Are we logging fruit and veg or not? 😂

lisastephen_

I know there are pros and cons to both sides, and I know what I was told to do in the past, however I want to know what everyone’s opinions are.

Can I just say I am talking like a sensible amount of veg with each meal or an apple a day, not snacking on about 40 different fruits and then having a fruit smoothie - I would obviously log that 😂

nossmf

I log it, but if the day ends and I'm over by an amount equal to the fruit/veg, I don't freak out. The high nutritional value more than compensates the calories consumed...if it's the fruit/veg alone. If I'm dunking in ranch, smothering in melted cheese, or sautéing in butter, that needs to be added.

tomcustombuilder

Some yes some no. The yesses would be things like potatoes and bananas and most fruits. The no's are things like broccoli. That's just me though. Some people count everything but that can be too tedious. I usually add another 100 calories a day to compensate for the little minor things I don't log

Chaimfonseca95

I log the fruits, but not the vegetables. It can be incredibly tedious, but counting calories is worth it in the end. It becomes a habit, and every time I’ve gotten my six pack was when I counted them.

lisastephen_

tomcustombuilder wrote: »

Some yes some no. The yesses would be things like potatoes and bananas and most fruits. The no's are things like broccoli. That's just me though. Some people count everything but that can be too tedious. I usually add another 100 calories a day to compensate for the little minor things I don't log

I think I’m probably the same as you. Like mash potato I would log, but broccoli and onions or an apple and a handful of grapes as my only fruit for the day I’m not bothering with.

lisastephen_

Chaimfonseca95 wrote: »

I log the fruits, but not the vegetables. It can be incredibly tedious, but counting calories is worth it in the end. It becomes a habit, and every time I’ve gotten my six pack was when I counted them.

Thankfully I don’t really enjoy/like fruit 😂 I only eat an apple and a handful of grapes a day just to be able to say I eat some kind of fruit haha.

lisastephen_

nossmf wrote: »

I log it, but if the day ends and I'm over by an amount equal to the fruit/veg, I don't freak out. The high nutritional value more than compensates the calories consumed...if it's the fruit/veg alone. If I'm dunking in ranch, smothering in melted cheese, or sautéing in butter, that needs to be added.

I really want something dunked in ranch that’s smothered in melted cheese and it’s been sautéed in butter now 😂🤦🏼‍♀️

Skyler103

I'm logging everything. Ive gotten off track in the past, and it helps to be able to look back at what I was eating when I was doing well losing weight.

Lietchi

I log everything:
- except the 'crunchy water' type vegetables (lettuce, cucumber)
- except some mixed raw veggies (I'll log the total amount under one type of veg instead of the different components)

Not logging fruit or veg is a big margin of error for me, I eat a lot of them.

lynn_glenmont

Pretty much everything. If it's just a little lettuce, tomato, and onion on a burger or sandwich, I probably won't bother. If I'm grazing on some crudite or a bit of grilled asparagus or zucchini at a buffet, I'll probably log something, but I may just pick one of the veg and double my estimate for that one.

AnnPT77

I log everything. When I was losing, I wanted to have as good a record of calorie intake and expenditure as I could manage . . . and that was an extremely useful thing, because it turned out that my calorie needs were dramatically different from what MFP estimated (like 25-30% off). That's unusual, but it can happen. Because I had pretty complete data, I figured that out readily, and loss after that was very predictable. (I could fine-tune my loss rate or maintenance pretty easily.)

I also log fruits and veggies because:

* I eat a lot of them (800g + most days, so hundreds of calories in total)
* It takes less mental bandwidth for me if I just log everything on autopilot rather than thinking "is this important enough to log?" - if it were a decision, I'd goof up and forget to log bigger things more often
* I'm interested in my overall nutrient intake, not just calories, and the fruits/veggies bring a lot of nutrition - macros as well as micros

YMMV on any/all of that.

pbbananacoffeechocolate

Yes - I track everything that I eat. If I didn't track fruit and vegetables, my macros would be completely off. If you are eating the recommended servings of fruit and veg, you are eating at least 200-400 calories, depending on the types (i.e. berries vs bananas, broccoli vs. sweet potato). If you're not eating at least the minimum recommended servings, then I think it's worth making an effort to increase consumption.

