fresh raw veggies...Im not logging..Refuse to log! Anyone else?

kwil74

So the fresh vegetables whether it be a salad or carrot sticks, tomatoes ect..I don't log into mfp. It's the stuff I dip them in and dressings I put on top that I log..I can't think of any reason why I would spend so much time logging these little things as I nosh on raw veggies throughout the day..Yes Im sure the the little calories might add up a tad but worth logging? As for now Im gonna consider these things free foods..I would love input on this. I hate thinking I might be cheating myself..Im on week 2 1600 calories...Its getting better no huge weight loss to speak of as of yet

malibu927

I know people who can eat a few hundred calories worth of vegetables each day. It's best to log them, especially if you reach a point where you aren't losing and need to make sure of your logging accuracy.

SueInAz

It really depends on how much of them you eat and your calorie goal. The fact that you aren't seeing much weight loss yet might point right back to this. If you really don't want to measure how much of them you're eating long term I might suggest that you do actually measure them for a few days and see how much you're averaging. Then create yourself an entry for "Kwil74 daily raw veggies" (or something like that) and make it the average amount of calories in veggies you are eating every day. Then you can easily enter that each day and make sure you aren't overeating by that much.

sammyliftsandeats

If you're on a small deficit, you need to be on point with the logging and that is the case for some smaller people who only have a tiny bit left to lose.

If you're on a bigger deficit, it may not matter much now but getting in the habit of accurately logging will help in the future.

lemurcat12

It takes no time to log if I'm logging anyway, so I do.

Also, I like to know what I ate when I'm logging. If I find I'm hungry during the day and wonder what changed and can look back and see I used to eat a tomato (33 calories, say, although there are larger tomatoes) at 4 pm, that's helpful to know.

janejellyroll

I think this would work for someone who doesn't eat many vegetables. I often eat several hundred calories of vegetables a day, so it wouldn't be a good strategy for me. It also helps me identify *what* is in the vegetables and if I'm meeting my needs (things like fiber, protein, fat, etc).

AlabamaMama224

The bulk of my meals consist of mostly vegetables. It wouldn't work for me. 700 grams of broccoli and cauliflower adds up.

And like Janejellyroll said, it helps me see if I'm meeting my nutrient goals.

AnvilHead

Give it a try. If you're not losing weight, at least you know where to start looking for the problem.

cwolfman13

When I logged, I wasn't as nit picky with my veg, but I still logged...for salads I just did something fairly generic in the recipe builder and used that.

Also, some veg is higher calorie than other veg.

I usually eat over 1 Lb of veg daily along with a couple servings of fruit.

dkabambe

I tend to log them but that's my personal preference, particularly with things like carrots, peppers and other sweet vegetables the calories can very quickly mount up.

If you're finding it too tedious to do every day but worried about cumulative effect maybe either
a) Log for a few days, take an average calorie count and knock that off your daily allowance (or add a generic quick calories entry for that amount.
or
b) create a separate meal entry for just these. If you tend to eat the same things, then after a few days they'll be sitting there in your recent entries for that meal and very easy to find so should only take a few seconds to log as you won't have to search for them each time.

cappri

I log them because I need them to hit my fiber goal. Also some veggies have sodium, I'm looking at you celery, that I need to be aware of.

B4Rachael

The reason I log my food is to lose weight; if I didn't log veggies then I could very easily go over my calorie goal for the day and never lose weight. I understand that veggies are healthy but I would feel like I was wasting my effort and would feel defeated when I didn't see the scales move. If I burn 1400 calories & log 1200 calories but eat 200 calories of veggies that I didn't log then I would be sabotaging myself.

snowflake930

You have to do what works for you.
Little things tend to add up, and can make a difference for some of us though.
I personally log everything that I eat or drink.
It worked for me through 20 months of losing the weight and for almost 3 years on maintenance, so I will keep logging to keep myself from regaining.

PaulaWallaDingDong

Your body logs them whether you do or not. As long as you're getting the expected results, it doesn't really matter.

peaceout_aly

kwil74 wrote: »

So the fresh vegetables whether it be a salad or carrot sticks, tomatoes ect..I don't log into mfp. It's the stuff I dip them in and dressings I put on top that I log..I can't think of any reason why I would spend so much time logging these little things as I nosh on raw veggies throughout the day..Yes Im sure the the little calories might add up a tad but worth logging? As for now Im gonna consider these things free foods..I would love input on this. I hate thinking I might be cheating myself..Im on week 2 1600 calories...Its getting better no huge weight loss to speak of as of yet

They still contain calories. They should still be logged. Carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes....even though they don't have a lot of calories they still do contain some. Your body is logging it regardless of whether you input it into MFP or not. This could slow your progress.

VioletRojo

My deficit was only about 200 calories while I was losing and I can easily eat twice that many calories worth of vegetables without thinking about it, so I weighed and logged every morsel that went into my mouth. Even now I weigh and log all my veggies.

