Should I count veggies and fruits in my daily calorie goal?

OhHon97

I usually eat my set calorie goal for the day but dont count the calories of fruits or veggies (unless its something like a potato or avocado). Is this what most people do?

emmamcgarity

Track all the foods. Everything you eat.

rj0150684

You should only track them if you’re eating or drinking them.

kami3006

If my body counts it, I count it. Some days I have a good 500 calories in vegetables/fruit. There's no way I'm not including that.

malibu927

They have calories, so I track them. Some fruits can be just as high calorie as an avocado.

emmamcgarity

I also really like how MFP includes the nutritional content when I include all the food. It's intriguing to me to see how my food choices affect the data. It has inspired me to make different choices to see different vitamins and minerals that I was lacking change on the nutritional screen. It seems I'm never getting enough potassium and am making a real effort to do so now that I have that data.

100_PROOF_

Definitely count them!
I eat about 1000 CALORIES per day in produce. My body counts it even if I don't. Lol

Just because it's a fruit or vegetable doesn't mean that the calories don't count.

malibu927

emmamcgarity wrote: »

I also really like how MFP includes the nutritional content when I include all the food. It's intriguing to me to see how my food choices affect the data. It has inspired me to make different choices to see different vitamins and minerals that I was lacking change on the nutritional screen. It seems I'm never getting enough potassium and am making a real effort to do so now that I have that data.

You're likely getting enough. Even though it's a required micronutrient on food labels, it isn't regularly reported.

NovusDies

While there are diets out there that consider fruits and vegetables as free food the reality is that anything with calories can decrease or wipe out your deficit. There are certain low calorie vegetables that I don't track precisely but I do make an entry for them.

Not many people track tea at 2 calories per cup or herbs and spices that might add a couple of calories for a serving or per serving in a recipe.

AnnPT77

A light veggie/fruit day for me would be anything under 10 (80g) servings. On a heavy day, 20+ servings isn't unheard of . . . that's hundreds of calories!

Furthermore, even though I know that the MFP database is less complete/accurate with respect to micronutrients, I still like to see those (not to mention the fiber and protein) in my nutritional totals.

Absolutely, I track them.

VUA21

Absolutely!!!! Especially fruit, as there are a lot of fruit that's high in calories.

General rule: if it has calories, track it.

kimny72

My body counts the calories so I do too. Just my banana every morning is 100+ cals, so I probably eat 200-300 cals of fruit and veggies per day, that can wipe out half of a typical 500 cal deficit. Most low cal veggies I will eyeball portions, but yes it all gets logged. I also track my fiber, so it makes sense to log produce to make sure I'm hitting that number too.

Personally, I think part of the benefit of logging is compiling data to learn from over time, and logging everything is necessary for that as well. Ultimately, you have to find the way that works best for you and the right balance for your life.

apullum

If you eat it, you track it.

serindipte

I don't always track all of my veggies. It depends. If I add lettuce and pickles to a sandwich, sometimes I log, sometimes not. Same for cucumbers, celery, and other super low-cal veggies in a small quantity. I know, from having logged every single bite, which ones I can afford to ignore and how much of them. I'm also in a fairly large deficit. As that shrinks and I get closer to goal weight, I'll be less likely to skip any of them.

ETA: I weigh and log all fruit.

nickssweetheart

Obviously your body will count the calories even if you don't. But I also find value in being able to look back through my diary and see what I ate on certain days. Without fruits and veg, that would be a very incomplete picture.

amusedmonkey

This should answer your question. Why do you think potatoes or a couple of cookies are worth logging, but other foods are not?

AnvilHead

Whether you count them or not, your body will.

Momepro

If they have calories, and you are paying attention to the amount of calories you eat, count them. You'd be surprises how even fruits and veggies can add up.

flagrantavidity

I sure do, I can eat 200 calories in a huge salad. I also track seasonings even if they olnly add a couple of cals.

I’m on vacation right now, and still try and track what I eat and often over estimate.