COGypsy

I'm not really crazy about fruits and vegetables, but even I eat 200 - 300 calories of them a day. A 250 calorie daily deficit typically leads to half a pound of weight loss a week, so yeah...I count the produce!

springlering62

COGypsy wrote: »

I'm not really crazy about fruits and vegetables, but even I eat 200 - 300 calories of them a day. A 250 calorie daily deficit typically leads to half a pound of weight loss a week, so yeah...I count the produce!

She said it better (and probably shorter 😂) than I could.

And back to add..,. It’s kinda like when I was going through a gallon of skim milk every couple of days. In my fuzzy head it didn’t count…cuz…skim, right?

Well a gallon is 1280 calories.

🤦🏻‍♀️

cwolfman13

I haven't logged regularly in years, but when I did I logged my fruit...not that I ate a bunch, but a medium sized apple is around 100 calories...same with a banana or really a serving of most fruits other than berries. That said, I never bothered weighing my fruit really...I just used entries like medium apple or whatever, but I logged something.

I logged most veg as well, but again not worried about being meticulous to the gram or anything. For garden salads I built a recipe in the recipe builder that had everything weighed out and I just used that anytime I had a garden salad but I wasn't really concerned that it didn't exactly match the recipe I built...it was good enough.

Your mileage may vary...some things can be pretty small and insignificant while other things like having an apple and a handful of grapes would probably add up to 150-200 calories...and whether or not that is statistically significant to you would also come down to the size of your deficit and precision in other areas of logging. A smaller deficit requires more precision because there's less wiggle room for error...also, your calorie target matters. I have a relatively substantial calorie budget even to lose one pound per week...little things here and there are for the most part immaterial to my actual target...my wife on the other hand has a much smaller calorie budget to work with and some of those things that are immaterial to me are very much material to her.

In the end it comes down to whether you're achieving your weight management goals. If you're "doing everything right" and not losing weight, it's likely that those little things are more material to your goals than you realized.

kshama2001

I get not logging on WW, where some foods are free and your point budget is designed accordingly.

Here in MFP, I log everything. I log lettuce and broccoli to encourage me to eat MORE of it. For example, I shoot for 30 g of lettuce on a sandwich and previously probably used closer to 10 g. I'm eating more broccoli since I started logging as well.

sollyn23l2

kshama2001 wrote: »

I get not logging on WW, where some foods are free and your point budget is designed accordingly.

Here in MFP, I log everything. I log lettuce and broccoli to encourage me to eat MORE of it. For example, I shoot for 30 g of lettuce on a sandwich and previously probably used closer to 10 g. I'm eating more broccoli since I started logging as well.

I do the same thing... I log it to challenge myself to eat more fruits and veggies, so that it stares me in the face if I haven't eaten any veg on a given day.

AnnPT77

kshama2001 wrote: »

I get not logging on WW, where some foods are free and your point budget is designed accordingly.

Here in MFP, I log everything. I log lettuce and broccoli to encourage me to eat MORE of it. For example, I shoot for 30 g of lettuce on a sandwich and previously probably used closer to 10 g. I'm eating more broccoli since I started logging as well.

Good point. No way I could have an "800g of veggies and fruits daily" goal - and mean it - if I didn't log them.

PAPYRUS3

I eat a lot of veggies (some fruit) each day. Since it's the majority of my meals, I most definitely log it! I log everything though.

Pdc654

I log everything. It's even more important now that I'm in maintenance and dialing in my maintenance calories. I know I'd be gaining weight if I didn't log the 200-300 calories of fruit and vegetables a day. I also I'm paying a lot more attention to my macros now. Before weight loss I hardly ever ate a lot of fruits and veggies. Now I'm making a point of eating them daily and trying to choose the more nutritious ones. I'm making salads with vegetables I never thought I would eat and I am finding I don't hate them. I never thought I would purposely add cucumber, tomatoes, or avocado to my salads, or make salads using raw spinach either, but I am now. Logging everything not only helped me lose 115 lbs but it's now helping me ensure what I am eating is also nutritious.

Athijade

I may not log something like a slice of tomato or some lettuce on a sandwich, but I log all other fruits and vegetables. The reason I skip the teeny tiny things is due to a history of obsession and anxiety when it comes to food and logging. So for me it is a balance of mental and physical health.

decadentrue

I log everything, including gum. Helps me stay on track... If I didn't log, I'd prob be anxious and wonder if I'm still within my calorie limit. But I definitely get not feeling compelled to record veggies, they're typically really low cal.

SafariGalNYC

I’m and fruit and veggie enthusiast … I log them.. if I didn’t I would be missing a large portion of calories.