Hi. My husband and I joined WW a couple of months ago. Ive done it before..he, on the other hand, has never been a member. Well long story short, he hates it. He thinks he gets way too many points and his trainor (who has never done WW) agrees with him. I really dont know what to tell him anymore.
My issue is I get frustrated when I dont lose. Its such a hard path. We are going to WDW in June and I would really love at least 10-15 lbs off.
Is there a thread for great WW recipes?
My recommendation for your husband is to TRUST weight watchers. They know what they are doing. They have been doing it for a LONG time now, they have really good people on staff who figure out the best ways to lose and keep it off.
WW is not a quick fix. It doesn't advocate starving. It's not an extremely low low calorie diet. WW wants you to make GOOD, sustainable, "this is your life now" choices. It's not "eat 800 calories a day, get the weight off in two months, and then do whatever".
When DH started, he was approaching 400 lbs. Through him, we found out that the max number of points with WW's PointsPlus is 71. That's how many points he had Daily. He also had the option of using Weekly points as well as activity points. In addition to points, he needed to try to eat a *minimum* of NINE servings of fruits and veggies per day, because he was over 350 lbs.
His first week following the program he lost over 5 lbs. Which is astonishing for him, because he has the metabolism of a slug; he is not a "lose like a man" type of guy. He also has a bonafide pituitary tumor that makes prolactin, and that has really slowed things down. His endocrinologist would be ecstatic if DH just *maintained* for a year; he doesn't even expect DH to *lose*, that's how much the tumor affects his metabolism.
DH had a hard time hitting 71 points at first, and I think he got the 9 servings once or twice before getting below 350 and being able to get the normal 5 servings minimum. I think he's at 67 pointsplus now, having lost 40 lbs (woo!) and now eats some Weeklies.
Now, it's hard to see the benefit for your husband when I'm describing my particular husband, because he has ALWAYS had an extremely hard time losing weight. I've been following a blog called "bendoeslife" that chronicles a 20-something man who lost 120 lbs inside half a year. That's not my husband; it's taken him a year and 3 months to lose 40. But he's losing it, and I think he's far less likely to gain it back because his eating habits are now part of him, part of his life. There's no "when I eat normally again", because this IS normal now. Before I met DH, when he was in his early 20s, he lost 140 lbs. It took him a year and a half, and he was starving himself and working out THREE hours EVERY day. It's just hard for him to lose. WW is good for him because he's not starving, so binges are far less likely (he's one of the most emotional eaters I know...thanks, MIL!), and that keeps him on track.
So your husband should check out the WW community forum for the board for men. I think it's "guys on a diet". There's also a blog by the same name, where men can discuss their higher points needs.
I like to think of points as being ways to *nourish* your body. You don't want to punish it by starving; rather, nourish the body you have now, with just enough of a deficit to expect an average of .5 to 2 pounds lost per week.
I hope he can trust WW and just try it for a few weeks. Follow the Good Health Guidelines (if you're doing meetings, it's in the info/brochures you got...if you're online, it's somewhere in your plan material in etools), follow the plan, eat your points. See what happens over the next 3 or 4 weeks.
As for YOU, this is a marathon, not a sprint. Maintaining is OK, and that's what you're doing when you don't lose in a particular week. Remember, we're going to be maintaining for FAR longer than we're going to be losing, so learning to maintain is good! And even weeks where you gain are OK. It's going to happen over your lifetime.
If you are of an age where you have cycles, you might see a gain at that time. For me, I gain AFTER "time of month", which is highly annoying. But then it's gone the next week. If you have a celebration and eat a bunch of food, the scale might be higher shortly after because of the food in your belly. But by the following weigh in it will probably be gone, as long as you're following the plan. etc etc.
If you don't want to *see* the gains, have the person weighing you just tell you *when* you are up, and then just don't look at the number. But do weigh in. Otherwise, how will you know how well you are doing overall? I used to skip weigh ins (previous times I did WW). But I shot myself in the foot by doing that. What if I gained 5 lbs one week and didn't weigh? And then over the next week I lost 4. When I weighed the following week, I would see a "gain" of 1, right? I wouldn't KNOW about the 4 lb loss in between. Seeing a 5 lb gain hurts, but seeing a 1 lb "gain" 2 weeks after hurts more. Whereas seeing 5 lbs up then 4 lbs DOWN feels better!
So weigh, and find a way to deal with the ups and the evens.
For us, we plan out our food on weigh-in day BEFORE we weigh in. If we're following the program, we shouldn't change it up just because of one day's scale experience. So we have our weigh-in day ritual, and it doesn't change, no matter what the scale says. We find that to be a good way to deal with it. No celebrating a loss with food (talk about a bad idea!), and no punishing ourselves, either. We just keep calm and carry on.
Best of luck to you and your husband!