Cycling and Weight Watchers?

[divingbiker]

The most accurate way to figure out your activity points is by wearing a heart rate monitor. 100 calories = 1 AP. Each point you eat is roughly 50 calories (depends on fat and fiber) so if you eat your APs you still have a calorie deficit.

I find the WW slider thing and the online AP calculator overestimate my APs, so I don't use those. It may be that when I say I'm exercising at high intensity, it's really moderate. So I always had to be conservative when using those tools.

In the old days, WW had rules about using APs, like only eat APs after the first four that you earn, e.g., earn 9, eat 5; earn 4, eat 0. Some people still do that. They also used to only allow you to eat them on the day you earned them, or they'd be lost. Some people still do that also.

You'll have to experiment to see what works for you, but in the long run you definitely can't do a lot of exercise without eating at least some of your APs.

[tctrek]

I find the WW slider thing and the online AP calculator overestimate my APs, so I don't use those. It may be that when I say I'm exercising at high intensity, it's really moderate. So I always had to be conservative when using those tools.

That's what I'm afraid I do. Even without Weight Watchers, when trying to figure how how much I should eat vs. how much I burn, I don't think I've ever hit the equation right.

I lost almost 40 pounds 2 years ago, just by eating 1200 calories a day. I was very sedentary -- office job and not much other "activity". After I dropped the 40, I felt so good that I started going to the gym and doing elliptical and tread mill. Almost immediately, the weight loss stopped. I upped the calories a bit and started doing spinning classes. No weight loss.

Now, I eat about 1600-1800 calories a day and I ride 6 days a week. No weight loss in 2 years. I'm not gaining, but not losing either.

Endocrinologist has no idea -- I am hypothyroid and post-menopausal, so two strikes against me -- but all my blood levels are good and thyroid under control.

My Nutritionist and cycling coach don't get it either. They look at my food logs and really have no suggestions -- we keep tweaking my calories by 100-200 per day up and down trying to find the sweet spot.

I know I can lose weight -- I lost the 40 pounds!! I just don't understand why I can't lose any more. I thought maybe Weight Watchers would give me a new view of how I eat.