Do you include/count calories from fruits &a veggies?
alexiam1493
Posts: 2 Member
Hey all I am trying to lose weight. I was part of weight watchers, which was working, but then I fell off the wagon and I'm trying the calorie counting approach. In weight watchers I was allowed to eat as many fruits & veggies and they were "0 points" so I'm wondering, how important is it to count fruits and veggie calories in this method (My fitness pal)?
Thanks!
Thanks!
3
Replies
-
They have calories, so count them. I count anything above ~20 calories (can't be bothered below that) and can easily eat a lot more than that in fruit and veggies.16
-
fruits and veggies have calories. they count. of course you track them. Especially fruits but even some veggies are high calories. Doesnt matter to your body, Calorie is a calorie11
-
Everything that goes in my mouth gets counted and logged, even if it has zero calories.27
-
Buy a food scale. Weigh everything. Even vegetables and fruit have calories. Some are very calorie dense, some are not but it is better to be accurate. Eating a whole bag of baby carrots is still calories consumed and isn't a pass because it's a veggie.17
-
Your body will count the calories, so why wouldn't you?
It's easy for some people to eat hundreds of calories of fruits and vegetables per day. That would be enough to wipe out some deficits.24 -
alexiam1493 wrote: »Hey all I am trying to lose weight. I was part of weight watchers, which was working, but then I fell off the wagon and I'm trying the calorie counting approach. In weight watchers I was allowed to eat as many fruits & veggies and they were "0 points" so I'm wondering, how important is it to count fruits and veggie calories in this method (My fitness pal)?
Thanks!
Your WW goal was set with the idea that you would be eating a certain amount of calories in veg/fruit. Your MFP goal is not, so you need to eat them.13 -
I'm 5'2". I count veggies, but especially fruits. One banana can be almost 100 calories. Mangos are 100 cal per 100 gm. You don't want to leave anything uncounted or you'll be sabotaging yourself.14
-
Points do not translate to calories. With WW, they inflate the points of other food items to compensate for "free foods"...with calorie counting, you're using a direct relationship...fruits and veggies have calories...fruit in particular can be pretty high in calories.
When I counted calories, I wasn't worried about being super precise with my veggies, but I still counted them. I was typically pretty precise with my fruit. I typically eat around 300 calories worth of produce daily. If I didn't count that and ate to my calorie target with other food then I would actually be about 300 calories over my target which would have pretty much nullified my 500 calorie deficit.12 -
alexiam1493 wrote: »Hey all I am trying to lose weight. I was part of weight watchers, which was working, but then I fell off the wagon and I'm trying the calorie counting approach. In weight watchers I was allowed to eat as many fruits & veggies and they were "0 points" so I'm wondering, how important is it to count fruits and veggie calories in this method (My fitness pal)?
Thanks!
Your WW goal was set with the idea that you would be eating a certain amount of calories in veg/fruit. Your MFP goal is not, so you need to eat them.
This^
WW starts at a lower calorie value, MFP does not. If you don't include fruits & veggies on MFP you are going to be eating more than you think you are.4 -
Fruit yes, veggies usually no. It's not worth the effort to log 7 calories of spinach (which is a whole salad's worth).11
-
This content has been removed.
-
This content has been removed.
-
Ericnutrition wrote: »So if you make a normal-sized salad with five ingredients (say lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrots, onions), do you really want to spend the time to weigh each item? I doubt it.
Weighing lettuce indicates an unhealthy compulsion. Enjoy life!
It only takes a few seconds to weigh each item. I can understand why someone might decide they don't want to weigh vegetables, but I think it's silly to treat something as a sign of illness unless it's truly disordered or harmful behavior.
25 -
This content has been removed.
-
Ericnutrition wrote: »So if you make a normal-sized salad with five ingredients (say lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrots, onions), do you really want to spend the time to weigh each item? I doubt it.
Weighing lettuce indicates an unhealthy compulsion. Enjoy life!
It doesn't take much time. Put plate on scale, "tare" it. Put on lettuce, write down weight, tare it. Put on tomato, write down weight, tare.... etc. But I'd probably one weight the tomato and the carrots. The others would be in the single digits.10 -
The friend that introduced me to MFP would make a 'salad' for dinner every night. He would weigh out a bowl of lettuce, then pour dressing on a plate a weigh it. He would dip each leaf into the dressing individually, for "maximum control".
I have to say, it was pretty funny to watch.9 -
Dressing is a pain. But after doing it a bunch I have gotten really good at eyeballing a perfect 30g serving of the Bolthouse dressings. The last few times I've hit it +/- 1g on the first shot.9
-
Ericnutrition wrote: »So if you make a normal-sized salad with five ingredients (say lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrots, onions), do you really want to spend the time to weigh each item? I doubt it.
Weighing lettuce indicates an unhealthy compulsion. Enjoy life!
