WW members: Do you eat your Activity points?

[rjb123]

Just curious. I am right in my "goal range" (hit goal about two years ago) but restarted trying to lose about five more pounds. it just is NOT coming off. I feel like my body is just stuck where it is. I have also started running a bit more lately (am running 4-5 miles at a time, four days a week) and am HUNGRY! I am eating some (around half) of my weeklies, all of my dailies, and none of my activity points. And literally I will go down half a pound, and right back up the next week. What is going on here??? HELP!

 

[FreeTime]

Make sure you are not making your body think it is starving itself as it will go in hibernate mode. I am using LoseIt and was doing the same thing, not eating my activity amount and was losing nothing or a 1/2 pound. Due to not being overweight I was only allotted 1000 calories a day, which is way too low and on top of that was getting 300 calories in activity points so should have been eating 1300 a day. I upped it to 1200 and started losing. Good luck!

 

[bumbershoot]

I am currently about 10 lbs away from the top of the official goal range, and I am still eating ALL points. All Weeklies, all Activities. I calculate APs using a heart rate monitor (80 cals per AP). I hit 26 Daily points at approx 180 lbs and I'm now almost 150, still losing on that (and weekly and activity).

If you are mixing things up, eating more one week and less the next, it could simply come down to the weight of extra food in your belly on the weeks you eat a bit more. I like to choose one way of eating and do it for a few weeks. When I first started eating activity points (a few months into WW this time) I first decided on 2 weeks, then realized I would be hitting TOM and that might throw things off, and ultimately did a month of eating it all before making a decision. I decided up front to not let ANY higher reading on the scale, until the very end, mess up my plans. And it worked. TOM I went higher but then by the end of the 4 weeks I was definitely lower. And so I continued.

I see people in my meetings flip flop from one week to the next, and the thing is, fat isn't lost or gained that quickly. It takes time to make fat, it takes time to get rid of fat. Most of what we're doing when we flip flop from week to week is change our hydration levels and the amount of food in our bellies.

I have an Exercise Science degree, and when I was in college we were taught that "starvation" mode was truth. They had done studies, they felt it was true. Nowadays they say it's a myth. Wonder what will happen in 5 or 10 more years.

What I know is that when I do "deprivation mode", when I don't fuel my workouts, I get HUNGRY. When I get hungry, I get full of cravings. When I'm depriving myself of what I want and crave, things get ugly. So starvation mode, hibernation mode, or not, it has very bad results for me. Mentally and physically I cannot handle it. (I love free fruit and veggies...LOVE it, it works so well for me!)

Either I binge and then go off the plan entirely (that's why this is my 4th proper time through, because I did deprivation mode the previous 3 times and for me that's not sustainable), OR I get too hungry which results in me fainting in the shower like I did in early April.

When I started eating my Weeklies early on this time, I felt a million times better, a zillion times happier. And I still lost.

When I started fueling my workouts, especially once I started running, my workouts got better. And I still lost. Using the most basic, rough WW math, a pointplus is approx 40 calories when you're eating the point. To earn an activity point, however, I need to burn 80. So even if I eat all APs, I'm still at a deficit.


So I say, make a choice and do it. Pick a period of time and a number of points or percentage of points, and do it. See what happens at the end. See how you feel.


And, of course you KNOW this, but since you're already in your goal range, you know that this is going to take some time. You're going to have to be patient. You'll also want to remember that when you start a new exercise, or do more of the old, you're going to have some hydration issues at first, where often our bodies hold on to water for a week or two... So you might see an upswing at first, but just stay the course, keep doing what you feel is right, and see how you do at the end of the period of time. If it doesn't work over 2, 3, 4 weeks, you know exactly what to do. If you've gained, you know what you did, and you know to just decrease. If you've maintained, either keep going (maybe it's a plateau) or change it up. You know this is going to take some time, so just keep on doing the program.


Best of luck!

 

[bumbershoot]

I was thinking......wanted to share those extra thoughts.

It occurred to me that since you are in Maintenance, the amount of points you have been eating is already a bit higher than just the Daily. I'm also assuming that you've been counting points since you've maintained for 2 years (which is pretty awesome!).

While in maintenance have you been eating weekly points at all? If not, you've dropped the maintenance points (I assume) and are adding in weekly? Or you've been eating half the weeklies but have just dropped the maintenance?

