GET IN MY BELLY!

Weekly Weigh-In: -.8 
Total:-12.6 lbs down

I am LUCKY to have lost that .8 this week. I tracked every day in my handy-dandy Weight Watchers food journal. I exercised 3x this week (at a high intensity). I didn't use my extra weekly points, and only used 3 of my extra "activity" points (you earn them by working out). I wanted another repeat performance of last week's huge loss. But, alas, my body wanted something else. What it wanted, my friends, was more food.


MORE?! I don't get it. I ate a LOT. Granted, a lot of it was fruit and veggies (which are 0 PointsPlus), but it appears that my body is starting to hold onto its weight again. I'm not eating enough calories for as much as I'm expending during the day. Usually, sticking to one's daily PointsPlus allowance lets you do just that. However... these meds curb my hunger and I had to fight with myself on 2 different days to eat my daily points (which I didn't). On a 3rd day, I had breakfast and 2 slices of stuffed pizza for an early dinner. Nothing else. I assumed that the pizza covered an easy 10 points each, but nope. I had extra points left over that day, too. So for 3 days, I was off program and under-eating.

Weight Watchers, in its recent plan makeover, did away with counting calories. The argument is that there are "good" calories and "bad" calories, and in the end, the other PointsPlus factors do enough to negate the calorie problem. "Having a higher point allotment could potentially slow weight loss in some people, says Roberta Anding RD, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. 'As you increase points, you increase total calories, maybe by 100 or 200 calories a day,' she says. "But calories or points always count. That subtle increase in points may make a difference in weight loss.' But, she adds, 'This is the first time there has been an emphasis on whole foods from Weight Watchers, the first time they recognized that a 100 calorie apple and a 100 calorie cookie aren't metabolized the same way. The concept of getting away from processed foods is a good one.'"

I don't even look at the caloric value of most foods anymore. It's all about fat, fiber, protein and carbohydrates. However, WebMD, Everyday Health, and nutritionists continue to warn against not eating enough calories:

"The reality is that different people respond differently to low-calorie diets. When your body senses that food may not be in plentiful supply, it may slow down your metabolism as protection against the possibility of starvation, even if you are obese and deliberately trying to lose weight. 'In some people, the metabolic rate [how fast the body burns calories] is only slightly reduced to make up the shortfall in energy difference, while in others it is far greater. It is this variability in the metabolic rate with energy restriction that causes much of the variability in weight loss between people,' explains Leanne M. Redman, PhD, an instructor of human physiology at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La"


Long story short, I need to eat more and get more calories into my system.

Cupcake Burgers! Thisiswhyyourefat.com

And not just a crappy "more," but healthy food choices more. Talking it over at Weight Watchers today, I think I have a plan of attack. I'm going to eat my daily points - even if it results in me knocking back a beer or two in the process. If I exercise, I'm going to eat *some* of those points (not all). I'm still going to leave my weekly points untouched unless I find that I need them for some occasion (I don't foresee this coming up this week, but who knows?).

I still lost this week. You probably can't tell from this post, but I'm really happy with my progress! :-D