Calorie question

CelticChick

I have quite a bit of weight to lose and was going to use the weight watchers points system as a way of counting calories.

What I want to ask is say I was supposed to eat 24 points which is roughly 1900 calories, sometimes I would eat something bad just to make up the points, which to me seems very stupid but ww say you have to use them all. What if I stuck to say 18 points everyday ( which is the least amount of points you are supposed to eat in a day) thats about 1400-1500 calories.

Would my body go into starvation mode at that if I was making sure I was eating healthy? Would the weightloss be a bit faster or would I get to a certain weight and then plateau and need to drop the calories even further? Or would increasing exercise over time sort this and keep things moving?

Thanks

g'em

Your body has a basic calorific requirement to function normally. If you don't meet those calorie needs your body will, for want of a better phrase, go into 'starvation' mode. It willl stockpile calories in the form of fat and start burning calories from muscle tissue.

I know ww say that 18 points is the minimum you should have in any given day, but for you, if you're 24 points, then you're in the 14-16 stone range and so 1400-1500 calories a day is wayyy too little for you to maintain a healthy metabolism.

I know it can be frustrating and you want the weight to shift asap, but the safest, and best way to lose weight is to figure out what your daily calorific requirement is (basal met rate + lifestyle calorie requirements) and then reduce it by only 10-15%, which is what ww have done for you and labelled it as 24 points!!

So as tempting as it may be to only eat 18 points (and bless your willpower ), stick to the 24 and then as you lose the weight your point requirements will go down too. Losing weight slowly (1-2lbs a week) and training yourself to eat right is the only sure-fire way to keep the weight off when its gone. Exercise will seriously speed up the weight loss too, but not if you're only eating 1400 calories a day. To exercise you have to eat.

And if you need to make up points DON'T eat junk!! eat something that's high in natural good fats like. Junk food will never benefit you. And by junk I do include ALL weight watchers meals. They're processed, little or no nutritional value, high in sugar, salt, preservatives. Make you're own, eat lots of point free veg, but don't go down the processed food route.

And trust me, I've done ww, I've done unislim, I've done South Beach, Atkins, pretty much every one of them out there. But it wasn't until I properly educated myself on nutrition, how to exercise, how my body works and overhauled my eating habits that I started to see a change.

So, good luck and always feel free to ask. Tbh, at the end of the day, ww is a business, and there's an element of marketing invovled. So if in doubt, or it sounds too good to be true, it might just be!!!

CelticChick

Ok thanks for that. Will just do it by the book so and bulk up my calories with some healthy fats like you said.

Thanks Again