Weight Watchers, It Works!

My wife and I started Weight Watchers on January 11, 2013. Obviously, the primary goal is to lose weight and it is working.  As of today, we each have lost about 20 pounds each, so about 2 pounds  a week, which is a healthy amount to lose each week.

Weight Watchers is not about watching calories but uses a points system to help with weight loss.  A male weighing about 255 pounds has a daily point target of 48 points, a set of weekly 49 points and finally when you exercise you get so many points to use later that week based on the amount of exercise you do. For instance, if you do 40 minutes of elliptical training you earned 4 points.  Your primary goal is to use your daily points and if need be dip into your weekly points.

With Weight Watchers, you track your points each day and your weight once-a-week.  In addition, you can track some body measurements since you may not just lose weight but you are probably losing inches as well.  In some cases, in a particular week you may not lose weight but you may gain weight and the only indicator that things are changing with your body are the different measurements.

For tracking, you use the Weight Watchers web site and if you have a smart phone you can use the Weight Watchers application.  There is even an application for doing bar code scans of products at the store to determine their point value.  Newer products are probably not in the scanner tool but you can enter the fat, carbohydrate, fiber and protein values to get a point value per serving.

The cool thing about the points plan, is that you look at serving size and later when on maintenance after losing the weight you want, it will help you remember what a is a reasonable serving size.

There are times when using all your points can be tough, since you want to lose weight and try to eat less then you should eat.  One thing that helps is if you have a partner and you are working together on the points.   My wife and I each have our own accounts and we do breakfast and lunch separately, but dinner we do together.  We usually end up with between 18 and 20 points for dinner and it can be tough to fill those at times.  We bounce ideas off each other and come up with a plan for dinner.

The one thing we have a tough time figuring out is pasta and other items that are based on dry uncooked servings and what you have to measure out is cooked.  Still working on this one but we work around it the best we can.

I started to workout on the elliptical trainer about three times a week and built up to 40 minutes until March when I had to have surgery.  Since the surgery I have not worked out but I am still losing weight and I find that I am not hungry and usually pretty full 95% of the time.  If I need something extra like chocolate or peeps on graham crackers, I can do it since there are weekly points.  You just have to watch that you don't over do it and stay within the points.

I was a little reluctant to try Weight Watchers but wanted to lose weight and support my wife in her weight loss goals.  It is working and easy to use.

Getting Fit and Losing Weight

On January 11th, 2013, my wife and I started on +Weight Watchers and have had some good success.  No we did not lose 100 pounds in 3 months but we have lost about 10% of our original body weight and that is great.  A 10% loss in 3 months is good from a health standpoint.  In addition, we are learning what a real portion size is and when we reach our goal weight, we should be able to maintain that weight.  I would recommend Weight Watchers for guys.

One thing I was missing was how I was doing fitness wise.  Last time I lost a lot of weight, I tracked steps each day and other exercise.  So I started looking for a pedometer that would track steps but more.  My ideal pedometer would track steps, heart rate, calories and help motivate me.

I looked at Jawbone Up band by +Jawbone and it looked cool, but I did not like the interface to download the data, it seemed a little clunky.  The one feature I liked was the silent alarm that buzzed you every hour you were sitting still and got you moving.  The ability to keep it on wrist was good but if I went swimming I would probably have to take it off.  The price was okay at about $129 but just a bit more then what I wanted to spend.

I looked at the  Nike+ Fuelband but between price and that it did not do as much as the Jawbone Up, I dismissed it. Also, Nike has a habit of interfaces that a clunky and just a pain to work with.  The Fuelband and its interface could be great but $149 is a bit overkill.

After some thought, I remember a friend who had a Fitbit One  by +Fitbit and was having success with it.  It was not a band but Fitbit was coming out with a band.  The Fitbit One tracks steps, stairs climbed, sleep, calories and gives you an activity score.  Priced at $99 from Amazon.com, though if you search on Amazon you can find one for around $95.  My thought was get the Fitbit One start tracking steps and I pre-ordered the Fitbit Flex and then compare the two. Based on the initial information provided by Fitbit, the Flex would provide all the same information as the Fitbit One but on my wrist so I would not have to worry about taking it off and losing it.  The one problem I have had with the Fitbit One was I forgot to put it on after a shower so I lost 4 hours worth of data.  Also, it would sync with the iPhone via Bluetooth and have the data on their website.

Still the feature missing is a heart monitor.  I did get a Polar H7 heart rate monitor that will sync with my iPhone and then I can transfer data to the Fitbit site manually.  It would be nice to have a heart rate monitor that works with the Fitbit and have all the data in one place without manual intervention.

Right now I think the best fitness tracking device is the Fitbit One and until I can try the Fitbit Flex, I'll stick with the Fitbit One.

One thing I would like to see happen would be if Fitbit and Weight Watchers partnered together and you could get all the food and exercise data in one place.