Weight Watchers PointsPlus Activity Points Formula

Disclaimer: The team of Weight Watchers keeps updating the program, according to the requirements/feedback of their members. The program has been updated many times, the latest one being the Weight Watchers 360° program, which was unveiled on the 3rd of December, 2012. The program teaches members how to manage their food environment, claiming that we tend to eat what we see. It also guides people on ways to control their temptation, and to avoid pleasure eating. Weight Watchers has not increased their rates for this new approach, and all the meetings, eTools, and apps are included in the total fee.

The content in this article explains the Weight Watchers PointsPlus program in detail. The details of the current program are exclusively available to the paid members of Weight Watchers.

Weight Watchers weight loss program came into existence in the year 1963. After being popular for more than 4 decades, Weight Watchers made major changes in their original diet system and created the Weight Watchers points system, which again became a flying success. After more than a decade of being one of the most wanted and innovative weight loss diet plans, Weight Watchers overhauled their points system with the latest Weight Watchers PointsPlus program. This program was launched in late 2010, and is a slightly modified version of the previous points system. Similar to the earlier system, PointsPlus promises effective weight loss and healthy weight management throughout the course of the program. You have to become an official member, so that you can avail various of their offers, and the official, personalized weight loss diet plans and menus. During the overhaul, a lot of things from the earlier points system changed, which included the activity points section as well. The creators have shuffled the points range of daily allowed points, and they have also made a few changes in the formula. According to this changed formula, the dieters can consume bonus points when they indulge in certain calorie burning exercises, that may help them to lose weight, which is the aim of this diet program.

Weight Watchers PointsPlus Activity Points

Although the previous Weight Watchers points system went through a lot of changes, the basic criteria of activity points is still the same. The dieter has to swap extra points for calorie burning exercises. In other words, if you indulge in a lot of exercise on a daily basis, you get to consume a few extra points as a reward of burning calories! Although the latest PointsPlus program is a slightly tougher version of the older one, it still allows you the activity points. Activity points can be earned, which means the more you exercise, the more are the points that you get daily! But, hold on! There is one trick here, and that too an important one. To be able to get hold of the correct formula for Weight Watchers PointsPlus activity points, you must become a paid member of Weight Watchers. Taking their membership is actually a great way to get effective assistance throughout your course of losing weight. Hence, if you are wondering about the official formula for activity points, then I really have a bad news for you. However, the good news is, you can still understand the things that Weight Watchers consider while calculating activity points.

The basic thing which is considered while counting the activity points is the intensity of your physical workout, which is counted on the basis of your rate of breathing and sweating. According to these factors, they have determined three intensity levels of physical workouts, which are - light, medium and high. As you must have guessed, high intensity exercises burn more calories, and hence they also give you more activity points. On the other hand, low intensity exercises give you the least number of activity points. Here is a brief explanation of these levels.

• Low Activity: Low intensity exercises do not make you tired. While performing low intensity exercises, the person can easily talk and breathe like they do regularly. They can also sing while exercising. These exercises do not cause sweating.
• Medium Activity: Slightly higher intensity workouts come under this category. These workouts cause deep breathing, and sweating only after 10 or more minutes. During these exercises, the person can talk normally, but finds it difficult to sing.
• High Activity: While doing high intensity workouts, the person starts breathing deeply and rapidly, as soon as he starts the exercise. He also start sweating just after a few minutes later, and can barely talk while performing these exercises. He can't sing during high intensity workouts.

Weight Watchers PointsPlus Activity Points Formula

As I have mentioned before, you can't get the official formula for activity points unless you become a paid member to Weight Watchers. In fact, all the important Weight Watchers formulas are sealed under strict copyright laws of the US government. Hence, one can only guess about the official formulae. Here are the examples how the activity points formula may be like:

Activity Points = (Calories ÷ Weight) + (Fat ÷ 4)
In the above formula, you need to divide the number of calories burned by the total body weight and saturated fats by 4. Experts also explain activity points in a few other easy ways to calculate activity points of Weight Watchers PointsPlus program. We do not intend to promote these formulas, but they are mentioned below as an example.

• Low activity points = Weight × Minutes of Exercise × 0.000232
• Medium activity points = Weight × Minutes of Exercise × 0.000327
• High activity points = Weight × Minutes of Exercise × 0.0008077

Weight Watchers PointsPlus Activity Points Chart

The creators have suggested certain exercises like dancing, water aerobics, regular household jobs like ironing, laundry, car cleaning and house cleaning; gardening and playing various outdoor games; as healthy ways of burning calories. Here is an easy illustration of the Weight Watchers PointsPlus activity points list. The number of points that are given below are available after 15 minutes of performing low, medium and high intensity workouts. Take a look at the following chart.

Weight in Pounds Low Activity Medium Activity High Activity 100 lbs - 109 lbs 0 1 2 110 lbs - 149 lbs 1 1 2 150 lbs - 209 lbs 1 1 3 210 lbs - 219 lbs 1 1 4 220 lbs - 259 lbs 1 2 4 260 lbs - 309 lbs 1 2 5 310 lbs - 319 lbs 2 2 5 320 lbs - 359 lbs 2 2 6
As you can see, the formula grants brownie points for a highly active lifestyle. The main reason behind allowing the dieters to consume such free points is to encourage them to lose more weight in a healthy manner. The creators simply say that if you want to consume extra points, then work extra to get them! As a parting note, all that I want to say is that if you really want to avail the activity points and lose weight with Weight Watchers, then there is no other way besides getting the official membership.

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