First Daily Points, then Activity Points, then Flex Points?

[geetey]

I am looking for some clarification on how to eat my points each day.

Before the Flex Points, I knew to eat my Activity Points if the activity put me below my minimum number in my range. With Flex Points we have a set number to eat (my number is 24) and, if I calculated correctly, I 'earned' 6 activity points yesterday. (45 minutes on the elliptical runner, 50 minutes of weight lifting = 488 calories burned according to fitday.com)

Does that mean I should have eaten 30 points to hit my target? I did eat 28 points yesterday, totalling 1257 calories according to fitday.com, but I do want to eat enough calories to encourage weight loss, not fat holding.

I typically ignore my activity points and go into my Flex Points as needed, but now I am wondering if I should be doing this differently. It would be amazing if I need to eat more so I can lose quicker!!

Help!

 

[TigH]

Hi, Terry!

What I am doing is using my Flex Points on weekends when I tend to eat more (like going out or having a drink). Then during the week I hit my target points (20) and try to earn APs to eat every day as well. I don't always eat all the APs I earn on a particular day, but I try to eat them. Most days I earn 4 (1 for weight lifting and 3 for power walking) but some days I earn 7 if I power walk twice. So I just have a little extra something on my salad or an extra piece of fruit in the day or maybe a little nibble of cheese. I love the WW smart ones ice cream made with Splenda, so I always use 3.5 points to have a root beer float with 1 cup of either vanilla or choc/van/straw WW ice cream and a diet root beer.

You don't HAVE to use the Flex Points but they are there if you need them. And I don't think you HAVE to eat all your APs every day, but you can't carry them/bank them to the next day. So if you earn 6 APs one day and only eat 4, the next day you start at 0 APs again. I don't think there is a limit to the amount of APs you can eat each day. From the WW online site there is a fitness board and some people are biking a bajillion miles a day in training for some race. They earn (and eat) like 20 APs a day in addition to their target points.

Hope this helps a bit!

 

[KathyTX]

Terry, Karen's right about the activity points- you don't have to use them at all, but you can't carry them over to other days.

But when someone's exercising as regularly and as hard as you do, you COULD find that you do need to eat some of them. I think you'll just have to keep a close eye on your results and fine-tune based on what you see.

(If you'd just lay off the stinkin' exercise, you wouldn't have to face this dilemma!!! )

 

[ead79]

Let me see if I can explain how I usually do it, not that I'm necessarily correct, LOL!

My Points target is 22, so I eat 22 points as a minimum per day. If I earn any exercise points that day, I either use some or all of them that day. In other words, I do not save any exercise points that I earn--I either use them that day or not at all. Of course, if I don't want to use my exercise points for extra food, I don't.

As far as Flexpoints go, I do typically use most of them. I personally like to use the majority of them on the weekends, then just a few during the week.

I do think you're supposed to eat enough points to get to your points target, but eating any above that is up to you personally.

Hope that helps!

 

[honeymo78]

Don't ignore your APs. If you eat more than your daily points use up the APs before you dig into the FP, but as many have already said, you don't have to eat all your APs.

Here are two examples:
Daily points 24, APs earned 4
If you ate 30pts that day you would use all daily points, then 4 APs and 2 FPs.
If you ate 27pts that day you would use all daily points, then 3 APs and 0 FPs.

 

[Annie&Hallie'sMom]

I did WW a long time ago (is 3 years ago a long time ago). So I know my point range. I know I'm able to eat between x & y points a day and that I'm supposed to do 20 minutes of exercise a day. Now way back when, for each additional 20 minutes you did a day, you "earned" an extra point for that day. So how has the system changed since then? What are Flex Points (and I'm assuming Activity points are points you earn for extra working out/activity per day, is that correct?)?

Thanks.