling with this lately as I just hit 75lbs lost and my goal is in 2 more pounds. It's an arbitrary number that I chose (with wanting to be at the low end of the range as my goal -- I am still going to be just above the lowest joining weight for women of my height, and technically I'm a little bit under the height). I almost declared goal at 75lbs lost, in fact, because losing 2lbs isn't really going to make a difference in the big picture. But I want to get to that number, so 2 more pounds it is!

I hope that helps a little :) As long as both weights are in the healthy range, you're good to go for either. It just comes down to the difference between them in your thinking!
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With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

[town hall]

Well done on losing 75lb! And good luck with the last few :)

My healthy range is 135lb-169lb, according to WW, so my goal is kind of lower-middle (I have lost about 20lb - I was only on the lower end of 'overweight' by BMI when I started but was gaining weight fairly steadily). My current BMI is about 22.2; my BMI at 145 would be 21.41. I'm 31.

I know I would be far, far too thin at the lowest end of the range (last time I was that weight I was a skinny teenager, getting asked if I was eating properly on a regular basis), but I don't feel on the verge of being too thin now. Regarding dress sizes, I'm not sure if another 5lb would zip me down a size, and tbh I don't really mind about that at this point, either way.

Thanks for your advice, you are very knowledgable! I think I'll leave my goal as-is for now and see where I am next week.
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kittens are cute, but a full-grown cat can be cuter

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twidder!

[town hall]

Argh! I apologise for repeatedly bumping this thread when it seems like I'm just using it to ask mylissa questions! :)

So, does anyone use the points swapping thing for when you exercise? I'm quite bad at exercising, but I've been trying to use my Wii Fit more just to get my arse off the sofa. I've been swapping it for WW PPs just by saying the number of minutes and counting it as Low Intensity. Does that sound right?

When I do the step program, I use a riser for the board to make it an actual step up. Should I count that as more? It certainly feels like more exercise than a lot of the other stuff on there.

One day I'll get out and do some real exercise, but running is out at the moment because of a foot injury, and also because I hate it. Whatever I do needs to be free, because I have no cash to spare right now.
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kittens are cute, but a full-grown cat can be cuter

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twidder!

[milyssa]

[town hall]

Apologies for spelling your name wrong, oops.

thanks for the info! The heartrate monitor is a good idea. I wish I could get into running; seems like it would be a really good option, but I always give up 'cos I just haaaate it.

Are you on 'maintain' points now? How are you finding it? Do you use all your weekly points? I ask because I went onto maintenance points last week for a break, and lost three pounds, which was... confusing, heh. I switched back to 'lose' this week for a final push to get to goal (which I reached this morning according to the Wii, woo!), so from Friday I'll be back up to maintenance points and don't want to continue losing weight!
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kittens are cute, but a full-grown cat can be cuter

flickr!
twidder!

[milyssa]

I'm on maintenance, but I'm still trying to juggle my points to maintain. I lost my first week on maintenance, despite having lost 3lbs the week before (which was crazy!)

My leader told me that my goal now is to know my "losing" points (i.e., what I have to eat to lose) and my maintaining points (i.e. what keeps my weight stable.) Sometimes I find that when I eat more than usual my body compensates for it by losing since it's used to having less -- if that makes sense at all. That's probably what happened when you went to the maintenance points and lost! (and maybe what happened to me my first week on maintenance).
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With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

[nap]

bumpity bump

So I have the opportunity to join WW for free at work and I'm seriously considering it. I tried it 7 years a go and never went to the meetings so of course I failed. If I join through work I have go to 10 of the 13 weekly meeting to have work pay for it and I can go at work, during my work day.

The session starts tomorrow and I'm mostly afraid that I won't be able to make the change. I need to loose about 60 pounds to get to the top of the WW range for my height/age. At my thinnest I was around that weight so I know it will be a stretch to get back there.

Will I be hungry all the time?? I'm mean when I'm hungry :(

[milyssa]

[nap]

mylissa - you are awesome! I signed up today and got my welcome packet and am totally overwhelmed. I know I need to read it tonight but I've already meal planned and grocery shopped for the week so I'm going to take this week/weekend to digest the info and try to start with my meal plan for next week.

Do you any of the online tools? I have access to them and think I want to use the iphone app to track everyting. Decisions, decisions!

[milyssa]

I've always found the WW tracker to be kind of tedious, but I know a lot of people love it, so it's worth trying it. I always just did a paper tracker so I could track everywhere I went, and once I got a smartphone I downloaded a tracker made for android. No matter what you decide, though, get in the habit of tracking ASAP. Sometimes it's a pain in the butt, but it's always worth it. I am rarely surprised by the scale when I track consistently, and never wish I hadn't tracked :)

Fun things about etools: Recipe Builder is amazing! I feel like it's the way to go for any cooking/baking when a recipe doesn't have the nutrition info (or PP). I also really enjoyed the weight tracker feature so I could get a graph of my progress.

If I may suggest it, I always always wish that I'd taken my measurements when I started, so I advise that you do so :) (and you can enter them on the website too!)

BTW, I have suggested this other places, but skinnytaste.com is my FAVE food blog for healthy recipes, so you should definitely check it out :) She does the WW pointsplus for her recipes and tells you what a serving of the dish is. Love it :)
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With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

[Fritz]

I have to second the skinny taste rec. I started WW a month ago with a friend and we've made a number of her recipes. As someone who doesn't cook, they're pretty simple and you always feel like you've had a real meal.

[town hall]

I joined WW online-only, and used the online tracker. It's a bit of a pain the bum, but it saved me from having to work out the points manually. (I stopped tracking last week, but may go back to it depending on what the scales say when I weigh in on Friday!) The recipe builder is something I liked, too, as was finding recipes on the WW website and making substitutions. For example, I was never going to buy that lo-cal spray for cooking with, but was able to sub in (controlled amounts of) olive oil & have the recipe come out with the same points value per portion at the end.

I would also second taking your measurements, unless you really don't want to. I have a vague idea of what mine were before, but it'd be interesting to see the graph of them changing over time.

Good luck!
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kittens are cute, but a full-grown cat can be cuter

flickr!
twidder!

[aliwa]

So... I'm thinking of joining. I'm feeling increasingly flabby, and that I'm probably not eating the right things. So I need some guidance. I have a tendency to not eat sometimes, and then eat quite crappy food/snacks instead. Not really a healthy behaviour...

It's just that I'm probably about 15 pounds over my ideal weight and it feels like it's "not enough" to seek help.

Encouraging words please?
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Oh gravity, thou art a heartless bitch

[milyssa]