Trying again, a Weight Watchers thread

Parent Cafe
1

I started a weight loss thread last summer. It’s still going strong, but I was put off by all the people insisting that their way of approaching weight loss was the only way, and I stopped replying. I’m hoping that since this one is on weight watchers we can agree that this is a method that has merit.

I’ll leave the numbers out of it… suffice to say I’m not happy with my weight. I’ve always been thin, and now I don’t see a thin person when I look in the mirror. I want to lose 25 pounds, and would be thrilled to be closer to “thin” by this summer’s trip to Disney World.

Someone at work started a WW at Work program. As I understand it, you need 15 people (at least that’s the number we needed) to start one. The leader (is that the right word?) comes to our school once a week, at 4:30 pm-- after extra help and makeups, late enough that both secretaries and teachers are free to meet. The fact that I don’t have leave my comfy house and go out in the cold to attend meetings was the primary reason I chose to take advantage of this opportunity to join.

We had a “getting to know what you’re getting into” meeting first, then our first real meeting a week ago… While the number on the scale didn’t fill my heart with joy, I thought that this might be very workable.

I get 23 daily points, with an additional 28 per week… I think of the weeklies as overdraft protection.

We weighed in on Thursday, and I’m down 3.6 points. (Mental image: that’s how much an iron weighs. I’ve been carrying that around with me everywhere, and I’ve finally put it down. ) And not once was I hungry. Not once did I feel deprived. I love the fact that I have a budget, to more or less spend as I choose each day. And that even if I do make a bad choice, I can pull those points from the weekly budget and not feel as though I’ve fallen off the wagon.

Anyone else starting the journey with weight watchers and want to chime in?

And can I please ask a favor? Even if you’re sure that it’s not the right program for you, can you please accept that it may be for me and whoever else chooses to join in?

2

That’s great @bjkmom! You’re starting this out great.

I think WW is a great way to lose weight.

All the best.

3

I would be interested in hearing how you like the program. I gained about 15 pounds after an injury last year and have not been able to get back to my usual weight. I’ve been trying to eat right but not making much progress and have been thinking about trying WW.

4

One of the young secretaries where I work has been doing it since September and has lost over 30 pounds. She is ten pounds shy of her prepregnancy weight and happy. She swears by it.

5

@Momma2018 it’s so cool. They award you a number of points based on your height, weight, age and I’m not sure what else. I have 23 per day; one of my friends has at least 10 more than that. Once you’re enrolled in WW, you have access to their app… It has a bar code reader; you can scan items in the supermarket to determine the point values. Each day I track my food.

Here’s a typical day:
Breakfast: 1 egg, 2 slices diet bread, 1 tsp sugar free raspberry preserves 4 pts

Lunch: Salad with greens, tomatoes, strawberries, red peppers
1.5 tblspns Diet Honey Mustard dressing
1 Jello sugar free chocolate pudding 5 pts

Dinner: 3 oz steak, baked potato, diet sour cream 8 pts

Snack: sugar free cocoa, 2 ginger snaps 5 pts

Extra points into the bank of weekly points: 1 pt

There’s a list of zero point foods including eggs, shrimp, turkey breast and a bazillion vegetables.

But you can have what you want-- from Carvel to Starbucks. It’s all about choices. Of course, the point is to learn to eat healthy, but if you want to eat zero point foods one day so you can have an ice cream sundae for dinner, you can do it. (And, nope, that’s not my plan lol)

I think what I like best is the idea that the choices are up to me. I LOVE peanut butter, but have chosen not to have any in the past week and a half because I don’t want to use up the points it would cost. If I’m in the mood for some tomorrow, I can have it. I can even use some of my weekly points on it and eat normally the rest of the day without feeling as though I’ve cheated.

Between the 12 of us at Thursday’s meeting, we lost a combined 48 pounds in week 1. (One of the secretaries was a rock star and lost 9 point something.)

6

Interesting. I’m looking at the foods on the sample day, and much of it is labeled diet or sugar free. What do they use to replace the sugar in that (if they replace it)? I am interested in low sugar foods, but I don’t like artificial sweeteners and will only eat stevia as a substitute. What makes a diet bread, or a diet sour cream?

7

Those were my choices on Thursday… fewer points. (Did I mention that Thursday is weigh in day? The steak, potato, sour cream and ginger snaps with cocoa were all after I got home.) So it’s a function of the brands you choose.

I bought Fiber One bread: 2 slices for 3 points. I think regular Wonder bread is 2 slices for 4 points. I’m a real bread addict, so I figured that lower point bread brands would enable me to have more.

For 2 tablespoons of sour cream, here’s the breakdown:
regular: 3 points
low fat, 2 points
no fat: 1 point.

I’m still figuring this all out, finding my preferences, so I chose the low fat.

The app lets you type in the brand name, or scan the bar code, of the products you like and it will tell you the points per serving.

