Weight Watchers uses a formula to calculate point values of food. The formula is the same regardless of the type food you eat. When figuring the points for foods, take into account calories, fat grams and dietary fiber. With most foods, this will not be difficult. The information is readily available on the packaging under nutritional data. Fresh food, such as fruit, will require an external guide to locate the values needed for the points formula. Get publication that provides nutritional data for fresh food, such as fruits and vegetables. When you have these numbers, you can plug them into the base calculation to find the point value for a meal.
Step 1
Make a list of the food in your meal. Separate processed foods or anything that has a nutritional label, such as pasta or breads. Put fresh food in a separate list. The second list is for foods you will need to look up in your nutritional guide to locate the information.
Step 2
Write on your lists the following values next to each food item -- calories, fat in grams and dietary fiber. These are the three amounts needed for the points calculation. Most numbers are obtainable from the product packaging, others you will need to look up. For example, a small banana is one ingredient in a dessert. This banana may have 105 calories, .6g of fat and 1.3g of dietary fiber. Find that item on your list, and record the values next to it.
Step 3
Tally the three values on your lists. For instance, add all the calories together for your meal, and then add the total fat grams and dietary fiber.
Step 4
Use the Weight Watchers formula to calculate your the sum values for calories and dietary fiber. According to the Exercise 4 Weight Loss website, the formula takes total calories and divides that number by 50. The total fat grams divides by 12. Use the totals from your list as the numbers for the calculation. For example, if the total calories for the meal is 100, you would divide 100 by 50 to get a sum of 2. If the fat grams for this meal equals 12, your sum would be one.
Step 5
Subtract the sum of the fat grams calculation from the calories sum. Consider the final number to be variable "Y." Y = calories/50 - fat grams/12. "Y" equals 2 minus 1, for an answer of 1.
Step 6
Divide the dietary fiber by 5 to determine the second number or "x." If the total dietary fiber for the meal is 1.3, the fiber calculation totals .26. X = dietary fiber/5
X = 1.3/5 or .26. A banana with 1.3g of dietary fiber divided by 5 equals .26.
Step 7
Subtract X from Y to get the total Weight Watches point for the meal. Points equal Y minus X, or 1 minus .26. Points equal .74. Round this number to the nearest whole. The total points for the example is 1. Numbers that fall with the last two digits below .5 would round down. For instance, 1.25 would round down to 1.
Things You'll Need
- Nutritional guide for fresh food
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