Do you log your veggies?

Sweetredpoison
Sweetredpoison Posts: 66 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Do you log the 3 slivers of red onion in your garden salad? How about the 1 carrot you eat with hummus? The lemon wedge in your water?
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Replies

  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
    Sometimes
    Yes
    No
  • Kakeslyn
    Kakeslyn Posts: 129 Member
    I do. It all adds up and it helps to build the habit of logging faithfully and accurately. :smile:

    edit: in my personal experience
  • Lelah77
    Lelah77 Posts: 177 Member
    Often, yes. It looks ridiculous when you look at my food diary and each veggie in my salad is itemized, but those calories DO add up.

    Sometimes, in the interest of time (and sanity) I lump sum based on past salad configurations and "quick add" or add a complete measurement (1 cup veggies) as the highest carb/calorie ingredient (say, 1 c. carrots instead of 1/4 c. tomatoes, 1/4 c. cucumbers, 1/4 c. carrots, 1/8 c onion, 1/8 c. radish).

    Do what works for you, but also be aware of how close you come to your daily totals. If you normally have 100-200 cals to play with, you might skip itemizing your veggies. If you are squeaking up to (or past) your limit, itemizing is probably the way to go.

    Good luck!!!
  • Sweetredpoison
    Sweetredpoison Posts: 66 Member
    Consensus is personal preference i guess. Maybe one day i'll be able to eyeball measurements.:ohwell:
  • ShannonS921
    ShannonS921 Posts: 194
    I try my hardest to log EVERYTHING. Otherwise, I get in the habit of just skipping the "smaller" stuff....but that smaller stuff adds up fast.
  • ChildrenCryinNCoffee
    ChildrenCryinNCoffee Posts: 477 Member
    Yes. I even log Calorie-free/Salt-free seasonings.

    This website was created for a specific purpose and reasoning.

    Therefore, I use it as it's supposed to be used and I log EVERYTHING.
  • FatFreeFrolicking
    FatFreeFrolicking Posts: 4,252 Member
    Yes. I log everything.
  • asia1967
    asia1967 Posts: 707 Member
    Often, yes. It looks ridiculous when you look at my food diary and each veggie in my salad is itemized, but those calories DO add up.

    ^ This +1
  • libbydoodle11
    libbydoodle11 Posts: 1,351 Member
    I usually eat more than a sliver of onion. My servings tend to start at 1/4 c so I log my veggies.
  • shai74
    shai74 Posts: 512 Member
    I do because I track carbs not calories, and it's easy to go over with vegetables. I used to just make a couple of custom entries though to re-use like

    "Garden Salad Small" which would be for any side salad like with a steak or something. 30 cals, and 3g Carbs

    or you could have

    "Salad - sandwich serve" and just work out the cals the one time, then reuse it in your diary.
  • mariluny
    mariluny Posts: 428 Member
    I don't add up empty and free calorie item like tea and coffee, but i log veggies, herbs and spices, etc... at the end of day i do eat 100 cals of those by 3 or 4 cals increments.
  • DeeJayShank
    DeeJayShank Posts: 92 Member
    No. I usually don't log things that are less than 25 calories.

    But I also don't log exercise.

    It is a compromise I have found balances out in the long term and saves me logging time.

    I would only recommend this strategy if you have already reached maintenance.

    YMMV.
  • baconslave
    baconslave Posts: 7,018 Member
    If you bite it, write it. Someone said that to me once. Goofy, but wise. A little fudging here and there will multiply like rabbits eventually. It's best to keep good habits.
  • DeeJayShank
    DeeJayShank Posts: 92 Member
    If you have the time, great... Log it. I find logging zero calorie items to be an inefficient use of my time. I work 12 hours days and have two kids under three (like many of us) so my circumstances call for any shortcut I can muster that doesn't Measurably affect my results.

    Wish I had time to track oregano and iced tea, because it would be interesting to know. More data is nice to have.

    But I have found that skipping zero cal items doesn't affect my results, so I skip them.

    But I would never say logging them is a bad idea... Never.
  • beautifuldisasta
    beautifuldisasta Posts: 89 Member
    Yep I log it! :)
  • wrkowt70
    wrkowt70 Posts: 24 Member
    Heck yeah you dew
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    If a whole lemon gets used in a week for those waters, 1 day gets a lemon logged.
    If one carrot a day with what ends up being a decent amount of ranch dressing over so many days, added on to 1 day, or the day I eat 2 servings, I'll go shy by however many I already had, but log the 2 servings.
    So each day may not be super accurate, but the week is. And those total entries fall on different days, so balance is obtained.
  • Ph1shing
    Ph1shing Posts: 1 Member
    I don't. No one ever got fat because they ate too many vegetables and no one is not losing weight for eating too many veggies.

