You can't have my.......

gloryrest

Veggies, Veggies, Veggies, Veggies!!!!!!!!!! I'm having flashback thoughts to my Weight Watchers days years ago. Veggies were a free food item. Here when I record, I lose my calories. This is what I'm thinking. ...

Question: What do you think about not recording fresh/and or cooked veggies (alone)?

Qarol

I don't think there's such a thing as free food. I did WW in high school, and for a salad, they told me I didn't have to count the dressing if I dipped my bite into the dressing (as opposed to pouring it over). Whatever. I could seriously get some dressing on that bite if I dipped enough.

melaniecheeks

They're not going to be a huge amount of calories unless you slather them in butter or similar.

So a) why not record them, they're not going to impact greatly on your daily calorie total, and you may as well get credit for the good stuff. I don't know if you're monitoring carbs or fibre, but there's plenty of those in your veggies.

or b) nah, dont bother recording them if it's too much hassle. But if you find you're not losing weight your diary will be an incomplete record for review purposes.

Lesliecs

It just makes sense to me that anything that has calories should be counted to give you true view of what calories you are eating. I log everything I put in my mouth, including my vitamin supplements if they have calories (which, unfortunately, they do!). I, too, used to do WW and even though what they do is very similar to MFP, they have their own little rules.

But do what works for you! It's really your choice.

kennethmgreen

I don't think there's such a thing as free food. I did WW in high school, and for a salad, they told me I didn't have to count the dressing if I dipped my bite into the dressing (as opposed to pouring it over). Whatever. I could seriously get some dressing on that bite if I dipped enough.

There lies some wisdom in there. More often than not, I think we know what we need to do. We'll look for excuses or find someone or some article (it's on the Internet!) to agree with what we really want to do, and then feel justified for doing it.

Not pointing fingers or laying blame, just describing general characteristics I see in myself and others. In regard to the original question, the answer is up to you. How accurately do you want to track your calories? There is a huge range there, going all the way up to people who meticulously weight every gram of food and wear a HRM all the time. I'm guessing they get pretty accurate numbers.

Seems like most on here want a pretty good idea of caloric intake and expenditure and try to keep things reasonably accurate. I don't know what your calorie needs are, or what your calorie goals are. But there are calories in vegetables. If you want a more accurate calorie count, enter them.

RhonndaJ

Here when I record, I lose my calories.

Personally, I'd record them and fix this way of thinking. When you record food, you are not 'losing' calories. You're 'using' them. Big difference.

What might make some sense would be to record your vegetables for a few weeks, figure out what your usual intake of calories in veg is, and then just work on keeping your other calories under your net-veggie number, that way you wouldn't see the number that seems to be bothering you.

Still, I'm of the 'log everything you eat' school.

squeak1989

MFP works on the basis of recording everything you eat. The way I think about is that all foods have calories, doesn't matter if that food is considered healthy for you or unhealthy. The chances are the vegetables you eat over the course of the day probably do build up to an amount of calories worth recording even if you don't think they do for one meal.

If you're worried that recording them is taking away a noticeable amount of your daily allowance doesn't that show you that they are worth recording.

I can't really speak from personal experience as being a vegan I eat alot of veggies and when I was on WW I'd be as much as half under my points values while eating 1200cals.

Qarol

We'll look for excuses or find someone or some article (it's on the Internet!) to agree with what we really want to do, and then feel justified for doing it.

But if I read it on the internetz, it must be true!

pa_jorg

Yes, log everything. You will start to see patterns in what you eat that might actually be very helpful for you.

bcattoes

I don't log ALL veggies, for example if I had 1 jalapeno or 2 scallions or something small and low cal like that to a recipe I might skip it, especially if the recipe has 20 other ingredients I need to enter. But some veggies, such a potatoes, Brussel sprouts, beans, etc., have quite a few calories so I would definitely log those.

tattooedtwiin

okay, Im a vegetarian, I shouldn't record all the veggies I eat? I don't get why you WOULDN'T record them. <sigh>

Maggie_Pie1

It depends on the veggie. If it's lettuce or cucumber or celery, which has almost no calories, I don't bother usually. If it's squash or carrots, I record because they tend to have a bit more calories. It's a judgement call.

_gwen

Personally, I'd record them and fix this way of thinking.

If you are concerned about meeting your nutritional macro goals you need to log all of your food. If you track your fiber intake, it is especially important to include those extremely low calorie foods like cucumber or celery.

shelbygeorge29

I've been logging all my veggies, and have been surprised by the protein and calcium in things like broccoli and celery. I track my fiber so calculating veggies is important. Plus I can consume close to 200 calories from vegetables in a day, that's an extra 1400 calories a week, which works out to an extra 5600 calories a month.

AlsDonkBoxSquat

Veggies, Veggies, Veggies, Veggies!!!!!!!!!! I'm having flashback thoughts to my Weight Watchers days years ago. Veggies were a free food item. Here when I record, I lose my calories. This is what I'm thinking. ...

Question: What do you think about not recording fresh/and or cooked veggies (alone)?

I think if you want to do WW you should do WW, but if you want to do mpf you should do mpf. In that world you work on points, in this world you work on calories and a calorie is a calories no matter where it comes from (even though all calories are not created equal in my opinion).

kennethmgreen

Here when I record, I lose my calories.

Personally, I'd record them and fix this way of thinking. When you record food, you are not 'losing' calories. You're 'using' them. Big difference.

Great point. I think word choice is important and affects how we think about stuff.

gloryrest

Ok, Thanks everyone. I will continue to record my veggies