Crazy? Not counting fruit and/or vegetables
sugarpeas
Posts: 56 Member
Right now I'm counting nearly everything. However there was a time when I didn't count vegetables or fruit. I wasn't concerned of the vitamins and minerals, only the calories. I lost weight. I know a few other plans use this tactic where fruit and vegetables are unlimited and don't need to be counted even though they both calories...
any thoughts?
any thoughts?
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Replies
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When I'm trying to create a calorie deficit, I find it helpful to count everything with calories, especially since I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables.
My body doesn't consider calories to not count if they come from fruits and vegetables, so I don't either.
I think someone could lose weight not counting them as long as they maintained a deficit. The issue is that if you are trying to pinpoint why you have gained weight or not lost weight, it may be difficult to tell exactly what the issue is. Where if you're counting calories, you'll know if you are meeting your goals much more quickly.0 -
Whether your program is working or not will be revealed on the scale. If you are losing at a good pace for you then it is working.
Personally, I think if you are putting in the effort to log everything else, why not complete it by also including fruits and veggies. That just gives you more information and will allow you to make better decisions about your diet.0 -
Other plans lower your calorie or point goals to allow for this. If you are set on it, I would suggest reviewing your food diary and coming up with an average daily fruit/veggie calorie number. Then reduce your daily goal by that amount.0
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Fruit and vegetables have calories, why would you pick and choose what counts and what does not? If that's the case, I say pizza and ice cream doesn't count, it makes just as much sense as not counting fruit and vegetables.
Rigger0 -
For someone who doesn't eat many of them it's plausible. It would spell disaster for me though because more than 50% of my calories are fruits and vegetables.0
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This topic comes up a lot, mostly from people who used to be Weight Watchers members because, as I understand it, the WW points system considers fruits and vegetables to be "free".
WW did this because its system is a simplified version of calorie counting that basically allots fewer calories to your day, but then allows you to eat unlimited fruits and veggies. It's based on the fact that most people would reach for cookies or chips, and that retraining yourself to reach for fruits and veggies as a snack represents an improvement for most people. It also did this because it was most popular in a pre-internet era when calorie counting was a huge chore, so it was trying to make it as simple as possible.
The thing is, everything has calories. And while it's unlikely that you'll gain weight because you binged on broccoli. if you're going to calorie count, then calorie count. With apps like MFP, it's so easy. I say if it passes my lips, it goes on my hips... hence I log it.
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Weight Watchers + gives you zero points for raw fruit and veggies which works fine for their system. If that is what you want to use and it has been successful in the past then go for it. If you are going to use MFP to track your calorie intake though you should log your fruit and vegetables.0
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Hello!
I struggled with this for a while as well.. at the time I was balancing MFP as well as Weight Watchers (which counts veggies as "0" pts)- so my mentality was- "Welp, guess I dont need to count those calories in MFP then!".. Being vegetarian, fruits and veggies are a majority of my calories in a day...however, I found myself gaining- even with tracking everything else and working out daily.
I stopped using WW, and strictly worked with MFP and counted EVERYTHING.. I mean.. everything.. and the weight began falling off (at a healthy rate!). I suggest counting everything- even the veggies.. they can add up quick!
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I eat pounds of vegetables daily. they make the bulk of my caloric intake. if i didnt count them i could easily go over.0
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Even if you're only worried about calories, and aren't worried about the vitamins and minerals, you absolutely MUST count your fruit and vegetables as well.
Unlimited fruit and veggies can be enough to put you well over your calorie limit (along with the other food you eat), and cause you to gain weight. Not to mention, some vegetables are much higher in calories/starch/carbs etc. For instance, 1 cup of corn is around 140 calories. Unlimited to me would be eating 3 cups as it's my favorite veggie.
Make sure you fit your diet around eating a healthy amount of veggies and fruit, but be sure to count the calories in it if you really want to get to your goal weight.0 -
Corn is a grain, not a vegetable.
But yes, everything has calories, so everything counts.0 -
Ya gotta watch out for fruit. There's typically a lot of sugar in there. I'm a low carber so one of the first things I did was cut out the fruit I was eating, which usually consisted of an apple, a banana, and a grapefruit per day. I've heard that berries are good low carb fruits.0
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If you can lose weight without counting fruits and vegetables and are satisfied with your results, then I suppose it's personal preference whether you want to count them or not. The smaller your calorie deficit, the more important it might be to be as accurate as possible, and if someone is having trouble losing the weight they want and doesn't count their fruits/veggies, then I would suggest they go about that differently.
No one is required to go about counting calories any particular way, but accuracy and consistency tend to yield the best results. Many people starting out also don't realize that some fruits and veggies also pack quite a bit of calories - bananas, for instance. An un-logged banana definitely makes a difference in your daily calorie deficit. But again, it's personal preference. If you're happy with the way things are going without logging everything, then I suppose there's no real need to change. If you're not happy, you might want to change something.
I always count them (especially while I was losing weight) because I don't like to estimate my intake, and I like having a complete picture of my nutrition. 0 -
Ya gotta watch out for fruit. There's typically a lot of sugar in there. I'm a low carber so one of the first things I did was cut out the fruit I was eating, which usually consisted of an apple, a banana, and a grapefruit per day. I've heard that berries are good low carb fruits.
