Calorie counting fruits and veggies

cristareid

I am on a 1200 calorie diet. I am exercising by hiking/walking for 1 hour 30 minutes a day. Except weekends..but may incorporate yoga, or fitness classes.

A big part of my daily food intake are fruits and veggies. For example salad with cucumber, bell peppers, tomato, onion, cabbage, spinach. I also do fruit mixes with breakfast like a cup or two of watermelon, strawberries, and grapes.

I know some veggies and fruits can be high calorie like Avocado for example. I am wondering when I am doing salad and fruit if I should be adding it to my calories? Does anybody else do this?

Usually one cup of each is around 40-60 if I plug it in on here. Thanks!

ccsernica

I don't do salad often, but when I do I log it. Calories are calories, even if they're relatively few. And don't forget the dressing. Depending on how much you use, it might actually contribute most of a salad's calories.

Volume is a very unreliable method for measuring veggies, particularly leafy greens. Find entries that provide information by weight, and weigh what you eat.

kimny72

I log everything. Fruits and more calorie dense veggies I weigh, low cal veggies like leafy greens I eyeball. It's pretty easy to eat 250 cals of fruit & veg and that can be the difference between losing 1 lb per week and only half a lb. Besides I want to hit my fiber goal and some of that comes from produce.

Sophannah2017

I'm same as above, I log everything individually....and I do eat a lot of them, everyday in fact.

Strudders67

I eat salad for lunch almost every day- and I weigh and track. With approx 50g ham as well, my typical lunch is about 150 calories. It all counts.

cristareid

Bummer. I was hoping I could get away with it. I will make sure I log it well. Thank you! Yes I do always measure out the dressing and beans I add to it etc.

RAVERSTACE1983

I count everything all is calorie intake

kimny72

cristareid wrote: »

Bummer. I was hoping I could get away with it. I will make sure I log it well. Thank you! Yes I do always measure out the dressing and beans I add to it etc.

You know, the other thing is that one of the keys to logging successfully is making it a habit. And I think if you log some stuff but not others it's less likely to become a habit.

Once it's a habit, it's just a part of your day and you don't even think about it, like brushing your teeth. Good luck :drinker:

snickerscharlie

cristareid wrote: »

Bummer. I was hoping I could get away with it. I will make sure I log it well. Thank you!

Even if you don't log it, your body will.

malibu927

At 1200 calories, that could cut into a good chunk of your deficit if you aren't counting them. Log everything.

bbell1985

I eat a bag of lettuce/veg two times per day, and add vegetables on top of that. I NEED to log my vegetables. I don't always weigh my greens, by I always log 60 calories for my salad base. Fruit, definitely weigh.

RedheadedPrincess14

I log all of it but I'm less strict with weighing. Like if I have to guess how much lettuce I'm using, I'm not as concerned about guessing with peanut butter or chocolate

Seffell

Fruits are very high calories. A banana is 100cal. Why wouldn't you log them?

jennifer907

I stopped logging most fruits and vegetables. If it's say, a banana or avocado, I would log it, but other than that, I don't. I reached the point where I was hungry, but having an apple would make me "go over" on my calories, and that's just silly to even feel bad about. I've noticed that I'm finally eating a lot more fruits and veg as a result.

livingleanlivingclean

jennifer907 wrote: »

I stopped logging most fruits and vegetables. If it's say, a banana or avocado, I would log it, but other than that, I don't. I reached the point where I was hungry, but having an apple would make me "go over" on my calories, and that's just silly to even feel bad about. I've noticed that I'm finally eating a lot more fruits and veg as a result.

Would you feel bad about going over because you ate some chocolate? Or a piece of bread?

It makes no difference - everything with calories gets logged for me. I eat hundreds of calories of vegies a day fruit a day, I'd be lying to myself if they didn't count in my calorie total.

PAV8888

jennifer907 wrote: »

I stopped logging most fruits and vegetables. If it's say, a banana or avocado, I would log it, but other than that, I don't. I reached the point where I was hungry, but having an apple would make me "go over" on my calories, and that's just silly to even feel bad about. I've noticed that I'm finally eating a lot more fruits and veg as a result.

It is a great thing that you're eating more fruits and vegetables as they are part of a healthier diet.

My concern is with the notion that the calories are somewhat different because one type of food is somehow more desirable than the other.

You will gain or lose weight based on calories regardless of the healthiness of the food. So eating more fruits and vegetables while not logging them is in all likelihood putting you above that 1200.

WHICH IS NOT NECESSARILY A BAD THING.

Because while most items including lettuce, mustard, or even artificial sweeteners have SOME calories when eaten in sufficient quantities, and while all calories do count, still, a goal of 1200 is neither necessary nor appropriate for an appreciable percentage of the people who select it!

