Friday, February 18, 2011

Weight Watchers Learnings

Today was my Weight Watchers weigh-in day after doing this for five weeks. I was very successful the first two weeks and lost one pound each week. After that I lost half a pound, 0 pounds, and then gained half a pound back. So the total weight loss is only two pounds in five weeks. I'm disappointed, but after doing some numbers analysis, I'm not surprised.

According to Weight Watchers, I get 29 daily Points Plus food points per day, plus 49 weekly points. You can use the weekly points all at once (one big meal on a weekend), or you can use some of it every day. So that means I get 252 points per week to eat (29x7)+49=252. You also earn points for Activities. For example, 45 minutes of lap swimming is 6 points, as is 40 minutes of running. A 30 minute walk is only 2 points. You can trade in your Activity Points for food points, but I never do.

My food and activity points versus my weight, by week.


Graph:  WW Points I've eaten versus Weight


Learning #1:  it looks like I should eat between 200 and 220 points per week to lose weight.  The last two weeks I've eaten 251 and 242 points respectively, and have not lost weight.  I am perplexed how Weight Watchers can give me 252 weekly points and think that I can lose weight if I ate all my points.  It does not look like I can eat more than 220 points per week and lose weight.

Graph:  Activity Points versus Weight


Learning #2:  I need to exercise more if I want to eat all my points.  I should aim for at least 25 activity points per week.  That's a solid 40 minutes of vigorous exercise for five days a week.  You can see that the last two weeks I've not only eaten more, but exercised less and have not lost any weight, but gained 0.5 lbs.

Graph:  Net Points (Food Points minus Activity Points) versus Weight


So if I can stay below 200 net points either by eating less or exercising more, then I can be successful at losing weight.  You always hear the "Eat Less, Move More" to lose weight mantra, but here it is in plain numbers to prove it!  BUT, I still can't believe WW gave me 252 points per week and expects me to lose weight.  That's too much.  That is a false sense of security, LOL!

Learning #3:  Carbohydrates cost a lot of points.  I need to eat less carbs and more whole grains.

Learning #4:  When eating stuff that I know cost a lot of points, I need to cut back on the portion.  It is okay to save half my food for later meal, or toss it.

Learning #5:  Need to continue to fill up on mostly vegetables and some fruits too.  I'm not doing too bad here but can do better.

I gotta say, being a numbers person, I really love the charts and graphs that I put together, LOL.  I hope to be able to report better results in the weeks to come.  :)

PS - I already know I'm not fat, or even over-weight by many people's standards.  But I'm 8 lbs over what is my most comfortable weight for my active lifestyle and what I used to weigh 4 years ago.  You don't have to leave me comments about how I don't NEED to lose weight.  I already know that.

7 comments:

  1. Honestly, when I saw you were doing WW, I thought "Why in the world does she think she needs to lose weight?" The program helps overweight people become normal/healthy weight. Maybe it's designed more for that set of people.

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  2. LOL this is fascinating! And I'm giggling because it is SO like an accounting person to do a study such as this :)

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  3. Oh Christine I love you. That's all I'm going to say. :)

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  4. I think WW may give you all the points b/c most folks that join WW would lose more weight on 252 points...because they've been eating 600+ a day.

    You also haven't lost as much b/c you are sooo close to your optimal weight. It takes a long, long time to lose the last 10 pounds.

    Cheering you on!!

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  5. I LOVE your graphs! Wait, didn't you make fun of me last week for my running graphs? :o)

    Nice work on the analysis. I think a lot of people try to follow some type of exercise or eating plan and if it doesn't work as planned they just give up. Armed with the right information, you now know how to adjust. very cool.

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  6. I love how you ahve articulated your findings. I started WW (yes I am a life member but had needed motivation to loose the hard earned gains) I started at the beginning of December and as of today I have lost more than I have wanted to 9.5kg. I am at my ideal weight and am trying to stop loosing. That is harder than loosing it all. Keep up the good life habits you are developing. My greatest tool is tracking my food. I even lost 1kg last week drank 7.5 ppts of wine and had 5 ppts of icecream. I dont get that. I guess I must have run hard to compensate. Who know good luck on your journey.

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  7. I think Tracey and Monika said it better than me. Keep up the good work!! : )

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