8

I desperately need to lose weight and I always think of WW as the gold standard. They do put a lot of research into their program. But the 2x I went on it (once in my 20s and once in my 30s), I was so very hungry all the time. @bjkmom I look at your menu and I can tell you that everyone I know would be running away from me because I’d be so “hangry” (got to love those snickers commercials, they nailed it). Kudos to you for sticking with this!!!

9

Okay, so the way I read this is that it’s not stuff labeled “diet”, but choices to get lower calorie food? I didn’t know if these were Weight Watchers branded food or something specific.

10

One treat we eat are small ice cream treats as a snack at night. We used to eat skinny cow but now have transitioned to things such as mini magnum bars, mini drumsticks, and mini Klondike bars. The mini Klondike bars are 120 calories, I think the drumsticks and magnum bars are around 150. They are great because they are individually packaged and the ice cream is good.

@bjkmom, I think it’s so great to find a support group, my H struggles losing weight. Every time they have a weight loss contest at work he does great but losing weight on his own is much much harder.

I think that however you lose weight is great, personally it’s the journey not the means.

11

@melvin123 , this is my first experience with WW, so I’m absolutely no pro. But my friend, who is starting at a much higher weight than I am, is talking about how hard it is for her to use all her points each day. Take a look at the current Freestyle program. I think it offers an amazing amount of flexibility.

I did make myself a cheat cheat. Here’s the start of it:

Bread, 1 slice 2
Bread reduced calorie (1) 1
Arnold Sandwich thins 3
Thomas Bagel thins 3
English Muffin 4
Bagel, restaurant style 9
Lenders egg bagel 4
Lenders mini bagel 4
Lenders original 7
Butter (1 tbspn) 5
CHEESE: ¼ cup:
Kraft low fat shredded cheddar/mozz 0
Kraft reduced fat shredded 3
Laughing cow cheese 1 wedge light 1
Cream cheese, light (1 tblspn) 1
American/chedd/muenster 1 oz 4
Chicken of the Sea Tuna pouch 1
Chips Ahoy 100 calorie package 4
Cosmic brownie (1 pouch) 22
Chips Ahoy choc chip (3) 7

Cocoa, Swiss Miss sugar free 3

OK, now to the end of my list:
DINER
Bacon egg cheese/English muffin 11
French toast (reg bread) 2 slices 10

CARVEL (don’t laugh.)
Flying saucer 10
Vanilla cup (Jr size) 13
Olde fashioned sundae 17

Again these are the items I chose to list; Nothing is off limits, as long as you can find the points for them. One day this week I had a turkey sandwich (turkey is 0 points, 2 slices diet bread= 2 points) a salad (0 points) with dressing (3 points) and a sugar free jello cup (0). So lunch was only 5 points, and it felt like a pretty decent amount of food.

And lots of the food I already have in the house are sugar free because my husband is diabetic

So, yes, I absolutely plan to indulge my Carvel addiction this summer… but I’ll choose a flying saucer, and have a salad for lunch on those days. That will give me an additional 13 points for the rest of the day.

Again, I’m still figuring all this out. But what I’m doing has worked for week 1 at least.

12

That’s so nice of you to post all that. For me, I’d have to find as many 0 point foods as possible and bulk up on that. I’m sure that’s about finding as many tasty non-starchy veggie dishes as possible. I was surprised you said turkey too.

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I did WW online several years ago and feel like WW is one of the most reasonable and sustainable programs around because it’s all about choice. If I wanted to use 7 of my points on a snickers bar, well, okay - but that meant I wasn’t indulging elsewhere. I never felt like I had failed or eaten forbidden food, and I could exercise to earn more points. That can be a way of life, not a diet. Kudos, @bjkmom - I am optimistic for you!!

I am doing a different thing now with friends (more of a clean eating thing) but fear that when I finish, it’ll be harder to figure out how to move forward. Too many do and don’ts. But I have learned that as for being hungry (or hangry), tinkering with the following can help : higher protein foods (many people feel fuller from protein), more water (as in tons), serving meals on a pile of raw spinach (filling), and most of all, when you eat. I found that when I switched my big meal of the day to lunch, my overall cravings dropped enormously. I also found that 1 tablespoon of almond butter had the fat in it to kill hunger. Usually ate it with celery. (And only once a day. Not sure how many WW points that would be.) Everyone is so different! And on that front, you have to be patient. I am so dismayed when I hear about folks who have lost 10 lbs in the time I have lost 2.5, but I am focusing on the 2.5. Or trying to…

14

Yeah, Boars Head Oven roast is 0 points. So are all sorts of beans (though personally I’m not a fan) so someone found a chili recipe on the site that’s 0 except for the cheese. Eggs are also 0 points, so I’m going up now to have eggs and toast for breakfast. Corn is 0 points so that will taste great this summer.