Oh yeah - the 23 seconds it takes to weigh and log a salad is completely taking over my life. Stop the madness. Really?? It takes literally seconds - hardly a compulsion to be concerned about. Statements like that are just excuses. If you don't want to weigh your food then don't but making a disorder out of a few seconds of logging is ridiculous.
And to the OP - of course you count fruits and veggies - they have calories. Some have a lot of calories - especially fruits. WW sets your base very low to account for this. MFP gives your calories as a whole - so if you eat multiple fruits and veggies on top of it you'll likely wipe out your deficit.25 -
Vegetables, last I checked, contain calories. So log it. Since you are new it is probably a good idea to get into the habit. Log everything. If you go to a movie and decide to drink a 32oz cup of popcorn butter, log it. If you are driving home from work tonight and encounter a dead raccoon on the side of the road and decide to eat it, LOG IT!
You can eyeball things when you have some more experience and get further along in the process.14 -
Ericnutrition wrote: »So if you make a normal-sized salad with five ingredients (say lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrots, onions), do you really want to spend the time to weigh each item? I doubt it.
Weighing lettuce indicates an unhealthy compulsion. Enjoy life!
There's a lot in life I don't want to do but if I want to achieve a certain goal I do it.
I have a "mixed vegetable" entry that I've created that I use for most vegetable salad ingredients.
Also, weighing vegetables takes no more time than weighing other ingredients. I don't see why it would be considered laborious to make a salad this way any more than it would be to make another food while weighing ingredients.10 -
Ericnutrition wrote: »So if you make a normal-sized salad with five ingredients (say lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrots, onions), do you really want to spend the time to weigh each item? I doubt it.
Weighing lettuce indicates an unhealthy compulsion. Enjoy life!
Nah.
I eat salads the size of a small village. It takes literally seconds to put the bowl on the scale, tare, add the lettuce and note it, tare, add the tomatoes and note it, tare, . . . etc. Last salad - just the lettuce, tomatoes, onion, cucumber - was 110 calories. Seems worth counting, and not even remotely unhealthily compulsive.
If you eat dainty little salads, that's different.
OP, while I find it easiest and most informative to weigh everything (at home), it matters how many vegetables you eat, of what types, and whether you like having accurate data to track your calorie needs vs. being more experiimental/approximate. I love my veggies/fruits. Nearly every day, I eat several hundred calories of them - over 400 yesterday, for example. It would be foolish of me not to track them. If someone only eats a couple of lettuce leaves and a tomato slice, no big deal.13 -
Try to forget about Weight Watchers points all together. This is a whole different method of calculation.
I log all fruit and most vegetables, like others have said, in time you become more comfortable with it. I'll never log a leaf of lettuce and slice of tomato on a sandwich. I'll always log the cup of frozen chopped spinach in my homemade quesadilla, and any oil used to cook it, if applicable.
4 -
For the most part yes. I wont log a slice of tomato and lettuce on my burger for example. I don't log thr small handful of lettuce I put on my tacos. Etc. it's negligible. But in general yes you should log your fruits and vegetables.2
-
Thanks all for your responses! Very helpful- I knew to count a banana or avocado but I was really wondering about the tomatoes, onions, lettuce I put on a sandwich. But i got the answer. I'll just save 20-25 calories for those extra veggies & fruits that aren't too significant to log8
-
Ericnutrition wrote: »So if you make a normal-sized salad with five ingredients (say lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrots, onions), do you really want to spend the time to weigh each item? I doubt it.
Weighing lettuce indicates an unhealthy compulsion. Enjoy life!
When I logged, I just used a "garden salad" entry I created in the recipe builder where I weighed things out and built the recipe once...and then just used that and figured it was close enough...but it's still calories, and they count, so I logged them. My garden salad without dressing was around 50 calories as I recall.9 -
I eat up to 10 serves of vegetables a day and 2 serves of fruit. Of course I weigh and count them. Otherwise I'd be overeating.6
-
Start counting them, and depending on the numbers apply common sense to see if you should continue counting them.
On average I eat a big chunk of my daily calories in the form of fruit and veg. So it makes sense to count them.4 -
I count everything except maybe 100 grams of lettuce haha. A piece of fruit like a pear, banana or peach can be 100 calories. It adds up. Still a much better choice than a starchy food.0
-
I eyeball my veg (save for the starchy ones) but I still track them. Not only for day to day calories, but also so I know what the heck I ate on a given day. I recently went back through my diary at a time when I was most successful, so I could remind myself what I was doing right. If I'd not logged my veggies etc, it would have been a patchier diary to review.1
-
I am a vegetarian.
Everything is counted.'
I put my regular salads and soups in my recipes so i know the exact calories and log it that way.
Much quicker and easier than logging every individual item.
And as others have mentioned. Calories are calories.
4
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.3K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.2K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 424 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.7K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions