WW (Weight Watchers) Chat #248: New WW Personal Points Plan FAQ!

WW News November 2021:

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock you already know we’ve switched to a new plan, WW Personal Points was introduced on Monday of this last week and I’m hearing rave reviews from most!
You have until tomorrow (Monday 11/15) to go ahead and swap over to Personal Points. The old Blue, Green, and Purple plans will no longer be available on your app or desktop after tomorrow so go ahead and take your assessment now
Good news! Many of the US bloggers have figured out a way to share their recipes so that you can get YOUR Personal Points value without having to add everything to the recipe builder. Bad news…it doesn’t work across borders so your favorites in another country will have to be manually entered. We will talk more about this later in the chat
WW is admitting the desktop version of this new plan is not as user friendly and have created a QR code so you can easily download the app to any smart device. Even if you don’t want or have a smartphone, you can use the app with any Android or Apple device like a tablet. Wish I had better news on that one, let me know in the comments below if you are computer only so we can chat about what to do!

The month’s theme is “The Personal Points Program” and we will spend the entire month exploring the new program, getting to know your personal points system, and learning something new…together!

Last week during Chat #247 The New Personal Points Program – First Look! we found out that I was right about many of my gut feelings on the new Personal Points plan…and you all know I love being right!

I will not be talking as fast as I did last week. That was an insane amount of information to try and get to you in less than 45 minutes. This week we will be focused on the most frequently asked questions during our first week, but first let’s recap.

The three main points of the new Personal Points program are as follows:

The new algorithm makes healthy choices easier than ever
Plans are now individualized and you’ll have a customized Zero Point food list
You’ll earn points for healthy habits and behaviors

The point system is going to be calculated differently than Smart Points, so if you have a SP calculator it will likely no longer work for you. In the new program, points will be calculated based on a food’s nutritional content (calories, fiber, protein, unsaturated fat, added sugars, and saturated fat). The more fiber, protein, and unsaturated fat a food has, the lower its point value will be. And alternatively, the more added sugar and saturated fat a food has, the higher its point value will be.

As mentioned, food plans are now going to be customized to fit your eating habits and preferences. Which means that I can finally have zero point avocado! That doesn’t mean that everyone will though! The Zero Point foods list will largely be made up of the whole foods we are already used to seeing on the list but will also take into account foods that you choose to be your personal zero point selections.

In the WW app, your Personal Points engine will take into account your assessment, the foods you’ve chosen to add to your Zero Points list, your eating habits, and more and will provide you with your personalized plan. Foods that you eat frequently will be the basis of your Zero Point food list and you can update this list as needed if your eating habits change. Be sure to pick foods that you actually like to eat for this, not just foods that sound healthy.

Your recipe builder will auto-update so your saved recipes will be updated to reflect the point values of your personalized plan.

So, how will you know your daily points budget? You will continue to get a set number of points each day, a set number of weeklies each week, and up to 4 rollovers per day. Your daily budget will take into account your gender, height, age, weight, and personalized Zero Point list. Then it will be adjusted to make sure you are in a calorie deficit to allow a healthy 1-2 pound per week weight loss. You can earn points back by completing healthy habits like eating non-starchy vegetables (get 1 point back per cup). Drinking 60 ounces of water earns 1 point back per day as well!

One thing that will change is that fruits can be added to your Zero Point list, but cannot earn back daily points for you.

Activity is no longer known as Fit Points and now goes into your weekly Personal Points you can choose to use them or not – totally up to you! Fewer points will be earned for exercise than in the past as WW is encouraging us to exercise for the health benefits rather than with the intention of swapping those earned points for more food. All points earned are Personal Points whether they’re food earned, activity, etc.

You still have the option to set weight loss and healthy habits goals within the app. Those who have beta tested these goals have seen excellent results!

Tracking non-starchy veggies to earn those extra points will be made simpler so you don’t have to track them by name each time. You’ll be able to simply track each serving like you already do when tracking water in the app.

New recipe cards will have QR codes included on the page that can be scanned and will then pull up the recipes and show you how many points that recipes is for YOU on your personalized plan.

If you are in the negative on points for the day and do one of the earned points activities you will actually have those points added back in the app – that’s never been an option before!