LisaEatSleepRun

OP you can easily log it just once then click 'copy from date' & make minor alterations if needed for a new day. Once you have a bunch of recipes & 'go to' meals, logging becomes much simpler. Some days I basically copy everything from the previous day which takes about 1 minute!

Unknown

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Purplebunnysarah

I just log it as 25g (if only a few pieces) or 50g (if many pieces) or 1-2c (if leaves) and call it good. For low cal veggies anyway. I weigh fruit and avocado and potato and such.

Tried30UserNames

My dinner has about 125 calories worth of vegetables in it tonight. I would happily have eaten about 3 times that many, but I'm out of calories. Yes, I log vegetables. A lot of people say they didn't get fat eating too many vegetables. They were certainly a contributing factor in my weight gain.

As for fruit, it has a whole lot of calories. I don't like it so I don't eat it that often, but I definitely log it. A couple pieces of fruit might be 15% of my daily calories.

newheavensearth

To illustrate a point from my double tracking weight watchers "fruit is free and zero" days: I ate my full day of points and went slightly over calories. I decided to have fruit for desert, then more fruit, and more fruit. Zero points, but hundreds of extra calories. I count everything.

Francl27

1200 calories is very low so even those 300-400 calories of fruit and veggies a day are probably still giving you a deficit, but really, isn't it more beneficial to log everything and eat an appropriate amount of calories, so you have a better idea of how much you're actually eating? It's kinda the point of counting calories in the first place.

SafioraLinnea

Everything is logged because all types of calories count. Otherwise what is the point of calorie counting?

earlnabby

cristareid wrote: »

I am on a 1200 calorie diet. I am exercising by hiking/walking for 1 hour 30 minutes a day. Except weekends..but may incorporate yoga, or fitness classes.

A big part of my daily food intake are fruits and veggies. For example salad with cucumber, bell peppers, tomato, onion, cabbage, spinach. I also do fruit mixes with breakfast like a cup or two of watermelon, strawberries, and grapes.

I know some veggies and fruits can be high calorie like Avocado for example. I am wondering when I am doing salad and fruit if I should be adding it to my calories? Does anybody else do this?

Usually one cup of each is around 40-60 if I plug it in on here. Thanks!

Log everything. The one thing I do differently is I eyeball my leafy greens. Everything else gets weighed or measured.

cee134

I bet 1200 is too low for you as being too aggressive with weight loss can work against you.

phickman07

If you are an X weight watcher as I am, I can understand why you would ask do you log fruits and veggies. WW when I was a member didn't count most fruits and vegetables, probably because they were trying to get you to eat more fruits and veg. and some people would skip the fruits and veg. because they wanted to save the calories, not a good idea. I am sure WW compensated for it some way hidden in there point program. Now I am logging everything.

kshama2001

Few questions:

1. How tall are you? Only really short women actually need as low as 1200 calories to lose weight.
2. What percentage of the calories you earned from walking do you eat back?
3. How many pounds do you need to lose in order to reach your goal weight?

To use this app correctly, set a weekly weight goal appropriate for the weight you have to lose and learn what percentage of your exercise calories you should eat back. You will almost certainly get more than 1200 calories. And then do log your fruits and vegetables.

BanksyTime

Agree with the above posters -- I log everything. Helps keep me accountable

hesn92

Yes log everything. This may be bad advice but just so you know I'm saying this as someone who is ok not being super accurate and ok with losing weight at a slower rate... Sometimes I just measure and weigh things once and then the other days of the week where I eat the same thing, I just guestimate when I'm putting it on my plate. To make it easier on myself. Weighing and measuring everything each and every time is very time consuming... At least for me it is. Maybe these other people are doing something I don't know.

PrincessMel72

Log it all!

estherdragonbat

At home, I weigh log mostly everything. But if I'm mindlessly/less mindfully nibbling veggies, maybe not.

Example: I was at someone's house Saturday evening for a gathering with a guest speaker. She served light refreshments: bread, fruit, baked goods, veggies with hummus, and some tortilla chips and already-dressed/mayo-coated salads. I put some raw veggies on my plate with about a tablespoon of hummus, went back for more veggies to finish up some leftover hummus on my plate, and then grabbed some fruit. I logged the hummus, not the fruits and veggies. I couldn't weigh anything because... not my home. Also, calories were slight. Plus I walked to the event and home, which meant 40 minutes exercise and that wasn't the only walking I did that day. And I usually eat back half my exercise calories to give myself a buffer for "Maybe I didn't eyeball my portions accurately; 'Leisurely pace'=2.5 mph. Maybe I went 2.3? Maybe I went 2.9? Was I consistent throughout?"

End of the day, as accurate as I try to be, I'm not going to obsess over whether I ate 125 grams of cucumber instead of 80. I'm just going to figure that it's not an exact science, I'm doing pretty well, and so long as the weight is coming off, I don't need to be perfect.

If I ever hit a serious plateau (e.g. over a month), I know there are some spots I can tighten up if I have to.