Anyone else shocked at how WW points translate into their average daily calories? 😱

I've been using WW online since April and I did drop pounds quickly through May and about half of June, but then my weight loss started to stall. I've still been following the plan faithfully, but still, there was no movement on the scale.

Just out of curiosity I decided to go back over the last week and put my calories in on MFP to see what was going on.

Turns out the problem is exactly what I suspected: My weight loss has stalled out because my daily points average — even after eating ALL OF MY WEEKLIES — was only about 1,200 calories/day.

I'm a 40+ y.o. female and I weigh 212. MFP says to maintain my weight I should be eating just over 2,000/day and to lose 1 lb/week (a healthy amount, I think), I should be eating around 1,500 calories/day.

Some days I was eating under 900 calories! No wonder I was losing fast initially AND no wonder I finally stalled out. My body thought I was starving it! That said, I've just cancelled my WW and will stick with MFP going forward.

I was just wondering if anyone else has had this experience.

Replies

  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,467 Member
    Shocked, no. Glad to see you here!
  • New_Heavens_Earth
    New_Heavens_Earth Posts: 610 Member
    I have the opposite. 23 points for me can easily come out to 1800 calories. I'm a volume eater and like fruit. So those zero point foods will take the hit. I'll usually maintain or lose slowly.
  • TallGent66
    TallGent66 Posts: 84 Member
    LyndaBSS wrote: »
    You don't stall on your weight loss by eating less and "starving." That's actually how you keep losing, although in an unhealthy way.

    I respectfully disagree. When I first started here, I was on 1200 calories for 2 lb/week loss. It wasn't until I upped it to 1370 calories for 1 lb/week loss that the weight started dropping off.

    Eating too little can work against you.

    This would mean that it is impossible to starve to death. It is not. There are other factors to consider, like inaccurate logging or water retention.

    For whatever it is worth, I had a similiar problem. Big dude, 6'6" ('large wrist'/big boned), lost 5# very fast due to a horrible acid reflux event; then went gonzo on a cucumber /garbanzo bean/ other diet - 800-1,000 CPD - lots of walking, then walking in hot weather for 2 hours combined with intermittent fasting. So I had lost another 20-23 pounds, but hit a Wall. Changed to 2 hours of hiking up 700' ridge, still no progress.

    MFP folks implored me to up my consumption. Way upped protein, now 1,600-1,800 CPD, weight loss happening slower. About halfway to tentative goal.

    SW: 315
    MFP: 287?
    CW: 281
    GW: 245?

    Good luck!
  • islandlifenc
    islandlifenc Posts: 107 Member
    ... My theory is that for some people eating less can increase stress and cortisol which results in water retention. This water weight gain masks losses on the scale. Eating more relaxes that person which causes the water to "exit" and the weight starts showing up again.

    This actually makes a bunch of sense! I'm not sure if that was what was going on with me, but it's certainly plausible. Regardless, I think I need to stick with MFP. It's way less stressful than WW for me. 😬

  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Not sure about detective work or not :smiley: But basically WW is expecting people to hit the no points foods... hard! And thus not lose very fast most of the time--or at all possibly!

    What I don't get/understand about WW (and why I use MFP instead) is that while some of the no points foods may (or may not) be "healthier" / "better" choices, they still have calories and energy!

    Which means that regardless of whether you eat these, or other items that are less acceptable to WW, you can still gain or lose fat depending on how many calories you end up with!

    So my little brain doesn't understand the benefit of deliberately ignoring that healthy is not necessarily energy balanced, especially since for many years (just like quite a few of us I suspect) I blamed being obese to not eating in a "healthy" manner--totally ignoring that the base of the pyramid of "eating in a healthy manner" is eating at the appropriate caloric balance!

    It makes intuitive sense to me. If you told me broccoli and kale are magical zero calorie foods, I wouldn't get fat eating them.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,329 Member
    Oh my god! I just looked up zero point foods. Apples! A banana can easily be 100kcal. Artishoke hearts usually come here in vinegar and oil, all the fatty fish (yes, I can cook meals with them as main ingredients), lentils! (same as fish), the pear in my breakfast came in at 51kcal. Basically, most of my food comes from the zero point list, plus some rice/pasta/bread. I guess I easily eat 800kcal per day from that list!
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    edited July 2019
    welcome!

    are you using a food scale for all foods to log on MFP (did you to get the numbers above? or did you use measuring cups/spoons)?
    What's your calorie goal now?