Why do I have calories left over?

The point is not to starve yourself but to ease yourself into weight loss, making is possible for this to be something you can always do. It is best to "eat back" your exercise calories so that you have energy for those workouts. Also, MFP already factors in the deficit needed based on your profile to get you the weight loss per week that you chose. Of course, nothing is perfect, but MFP tries to make it not so complicated. Trust me...you're probably doing just fine and will lose the weight using this tool.

WW points is a more complicated formula that balances total calories, fat, and fiber in a serving. Some items are more points because they have a higher fat content, so it's not easy to tell you the calorie content of a single point without knowing exactly what you're eating. But, the average food item is 1 point per 50 calories, if it is low fat and contains no fiber. For each gram of fiber, up to 3 grams, you typically get to take away a point. But like I said, it's a complicated formula and isn't easy to generalize.

When I was on WW (before this whole Points Plus madness, which is one of the reasons I quit), I got 22 points at my current weight. That is about 1100 calories, which ALWAYS left me feeling hungry. But you earn more points by exercising, and that was my motivation to get moving! LOL!

I don't know how the Points Plus system works, so I can't say how the calories are calculated now, but I've seen in the past 10 years that when they've changed their system, I lost weight slower. So I went from losing 1 pound per week on average, to .25 per week, to a plateau. I'm not saying that it is the same for everyone. I'm just saying that it stopped working for me, so I stopped paying them my money for no real reason.

I would say that if you're not eating at least 1200 calories per day, you should eat at least that, otherwise your body will start to resist losing weight because it is hungry! Also remember to eat fiber and protein dense foods, because it will keep you fuller for longer.

Anyway, that's my long-winded response. I hope it helps, but probably not! LOL!

When you set up your profile you state how much you weigh and what your goal weight is; this program obviously factors that in to the total number of calories to eat if you do not exercise; when you exercise, you burn more calories, so you gain those back as "fuel calories" - if you've eaten your calorie intake, worked out and have calories left over - that's a deficit, which means you should lose weight! I'm trying to see if it works and so far so good - just 2 pound lose, but it's better than I was before! Hope that helps!

You can customize your numbers (calories, %Protein, etc, under your Goals tab. You change your goals, and select "manual" rather than automated. The closer you are to your ideal weight, the slower you should expect to lose, and you should eat closer to your maintenance calories.

I found years ago that the Weight Watchers diet was too hard for me to stick with - I was ravenous most of the time and it gave me heartburn. =( I do better with higher protein and lower (not low) carbs. To each his own.