Who Counts Their Fresh Fruits & Veggies?

HH117178

In the past I have used Weight Watcher's to help manage my weight and on their plan some fresh fruits and veggies aren't counted towards your daily points. So the question I have for everyone is who adds their fruits and veggies to MyFitnessPal, who doesn't and why? I keep going back and forth of whether or not I should add them. Thank you

LoraF83

If you eat it, log it.

That's they way MFP works.

JenAndSome

I figure if it has calories, I should log it. I guess if I didn't log my veggies I could drink an extra beer at night, though. Now there's a thought. :drinker:

kellykw

I could easily eat 500+ calories in fresh fruits and veggies every day. Log them if you're here to count calories.

sandy_gee

If you eat it, log it.

That's they way MFP works.

:drinker:

theCarlton

WW works in a way that kind of rounds things up and down to fit into their points system. MFP is very useful, not only for tracking calories, but nutrients and acting as a food diary just for informational purposes (ex. determining an allergy or intolerance). I think it's important to log everything you eat.

PriceK01

I track everything I eat, including fruits and vegetables. I even log my morning tea, which has no calories.

Donna6017

I tried WW for a while and I don't understand how they count fruit as zero points. A banana can have over 100 calories. I just use MFP now and if I eat it, I count it.

barbaratrollman

I log everything. It all adds up toward a daily total for both my calories and for my macros totals.

Rockstar_JILL

Yup....log it all...

Trechechus

If you eat it, log it.

That's they way MFP works.

This

RhonndaJ

For me, it's very simple.

I am calorie counting in order to lose weight, therefore if it has calories, I count it.

WW is not calorie counting. It's a calculated program in which they have taken into consideration the amount of fruit and veg the average person might eat. Sometimes I think this might be why some people don't lose with their program.

Sardauker

I am a vegetarian... I usually eat >50% of my calories intake in fruit and veggies.

al369

I've done it both ways. Now, I do count them and wouldn't go back to not counting them.

Set your calories to a reasonable spot and counting them won't seem so bad. They are generally lower calorie than non-whole, non-fresh foods.

mhankosk

So the original WW system did have points for those foods. They changed their system to motivate people to eat more natural fruits and veggies by making them 0 points and increasing the points for other foods (ever notice that the "old" points on most foods with the points on the label is always at least 1 pt lower that the "new"points). They are assuming you will balance the fruits and veggies with other foods in your diet. MFP doesnt work that way. This is a straight calorie system. If you eat it, log it. You'd be surprised how many calories are in a banana! :drinker:

HH117178

Thank you everyone! It looks like the general consensus is to count my fruit & veggies. That wasn’t the answer I was hoping for (LOL) but I guess I will just have to suck it up and log it!!! :bigsmile:

beezbee

I always assumed it is designed to encourage folks to eat more healthy food, but I think that's the main reason WW didn't work for me. I was a vegetarian at the time, so fruits and veggies were the largest part of my diet. Fruit packs a lot of sugar, and both fruit and veggies provide a significant source of carbs (not to mention the fat eg in avocados...). No doubt they are healthy, but if you're trying to stay within your macros, you need to log everything you eat.

Southernb3lle

I used WW in the past also and didn't log fruit and started to slow down losing weight. I do though now with MFP..because A: They have calories and B. I want to keep within my macros as much as possible. ex. Carbs, sugars.

Oh and you wouldn't believe how much sugar is in some of the fruits we eat.

dextersgramps

fruits and veggies have calories,sodium and a certain amount of sugar even though it`s natural.This allows diabetics to keep better track of sugar intake.My theory is if I eat it I log it.:happy:

kohldawg9

Log it. If it goes in your mouth, then it should be logged.

xinit0

In the past I have used Weight Watcher's to help manage my weight and on their plan some fresh fruits and veggies aren't counted towards your daily points. So the question I have for everyone is who adds their fruits and veggies to MyFitnessPal, who doesn't and why? I keep going back and forth of whether or not I should add them. Thank you

I get why you might not bother - 5 cups of spinach is basically nothing, as far as calories go... but it does have iron and other stats I'd like to track. Besides, enough of those "10-50 calorie veggies" over the course of the day...

karllundy

If you bite it, write it. Just as an example, a medium banana has 105 calories and a medium apple has 80 calories. If you had one of each and were on a 500 calorie deficit to lose a pound a week, you have just erased more than one third of your daily deficit.

stumblinthrulife

I always log everything, no exceptions.

