"Treat" Question

McShell12
McShell12 Posts: 161 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello All,

I have been doing Weight Watchers for ten years now, and I am new to this site. My question is how do you allot calories for your treats with MFP. With Weight Watchers I could use the "extra points for goodies on the weekends. Now I don't know what to do-do I stick with the alloted calories every day? 1200 calories allows little to no wiggle room when I am trying to eat a balanced diet.

Clear as mud?

Thanks for any help!

Replies

  • sneakysneaker
    sneakysneaker Posts: 16 Member
    Hi,

    I have never done WW and can't compare to the points system. For MFP a calorie is a calorie. My treats have to be subtracted from my calorie total. What I've found is that I have to get out and exercise to get my allowable calories up if I want a bit of junk- otherwise I don't have the calories left over for treats. Sometimes if I have calories leftover over a few days I'll use them up later in the week for a snack but try to get the week to balance.
  • KatyCrum6969
    KatyCrum6969 Posts: 124 Member
    Well you have to track all of your calories. Literally, all of them. You can however, sort of roll the calories over? So say you had 300 extra calories yesterday? Eat a snack today. Stuff like that. But yeah, just get up and exercise if you want that swiss roll and ice cream...-Drools-
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
    If you're exercising then you can eat substantially more than 1200 calories. Are you doing any physical activity?
  • McShell12
    McShell12 Posts: 161 Member
    Yes, I try to get in an hour and half to two hours a day of exercise. I didn't realize I could "use" these calories for treats. DUH! Not that I am going to "junk" up my diet now. I try to allow myself two treats for the weekend. It gives me something to look forward to and makes it easier to resist the junk during the week.

    Thanks for the replies.
  • zeebruhgirl
    zeebruhgirl Posts: 493 Member
    Sugar free treats are my savior. Dreyers sugar free fruit popsicles...mmm. Only like 60 calories too!
  • Elzecat
    Elzecat Posts: 2,916 Member
    Yes, I try to get in an hour and half to two hours a day of exercise. I didn't realize I could "use" these calories for treats. DUH! Not that I am going to "junk" up my diet now. I try to allow myself two treats for the weekend. It gives me something to look forward to and makes it easier to resist the junk during the week.

    Thanks for the replies.

    Agree with love4fitness above. Also, for most people, allowing yourself small treats here and there can prevent binging behavior. At least...it helps me :)

    Good luck!
  • davert123
    davert123 Posts: 1,568 Member
    its sort of easy - the software does it all for you. The software works out how many calories you need and I just go off this - if I exercise I put this is (VITAL) and the software recalculates. Once you are used to doing this you will start to realise that the software also calculates other stuff - protein fat and carbs which it gives you an allocation. It doesn't matter what you eat (if you class it as a treat that’s up to you, to the software its just a bunch on nutrients :-) ) but everything is added up - all as you need to do it try and get roughly the right amount of these. The software doesn't tell you what to eat - in this way it teaches us to think for yourself but it does tell you how close your intake is into the ideal.
    This sounds a lot of info to take in but trust me – the software does the whole lot for you – all as you need to do is to enter food and exercise as soon as possible and it will tell you what you have got left :-)

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