Not counting fruit & veges as calories?
jayjay3251
Posts: 13
I know weight watchers points plus considers fruits and veges as free-bees & I think thats great. Thats what I have been doing. However, do you think it will make a difference in my weight loss since I am just counting calories now?
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Replies
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Yes.
Count everything.
This.0 -
Sorry, there's no such thing as a "free" food. I could easily eat 500 calories of fruits and veggies a day, especially if i considered them free and didnt count them. id be popping grapes all day. So, if I'm eating my normal calories, plus 500, I will probably end up at maintenance at best.0
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You need to count everything.0
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Yes, it will make a difference. Fruit calories add up really quickly and the body doesn't treat them any differently than candy bar calories when it comes to energy. I don't know why WW does it that way - I guess they figure people won't eat that much fruit? I can easily down 2 lbs of grapes in a day...that's over 600 calories and you can bet it would impede weight loss if I didn't count it.0
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An average banana is around 100 calories so add that plus other veggies and the calories soon easily add up. If it goes in your mouth track it.0
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Not only do you need to count all fruits & veggies (nothing in life is free, right?), but by counting them, you'll learn what an appropriate portion size is. An apple that's the size of a small pumpkin is actually not one serving. (I hope that's not coming off as snarky - not meaning it to.)0
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yes!0
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If it goes in your mouth... you count it... Wait a minute...0
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I believe there are two reasons weight watchers counts most fruits and veggies as 0 points.
Reason one they are trying to encourage you to choose those as snacks over less "Good for you" foods.
Reason two, they claim that they have included some fruits and vegetables in your points target, so they aren't free so much as pre-paid. I was also told if you find on the WW points plus program you are not losing weight because you tend to over indulge in the fruit department you need to either cut back or talk to someone about assigning them a points value. I'm not in on the formulas they use but that is what I was told when I asked the question.
If you are following mfp, I'd log everything you eat, fruit, vegetable or candy bar
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Count them. WW gives you a much lower calorie count to account for the fact you're supposed to eat a large amount of fruit & veggies.0
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Although WW allows you to eat unlimited fruit and vegetables, the expected calories from them are actually built into your daily points total. So you have that buffer already built in. When calorie counting, you need to count everything including fruit and veges. The calories, especially in fruit, can add up quickly!0
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Yep, count them. Sometimes I don't count my veggies (like baby spinach or other very low calorie vegetables) but that's laziness, and I'm still aware of them when logging everything else.0
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Your body treats fruit quite a bit differently than candy bars, that's not true at all... The fiber helps slow digestion, absorption of nutrients and promotes satiety (feeling full) as well as a much better nutrient microprofile. That being said, you should count the calories into your normal goals but fruits are a great choice, veggies an excellent choice!0
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IMO the dumbest thing WW ever did was make fruits free. The second dumbest was when they switched away from exchanges and went to the point system. The exchange system was so much better and more healthy. It kept your macros in check. With the points,you could eat donuts all day, as long as you had the points! So now, people make huge smoothies out of bananas, or bowls full of yonanas and wonder why they aren't losing weight. Fruits have a lot of calories in them. they are not 'free'.
That said, I don't write down every slice of cucumber I eat, or weigh every piece of lettuce, because the calories there are so low that you can't really overeat on them. Unless you are juicing them. And I can eat a whole lot of cauliflower 'mashed potatoes', so I definitely count those accurately.0 -
I count all fruit, but I don't count green veggies of the leafy and cruciferous type: spinach, kale, broccoli, cabbage, celery, cucumber ... I do count carrots, green beans, and other "starchier"-type vegetables.
Reason being is I never wanted to be in the situation of being close to my daily calorie cap and avoiding green veggies as a result.
The calorie limits I have set for myself I see as "xxx counted calories + zzz green uncounted calories" ... like anything, I watch my results over time: if the scale is moving in the wrong direction, I change my targets.0 -
If it goes in your mouth... you count it... Wait a minute...
hehehehe :laugh:0 -
Yes.
Count everything.
Seconded. You need to count fruit and vegetables. They do contain calories, they contribute towards your macros and many of them are packed with micro-nutrients.
If I didn't count fruit and vegetables - I wouldn't be counting anything at all.0 -
Your body treats fruit quite a bit differently than candy bars, that's not true at all... The fiber helps slow digestion, absorption of nutrients and promotes satiety (feeling full) as well as a much better nutrient microprofile. That being said, you should count the calories into your normal goals but fruits are a great choice, veggies an excellent choice!
Agree. And there is an emerging body of peer-reviewed literature which supports this.0 -
There are calories in fruit sometimes a fair few too. Its much harder to eat 1000 cals of fruit than it is 1000 cals of refined carbs. But it is still possible and possibly why some who eat a ton of fruit on top of there meals arent losing. Green leafy veggies can pretty much be counted as free though very very few cals in those.0
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If it goes in your mouth... you count it... Wait a minute...
That's what I said!0 -
If it goes in your mouth... you count it... Wait a minute...
Ummm....0 -
If it goes in your mouth... you count it... Wait a minute...
Oh, I can think of things I put in my mouth that I won't be posting to MFP...0 -
Yes.
Count everything.
^^0 -
If it goes in your mouth... you count it... Wait a minute...
Oh, I can think of things I put in my mouth that I won't be posting to MFP...
:bigsmile:
lololol0 -
I can eat a whole huge can of tropical fruit cocktail, no problem. It ends up being over 300 calories, so yeah, I count it It's one of my favorite dinners, as a matter of fact (my dinners don't always fit macros because I eat strangely, but I pay attention to them so don't worry).
Fruit is better than candy bars, as folks said above, and an additional reason is that most fruit has a low glycemic profile (another thing about its fiber). I don't mean that as any diet buzzword; I mean it in an insulin metabolism kind of way. Some fruits and even veggies are surprisingly high, so if that interests you, info on glycemic levels of foods are readily available.
Insulin metabolism problems (sub-clinical) do seem to play a role in the US diet (probably because we're big), so I think more folks should pay attention to fruit vs candy bar, etc. But no, fruit isn't free calories to me, either. I get a lot of my calories from it.0 -
Every single thing that goes in your body counts.0
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I know weight watchers points plus considers fruits and veges as free-bees & I think thats great. Thats what I have been doing. However, do you think it will make a difference in my weight loss since I am just counting calories now?
Fruits have a fair amount of sugar in them, so definitely. Most vegetables should be counted, but certain vegetables like broccoli are damn near calorie free. They have a carb value but it's almost 100% fiber which you can actually back-out of the calories. When in doubt, count the calories.0 -
I count all fruit, but I don't count green veggies of the leafy and cruciferous type: spinach, kale, broccoli, cabbage, celery, cucumber ... I do count carrots, green beans, and other "starchier"-type vegetables.
Reason being is I never wanted to be in the situation of being close to my daily calorie cap and avoiding green veggies as a result.
The calorie limits I have set for myself I see as "xxx counted calories + zzz green uncounted calories" ... like anything, I watch my results over time: if the scale is moving in the wrong direction, I change my targets.
This is basically how I work, I only count simple things like that if I am eating a LOT of them, they are usually 10 calories or so a serving anyway so it's unlikely to make much of a difference, and they're SO nutritious that cutting back for the sake of 'saving' calories for more of whatever else I'm eating is a really bad idea.0 -
Weight Watchers has built 5 servings of fruits and vegetables into the formula to calculate points. They are never free they just are pre-counted. You can take in hundreds of calories if you eat a lot of fruit and vegetables. Count it. Your body does.0
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