Here's what confuses me a little bit about this point system. I hope
that you can forgive my ignorance and resolve my question.

Oh Ask By all means, when I am not busy like now this is my favorite type of
brain play. By the way, I am puzzled by the screen name, since you think
quite well, and the tendency to assign ignorance to yourself ....

I find it very easy to eat large quantity of vegetables like cabbage
or tomatoes. For example, a 2 lbs dinner salad.

Me too, if I am especially hungry it makes the meal I have a more satisfying
experience. Crunch factor + time to consume. Limits the higher calorie space
on the table too.


Eating that stuff is kind of fun and healthy, but does not, as such,
really prevent me from overeating on high calorie foods.

Same here. Frankly when I overeat, it is rarely due to actual physical
hunger. More often boredom. Or something else. Oddly enough when I am in a
place where I overeat, it is always something high calorie. I rarely
overeat. When I do, I am sure to not do it for long.


If getting a lot of fiber this way allows me to eat more calories,
would I not gain weight compared to eating at maintenance, but at
lower calorie and fiber level.


Most people do not eat enough "more" calories of this sort of thing (these
are not the most appealing foods from an overeating standpoint as above..).
Who binges on oatmeal or cabbage or pinto beans without the bacon fat? The
fiber involved does cut down on transit time, which in a minor but important
way cuts down on absorption, particularly of some of those things that on
their own would sit in your system, such as your pork fat. Pork fat plus a
head of cabbage finds the exit faster than pork fat alone The whole
theory behind the new "no count" or "core" plan is that people don't tend to
overeat the allowed foods, which tend to be a bit more boring. Piling these
low fat high fiber items into your diet also limits the room on your plate
for the other stuff. Were you around when that guy was on the boards who
advocated a boring diet? Wonder what happened to him.

If so, what is the "point of the point system" (pun intended)? To
encourage eating that conforms to a certain healthy eating standard?


That is the "main" point of the point system ( a fairly healthy diet that
promotes both weight loss and eventual habit change leading to weight
maintenance ). The honcho's at WW central have their eye on the latest
research all the time, including that which comes from the NWLR. They claim
people who eat lower fat and exercise maintain better. So WW tries to figure
out ways to incorporate that into their program. The program changes, and
now that I am involved with NAASO I can see the early news about why some of
the changes happen. A year or so after something looks good, it ends up
somewhere in WW.