measuring fibrous vegies

zfitgal

Do you count calorie of vegetables? Example, onions, mushrooms red peppers? Fibrous vegies...

CooCooPuff

Yup! I do make an effort to eat a fair amount of plants and won't worry too much about 410 grams of lettuce vs 400, but they all count.

zfitgal

Because every night I make a big pot of vigils I cook them with just spices, but never count them...I'm adding them up and it's over 200 calories? Is that crazy? I was on weight watchers and never counted them...

zfitgal

Why would they be free on all other diets then?

Alatariel75

Because Weight Watchers makes them "free" so you eat vegetables instead of cookies. If veggies had Points, people would spend their points on other things. It's part marketing gimmick, part educational tool to get people eating more veggies.

Thing is, when you get a calorie goal on MFP it assumes you will count everything and eat to that goal. So it might give you 1400 for example. But when you go to WW, the Points goal they give you might work out to be 1200 calories - they give you less Points and free vegetables, and expect that it will work out to be the same, because you will eat the vegetables.

Your body counts the calories, even if WW doesn't. They're not "free" on all other diets. Just some other plans work them into your overall goal.

zfitgal

I have been on weight watchers for a really long time, I was eating the same and out of no where I started to gain. I joined mfp and just counted my veggies and for the 1st time I see they're 247 calories....

Alatariel75

zfitgal wrote: »

I have been on weight watchers for a really long time, I was eating the same and out of no where I started to gain. I joined mfp and just counted my veggies and for the 1st time I see they're 247 calories....

Yup, veggies have calories. It's a change of mindset, I'll give it that - I was on WW for years too and I remember starting a thread very much like this when I started calorie counting. But the answer is that WW factors your veggies into your Points count so you don't have to, MFP does not.

zfitgal

So I increased my calories because I thought I wasn't eating enough because my calories were pretty low 1440 (not including vegies). Now I'm thinking my calories including vegies shut be 1440

zfitgal

I'm so confused and I'm dying here...I just can't seem to get anything right here

Alatariel75

Don't stress! On MFP you should eat to your calorie goal - so that includes everything you eat, including veggies. If you're not using a food scale already, that can really help.

zfitgal

I'm using a food scale...I don't even know what to out as.my food goal at this pont, I'm about to cry...
I workout for an hour a day with heavy weight and twice a week I do cardio...I have a job where I'm on my feet for about 3 hours a day and then I go home to my three year old daughter and I'm up again...please help me

avskk

Put yourself in as "lightly active," enter your other stats accurately, manually set your "macros" to 40% carbs/40% protein/20% fat, follow the calorie goal MFP sets for you, and on cardio days log your exercise and eat back about half of those calories. (The "lightly active" setting should already account for your lifting, which is notoriously hard to calculate accurately in any case.)

Weigh everything (solid) and measure everything (liquid). Stick to the goal. After a couple of months of this, take stock of your weight, how you feel overall, and how you feel while you're working out. If something's not working, adjust it.

Don't give up. It will work, I promise -- you're going to be a success.

bbell1985

Yes. I stopped eating onions because I got tired of chopping and weighing them.

zfitgal

Lightly active brings me to 1200 calories, that seems so low for my weight lifting days...I lift very heavy...

avskk

What weight loss goal did you set? One pound per week, two pounds per week, half a pound per week? It sounds to me like you're either extremely petite or your loss goal is too aggressive (or both).

ETA: And how much do you weigh, how tall are you?

zfitgal

I have the last 12 lbs to go..I'm pretty lean...I set for 1.5 lb a week, what should I set it at

avskk

You should set it at .5lb per week with so little to lose. I think that was probably a big part of the problem.

zfitgal

I'm 55 ND we I go 142.7

zfitgal

Weigh

avskk

Shoot for half a pound per week and follow the rest of the plan the same. When you're already at a healthy weight and/or close to goal, weight loss is just naturally slower and more difficult -- no sense starving yourself just to rush the ending, you know?

zfitgal

Thank u so much! U have been so helpful...my daily target now is set for 1390 a day...I will count my vegetables, it's so weird to me lol. I'm sure the reason I wasn't able to lose weight because I have been in maintenance lol. Why when I do cardio should I add half of them? And not when I do weights? Also is it possible to lose more then 1 pound a week even though I set it at 1 pound?

avskk

I suggested logging the cardio and eating some back because it tends to burn more calories than weightlifting, and because "lightly active" is likely to already cover the weightlifting and your job. (And also because weightlifting is very, very, very hard to accurately calculate, so it's better to include it in your daily activity setting than to log it and eat back.) It seems to me that the cardio is a little "extra" beyond the lightly active setting, and thus needs a few more calories to sustain it. If you find that you don't lose weight appropriately doing this -- or that you're losing too fast! -- then, of course, make adjustments!

It is possible to lose more than one pound a week, of course, but it's unlikely and it's not particularly healthy given how little you have to lose. I assume you're lifting weights to keep your lean muscle mass, and losing rapidly when you're already at a healthy weight is very, very likely to eat into your muscle mass (as well as being nutritionally unsound). I know it must be frustrating to be so close to your goal and realize it might take three or four more months to get to it, but believe me, it will be worth it and at the end you'll feel and look much better if you do it healthily.

