Do you include/count calories from fruits &a veggies?

alexiam1493

Hey all I am trying to lose weight. I was part of weight watchers, which was working, but then I fell off the wagon and I'm trying the calorie counting approach. In weight watchers I was allowed to eat as many fruits & veggies and they were "0 points" so I'm wondering, how important is it to count fruits and veggie calories in this method (My fitness pal)?
Thanks!

Tacklewasher

They have calories, so count them. I count anything above ~20 calories (can't be bothered below that) and can easily eat a lot more than that in fruit and veggies.

JaydedMiss

fruits and veggies have calories. they count. of course you track them. Especially fruits but even some veggies are high calories. Doesnt matter to your body, Calorie is a calorie

jdlobb

Everything that goes in my mouth gets counted and logged, even if it has zero calories.

eigna9187

Buy a food scale. Weigh everything. Even vegetables and fruit have calories. Some are very calorie dense, some are not but it is better to be accurate. Eating a whole bag of baby carrots is still calories consumed and isn't a pass because it's a veggie.

janejellyroll

Your body will count the calories, so why wouldn't you?

It's easy for some people to eat hundreds of calories of fruits and vegetables per day. That would be enough to wipe out some deficits.

jemhh

alexiam1493 wrote: »

Hey all I am trying to lose weight. I was part of weight watchers, which was working, but then I fell off the wagon and I'm trying the calorie counting approach. In weight watchers I was allowed to eat as many fruits & veggies and they were "0 points" so I'm wondering, how important is it to count fruits and veggie calories in this method (My fitness pal)?
Thanks!

Your WW goal was set with the idea that you would be eating a certain amount of calories in veg/fruit. Your MFP goal is not, so you need to eat them.

fiddletime

I'm 5'2". I count veggies, but especially fruits. One banana can be almost 100 calories. Mangos are 100 cal per 100 gm. You don't want to leave anything uncounted or you'll be sabotaging yourself.

cwolfman13

Points do not translate to calories. With WW, they inflate the points of other food items to compensate for "free foods"...with calorie counting, you're using a direct relationship...fruits and veggies have calories...fruit in particular can be pretty high in calories.

When I counted calories, I wasn't worried about being super precise with my veggies, but I still counted them. I was typically pretty precise with my fruit. I typically eat around 300 calories worth of produce daily. If I didn't count that and ate to my calorie target with other food then I would actually be about 300 calories over my target which would have pretty much nullified my 500 calorie deficit.

TeaBea

jemhh wrote: »

alexiam1493 wrote: »

Hey all I am trying to lose weight. I was part of weight watchers, which was working, but then I fell off the wagon and I'm trying the calorie counting approach. In weight watchers I was allowed to eat as many fruits & veggies and they were "0 points" so I'm wondering, how important is it to count fruits and veggie calories in this method (My fitness pal)?
Thanks!

Your WW goal was set with the idea that you would be eating a certain amount of calories in veg/fruit. Your MFP goal is not, so you need to eat them.

This^

WW starts at a lower calorie value, MFP does not. If you don't include fruits & veggies on MFP you are going to be eating more than you think you are.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

Fruit yes, veggies usually no. It's not worth the effort to log 7 calories of spinach (which is a whole salad's worth).

janejellyroll

Ericnutrition wrote: »

So if you make a normal-sized salad with five ingredients (say lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrots, onions), do you really want to spend the time to weigh each item? I doubt it.

Weighing lettuce indicates an unhealthy compulsion. Enjoy life!

It only takes a few seconds to weigh each item. I can understand why someone might decide they don't want to weigh vegetables, but I think it's silly to treat something as a sign of illness unless it's truly disordered or harmful behavior.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

Ericnutrition wrote: »

So if you make a normal-sized salad with five ingredients (say lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrots, onions), do you really want to spend the time to weigh each item? I doubt it.

Weighing lettuce indicates an unhealthy compulsion. Enjoy life!

It doesn't take much time. Put plate on scale, "tare" it. Put on lettuce, write down weight, tare it. Put on tomato, write down weight, tare.... etc. But I'd probably one weight the tomato and the carrots. The others would be in the single digits.

BurgerLovinBulker

The friend that introduced me to MFP would make a 'salad' for dinner every night. He would weigh out a bowl of lettuce, then pour dressing on a plate a weigh it. He would dip each leaf into the dressing individually, for "maximum control".

I have to say, it was pretty funny to watch.

jdlobb

Dressing is a pain. But after doing it a bunch I have gotten really good at eyeballing a perfect 30g serving of the Bolthouse dressings. The last few times I've hit it +/- 1g on the first shot.

Ready2Rock206

Ericnutrition wrote: »

So if you make a normal-sized salad with five ingredients (say lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrots, onions), do you really want to spend the time to weigh each item? I doubt it.

Weighing lettuce indicates an unhealthy compulsion. Enjoy life!

Oh yeah - the 23 seconds it takes to weigh and log a salad is completely taking over my life. Stop the madness. Really?? It takes literally seconds - hardly a compulsion to be concerned about. Statements like that are just excuses. If you don't want to weigh your food then don't but making a disorder out of a few seconds of logging is ridiculous.

And to the OP - of course you count fruits and veggies - they have calories. Some have a lot of calories - especially fruits. WW sets your base very low to account for this. MFP gives your calories as a whole - so if you eat multiple fruits and veggies on top of it you'll likely wipe out your deficit.

JustRobby1

Vegetables, last I checked, contain calories. So log it. Since you are new it is probably a good idea to get into the habit. Log everything. If you go to a movie and decide to drink a 32oz cup of popcorn butter, log it. If you are driving home from work tonight and encounter a dead raccoon on the side of the road and decide to eat it, LOG IT!

You can eyeball things when you have some more experience and get further along in the process.

jemhh

Ericnutrition wrote: »

So if you make a normal-sized salad with five ingredients (say lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrots, onions), do you really want to spend the time to weigh each item? I doubt it.

Weighing lettuce indicates an unhealthy compulsion. Enjoy life!

There's a lot in life I don't want to do but if I want to achieve a certain goal I do it.

I have a "mixed vegetable" entry that I've created that I use for most vegetable salad ingredients.

Also, weighing vegetables takes no more time than weighing other ingredients. I don't see why it would be considered laborious to make a salad this way any more than it would be to make another food while weighing ingredients.