The app will now take into account health issues such as diabetes and tweak your choices accordingly. For example, fruits will not be a Zero Point option for diabetics.

The app will have a 2-3 minute or less tutorial available for you each day. A virtual orientation via Zoom will be available starting Monday under “search and find workshops” or under Settings > FAQ. You’ll also have access to the App Academy for additional resources.

So, to wrap up, if you aren’t sure whether your app has updated or not head to your App Store and see if an update is available and if so be sure to download it. I’m sure we’ll all have a lot of questions over the next few days as this new Personal Points program rolls out, but be sure to keep calm and stick with us through the change! I’ll be giving updates as often as possible and new information as soon as I know it.

Your homework for last week was #AssessmentComplete. All you had to do was complete your assessment, that’s it! ….and then type it, snap it, however you want to share it and then tag me for your next cool badge!

Let’s see how you did!

Lynn got up at 1:30am to potty and went ahead and took her assessment while she was up!
Linda was worried the app would crash (and she was right!) so she got up at 3am to take hers
Barbara was up at 3:39am and got her day started right!

Bravo, you did it!

This Week’s Topic: The New Personal Points Program – First Week FAQ!

Starting on a Monday. Androids not being quite ready. App crashing. And crashing again. FitPoints rolling over and artificially inflating new Activity Points. Bloggers all over the world worrying about how to point recipes. It’s been a wild week for sure!

But I’ve done a couple of surveys this week and it seems the majority of us are either loving or at least embracing this new plan. A handful are hesitant, some are still mad, and believe it or not there are people who somehow missed the memo and didn’t know anything was changing until they woke up Monday morning! And if you haven’t been in your app for a while you may still not realize anything is going on hahaha.

So I’ve decided to devote the next 45 minutes to this week’s most frequently asked questions with answers. I will also be doing some very short (less than 4 minute) videos with what Casey calls “video in video” to show you how to do many of these things. These short how to videos will be YOUTUBE ONLY though so please go subscribe to If You Have an Egg now if you want to be able to view them.

At my last count I have been asked just a little over 1,000 questions about this new plan. Many of them are repeated or similar, but all of them are important to answer. Please COMMENT BELOW if you have a question you’d still like answered or need to see a short video on how to do something and we will get you an answer asap!

Personal Points Week 1 FAQ

Click your questions below to see the answer:

How many times can I take the assessment?

How do I take (or retake) the assessment?

How do you print the book you showed last week?

Can I turn “off” Activity Points in my Weeklies?

Can I really earn points back if I’m at zero or even negative?

How do I earn more points in a day?

Why did you take flavored water away from me?

Why did you say to scan everything?

Why is my restaurant item scanning so high?

Will my recipes automatically update and / how do I know how many points a recipe I found online is on my plan?

Q: How many times can I take the assessment?

A: As many as you need to! There is no limit on taking the assessment but I recommend you try one for a week before you change it up.

Q: How do I take (or retake) the assessment?

A: If you have not already taken the assessment you will be prompted to do so the next time you log in. If you are taking it again follow these steps:

In the upper right hand corner click Account or touch your profile picture
Go to Settings
Go to ZeroPoint Food Settings and Edit
If you are retaking the assessment you will be asked why. This is a no judgement zone, don’t be afraid to answer honestly!
Answer the questions honestly. If you enjoy fast food most days, check that box…no one can see this but you!
Your responses will go into the Personal Points Engine and create YOUR ZeroPoints Food List, YOUR daily and weekly numbers and create a plan just for you!

Q: How do you print the book you showed last week?

A: If you are able to go to an in-person workshop you should be able to get the book. If not you can view it on both your app and on the computer. rom a computer do the following to print a copy for your own personal use:

Go to My Day
Scroll all the way to the bottom
Click Personal Points Program Book graphic
Find them long bar that says “see and experience it for yourself” and click that
Hover over the first page and right click your mouse
Select Save Image As
Name the image for your downloads (I named each page wwpage1, wwpage2, etc…)
When you’re all done, pull up each download and print it!

Q: Can I turn “off” Activity Points in my Weeklies?

