My introduction to Weight Watchers was stumbling across The Wendie Plan in Woman’s World magazine. I didn’t consider Weight Watchers, but the Wendie Plan made sense to me.
The plan was just a different way to do Weight Watchers. Instead of eating your allotted points each day, you switched up the points. There were low points days, medium points days, high point days and a super high point day. I noticed that the weekly points in the Wendie Plan were a bit less than Weight Watchers allowed. I’m now not sure that is such a good thing.
You could still do something similar with Weight Watchers new PointsPlus program. Take your total weekly points, including the extra 49 points. Then split them up into varying points for each day of the week. I used to take my super high point day for Friday or Saturday, which allowed me to go out to dinner and not worry so much about eating too many points in one day. However, I sometimes struggled with my low points day.
My Wendie Plan Days
When I did The Wendie Plan I was under 150 pounds so followed the lowest points program. My days were as shown below:
POINTS TARGET – 20 (Weigh Less than 150 lbs)
• Day 1 – 20 points
• Day 2 – 25 points
• Day 3 – 21 points
• Day 4 – 35 points Super High Day (SHD)
• Day 5 – 20 points
• Day 6 – 24 points
• Day 7 – 22 points
Since I always begin an eating program on Monday, I switched my SHD to Friday or Saturday instead of the Day 4 as shown above. It is said you should keep it the same each week but the whole idea is to shake things up, so IMO it didn’t matter what day the SHD fell on, as long as you otherwise stayed on plan.
I Reshaped My Body
Using The Wendie Plan and an exercise regime, I went from size 12 pants, getting ready to buy size 14′s, to a size 4. As I’ve mentioned, I am petite and pear shaped, so there was a huge difference. I actually went under my goal weight and felt great.
Anyone Can Use the Wendie Plan
A lot of WW followers used an iteration of The Wendie Plan without knowing it by eating more on one day and less on others. Some would save points for a special occasion. For some reason The Wendie Plan was banned on a popular Weight Watchers forum, which I stopped participating in because it was so ridiculous to ban a different way to allocate your weekly points.
If you count calories or points no matter what diet plan you are on, you can do it via The Wendie Plan. Figure out how many calories you need to consume in order to lose weight (can be used for maintenance too to keep you on track), and set up your week in advance. Use whatever tracking method you’re currently using. If I wasn’t using WW online I would track in Sparkpeople.
How to do it for PointsPlus
Many PP users have 29 daily points and 49 extra for the week. I try to use all of my points and I’ll write a separate post about that. That means you have 252 points for the week in total. Here is an example of how I could set up my daily points using The Wendie Plan idea:
• Day 1 – 32 points
• Day 2 – 36 points
• Day 3 – 33 points
• Day 4 – 35 points
• Day 5 – 32 points
• Day 6 – 50 points Super High Day (SHD)
• Day 7 – 34 points
In reality, I do end up eating differently from day to day, although probably not this amount of points variation from one day to the next. Right now I’m just doing PointsPlus using a few of the extra weekly points each day. I will have enough left over on the weekend to have a higher point day, which is nice. However, maybe I’ll eat via The Wendie Plan my next month instead of trying the 4-Hour Body program. I’m so happy with WW PP that it will be difficult to leave it for another plan that is a lot more strict and limits food choices somewhat.
Hello!
I’m currently a Weight Watchers PP user. Previously, when I joined WW, I weighed a little less, which gave me 35 points a day. I was steadily losing 3-4 pounds a week! However, after joining WW later, and given 29 points, I haven’t lose a single pound in about two months.
I’m considering trying the Wendie Plan for PP users. Do you think consuming such large amounts (points) per day will hinder weight loss? I lost weight when consuming at least 35 points a day, so perhaps not. Just want to get your thoughts!
Thank you!
Khala
I’m on the opposite side of thinking – I feel that when I eat too little is when I plateau. So now I try to eat all points allowed, which includes the extra weekly points on WW PP. Many of us do a “version” of the Wendie Plan by eating differing amounts of points on a daily basis – sometimes saving up for an upcoming dinner out or party, etc.
I truly don’t believe that you need to set up your weekly points as strictly as the Wendie Plan is written, as long as you fluctuate them with low days, medium days, high days & a super high day.
Thank you! I also lost weight when I ate more (as opposed to reducing my points).
I am very glad to read about this Wendie Plan. I started Weight Watchers for the first time in my life ever on Dec. 5th. I have had lots of difficulty sticking to the 26 allotted daily points and have even gone over the 49 weekly points too. I lost 2.2 pounds my first week and I don’t know how because I blew it big time if I look at my points plus consumption. This second week, I have not weighed in yet until tonight — I did a little better managing points but not much better. I don’t know if I will show any weight loss or not. All I know is that I can now wear some of my jeans that I could not even zip a few weeks ago. I am not near my goal weight at all but the discipline of dieting is not my strong point. Thanks for the encouragement.
Did you really mean 26 daily points – I’m under 150 and I can have 29 daily points. It’s been difficult for me with the holidays. Last year I was really good during the holidays and started eating after, which is usually the opposite. So I’m just trying not to do too bad and start it up with more discipline after New Year’s, like so many do.
I did start up my exercise program again so I’m going to stick with that and maybe it will help my not staying on plan right now.