Weight Watchers What?!

I started my New Year's with the devout resolution of losing weight. I decided to go with Weight Watcher's since I had heard that people had so much success with it -- I didn't want something faddish (Atkins, South Beach, etc). I love bread too much to give up carbs. I would truly never EVER do a diet if it told me I had to give up carbs for more than about a day. I just can't do it....or maybe it's just I won't do it...hehe.

Anyhow, I started WW about two weeks ago and lost 1.5 lbs my first week. I wasn't as faithful about tracking points as I should have. I told myself that I was busy but that I would do better the following week (right!). So I start week two and don't seem to be doing any better. I didn't opt to attend meetings because there is just something about sitting around with a bunch of folks who want to lose weight that freaks me out of a little bit. It makes me want to start singing "Kumbayah my Lord..." or something fantastic like that. A few days ago I decided to stop procrastinating (and I'm the QUEEN!) and truly start tracking my points......what I found completely turned me OFF from WW. WW told me when I signed up that I could eat 21 pts a day worth of food to get to my goal weight.

On Day 1 of truly tracking my food here is what I ate from Breakfast through Lunch:

Breakfast: Nature Valley Sweet & Salty Granola Bar - Peanut, 2

Snack: Special K Snack Bar

Lunch: Turkey Burger w/ slice of onion, 2/3 piece of cheese, 1 tsp (yes a tsp!) of low fat mayo
1 serving of Baked Lays (plain variety) on an onion bun

After inputting all of this into the WW database (it calculates pts for you based on specific brands/items), it told me that I had used 20.5 pts. Ummmmmm.....whhhhaaaaaaat?! I thought that cannot be possible -- it wasn't like I went to Wendy's and got a hamburger......I ate a damn turkey burger for crying out loud!! I thought well maybe I put something in wrong so I went back to double check what I had input -- I didn't make a mistake. They say I really used 20.5 pts. So I thought, well this isn't going to work and thought maybe I needed to calculate calories as opposed to points. I calculate the calories for the above two meals (breakfast & lunch) and I had consumed 967 calories. WW cannot really say that it is safe or healthy to consume 967 calories a day to lose weight. I went to several other websites to see what my caloric intake should be with a moderate level of activity (I exercise 3-5 days a week depending on how late I'm at work) and it said I needed 2100 calories a day to MAINTAIN my current weight (155lbs). They said to lose weight I should cut calories to approximately 1500 per day (w/ maintaining my current activity level). Now THAT'S more like it!!

I joined www.my-calorie-counter.com -- it was FREE (yay!) and you can input entire recipes and it will tell you total calories, fat content, sugar, protein, etc etc. You just don't realize how many calories you unknowingly eat everyday --- I've tracked my calories for the last 3 days (like a Nazi...lol) and have done amazingly well at keeping my fat content low and calories just under 1500 per day. Bye Bye WW, Hello Calorie Counting!!

P.S. No hatemail from WW fans please, to each his own for diet remedies....I just prefer not to starve!