I am no expert on healthy living. I am not an expert on WW or anything related to it. I was on WWOnline for three years, I lost 55lbs. that way in the first six months, and I kept it off for 3 years. I am almost starting over again because I slacked off, and now I have 40# to re-lose. The key is working the program, and that means counting points for the food you eat. Points are a combination of calories, fat and fiber content, which are calculated together to come up with an easier number to keep track of what you eat.
To find out what your daily point target should be, take this quick survey and add up your score:
1. IF YOU ARE:
Female: 2 Male: 8
A nursing mom: 12
2. YOUR AGE
17-26: 4
27-37: 3
38-47: 2
48-58: 1
59+: 0
3. YOUR WEIGHT
Enter the first two digits of your weight in pounds.
(for example, if you weigh 179, you will add 17 to your score)
4. YOUR HEIGHT
Under 5’1: 0
5’1-5’10: 1
Over 5’10: 2
5. YOUR DAILY ACTIVITY
Mostly sitting down: 0
Standing, occasionally sitting: 2
Mostly Walking: 4
Mostly physical labor: 6
Add up the score for each category #1-5, and this will be your daily point intake number. If you scored 24, then you should take in 24 points per day. You also get 35 additional points per week (or 7 per day, if you feel you must spread them out.) I view these as overflow… that later evening snack I had that was 3 pts. but I only had 1 pt. left in my daily total… Or a get-together with friends, with pizza for dinner. I don’t TRY to use my extra points, but I do use them if I need them. And sometimes I just gotta have some ice cream. 
Also please note: When I was going to WW meetings, they recommended everyone re-take this survey once a month. As your weight drops, so does your daily point requirement. If you don’t re-take the quiz, you will soon find yourself on a plateau, quite possibly due to the fact that you are eating too many points.
Other Helpful Websites:
Web Points Calculator helps you calculate your points for foods as well as Activity Points. Very simple and *very* basic, but it does the job.
Calorie Count Recipe Analysis allows you to enter a recipe and it will break down the nutrition information for you! (Then you would plug that info into your points calculator and get your points per serving.) I ran tonight’s Open Face Cheese Sandwiches and Tomato Basil Soup through it and was pleasantly surprised how points-friendly my dinner was! =)
Favorite Weight Watchers Links is a virtual link farm of everything WW or weight loss related!
SparkPeople is an online weight loss community as well as a weight loss program. It is free and looks promising, but since I love WW and plan to stick with it, I didn’t go beyond registering for an account. There is a lot of information and valuable forums and things there that I am sure will come in handy and more than make up for the WWOnline community.
FatSecret is another online weight loss community. I haven’t really taken a huge look at this site yet, but Amber at Classic Housewife swears by it so it’s got to be good. I do know they have a fantastic list of basic foods and nutrition information which is GREAT to have handy.I can’t tell you everything they offer yet, but she could if you hop over to her blog, or you could just go there yourself and check it out. I will, soon.
Momma’s Talk