Do you track non-starchy vegetables?
theyoginurse
Posts: 82 Member
I am new to MFP from former programs which used to consider non-starchy vegetables a free food or zero-point food, so I never weighed/measured or counted them. Do you track them or follow that kind of “they are free” principle? How has it affected your weight? I know that too much spinach didn’t get me 40lbs overweight!
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Replies
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I have 200-300 calories of non starchy vegetables a day.
If I didn't count them I'd be over eating for my maintenance weight.13 -
I track everything (except herbs and spices)
I eat mountains of non starchy vegetables a day, if I didn't track them I'd eat the calories in other foods, completely wiping out my deficit.
Many people like to track them to see that they're getting enough fibre, or for micronutrients (if the entries selected include them)9 -
Yep. Eating too much of everything made me overweight so therefor, I track everything.7
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Yep, some of them have more carbs/sugars and hence calories than you might guess.
I weighed them all faithfully for over a year, and now tend to eyeball portions of veg I know to be fairly low cal.
But that's a conscious decision because I'm in maintenance/recomp and so being out by 5-10 calories on how much pepper has gone into my dinner isn't a big deal to me right now.3 -
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They have calories so they get tracked8
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I do and would advise anyone to. Even if spinach isn’t the cause of your weight gain and you don’t care about macros at all, you might eventually care and having an accurate log will help you see where you meet goals and where you fall short.4
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I don't stress about the accuracy of how much spinach I eat but I do log it. If it was 30g instead of 40g it probably isn't a big deal.
I am looking at things other than calories and want a more complete record I can look back on.8 -
Absolutely. Too much of the so-called free/zero point food contributed greatly to my 40 lb. weight gain over 10 years. Sure, they are low calories foods but those calories add up.6
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I log them. I do not log herbs and spices.1
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I do and would advise anyone to. Even if spinach isn’t the cause of your weight gain and you don’t care about macros at all, you might eventually care and having an accurate log will help you see where you meet goals and where you fall short.I don't stress about the accuracy of how much spinach I eat but I do log it. If it was 30g instead of 40g it probably isn't a big deal.
I am looking at things other than calories and want a more complete record I can look back on.
I’m with these two. I’ve been logging for over and year and a half, and I love having that data to play with (this may be less of a motivation if you’re not a data nerd). That said, I’m not as particular about it as I am with, say, mayonnaise or nuts.
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That depends. Are you successfully losing weight at a pace you like without tracking them? If you are, then you don't need to change anything until you stop losing. What's your calorie goal? If you are at the minimum allowance and not too close to goal weight you could probably handle not tracking them. Do you eat enough of them to matter? If so, it's best to log them.
Personally, I eat hundreds of calories of nonstarchy carbs per day, so I can't not track them. I've also always been a proponent of tracking everything. I have become more lenient in my later years of dieting, though, because I've come to believe that doing the least possible amount of work and getting the most possible results for the work done is a good strategy if it works even if it involves things that I personally don't see myself doing. Meaning: if you're losing, you have the option to not change anything. If you're slowing down or stalling, you'll know where to look next to troubleshoot (i.e start tracking everything accurately).
If logging everything does not feel cumbersome to you, then developing a solid foundation for good dieting practices, including accurate logging, will always be a great tool, so better start now if you can. It's likely you will need this skill later when you're close to goal and have little wiggle room.4 -
For pieces of fruit or normal portions of vegetables, I log them as a generic 100 calories each, provided that they were steamed or otherwise cooked in a 'light' manner.0
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I want to know how people can eat such a significant amount of calories in leafy greens and still have the ability to over eat other foods? Is the rest of your diet chugging olive oil and eating ice cream?3
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I should have forgotten the peanut butter yesterday. Almost 800 calories gone in peanut butter...more than the veggie lasagna I ate.
But yes, I track fruit and veggies. That tells me things like, if I had eaten enough fruits and veg yesterday, I wouldn't have had room for all the peanut butter.