    A MAJOR pet peeve of mine is when someone says they can only eat one handful of carrots or celery because it's too many calories. Believe me. Eat at much celery, broccoli, onion, and carrots as you want. That's not the problem if you're not losing weight.
  • Aemely
    Aemely Posts: 694 Member
    No, I don't log 3 slivers of onion; I take them off (hate raw onions). If I'm eating out, I don't count the number of carrot slices or the amount of lettuce in my salad. I cannot imagine the OCD'ness of counting veggies in a restaurant salad. Egad. I'll just round up to account for roughly whatever ingredients I see.

    I don't log the juice from a lemon (in fact, those are gross, so I toss them). Microbes are everywhere, but I don't really like the idea of unwashed lemon rinds in my water. Please don't read the scary anti-lemon-wedge article if you're a germaphobe. :laugh:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/27/lemon-germs-wedges-restaurants_n_4659168.html
  • heybrodudeman
    heybrodudeman Posts: 9 Member
    Yes, I log veggies (most of what I eat anyway), so I can track cals, fiber, and potassium for the potassium-sodium ratio knowledge.
  • Aemely
    Aemely Posts: 694 Member
    I don't add up empty and free calorie item like tea and coffee, but i log veggies, herbs and spices, etc... at the end of day i do eat 100 cals of those by 3 or 4 cals increments.

    Logging spices is a recipe for me quitting MFP. I'm still losing weight without logging my liberal use of black pepper.

    I don't normally log herbal tea, but I log coffee b/c I like seeing how much caffeine I'm ingesting. :drinker:
  • casiobarnes
    casiobarnes Posts: 78 Member
    I log absolutely everything (except spices, even though I know they can add calories AND sodium. It's just a choice I made). I also frequently use the recipe builder. Weighing and logging are second nature now and hardly take any additional time.
  • El_Cunado
    El_Cunado Posts: 359 Member
    Yes, I log all veggies.
  • jdhcm2006
    jdhcm2006 Posts: 2,254 Member
    I log everything, except seasoning and water. I log gum, condiments, half a strawberry. Small stuff adds up quick, and it can very well throw you over your calorie limit. The goal is to eat as close to the calories that MFP or TDEE tells you to. If you forget or don't log that serving of ketchup, then you could very well go over your calorie limit.
  • shireeniebeanie
    shireeniebeanie Posts: 293 Member
    I'm not logging a few calories of cucumber unless it's at least 1/2 cup, enough to count as one of my veggie servings for the day.
  • JazzFischer1989
    JazzFischer1989 Posts: 531 Member
    I do if it's convenient. The "myfitnesspal" app sometimes freezes up or takes a long time to load on my phone so when that happens, I'll ask myself how much I care that I didn't log a few slices of cucumber or even a couple of potato chips.
  • jillxmadelynne
    jillxmadelynne Posts: 75
    Absolutely! I do it for several reasons-
    A- veggies have calories
    B- I am working on increasing my fiber and potassium intake. I couldn't even come near those goals without veggies
    C- It's really fulfilling to look back at your day and see how well you did with eating healthy food
    I agree with the log everything comments. This site was designed to log everything, good and bad to see where you did well and where you can improve. Veggies should be a decent portion of what you are eating, so how can you have an accurate account if you don't log them? Also, logging everything really reinforces the habit. In all honesty, there are two things I am AWFUL at logging. I drink a lot of water and really can't run to the computer every time I drink a cup. Second, I REALLY need to get better at logging cayenne pepper and black pepper. I never seem to be on top of that. So yes, I need to take my own advice. Otherwise I log everything.
  • aburley
    aburley Posts: 161 Member
    yes I log veggies. I like to know whats counting towards my macros, and I try to makes sure to hit my fiber goal, and logging veggies helps with that!
  • LainMac
    LainMac Posts: 412 Member
    I log veggies because I track my fiber. I don't log low impact stuff like mustard.
  • fabnine
    fabnine Posts: 379 Member
    I was curious- so...
    If the slivers of onions weigh 2g, that's 1cal.
    A 3oz carrot is about 35cal, with 1oz of hummus add another 75cal.
    The lemon wedge in your water is probably only 2cal.
    Together that's over 100 calories.

    The little stuff adds up.

    I just realized some of my vitamins have calories. One Fish oil capsule has 25cal.

    Do I always remember to log every single thing that goes into my mouth? No

    Should you? It's your food, your log, your body- it's your choice.

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