On October 4th, I took the plunge and started up the only weight loss program out of hundreds that seemed to work for me the best…Weight Watchers. I had my goal in mind, my gym membership lined up, did my research on the new Points Plus Program, I was ready.
Fast forward 2 months and the number on the scale being than desirable. Only 5lbs…can’t be right?! I’ve followed all the guidelines, stayed within my daily/weekly points (with a little Thanksgiving cheating) and even worked out 4-5 times a week. What gives?? I was so super frustrated that I was on the verge of giving up and trying some new.
Then there was Google. Something told me to do a little research before throwing in the towel and I’m so glad I did. Turns out that I wasn’t the only one having issues with the new Points Plus system. I found forums after forums of people complaining that the new program wasn’t giving them the same results as before. I felt a little better but continued to dig deeper. That’s when I discovered the issue…of course fruits and vegetables are 0 point items but not free for all. What exactly does that mean? Depending on the amount of servings and method of consumption, the point value of your item just might increase. It was my beloved green juice that was causing my demise. The easiest way to explain this is that when you take a 0 point orange and decide to juice it, you’re changing the nutritional value (particularly losing the fiber content). If you go to plug in an orange on your tracker, it will read 0 points. Now if you go to plug in that same orange as ‘fresh juice’, your tracker will read 3 points. Big difference!
After discovering that gem I decided to plug my green juice into the recipe builder (instead of listing each item individually) and it came up to a whopping 15 points!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? No wonder I wasn’t making much progress! I drink this concoction at least 3 times a week and always assumed it was 0 points because it was only fruits and veggies. I’ve been going over my points tremendously for the past two months and didn’t even know it…what a mess!
I’ve now made the decision to take a break from my wonderful Breville. I can no longer continue to sabotage my weight loss efforts. Don’t get me wrong, juicing is very healthy and can still be done on WW. Just realize that it also means you will have to sacrifice eating food for those points in the process. Call me crazy but I’d rather have the food!
30 Before 30…here I come 😉
It's not the juice.Explain to me how a person could juice fast for days, and even weeks, consuming up to and over 100 "points" a day and still lose tremendous amounts of weight – all the while feeling fantastic?It's not the juice.
I agree it can't be the juice I know too many ppl who loose a lot of weight by replacing a meal with juice!
I think you're both misunderstood. Juice fasting and/or meal replacement is completely different than having the juice along with food. The WW program is set up to follow a certain amount of "points" so if you're calculating a 15 pt juice as 0 pts and still consuming those 15 pts in food then you're overeating…which would cause the WW formula not to work.
Gabe's spot on. If you are juicing as meal replacements then you will definitely lose weight. What she means here holds true for all weight loss programs. Eg Slimming World. Fruit and veg are 'free' so you can snack in those IN ADDITION to your regular meals with no impact. But when you juice, you consume more fruit than eating the actual fruit. Eg, a portion orange juice may consume 3 oranges while you may have been content to eat only one orange. If you consume fruit and veg as juice on Weight Watchers, then use it as a meal replacement. Phew!
At a Weight Watcher meeting, there was a man with the same problem. The leader told him in order to still use the 0 points, the fiber MUST be put back into the juice. Taking the fiber out when juicing turns everything into sugars and carbs…….I hope this helps
Thank you Gabe! I just signed up for WW on-line last night and I was desperately trying to figure out the points for my morning juice. (1apple, 1 lemon and about 8 carrots – turns out to be about 2.5 cups) and giving it all 0 points simply did not make sense for all the reasons you've already stated. Thank you. I am working on a kidney issue and this juice is not something I'm giving up now because it's working wonders for my kidneys. I think I'll have to give it a good 6-8 points. What do you think?
so how do you figure out the points value for your juiced fruit or vegetable? I have a friend that has just joined WW but started juicing prior. She needs to know how to figure that out. Thank you for any help!
You should really keep this forum going. You educated me today. THANKS!
Great post! I miss my Breville, too, and was wondering how to incorporate some of those wonderful juices back into my points. What about mixing back in the fiber that is extracted from the juice? If all your fruits and veggies are washed and pared well, why wouldn't that work and count for 0 points?? Thoughts?
You can use the recipe builder to calculate the true points for your fresh juice.
Great, I am drinking raw apple juice right now and it is going to cost 6 points. That is too bad, I bought my Breville about four months ago.
I also love juicing, and was disappointed to find out the point value of what I was drinking. I have since bought the nutribullet. You put the whole foods in it, with a liquid of your choice (I use water) and blend. The taste is not the same, but the nutritional value is still there. It is also 0 points, because you are keeping the vegetables/fruits whole. Good luck on your healthy journey!
Hi Anonymous! This is exactly what I was trying to figure out! I use a Nutri Bullet and not a juicer, therefor all the fiber and nutrients that are normally juiced out are left in, in other words, the whole fruit or veggie. Do you know this as a WW fact? I did WW about 6 months ago and due to financial strain, have chosen to continue without group support. I got my Nutri Bullet for Christmas and have decided to start WW again. What say you? Thank so much!
You can use the nutri bullet for whole foods, but in order to get it to not have PP values, you have to create a meal instead of a recipe. so you would go to the tracker, and put all of the ingredients in separately then click the "save as a meal" hyperlink. this way all the fruits and veggies stay as 0. Just make sure you don't do this for juice!
I just joined weight watchers myself and was juicing 2 times per day this last week and was counting it as zero points. I then decided to do the recipe builder and it came out as 6 points. I researched and found out from WW that the reason is because the body processes all the veggies together differently than if just eating the carrot or cucumber or piece of celery. They didn't tell me what you are discussion…I have a something similar to the Nutri bullet. Maybe I should try that. I was quite disappointed! While I lost weight, I felt like I should have lost so much more, which is what prompted me to research a little more.
Does anyone here have any idea how WeightWatchers points work if you use a Vitamix to make juices (where the fiber is mixed in) versus a regular juicer? I'm having the same problem here. Thanks for this post!
Yikes! I've been doing WW about three weeks now & have been juicing every day, replacing my afternoon snacking at work (which was always a problem) with about 16 oz of veg/fruit juice. I've been losing weight, but not as quickly as I'd like – I haven't been tracking my juice at all :(. Think I'll have to cut back, but I'm not giving up my juice – it makes me feel too good!
It's Glycemic index is high. Immediate blood sugar rush, not good for dieting.
What if its just green apple, celery, cucumber, kale, spinach, ginger, blended with 2 cups water? I use a nutbag to squeeze the juice out, delivers one to 2 servings depending on the water I add….I guess the green apple may count…?
Without the fiber, it's juice, not veg/fruit. That's why it comes out as higher points. Also, juice doesn't fill you up the way the same ingredients would fill you up if made into a smoothie. Why not try blending instead of juicing, including all the good fiber from those foods, and see how you fare? I'll bet your weight loss gets back on track!
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There are great calculators for juicing out there. I use them. I have a juice I made this morning and it was 9 points. Unfortunately I had a pancreatitis attack after I started weight watchers and I am almost on a liquid diet but still tracking points. The juicing calculator saved my life. It tells me exactly how many points my juices are.
I’ve lost 5 kilos in my first week. I followed the diet with some protein as suggested. It is really like magic! It works. I’m not perfectly following the listed diet plan mostly), but the weight looses even on very little exercise. Give a try on this, this diet plan clearly works.
I use the ninja and all of the fiber is in the green drink. Trying to figure out points. I use kale, spinach, chard, mint, one orange, 1/2 lemon, one banana, 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk. It makes 2 meals. Any suggestions