All Those Points

All these point names….what’s the difference or is there?

Actually yes there is a difference in the point names and the point value of a food.

The original point plan (now a days referred to as “classic points” “original points” or just plain “points”) was around until late 2010.  When you calculated, you used Calories, Fat, and Fiber from the nutritional label. Basically, it was 50 calories = 1 pt.  Original Points had a very long run with few changes.  Leftover daily points could be banked to use at other times during that week.  Eventually the banking went away and everyone was given the same amount of weekly points.

In late 2010 WW introduced Points Plus (often seen on recipe sites as “pp” “p+” or “pt+”).  Points plus took the bad carbs into account.  Now the calculation used Fat, Carbs, Fiber and Protein from the nutritional label.  Snacky things ended up going up a point or two from the original point calculations. Now 39 calories = 1 pt. but most went with 40 calories for 1 pt because it was easier to calculate if you didn’t have your calculator with you. Daily points actually went up as did the weeklies.

In 2015 WW introduced Smart Points (“sp”) and sugar took a big hit.  The calculation for Smart Points includes Calories, Saturated Fat, Sugar and Protein from the nutritional label.  I’ve yet to see a calorie to point equation because it’s hard to do – something may be the same amount of calories, but not the same in saturated fat, sugar or protein.

Freestyle (“fs”) arrived in 2017 with 200 zero point foods to eat.  For those foods not included on the zero point list, points are calculated using the Smart Points equation.

Late 2019 the three plans Green(g), Blue(b) and Purple(p) were introduced.  Green is actually the Smart Points introduced in 2015; Blue is the 2017 Freestyle and Purple is new-but has a larger zero point list with less daily points.  All plans use the smart points equation for pointed foods.

Then Personal Points came out (I'm not sure of the calculation but it is different from the other plans); first they let you choose your own zero list; now everyone does the same zero list.  It's similar to Freestyle (blue) but using the personal points calculation.  It's also known as just "points" thus confusing it with the original plan.

So as you see…all points aren’t created equal!  So it is important to know which plan the point value of any recipe is using.  Some of the sites recalculate and update but many do not.