A: At this time no. If you allow your fitness device to sync with WW or track an activity directly through your app it will add points earned to your Weekly allowance. These points will not roll over from week to week and you can select Activity on your app to see how many are being reflected in your Weeklies. For example, I am currently showing that I have 44 Weeklies but I know that 13 of those are earned from Activity. I know, it’s a pain but it is what it is.

Q: Can I really earn points back if I’m at zero or even negative?

A: For the day, YES! These points earned back will be reflected that day and will not roll over. But that does NOT mean you need to or have to use them.

Q: How do I earn more points in a day?

A: There are a couple of ways!

Eating more non-starchy veggies. For every cup of non-starchy veggies you eat in a day you earn 1 point. This is unlimited but please avoid the temptation to gorge on iceberg lettuce so you can eat cheesecake. If you earned enough points to have a slice of cheesecake you would be miserable in more ways than one!
Drinking water. If you consume 60 oz of water (still or carbonated plain water) you will earn 1 point. There is a 1 point per day limit on water.
Activity. Activity points earned will be reflected in your Weeklies but you can use them daily as earned if you choose to do so. Activity points are calculated individually but you can look them up on your app

Q: Why did you take flavored water away from me?

A: Well first of all “I” didn’t take anything away hahaha. And you certainly can have flavored water, coffee, tea…whatever non caloric drink you prefer. But the rule is: to earn 1 point it must be regular water (still or carbonated) without anything added to it. It’s just 1 point, if you don’t want to drink plain water just don’t do it!

Q: Why did you say to scan everything?

A: Do not assume anything! I had been eating these three yogurts interchangeably for 2 points for years. On MY Personal Points plan the Oikos Triple Zero Cherry is 1 point, Dannon Light & Fit Cherry is 2 points, and the Activia Black Cherry is a whopping 4 points!

Q: Why is my restaurant item scanning so high?

A: Check for items included that you normally leave off like dressing or add-ons. Karen and I discovered her 14 point salad was really only 4 points because it was counting the two slices of toast that she didn’t eat!

Q: Will my recipes automatically update and / how do I know how many points a recipe I found online is on my plan?

A: Any recipes you have saved in your app will automatically update to YOUR Personal Points. All new WW material has a QR code which when scanned will bring up YOUR points. And I’ll end with this tidbit…you can SHARE your recipes with your friends plus same country WW bloggers can share theirs with you…so you don’t have to re-enter everything!

To share your personal recipes with a friend:

Go to your recipe
From the desktop right click the address bar and left click and copy
From the mobile app select Share and then Copy
Text, e-mail or message your friend with the link
When he or she click on it they will be asked to log in to the full web version of their WW account
Then they can Print, Favorite, Edit and Track YOUR recipe in THEIR Personal Points!

To see your Personal Points from your favorite bloggers website:

First, be patient. Bloggers outside of your country cannot share for you and they cannot update recipes to pinpoint YOUR PP, it’s statistically impossible and you will need to re-enter the recipe in your recipe builder. The If You Have an Egg website will be updated slowly but surely, I don’t have a staff and we are not generating income from this so we will have to work on this as quickly as possible.
Second, please praise the bloggers who have worked so hard to get their recipes already up to date and ready for you. EmilyBites was part of the WW implementation and all of her recipes should be updated. SkinnyTaste and Hungry Girl are for profit websites and should be good to go. Drizzle Me Skinny is based in Canada and sadly unable to share with us US girls…yet. Pound Dropper is hard at work and I wouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t sleep until it’s all ready for you!
Next, find the recipe and where the blogger has elected to add the WW recipe link. In this example I went to thepoundropper.com and searched for Linds Skinny Chicken Pot Pie Soup. She has added a long bar after each recipe that says “Click For WW Personal Points”. Once you’ve clicked the recipe you should be prompted to log in and then you can Print, Favorite, Edit and Track YOUR faves in YOUR Personal Points values!

This Week’s Homework: #RecipeCheck

Your homework for this week is #RecipeCheck. I want you to expand your PP horizon this week by either sharing a WW Recipe Builder of your own with a friend, or trying to add one from your favorite blogger. Once you’ve got the recipe add to YOUR recipes take a screenshot ….and then type it, snap it, however you want to share it and then tag me for your next cool badge!

Don’t forget to do your homework #RecipeCheck and tag me when you share on social media!