This is a complaint we see frequently on the Weight Watchers 100+ support forum. The post is usually made by someone new to the program who has discovered that 30, 35, 40+ points worth of food seems like an awful lot to consume. They eventually make their way to the support forums and make a post that says something like, "I am new to Weight Watchers. I am supposed to eat 38 points each day, plus I have these 35 additional points every week. That's too much food! I can't eat that much!"
This often causes some frustration among the older established members, the ones who have seen this same post dozens of times and who know, from experience, that you certainly CAN eat all of your points - just as they once did. Unfortunately, when you see the same thing time and again, it is easy to let some of that frustration show - and for a newbie, already struggling with self-esteem because of their weight, even the smallest bit of snark can send them running.
I've got a thick skin, and well over a decade of experience with online communities as both a member and moderator/administrator. Snark doesn't scare me. And yes, I was one of those newbies posting the, "I can't possibly eat all of this!!" posts. And while I am certainly not an old-timer yet after only 4 weeks on plan, I think I do have a good understanding of where both sides of this "issue" are coming from. I'm hoping I can help a bit.
A typical thread about consuming all of your points often includes the comment, "we didn't get fat by not eating, of course you can eat your points." There's some truth to that - for some people. For others, not so much. In my case, I used to eat once a day. What I ate was usually absolute crap, but it was still a relatively small quantity - and my body thought I was starving it. My body reacted as one would expect. The body seeks to SURVIVE at all cost. It doesn't care that I look like shit, it doesn't even care that the weight around my belly is making my knees ache or my back hurt or my libido tank. It cares about having enough fuel, and all it knows is that feeding it once a day does NOT supply sufficient fuel. So what happens? The body holds on to every calorie, every bit of fat, every tiny bit of energy it can take from the little bit of food... and it holds on for dear life.
The body does not burn off the fat stores when you starve it like this. It clutches them greedily. It fights for every ounce and joule it represents. The longer you starve yourself, the worse it gets. Sure, you might drop some weight the first few weeks of a starvation diet - but you won't maintain the loss, and if you continue, your body will eventually cease to trust that it will get the energy it requires. Once that happens, you end up where I've been: morbidly obese with a body unwilling to trust I will continue to feed it.
In the process of starving oneself, the capacity of your stomach changes as well. Nothing so drastic as with the various weight loss surgeries, but enough to make it difficult to consume a full meal - especially a meal containing filling foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains. In addition, most of us who are fat have the same core understanding drilled into us for years: less food = less weight. Eating MORE is counter-intuitive if the goal is to lose weight. And yet here's Weight Watchers, and all these people on the forums, telling us to eat eat eat.
It's a wonder our brains don't explode along with our waistlines.
So what's the scoop? What is the truth? Well, the truth is that yes, Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus - and yes, you need to nom those points up every day.
Now let's get to the "how." How do you eat so much food? How do you break through that mental block which says, "eating more will make me gain weight"? How do you trust that what you're being told will really work?
Let's take the last one, first - trust. Trust is a rough one. We signed up for Weight Watchers because we realized we had a problem with food. Some can't get enough of it; some (like me) have an adversarial relationship with it; some use it for comfort; some think they can't afford to eat healthy;, some really are just lazy about it; some are a mix of all these; some are something else entirely. But we all have a problem with food, and we all need to overcome those problems if we're going to attain and maintain a healthy weight and a healthy relationship with food.
Weight Watchers has been around since the early 60's. It is one of the oldest weight loss systems in the world. And it is demonstrably effective when you follow the plan. This is a company that has been studying weight loss for nearly five decades. Can you imagine that? Nearly fifty years of knowledge about weight loss! Nor does it remain static - despite it obviously being successful even in the early days, they have continued to revamp their program yearly, tweaking it, based on new information gleaned through research about ways of making it even MORE effective.
If there is anyone who can be trusted to know the ins-and-outs of weight loss, who else but Weight Watchers?
The plan is designed so that your daily points represent the minimum you should consume each day. If you increase your activity, you earn Activity Points - also for your consumption. And everyone gets an additional 35 points per week to use as needed. But your daily points are the minimum amount your body needs for fuel.
