Weight Watchers isn't doing it for me.  But...the beauty of FLEX to that I can use (the tracking tools, point system, etc.) and don't worry about the rest.  I paid to go until I had the tools I needed and now I have the material.

I have PCOS, diagnosed over 20 years ago.  I also strongly suspect I have thyroid issues (low body temp, thinning hair) that is not showing up in blood tests (looking for a doctor who will treat the patient, not the number).  My fasting blood sugar is perfect, as is my blood pressure.  My cholesterol is high (212).  I'd like to lose 60-70 pounds.

Weight Watchers (as written) doesn't work.

Atkins (as written) doesn't work (I did Atkins at less than 25 grams of carb a day for 3 months and lost 4 pounds).  I'm a little OCD when it comes to logging what I eat...I use a MasterCook recipe just to put my daily eating into.  So I have a good handle on what I eat.

So...combining the two.

I read in places that anything less than 100 grams of carb a day can be "considered" low carb.  I can deal with that.   I read that a cyclical low carb diet can be effective.  I can deal with that also.  On Weight Watchers, there is a unofficial "Wendie Plan" where you vary your caloric intake drastically day by day.  I can deal with that also.

Ok...that's three things I can combine.

Here's what I come up with:

• Instead of grams of carb...25% or less of my calories each day coming from carbohydrate.
• Stay within the Weight Watchers plan in order to keep my calories reasonable
• Two days a week (most weeks not next to each other) eat "high carb" (for me, that will mean no more than 50% of calories from carb - still lower than the "pyramid".  This will be flexible, depending on my geography of the day)
• Two days a week (not next to each other, again being flexible) eat 5-10 extra "points" (may or may not be the same days as high carb).

The idea is to keep my body guessing what it's going to get.  That's why the Wendie Plan works...your system doesn't get used to having the same diet every day.

I'll be doing the same with exercise.

• 2 days a week take a long, slow walk
• 3 days a week take a shorter, faster walk
• 2 days a week do 3 short, fast sessions of "Walk Away the Pounds"
• every other day do strength training

And, of course...be tweaking as I go along...

(EDIT:  here is a formula I just found:

On the medium carb days - take in 1 gram of carbs/pound bw.
on the low carb days - half the amount on the medium days
high days - take in 1.5 times the carbs as the medium days....but the medium days are still too high...If I leave out the "high" days and just use the low and medium...that will be about right.