15

For me, the water is a problem. I’m a teacher-- so, except for emergencies, my bathroom breaks are built into a schedule. (I’m free period 2, but then in class periods 3,4,5. Going to the bathroom in the 4 minute break between classes simply isn’t reasonable; I have to get from 1 room to the next. And leaving 35 teenagers alone in a classroom is …let’s say “frowned upon.”)

So weekends, I’m all about the water. But on school days, I’ve got to temper the ideal with the reasonable.

16

I’ve toyed with trying WW several times so will follow this thread with interest. It already sounds good to me since I can live on salads and eggs. My weakness is salad dressing.

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I joined WW at Work several years ago, lost 30 pounds, and then dropped out because they changed the meeting time to one that didn’t work for me. Despite an effort to maintain control of my weight, I gained back the 30 and another 15 over about 3 years. Obviously, I need the structure and accountability of an organized plan to keep weight off.

Two years ago, I rejoined WW, this time out in the community. I’ve lost 35 pounds and would like to lose another 20. I enjoy the meetings and learn a lot from the other members as well as the leader, even though my rate of loss has been slower than that of many others. (But hey, I may be slow, but I’m not in plus sizes anymore, and I almost never have heartburn now. What’s not to like?)

One important thing to know is that WW made some significant changes in their plan in December. (They update the plan every few years.) So if people talk about their pre-December WW experiences, what they say may not be entirely relevant to your experience now. It might also be confusing.

Another thing to know: The bar code reader does not work for zero point foods. It works off the nutrition label. It doesn’t know what type of food it’s scanning. If you scan the label on a can of plain kidney beans or water-pack tuna (two examples of zero point foods), you will get a number, and it won’t be zero. That can be confusing. The easiest way to avoid this problem is to read the label first and decide whether the food is zero points. If it’s zero points, don’t scan it. Just count it as zero and throw it in your cart.

@bjkmom, you may find that there are people in WW who think that there’s only one way to do the plan, especially if you get involved in the discussions on Connect (WW’s Facebook-like members-only social platform). But there’s no one “right” way. The people who insist on only “whole, clean, unprocessed, homemade” foods and those who know the lowest-point choice at every fast-food place in town and drink Diet Pepsi all day can coexist on WW. It works for both sorts of members. But one group is horrified by the other (you can guess which one).

18

I’m looking at the 0 point foods, and many of them are things I often eat, anyways. I wonder if by designating these foods, they are encouraging people to eat them, and think they will fill up on these and go below the point count…though some of these definitely have some calories in them.

For example, for breakfast I might have eggs and vegetables. Lunch, salmon, fruit and salad. Dinner, chili with ground turkey. That could all be 0 points. Maybe I could make up the rest of the points with cream in my coffee and a whole lot of wine? Of course, it’s the nuts for snacks that do me in, a lot of calories there. And it’s hard to resist dark chocolate.

I’m actually on another program that is working for me, but I’m always curious about what works for others. My sister was on WW for awhile and liked it a lot.

19

Thanks Marian, good to know. Congrats on the 35 pounds!!! I just checked… that’s the combined weight of a Pug and 3 chihuahuas. http://degreesearch.org/blog/how-much-does-stuff-weigh/ so it’s a whole menagerie that you used to carry everywhere and have put down.

As to the “My way is the only way” people, the crew at work is all on the same Freestyle plan. It appears to work for me, at least in this very, very early stage of the game. It’s actually fun at work-- most of us have the same lunch period as luck would have it, so we compare notes a lot.

And @busdriver11, they make a definite distinction between “0 points” and “free/unlimited.” We’re encouraged to eat until we’re satisfied, not bursting. So I think some things made it onto the list because they can be harder to overdo. (Seriously, how often are you going to gorge on chicken breast?)

As to the milk I put into my tea, I have a splash at a time. So far I haven’t touched my weekly points-- in fact, last week I banked additional points and ended up with 33 weeklies unused. (they reset on weigh in day.) So I’m figuring that milk for my tea, and any errors I’ve made in calculations, are taken from those unused weeklies.

20

They are definitely encouraging people to eat these foods. Adding them to the zero point list (which used to be just fruits and nonstarchy vegetables and a few condiments) was one of the biggest changes in December. And WW cut down on our point allowance to compensate, so we pretty much have to include some of these foods in our meals each day to avoid going hungry.

It’s important to be careful, though, not to overindulge in zero point foods that have significant numbers of calories. For those of us who have been with WW through the transition, this is a challenge. We’re used to zero point foods that you can freely eat in large quantities (an entire pint of blueberries or grape tomatoes, for example, to cite two of my favorites). But you can’t eat chicken breast or eggs or plain nonfat Greek yogurt or beans that way. (Two reasons on the beans – calories and the social consequences, if you know what I mean.) We’re having to reorient our thinking on zero point foods, and it’s not easy. But new members, like the OP, don’t have this challenge to deal with. Hopefully, they will start out with an appropriate attitude toward zero point foods and without the now-unfortunate habits that some of us old members have acquired.