If you aren't consuming them, you aren't working your plan - you are still depriving your body of what it needs to function based on your current weight/age/activity level.
So how do you break through that mental block? There is no easy answer to that. For me, I had to learn by experience. I looked at it like this: the way I was eating, once a day, was clearly not causing me to lose weight. I was gaining steadily. As such, I had NOTHING to lose by trying to do it "their way." Was it possible that I'd follow their plan for four weeks and find I was still gaining? Yup. But I would be no worse off than I already was. So I made myself a promise that I would do my best to eat all of those points as many days as I could, and I'd see what happened.
If you've seen me post on the forum or looked over my blog, you can see what's happened - over 16lbs gone in my first four weeks on WW, and I have every expectation that I will continue to drop the pounds.
Alright, down to the nitty gritty - how in the heck do you eat all those points? Here are the best tips I've got in that regard, and they're a mixture of personal experience and suggestions other wonderful members of the 100+ forum have offered:
1.) You're not on a diet. You are making a lifestyle change. You do not need to be buying all sorts of "diet" foods. Stop doing that! You have plenty of time to figure out where you'll want to compromise with "diet" foods and where you won't down the line, as your allotted points decrease. For now, walk away from the diet crap.
2.) Quality over quantity: use whole or 2% dairy products instead of skim/fat free. A cup of 2% cottage cheese is four points. A cup of 4% is five points. A cup of fat free is three points. Start with 4%, you can go to 2% or fat free down the road.
3.) You need to be meeting the "Good Health Guidelines" (GHGs). So drizzle some healthy oil on your veggies, mix it in with your ground beef (and choose a higher fat beef), mix it in with your eggs. Have a glass of 2% milk with a meal. Don't like drinking milk straight? Add a little Hershey's Syrup.
4.) Use regular eggs - the whole egg - instead of just egg whites or egg substitute. Add in a little cheese. Toss in some mushrooms or spinach and you can get in some veggies while you're at it. Use real butter.
5.) Use regular bread instead of light. Choose a regular whole grain bread and you're meeting one of your GHGs in the process.
6.) Instead of eating three meals a day, pace yourself - eat every two hours or so. This is especially effective if you were starving yourself previously and your stomach capacity has decreased. Have some string cheese. Get some Laughing Cow lite cheese and spread it on 15 7-grain Kashi crackers for a delicious little snack. Slice up some fruit and dip it in a carton of vanilla yogurt.
7.) Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on your cooked veggies. Combined with a little olive oil and some garlic, this is a delicious way to hit a few GHGs and add a few points painlessly.
8.) Got some of those tasty chocolate VitaTop muffins around? Slather on a bit of peanut butter or, even better, top it with some Cool Whip. I regularly have that as part of my breakfast. It's amazing what some chocolaty goodness does for you when you start your day with it!
9.) Having oatmeal? Add in some maple syrup and real butter. How about a handful of raisins? Chopped up apple?
10.) Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich. 'nuff said.
11.) Use regular bacon instead of turkey bacon. Less-lean ground beef. Ground turkey instead of ground turkey breast. Rib eye instead of round steak. Full fat beef hot dog instead of lean.
12.) Whip up some tuna or chicken salad. Use regular mayo. Add in some shredded cheddar cheese (full fat). Eat it on Nabisco Premium Saltines instead of light bread.
13.) Nutrigrain blueberry waffles are your friend. Two of them for three points. Slather them with regular butter. Down the road you can switch to the uber-awesome Brummel & Brown spread, which I adore. Go crazy - add syrup or a dollop of cool whip with some fruit.
14.) Stock up on the various 100 calorie cookie/snack packs and things like Skinny Cow ice cream. Have some cookies with lunch. Have an ice cream bar before bed. Weight Watchers is not about deprivation.
15.) Go ahead and have that Pepsi you're craving. A 12oz can is only 3pts. No, it has no nutritional value - but that doesn't mean you can't work it into your plan if it's something you enjoy. It still has calories, and if you're eating healthy otherwise, your body can burn those while it's burning the rest.