VeryKatie

kwil74 wrote: »

So the fresh vegetables whether it be a salad or carrot sticks, tomatoes ect..I don't log into mfp. It's the stuff I dip them in and dressings I put on top that I log..I can't think of any reason why I would spend so much time logging these little things as I nosh on raw veggies throughout the day..Yes Im sure the the little calories might add up a tad but worth logging? As for now Im gonna consider these things free foods..I would love input on this. I hate thinking I might be cheating myself..Im on week 2 1600 calories...Its getting better no huge weight loss to speak of as of yet

Maybe it's because you're not logging everything. It's really easy to eat 300 calories of veggies in a day. REALLY easy. And that could be maintenance for you!

rosebarnalice

I do! I easily get 30-50% of my daily calories from fresh raw veggies. If I didn't log them, I would be underestimating my daily calories by 500-600 calories!

chunky_pinup

My vegetable intake is anywhere from 400-900 of my daily calories. I absolutely log that. It is not free for me. I mean...if someone's only vegetable they eat a day is a small pack of carrot sticks...I could see how that wouldn't make a difference. But veggies are a massive part of my diet, so they need to be weighed and logged like everything else...

Lounmoun

Depends on the vegetable and the quantity and if you are interested in tracking anything other than calories. If you eat a lot of vegetables, they can easily add up to 100 calories or more. Would you skip logging a 100 calorie cookie or candy? If you aren't losing at the rate you want it is always a good idea to log everything as accurately as you can.

I log everything I eat because I want a fairly accurate record. I am looking at other things like fiber or sodium which vegetables have.

RachelElser

I log everything- if you eat a lot of the same veggies, then they are right there in your recent foods. If you're not accurate, MFP isn't going to work.

Unknown

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kwil74

Thanks for the input everyone..I did keep some track today..4 slices of bell pepper, 4 baby carrots, 6 cherry tomatoes, 2 cups of iceburg, fixing to log and see..Im sure everyone is in the right..Even if it is only 45 calories atleast I will burn them searching for everything and logging..lol Happy dieting all ☺

Magic18

A calorie is a calorie whether healthy or not. I log all my calories as I need to know how many I eat. You may have a day where you just where within your goal but you left out 100 calories of veggies.

If for example you ate 100 calories of vegetables a day which is easily done. Consistently leave out 100 a day, that would be 36,500 calories a year you are leaving out which adds up to 10lbs.

Cut that in half as you ate about 50 I just read and you are eating 5lbs a year in veggies so good to track best of luck to you!

fishshark

if im snacking on ANYTHING throughout the day i am for sure logging it.

sammyliftsandeats

kwil74 wrote: »

Thanks for the input everyone..I did keep some track today..4 slices of bell pepper, 4 baby carrots, 6 cherry tomatoes, 2 cups of iceburg, fixing to log and see..Im sure everyone is in the right..Even if it is only 45 calories atleast I will burn them searching for everything and logging..lol Happy dieting all ☺

Make sure you are weighing those veggies on a digital food scale and not using cups/spoons. I can definitely shove more spinach in a cup than what they say the calorie count of a 'cup of spinach' is.

concrete_daisies

@kwil74 I'm totally with you!!! I don't log them much either.

Here is what I do: I treat logging fresh/steamed vegetables and fruit as optional. The exceptions are: potatoes and other high carb veges like kumara (sweet potato), peas(+other legumes), corn, bananas, avocados.

This works better for me than tracking them, because fruit + veges are often a filling, low calorie alternative to things that might make me fall off the wagon. Chocolate? Nope, an apple is free. Desert? Nope, how about watermelon. A second serving of dinner? Nah I'll just cook more broccoli. Also, it helps if I've already eaten my entire day's calories. This is when I am most likely to go overboard, but rather than binge or go to bed hungry, I just steam a few courgettes with moroccan spices

I know fruit and veges have calories, so I set myself quite a strict deficit. At 1200 cal (NET), it'd be very difficult for vegetables to put me into maintenance territory. And it gives me an incentive to eat healthy.

TLDR // Works for me.

concrete_daisies

I'd also like to point out that some very successful diets also do this, like Weight watchers. Making [most] veges free can work, as long as you set your calorie intake appropriately, and adjust it if necessary.

Alatariel75

emmykayyy wrote: »

I'd also like to point out that some very successful diets also do this, like Weight watchers. Making [most] veges free can work, as long as you set your calorie intake appropriately, and adjust it if necessary.

Setting the calorie intake appropriately is the key thing many people miss. The reason WW can have 'free' fruit and veg is that the point allocations are lower than the usual calorie recommendation for that same person, to build in a buffer.

It's part marketing tool, part incentive program to get people snacking on fruit and veg. If they gave fruit and veg points, many people would have a cookie instead of a banana, because they're the same points.

concrete_daisies

Alatariel75 wrote: »

Setting the calorie intake appropriately is the key thing many people miss. The reason WW can have 'free' fruit and veg is that the point allocations are lower than the usual calorie recommendation for that same person, to build in a buffer.

It's part marketing tool, part incentive program to get people snacking on fruit and veg. If they gave fruit and veg points, many people would have a cookie instead of a banana, because they're the same points.

For me it's the mental game (which is a huge part of weight loss). If I know I can't eat ANYTHING more, and I'm hungry, then I'm just going to say screw it and eat whatever. And then feel guilty.

rankinsect

Another thing you could do is pre-make a container of veggies (could even do a bunch at once), log it, and then just eat from the container as you feel like on that day. Makes it easier rather than trying to log each and every time independently. Could portion out some dressing too and just eat from it as well.

I go a step further and pre-log my whole days, which makes it even faster.