BTW, 'non starchy' vegetables as I understand it, isn't just leafy greens. I eat butternut squash, cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes, onions, things like that and yes, they can add up.4 -
I want to know how people can eat such a significant amount of calories in leafy greens and still have the ability to over eat other foods? Is the rest of your diet chugging olive oil and eating ice cream?
Not necessarily leafy greens, but I eat 1-3 kg of tomatoes daily not counting other vegetables. Some of us are just big eaters and like vegetables.
ETA: not to mention that cooking certain vegetables shrinks them considerably. A whole head of roasted cauliflower can fit into one bowl and a large bunch of spinach can fit into one cup (one cup of cooked spinach is roughly 40 calories while 1 cup of raw doesn't even make it to 10).3 -
I want to know how people can eat such a significant amount of calories in leafy greens and still have the ability to over eat other foods? Is the rest of your diet chugging olive oil and eating ice cream?
I had a salad for dinner.
300g lettuce.
50g alfalfa
100g celery
100g cucumber
100g capsicum
50g tomato
60g Beetroot
200g pumpkin
75g cabbage
40 pickled onion
Plus
50g avocado
20g Parmesan
2 HB eggs
130g snapper
That was one meal of 3 I ate today. If I didn't log, I'd likely eat even more non-starchy vegetables, putting me over my calorie goal. I have to make an effort to eat less vegetables.9 -
Vegetables have calories, so I track them.2
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amusedmonkey wrote: »I want to know how people can eat such a significant amount of calories in leafy greens and still have the ability to over eat other foods? Is the rest of your diet chugging olive oil and eating ice cream?
Not necessarily leafy greens, but I eat 1-3 kg of tomatoes daily not counting other vegetables. Some of us are just big eaters and like vegetables.
ETA: not to mention that cooking certain vegetables shrinks them considerably. A whole head of roasted cauliflower can fit into one bowl and a large bunch of spinach can fit into one cup (one cup of cooked spinach is roughly 40 calories while 1 cup of raw doesn't even make it to 10).
Seriously? 3 kg of tomatoes a day?1 -
Yes. If it goes in my mouth, I track it. I think it can be a slippery slope, choosing which foods to log. Today it's the spinach, tomorrow it's those broken crackers in the bottom of the bag when I'm getting a snack, and the day after that I'm mainlining mayo. Besides, I like to track other things, like fiber.6
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I want to know how people can eat such a significant amount of calories in leafy greens and still have the ability to over eat other foods? Is the rest of your diet chugging olive oil and eating ice cream?
I became overweight because my hunger signals aren't a good signal of when I've actually had enough to eat. That's why I'm able to eat a lot of non-starchy vegetables and still put away good amounts of starchy vegetables, grains, beans, and yeah . . . sometimes things like olive oil and ice cream.3 -
I track all vegetables. Even if they didn't make a difference in my calories (and for me, they do, I can easily eat 200-300 calories of non-starchy vegetables per day), I'd still want to see how they impacted my nutritional goals (things like fiber, vitamin C, etc).1
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I track them, but I don't weigh - more like a guestimate of what 1 cup is. Unlike meats, cheeses, nuts, etc. my estimations can be off by a pretty wide magnitude before I start to experience a swing of more than 20 cals0
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amusedmonkey wrote: »I want to know how people can eat such a significant amount of calories in leafy greens and still have the ability to over eat other foods? Is the rest of your diet chugging olive oil and eating ice cream?
Not necessarily leafy greens, but I eat 1-3 kg of tomatoes daily not counting other vegetables. Some of us are just big eaters and like vegetables.
ETA: not to mention that cooking certain vegetables shrinks them considerably. A whole head of roasted cauliflower can fit into one bowl and a large bunch of spinach can fit into one cup (one cup of cooked spinach is roughly 40 calories while 1 cup of raw doesn't even make it to 10).
