Weight Watchers Basics

K so you just went on eBay or Amazon & bought the books I told you to get, so what in the meantime?

Well I guess I could teach you the basics…

Weight Watchers (ww) is all a point system. Your calculator (see section below) will tell you how many points you get a day based on: Age, Gender (boys get more), height, and weight. When I first started, I was allowed 32 points a day at 205 lbs. Now, down to 160, I get the minimum you can go: 29. You’ll never go lower than 29, ladies. Next, you also get 49 weekly flex points. You can spread them out throughout the week, put 5 on each day and still have 29 for the weekend, or save them ALL for the weekend and use them if you’re going out to eat or drinking! You also get “activity” points for working out which is really nice. However, I don’t eat my activity points :) Also, note that you should eat all your daily points. Don’t think you only eat 25 points a day and you’ll lose weight b/c this will only sabotage you later on when you revert back to eating 29 a day. However, if you’d like to only eat some of your flex points, that’s ok. You can’t roll them over, this isn’t AT&T, but if you don’t eat all your bonus points, that’s fine.

Also, just because something says, “sugar free,” “fat-free,” or “light,” doesn’t mean it’s lower in points. Sometimes I’ll get my calculator out and find out that they’re both the same. Always check.

And just because you bought a gallon of “1/2 the fat” ice cream, doesn’t mean you can eat double! Trust me, this took me awhile to learn…

Now, let’s talk about 0 point foods!

You can eat all the fruits & veggies you want b/c they’re 0 points! Mind you, bananas & apples are both carbohydrates and might not fill you up for long, so perhaps reach for grapes, strawberries, and blueberries for a more satisfied snack. However, they’re all 0 points so who cares?!

Anything that is 0 calories is 0 points as well. Dill pickles, diet soda, sugar free red bull… the list goes on! However, drinking diet might make you crave sugary foods throughout the day, so it’s suggested that you drink those in moderation.

The Calculator!!!

Omg, there’s so much that tiny calculator can do!

First, going through the set up, you type in your measurements and etc, and it’ll let you know how many daily points you’re allowed.

Next, it keeps track of 7 days worth of points. Track everything you eat! You just something that was 7 points? Enter it in, select USE, and it’ll tell you how many points you have left throughout the day. Out of points? :( that’s ok! It will now deduct whatever points you use from your flex points!

Now, the best part!! Say you’re shopping and you need to figure out how many points this box of crackers is PER SERVING. Just take your handy-dandy ww calculator out of your purse, enter in the protein, carbs, total fat, and fiber, and it’ll let you know just how many points it is! However, the calculator doesn’t give decimal points, it rounds to the nearest number which just sucks!! So, now double the serving in case to figure out if the points doubled, or doubled plus one or minus one. If something is 3 points per serving, you could double it and it’s 7 points instead of 6. OR you could double it and it’s only 5 points. It all depends. But the nice thing about the calculator is that instead of doubling the nutrition facts in your head and re-entering them, once it tells you how many points it is, you can just select the multiply button and multiply (or divide if you prefer) the points by 2 (or 3 or 4… depending on how many servings you want) and it’ll tell you!

**There's an online calculator in our Links section on the right of the page!!

What’s in the books?

The Complete Food Companion will tell you how many points most food items are… down to:

            Breakfast food > Hot cereals > Quaker Oats > Instant > Apple Cinnamon.

You can literally find pretty much anything you’re looking for! Although if you don’t have your book on you, you can just use your calculator and find out!

The Dining Out Companion is just that. Keep it in your glove box and have it on hand if you’re pulling through McDonald’s to see what the best thing to get is, or if you’re going out to dinner w/friends at Applebee’s. And if the restaurant isn’t in that book, most can be found online and have complete nutritional facts listed. Just use your calculator!

Serving Size

Serving size is very key! Just because that bag of chips says it only has 25 grams of carbs, means nothing if the serving size is 3 chips. When selecting which bag of pretzels to get at the supermarket, make sure you check the serving size! Yes, they all might be 3 points… but which one has the biggest serving size?!

What’s the most important thing to look for when selecting a product?

If, for some completely unknown & rare instance, I don’t have my calculator on me, GASP!, I always check to make sure what I’m looking at is high in fiber. Generally, if something is high in fiber, it’s lower in points :)

Symbols

This is specifically because weight watchers endorsed products have a specific symbol when letting you know how many points it is... Weight Watchers re-vamped their system, and now they have two separate symbols going around.

These are the OLD symbols. These points aren't accurate anymore. If you want to buy them, use your Points Plus calculator to see how many points they are now.

Do you see the difference in the symbols? The new symbols are shown as a blue, sideways box. These are accurate.