Sunday, October 02, 2011

A Word on Weight Loss

So in late May I joined Weight Watchers online in hopes of getting some control over my big ol' body.

My weigh-in day is Sunday, and as of today I have lost 16.9 pounds. I jumped up over the 15 pound mark, which was a short-term goal. I am pleased.

The WW program is called "pointsplus" and I don't think you can do it without being in their program. I have yet to figure out how they compute the points. But then, I am not the best with math.

Anyway, the way this works is you have a certain number of points of food you can eat, depending upon your weight and how fast you lose. The least number of points you can get is 29 and I suspect that is what most folks end up with.

Some foods are free, like broccoli and green beans. You can have all of those you want.

Fruit is also a free food, for the most part. So you can have all the bananas, apples, and oranges you want. If you have a sweet tooth this is a good thing.

Meat has more points that I would have thought. White rice is one point fewer than brown rice, and I always thought brown rice was better for you. So I don't know why this is.

An egg is 2 points.  Tea is 0 points, unless you put in a spoon of sugar, then it's 1 point.

The SmartOnes meals are anywhere from 5 to 8 points. Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice meals zoom on up to 10+ points.

If you want, you can put in your recipes and it will tell you how many points it is. The problem there is defining a "serving." That can be somewhat arbitrary.

The plan manager program also tracks your activity. If you earn activity points, you can eat more if you want, though so far I have not done that. The points rack up throughout the week, but everything reverts to zero on your weigh-in day.

For example, it gave me 18 activity points for spending 5 hours doing "light housework." Who knew vacuuming could burn so many calories? I only get 1 point for every 10 minutes of walking on the treadmill!

You also get a number of points that you can use throughout the week over and above your daily points. So if your daily target is 30 points, and you eat a 7 point piece of cake, you are okay. In fact, you get enough points so that you could eat a 7-point piece of cake every day if you want, but I don't do that either. I have occasionally dipped into this little pile of points but not by much.

I feel sure if I used up all the points allotted, I wouldn't lose a thing. I might not be gaining weight but I don't think I would be losing.

The weight loss is slow on this diet. I am averaging a half-pound a week.  Everyone says that is the best way to lose it, that it will stay off better.

I sure hope so.

The other part of this puzzle is my overall health. In July I learned I had uncontrolled asthma and the doctor indicated that was a big reason for my inability to get healthy. I couldn't exercise long because I grew winded and had to stop.

The asthma inhalers have allowed me to increase my walking time on the treadmill significantly. I am sure this has been a help.

I have my fingers crossed that I can get all of this under control. I would like to be healthier in the next decades of my life than I have been in the previous ones.

We'll see.

5 comments:

  1. Congrats! Getting over that 15lb mark is a milestone! Losing weight is a matter of finding what works best for you and it sounds like you have! Just Keep Going! I've
    always had an issue managing my weight. I sort of refer to it as "a continuous work in progress"

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  2. You poor thing.. asthma just really takes it's toll. Glad you are doing the inhalers though. Should help with the energy level a bit. I'm glad you are working so diligently on your health issues.

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  3. Good for you!!!
    I was one of the lucky ones who never had a weight problem.... that is until I turned 50. It takes a lot of awareness to keep it under control.
    I too would wonder why the white rice would be a "better" choice on WW than brown.

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  4. That's great progress! I hear good things about WW but I just can't stick to any diet. I thought brown rice was healthier too and force my family to eat it!

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  5. that sounds promising. the brown rice thing is counterintuitive to me. it should digest slower too making it less impact.

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