A medium apple is 80 cals. A banana is 100+ cals. I often have 200-300 calories of veges with my lunch.

So a pre-workout banana, lunch veges and an apple as a snack in the afternoon could wipe out my 500 calorie deficit if I didn't log them.

I don't know much about WW, but I'm guessing that their program assumes a certain amount of fruit and veg in a day, and adjusts down the base points to accommodate.

cwolfman13

In the past I have used Weight Watcher's to help manage my weight and on their plan some fresh fruits and veggies aren't counted towards your daily points. So the question I have for everyone is who adds their fruits and veggies to MyFitnessPal, who doesn't and why? I keep going back and forth of whether or not I should add them. Thank you

If you want to do WW, then do WW...if you want to count calories, then count calories. When you count calories, everything has calories so you count everything. With WW, everything is points and those points may or may not have a direct correlation to the calories consume...i.e. zero points for fruits and veg, while other things have more points attributed to them than what their true calorie score would be. This is how they essentially net things out.

If you're counting calories, it is important to actually count all calories. I eat about 300 + calories per day in fruits and veg alone...considering I only have a calorie deficit of 250 calories per day from maintenance, if I didn't count them and still ate to my calorie goal, I'd actually be at a calorie surplus.

sherrybaby81

I did Weight Watchers when they did Points Plus. I don't get this new program they have. I joined on a free trial trying to entice me to come back, and I hated it! The first time I did WW, the pounds came off fairly easy. This time around, not so much!

Here, I do count my fruit and veggies. It adds up. 1200 calories in fruit and veg are still 1200 calories.

NadineSabbagh

I used to be on Weightwatchers and I could never understand why I struggled to lose weight some weeks. I would lose some, but it was never as much as I had predicted. Since starting MFP I've realised why my weight loss was so erratic on WW - it's because of all this so-called 'free food' that I was eating!

Unbeknownst to me, I could sometimes be eating up to 500-600 calories MORE than I thought I was eating because I assumed the food was 'free'! Don't get me wrong, I know if you sit and eat 20 lettuces a day you're going to be eating a fair amount of calories, despite lettuce being healthy... but on WW I would eat things here and there - a salad with my lunch, carrot sticks for snacks, sugar free jelly, gherkins, tomatoes cucumber etc... and these little snack-y things added up! Sometimes they added up to quite a significant amount of calories! So when I thought I was consuming 1200-300 calories (thus expecting around a 2lb loss each week) I could sometimes be eating more like 1800-900 in a day, which is why I was so confused about my slow weight loss.

Now that I'm using MFP I'm able to see the calorie content of all these 'free' foods, and it's quite scary how I was deluded into thinking I could eat as much of them as I wanted without eating many calories! The first time I made myself a salad and logged it on MFP (one that I wouldn't have counted in my points on WW) it was round about 100 calories!

So I make sure I log absolutely everything I eat on here - even down to the herbs and spices I use haha. Maybe a bit obsessive, but I find it interesting to see how the calories can quickly add up when you're not paying attention!! :P

(edited to fix the terrible grammar akin to a 5 year old... :P )

Lochlyn_D

Every calorie counts.

MG_Fit

If you eat it, log it.

That's they way MFP works.

^ Yes

cals83

I get why you might not bother - 5 cups of spinach is basically nothing, as far as calories go... but it does have iron and other stats I'd like to track. Besides, enough of those "10-50 calorie veggies" over the course of the day...

I generally don't log things like spinach or other greens just because they are so low calorie and it hasn't made a difference. At first I would try to weigh out one serving on my food scale but one serving of spinach is HUGE and doesn't even fit on a plate.

Basically if something comes in at under 15 calories, I usually don't bother. It isn't going to make much of a difference for me and it isn't like I sit there and eat 100 calories worth of 15 calorie things to get out of logging. I figure it balances out with activity that I don't log.

kjmenser

I do!!

lambchristie

I count fruits and veggies. Why woudn't you? Its food and you're eating it, right?

Gotta throw the WW mind set out the window and start a new way of thinking here on MFP.