Sabine_Stroehm

I guess it depends on what you're doing. if you're just "counting calories". Yes, they count. For me, they are a goal to strive toward, rather than a limit, so yeah, mentally, I guess I count them too.

lemurcat12

zfitgal wrote: »

Do you count calorie of vegetables? Example, onions, mushrooms red peppers? Fibrous vegies...

When I am logging (which I am not currently), I do, yes. My goal is to have my food log accurately reflect the calories I am consuming and what I eat, as that's the most educational thing. What would be the point of ignoring calories from vegetables and not being able to see the vegetables you ate? (I eat a lot of vegetables and get lots of calories in total from them, though.)

One reason I personally think it's important to log vegetables is I like to see how easy days differ from hard ones and also see if my nutrition is on point. Can't do this without logging vegetables, and seeing that I'm eating too few would be as (or nearly as) important to me as seeing that I'm eating too many calories.

Also, if you are in the habit of logging, I don't see why adding veg would be harder. I weigh and log when cooking (or jot down everything, anyway), and it's just part of the chopping process. Harder to try to distinguish between things I log and things I don't, although I am more likely to just estimate something like spinach.

lemurcat12

WW has a lower goal because of the free veg and fruit thing, I believe.

zfitgal wrote: »

I'm using a food scale...I don't even know what to out as.my food goal at this pont, I'm about to cry...

Don't overthink it. Put in your stats in MFP and a realistic loss goal (2 lb a week only if you have a lot to lose or are a bigger person) and use that. [Edit, yeah for the last 12 lbs no more than .5-1 lb/week.] Why not?

I workout for an hour a day with heavy weight and twice a week I do cardio...I have a job where I'm on my feet for about 3 hours a day and then I go home to my three year old daughter and I'm up again...please help me

The MFP goal is before exercise. It sounds like with your job and child you are lightly active or active (NOT sedentary). I'd start with lightly active and then see what the results are. Then add in the exercise and take about half of the calories it gives you (you can change the amount so if it says 500 calories you can edit it to 250).

After a few weeks compare results to your goals.

And yes, if you are eating 200+ calories of vegetables (which is good!) then you definitely want to be logging those.

fitoverfortymom

bbell1985 wrote: »

Yes. I stopped eating onions because I got tired of chopping and weighing them.

I buy pre-chopped frozen onions for this reason...or chop a bunch at once and freeze them.

SingRunTing

I count anything with calories. It all adds up.

Weight watchers works it out to give you a lower calorie goal so that you can have those "free" veggies. They're not free, they just take them out of the equation for you ahead of time.

cwolfman13

zfitgal wrote: »

Because every night I make a big pot of vigils I cook them with just spices, but never count them...I'm adding them up and it's over 200 calories? Is that crazy? I was on weight watchers and never counted them...

Yes, when I logged I counted them...I wasn't as anal about it as I was with more calorie dense items and never measured my lettuce down to the gram or anything...but I counted them...I easily eat a couple hundred calories worth of veggies daily.

WW isn't calorie counting...it's a point system...they make veg free to encourage eating your veg but they inflate points elsewhere to balance things out.

cwolfman13

zfitgal wrote: »

Thank u so much! U have been so helpful...my daily target now is set for 1390 a day...I will count my vegetables, it's so weird to me lol. I'm sure the reason I wasn't able to lose weight because I have been in maintenance lol. Why when I do cardio should I add half of them? And not when I do weights? Also is it possible to lose more then 1 pound a week even though I set it at 1 pound?

The whole eat back 1/2 is just arbitrary...personally, I was able to be pretty accurate in dialing in my calories out for various exercises and if I only ate 1/2 I would have been really shorting myself.

It's much easier to estimate calories out for steady state cardio activity because it's basically a matter of mass moved over distance and intensity and various tools have well established algorithms to somewhat accurately determine calories out. Not so much with weight training as there are too many variables...i.e. you're going to burn more calories doing circuit training than you will doing heavy lifts even though you may be doing the same exact exercises.

zfitgal

Thank you for this..I'm very into lifting heavy weights, circuit training I do wants a week and I do a spin...I'm not going to add more cardio because it breaks down my muscle tissue...you guys have been very helpful!

fitoverfortymom

cwolfman13 wrote: »

zfitgal wrote: »

Thank u so much! U have been so helpful...my daily target now is set for 1390 a day...I will count my vegetables, it's so weird to me lol. I'm sure the reason I wasn't able to lose weight because I have been in maintenance lol. Why when I do cardio should I add half of them? And not when I do weights? Also is it possible to lose more then 1 pound a week even though I set it at 1 pound?

The whole eat back 1/2 is just arbitrary...personally, I was able to be pretty accurate in dialing in my calories out for various exercises and if I only ate 1/2 I would have been really shorting myself.

It's much easier to estimate calories out for steady state cardio activity because it's basically a matter of mass moved over distance and intensity and various tools have well established algorithms to somewhat accurately determine calories out. Not so much with weight training as there are too many variables...i.e. you're going to burn more calories doing circuit training than you will doing heavy lifts even though you may be doing the same exact exercises.

I was eating back at least half for about two weeks and my weight loss really slowed. I stopped eating them back and my weight loss resumed to my desired rate. I could probably eat back 1/3 and stay on par, but I keep my exercise calories as a buffer if I have an unplanned meal come up or if I'm feeling exceptionally hungry a day.