It's not the sugars. It's the calories.0 -
Right now I'm counting nearly everything. However there was a time when I didn't count vegetables or fruit. I wasn't concerned of the vitamins and minerals, only the calories. I lost weight. I know a few other plans use this tactic where fruit and vegetables are unlimited and don't need to be counted even though they both calories...
any thoughts?
These plans start lower than MFP....at least Weight Watchers does. They assume you won't pig out on fruits & veggies. I could do some serious damage (calories wise) with fruit....this wouldn't work for me.0 -
I couldn't do it, but I eat a lot of fruit. Count all the foods.0
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I like to log them, because I am striving to get more of them. I am trying to be more accountable, and writing it down helps me do that. I went from getting sometimes none a day to 3 fruits and 3 veggies each day. I know it may not be perfect, but it's so much better than where I was! Also, as a "less than tall" person (meaning just under 5'!), every calorie counts. I've got to keep my calories at or below 1200 to lose weight, and every bit counts. Not much wiggle room, and so I need to know what's going into my mouth, even the green beans I snack on. I think that if you have a little more room to give when counting calories, it could work, but for me I need to count everything.
Good luck!
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Agree this comes up a lot from WW people. I actually am doing the same right now because I'm not consuming enough vegetables so this is a way to force them in. That being said calories on WW work out to less than MFP because they have those calories allocated. I normally am at 1800 to lose weight on MFP but on WW the calorie count was around 1500 (when you work it out). Basically you may want to "allocate" your average consumption to fruits and veggies and leave your reminder calories for everything else. Just one man's opinion.0
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Especially fruit because you're not only missing those calories but you're not accounting for the sugars. I log everything to a T. Why wouldn't you? If I didn't log my vegetables at the end of the day I'd have a huge deficit (on paper) and would most likely be way over my target.0
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It makes more sense to log, I was just curious if anyone was doing this currently ( only MFP ).
By me logging I realize I need to eat more fruit/veggies instead of whatever the heck else I eat so it helps in that sense as well.0 -
Hmmm does this mean unlimited avocado?? Sign me up!
Seriously though, can you maintain a deficit without counting fruits and veggies? Yes, if you don’t eat much else or that much fruit/veggies. I personally don’t see the point of not tracking them, particularly as some can be pretty high in calories (e.g. peas, bananas, apples). Then again, I don’t eat much fruit… or vegetables.
. I like to weigh everything, especially fruit, and just focus on my macros, especially protein.
It’s really easy to underestimate fruit calories when you’re tracking it (i.e. going by size rather than weight), let alone when you’re not!0 -
Meh...Personally I've always logged fruit and berries, because it does contain a bit calories, but mostly to keep a record of what I've eaten and usually I don't weigh it. As an example the pie I had for lunch today the zucchini, Spinach, and Tomato in it contain around 50 calories, nothing compared to the egg, flour, and butter. So I'll eyeball fruit and berries, I'll be a little more accurate if I eat a lot of it.0
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I did WW to great success (lost 75 lbs on WW online and kept it off for a few years). Your daily points are structured to take into account your veggies. It didn't include avocado or strach veggies. It would not work where you have a calorie goal that didn't take into account a few hundred from veggies the way the WW points allowance does.
Now that I am doing MFP I am counting everything since my calorie goal assumes that I am tracking everything I eat vs when I was on WW and it was assuming I wasn't counting veggies but built it in that I was eating them. My advice don't try to do half of one program and half of the other one (if that is what you were thinking of doing). My weight loss is about the same on MFP as when I did WW online.0 -
I'm not at WW and never have been. I didn't count the veggies/fruit while using MFP when I first started using this system.0
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I did WW to great success (lost 75 lbs on WW online and kept it off for a few years). Your daily points are structured to take into account your veggies. It didn't include avocado or strach veggies. It would not work where you have a calorie goal that didn't take into account a few hundred from veggies the way the WW points allowance does.
Now that I am doing MFP I am counting everything since my calorie goal assumes that I am tracking everything I eat vs when I was on WW and it was assuming I wasn't counting veggies but built it in that I was eating them. My advice don't try to do half of one program and half of the other one (if that is what you were thinking of doing). My weight loss is about the same on MFP as when I did WW online.
Exactly. Look at it like this: a cup of passion fruit and a couple of large bananas and you will undo your whole deficit if you're going for a 500 calorie deficit. I believe the new WW system has 800-1000 base calories? Either way, their base calories are low to account for "free" stuff, and it's assumed that most people don't consume a lot of them anyway.0 -
They're generally lower in calories than other foods. She does count them now, but she was probably wondering why she lost without counting them in the beginning.
OP if you have your calories at 1200, and since you have more than 50 pounds to lose you were likely still at a deficit (didn't eat a lot of fruits and vegetables). That and when you first start dieting you drop a few pounds of water weight, so even if you did eat enough to cancel out your deficit you would have still lost when you switched from eating high starch/sugar to more fiber/water.0 -
Fruits and veg have calories. Programs like WW don't count them as to get people to eat more of them as most veg is pretty low calorie...so it's not likely someone is going to eat enough to blow their targets up. Also, to compensate, WW does inflate the point value of other food items.
Fruit can be calorie dense though and I believe the even WW only allows one serving as "free".
As someone who eats a ton of fruit and veg and pretty healthfully in general, I can attest to the fact that you can still gain weight eating "right"...it still comes down to calories and energy balance.0 -
I'm having 60 g of avocado on my salad later today. Avocado 60g =100 calories. TRACK your fruits and veggies. If it has cals track them.0
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