WeightWatchers Point Calculations UK Style
Calculating the number of points in Food
On another hub, someone has written how to calculate the point value of food. It is correct if you are following the US method, However it is not the same calculation for someone following WeightWatchers programme in the UK.
I also do not know it the number of points allowance you would get in the US is the same as the number of points in the UK.
All points are calculated and then rounded to the nearest 0.5 point.
The basic calculation is based on the number of calories (70=1 point so a meal that is 315 calories would have 4.5 points.
Then in order to promote healthier eating, which hopefully you will carry on after reaching goal, points are added according to the amount of saturated fat. The points value added is equivalent to the number of saturated fat grams in the meal divided by 4 then rounded to nearest 0.5. (So if the meal above had 3.1grms of saturated fat, you would add another point making it 5.5 points)
How many points can I have?
Well, it is all well and good saying that I've eaten 23 points of food, but how many points should I be eating?
There are many factors, obviously your workstyle will play a major part as someone who spends most of their time sitting down will not use as many calories as someone who spends all day digging and gardening. Also, as you get older you whole system starts to slow down.
Take your age (in years) and subtract 20. Then divide the remainder by 15 and round up to the nearest whole number. This is your age factor.
Take your age factor from 10 to get your starting point. Add 6 points if you do manual labour, 4 points if you walk around most of the time or 2 points if you stand most of the time.
If you're male add on 6 points, and if you're under 5 ft 4 (165cms) take off 1 point.
This is your base line. The next bit changes as you lose weight, as you have to add on the number of whole stones that you currently weigh. This means that as you loose weight and go down into the next stone bracket you have to drop the number of points you're allowed to eat.