16.) Stop filling up on the "filling foods." Yes, you need to get in your GHGs, but they're only going to comprise about 1/3rd of your points. What are you doing with the other 20+ points??
17.) Make mini pizzas on an Arnold Sandwich thin. Brush them with some olive oil (a GHG!!). Spread on some spaghetti sauce, some pepperoni, cheese. A few veggies. Toss 'em under the broiler. Yummy!
18.) Seriously - stop the diet mentality. You're not "on a diet." Notice I'm repeating myself? That's because it's a KEY ELEMENT to changing your life!! If you are ending the day feeling deprived, you are doing something wrong. You are not following the Weight Watchers plan. You...are...DIETING. Knock it off! Don't you know diets don't work??
19.) Having a salad? I love salad - I make mine with baby spinach. I also add shredded or feta cheese. Raisins. Homemade bacon bits - real bacon. Real salad dressing, not "light." Not "diet." Make your own croutons. Add those. Toss the salad/veggies in a teaspoon of olive oil before adding your dressing - yay for GHGs!
20.) String cheese is your friend. So is apple sauce - especially organic. Regular sour cream with a ranch seasoning or onion soup mix stirred in makes for a great dip for your veggies. Vanilla yogurt is a staple. Laughing Cow cheese can make or break your plan. Stuff some inside a burger patty for heaven on a bun. Go make some homemade banana bread with 4oz chocolate chips instead of the 3oz of walnuts. Slather it with real butter.
Alright, so now you've got some practical suggestions... and I'm going to tell you the most important part of this: Be patient with yourself.
Particularly if you have been in any sort of starvation mode prior to joining Weight Watchers, your body is going to need some time to adjust to you feeding it regularly. This is why I said eat every couple of hours instead of just three meals a day. It's a good way to begin "stretching" your stomach a bit without making yourself uncomfortable or unduly hungry. The more regularly you eat, the more balanced and normal your hunger will become. In the process, you will learn to listen to your body's signals, and learn how to respond appropriately.
It doesn't happen overnight. You didn't gain all this weight overnight, or develop these habits overnight - it's going to take time to change things. You're not only changing the physical, you're having to change your mindset. It takes time. Be patient with yourself. Do what you can - if you can't eat all your points one day, don't beat yourself up. Go back in a few days, look over what you ate that day, look at where you could have made some different choices. Keep it in mind for later.
I've been at this for just over four weeks now. I am by no means an expert. What I do know is that I struggled to consume my original 40 points, and that I have to think ahead to be able to consume my current 38. I know that eventually, when I reach goal, I'll have a baseline about 24 points each day - and I'm learning what of what I eat is "worth" points and what I'm still eating just because it's a comfort or a craving. I also know I'll be earning more APs when that time comes, plus my regular 35 WPs - and I know that both will allow me to NOT compromise on the foods I just don't want to give up.
I do not go to bed at night feeling deprived. I can have snacks and treats, or go out to eat, or indulge in something truly decadent if I want it. I'm learning to work those things into my plan, too. There are some things I know I won't ever compromise on - hell will freeze over before I eat another "light" string cheese. I adore the regular part-skim ones by Sargento's, and that's not going to change. But I don't mind fat free sour cream at all, and I love the light cool whip. I also have a serious love affair going with Brummel & Brown spread, and I never thought I could give up "real" butter. Now I prefer the B&B.
You will learn what works for you, and learn where you can compromise and where you won't. For now, just focus on FEEDING YOUR BODY WHAT IT NEEDS. And yes, it really does need every one of those daily points. You have spent years abusing your body's trust. It needs some time to rebuild that trust. Your body wants to function well for you, but it has to trust that you are going to reward it with what it needs - the fruits and veggies, the protein, the dairy, the healthy oils, the vitamins and minerals, the calories. When you do, your body rewards you in turn. More energy, better numbers on the scale, a slimmer profile in the mirror.
Work with your body, and work your plan.
AND STOP EATING ALL THAT DIET CRAP!!!!!!
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