Seriously? 3 kg of tomatoes a day?
Most days it's about 1.5, but yes, I've had days where I ate 3. This has been my go-to grazing snack for as long as I can remember.4 -
Yes! Plus it's nice to know how much you're eating.0
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They make a big portion of my calories of course i track them.
Im not sure why this question keeps being asked. No vegetables arent free they have calories just like everything else, But yes they are worth having even if one considers it a "waste" of calories if they arent free (alot of people) because 1. delicious 2. low calorie for high bulk 3. fiber and nutrients. But no, Not calorie free and therefore yes track them. Should track everything that you eat. Nothing is free -waiting on someone with an extreme example to come prove me wrong
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amusedmonkey wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »I want to know how people can eat such a significant amount of calories in leafy greens and still have the ability to over eat other foods? Is the rest of your diet chugging olive oil and eating ice cream?
Not necessarily leafy greens, but I eat 1-3 kg of tomatoes daily not counting other vegetables. Some of us are just big eaters and like vegetables.
ETA: not to mention that cooking certain vegetables shrinks them considerably. A whole head of roasted cauliflower can fit into one bowl and a large bunch of spinach can fit into one cup (one cup of cooked spinach is roughly 40 calories while 1 cup of raw doesn't even make it to 10).
Seriously? 3 kg of tomatoes a day?
Most days it's about 1.5, but yes, I've had days where I ate 3. This has been my go-to grazing snack for as long as I can remember.
A quick internet search shows tomatoes at about 80 calories per pound. If you eat 3kgs of tomatoes, you're getting something on order of 500+ calories from grazing snacks!1 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »I want to know how people can eat such a significant amount of calories in leafy greens and still have the ability to over eat other foods? Is the rest of your diet chugging olive oil and eating ice cream?
Not necessarily leafy greens, but I eat 1-3 kg of tomatoes daily not counting other vegetables. Some of us are just big eaters and like vegetables.
ETA: not to mention that cooking certain vegetables shrinks them considerably. A whole head of roasted cauliflower can fit into one bowl and a large bunch of spinach can fit into one cup (one cup of cooked spinach is roughly 40 calories while 1 cup of raw doesn't even make it to 10).
Seriously? 3 kg of tomatoes a day?
Most days it's about 1.5, but yes, I've had days where I ate 3. This has been my go-to grazing snack for as long as I can remember.
A quick internet search shows tomatoes at about 80 calories per pound. If you eat 3kgs of tomatoes, you're getting something on order of 500+ calories from grazing snacks!
Yep! This is especially the case during Lent when I can't have anything cooked or with oil, so tomatoes make a significant portion of my calories.4 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »I want to know how people can eat such a significant amount of calories in leafy greens and still have the ability to over eat other foods? Is the rest of your diet chugging olive oil and eating ice cream?
Not necessarily leafy greens, but I eat 1-3 kg of tomatoes daily not counting other vegetables. Some of us are just big eaters and like vegetables.
ETA: not to mention that cooking certain vegetables shrinks them considerably. A whole head of roasted cauliflower can fit into one bowl and a large bunch of spinach can fit into one cup (one cup of cooked spinach is roughly 40 calories while 1 cup of raw doesn't even make it to 10).
Seriously? 3 kg of tomatoes a day?
Most days it's about 1.5, but yes, I've had days where I ate 3. This has been my go-to grazing snack for as long as I can remember.
A quick internet search shows tomatoes at about 80 calories per pound. If you eat 3kgs of tomatoes, you're getting something on order of 500+ calories from grazing snacks!
Yep! This is especially the case during Lent when I can't have anything cooked or with oil, so tomatoes make a significant portion of my calories.
How do you keep the acid from effecting your teeth eating that many? I love tomatoes used to do the same but seems i have super *kitten* genetics when it comes to teeth had to cut out acidic stuff
SO heartbreaking 1
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