If I don’t track, or attempt to track everything I feel that I’m failing.

rheddmobile

I don't necessarily log the 5 calories of lettuce on my sandwich or a stick of celery, and I don't always weigh vegetables with a low calorie density, but considering I eat about 500 calories a day in fruits and veg, it would be a little self defeating not to log at least a close approximation. One good sized piece of fruit can easily be 100 calories. If you eat the recommended daily allowance of fruit and veg, not logging it would quickly wipe out any deficit you might have.

flagrantavidity

Momepro wrote: »

If they have calories, and you are paying attention to the amount of calories you eat, count them. You'd be surprises how even fruits and veggies can add up.

Agreed. Weigh everything too. I see entries like a “large” banana entered as 90 calories. Every banana that I have is 120-138 grams, which is closer to 130 cals.

tennisdude2004

OhHon97 wrote: »

I usually eat my set calorie goal for the day but dont count the calories of fruits or veggies (unless its something like a potato or avocado). Is this what most people do?

If you are following a calorie counting diet model then definitely count them - they are not free.

CICO!

Lounmoun

I trt to track what I eat including fruits and vegetables. I like to have a record.
I don't stress if I don't log a tiny bit of spinach accurately but vegetables and fruits might add up to quite a few calories.

It is up to you what you want to do. If you are not losing at the rate you expect start logging everything though.

lemurcat12

nickssweetheart wrote: »

Obviously your body will count the calories even if you don't. But I also find value in being able to look back through my diary and see what I ate on certain days. Without fruits and veg, that would be a very incomplete picture.

100% this.

I also found logging useful because I was able to see my diet overall, and I liked thinking of it as a way to make sure I was eating well, getting enough nutrients and a variety of foods, maybe comparing days regarding things like fiber, fat, protein to see what made a difference (and fruits and veg not only supply fiber, but some non starchy veg really add to the protein content). Thinking of logging as just about calories wouldn't have worked as well for me, and I'm another who eats a lot of cals in veg and fruit.

fr33sia12

OhHon97 wrote: »

I usually eat my set calorie goal for the day but dont count the calories of fruits or veggies (unless its something like a potato or avocado). Is this what most people do?

I can't understand why anyone on a calorie counting diet or eating plan wouldn't count calories in certain foods.

cwolfman13

When I tracked, I logged my veg and fruit but I wasn't as precise as I was with other, more calorie dense foods. I typically get 8-10 servings of veg and fruit per day...that's hundreds of calories in produce.

I never bothered logging a bit of lettuce or something on a sandwich, but I logged my big *kitten* salads and such. If I don't have a big salad at lunch, I typically have a 200g serving of broccoli or some other veg...same at dinner. 200 grams of broccoli is around 70 calories...twice per day, that's 140 calories right there not accounted for.

Momepro

When I first started this MFP thing, I was estimating my morning smoothies, which were 100% fruit and vegetables plus water, and a spoonful of greek yogurt sometimes. Obviously that couldn't be too bad, right? I mean how many calories could a big cup of squishy, natural goodness be?
When I got my scale, it turned out it was more than 500 calories, BEFORE adding in the yogurt!

workinonit1956

I have to, I eat l lot of fruits and veggies.

CarvedTones

I wish there was a way to query all the data I have in mfp to find out things like % of my total calories that was fruit (I eat a lot of fruit) and/or highest total fruit calories in a day (probably under 1000, but not way under).

amusedmonkey

CarvedTones wrote: »

I wish there was a way to query all the data I have in mfp to find out things like % of my total calories that was fruit (I eat a lot of fruit) and/or highest total fruit calories in a day (probably under 1000, but not way under).

You can do something similar if you have premium. You can find where most of your calories come from in reports. Most of my calories, interestingly, come from tomatoes. Here is my top entry for the past 90 days:

ceiswyn

I took a quick look at my diary, and just yesterday my fruits and vegetables added up to 320 kcal.

Just because they’re good for you doesn’t mean they don’t contain calories!