I can see where it would be slow-going, even just by doing that. And if you add in the activity points, it might take some time for your body to catch up; to start realizing that you ARE burning calories with your runs, and that it can use some of the calories to fuel those runs, while also dropping the weight.

When I use my HR monitor, if I do 4 miles on the treadmill doing a Galloway style jog/walk, plus another mile or so with brisk walking, I'm burning upwards of 800 calories (and I run slowly). That's a lot of calories to "lose", while only taking in 26 points per day plus another 20-something in Weeklies. If you use the "one point = 40 calories" idea, you can see that you are barely taking in anything to be used to fuel your life, if you are burning as many calories as I do while running!

But even then it can take a bit to catch up and start burning fat. If I were in your shoes (and I will be) I would probably do what I said earlier, just eat the extra points for a few weeks and see, but especially since you are doing SO much activity while changing up what you're eating, definitely give it time to really kick in.

 

[rjb123]

Thanks for all of the thoughts and support! I dropped my maintenance points and online readjusted my "goal" to send me back to "losing" mode. I have been OP for about two and a half weeks so far. I am tracking my AP's by just using the WW app- not a HR monitor. It seems "fairly" close though- I do a cross check with the HR monitor on the treadmill (I know not the most accurate, but still at least something to compare too). I run about 4-5 miles around 4-5 times per week plus a little biking thrown in too. My runs range from 45-55 min and usually just a 15-20 min bike ride. I usually get around 8 PP for the run and 2 for the bike. I try to stay "fairly" active on top of that (walking kids to and from the bus stop, up and down stairs, etc). I am currently 5 foot 7 and around 138 (up about a pound for TOM). My first goal was 137 and I have stayed in my 137-139 range for two years (three in November!) I have generally counted points the entire time (doing what my leader called "relaxed adherence") with pretty much no problems maintaining. But I just really think five more pounds will make me feel better. maybe I am building more muscle? IDK. I will just keep trucking though!

 

[sunnygurl]

Wow, as someone who has just started her WWjourney (20 lbs since October) I gotta say what an inspiration! do you have an active link? I find that's helped me a great deal on keeping my daily activity goals. I often find myself at the end of the day ten percent or so shy of my daily goal, so I take the dog for another walk, or go up and down the stairs to mark,y activity for the day. I love how it links to my online tracker.
Congrats again
Sunnygurl

 

[pjpoohbear]

Ok, finally a group I can ask this question, my AP swap is set to weekly, should I be putting that to daily and using them before my weekly points?

I use all daily, about 1/3 to 3/4 of my weekly but never hit my APs. I generally get about 5 APs a day through walking 4miles, stairs etc, it has been slow going, am I not eating enough? It really sucks after a Sunday race, when I gain all kinds of AP and by the end of day they are gone, and never touched.

Pj

 

[bumbershoot]

Ok, finally a group I can ask this question, my AP swap is set to weekly, should I be putting that to daily and using them before my weekly points?

I use all daily, about 1/3 to 3/4 of my weekly but never hit my APs. I generally get about 5 APs a day through walking 4miles, stairs etc, it has been slow going, am I not eating enough? It really sucks after a Sunday race, when I gain all kinds of AP and by the end of day they are gone, and never touched.

Pj

If eating your APs would work better for you mentally, then switch it up. There's really no "should" here; it's all based on your body and mind, and what really works for you.

The calculation of APs is such that there's still a calorie deficit, so *maybe* it will slow things down, but it shouldn't cause a standstill if you start eating them (and if that ends up being more than what you've been eating of your Weeklies). At least after your belly gets used to dealing with some more food, that is.

For me, my body seems to respond well to really nourishing it, which comes in the form of eating ALL points. So far, at least. For me, it was *as if* I wasn't eating enough in the beginning, and once I started eating more, I felt better. I was able to work out harder, too, without feeling fainty.


Go ahead and change things up! You can always change it back in a few weeks if you feel it isn't working. Good luck!

 

[pjpoohbear]

Molly, I am eating more, and healthier, then I did before and I know I wasn't eating enough, with a thyroid issue, sometimes I just don't think I am hungry during the day and then the binge came in the evenings and dinner would way bigger then it needed to be.

I eat much more regularly now through out the day. But I am going to take a week and eat all my WP, in whole foods no junk, and see how that goes. I keep thinking they are for parties or events etc. only.

Pj