Should I count veggies and fruits in my daily calorie goal?

OhHon97
OhHon97 Posts: 48 Member
edited November 26 in Food and Nutrition
I usually eat my set calorie goal for the day but dont count the calories of fruits or veggies (unless its something like a potato or avocado). Is this what most people do?
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Replies

  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
    Absolutely!!!! Especially fruit, as there are a lot of fruit that's high in calories.

    General rule: if it has calories, track it.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    If you eat it, you track it.
  • serindipte
    serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
    edited May 2018
    I don't always track all of my veggies. It depends. If I add lettuce and pickles to a sandwich, sometimes I log, sometimes not. Same for cucumbers, celery, and other super low-cal veggies in a small quantity. I know, from having logged every single bite, which ones I can afford to ignore and how much of them. I'm also in a fairly large deficit. As that shrinks and I get closer to goal weight, I'll be less likely to skip any of them.

    ETA: I weigh and log all fruit.
  • nickssweetheart
    nickssweetheart Posts: 874 Member
    Obviously your body will count the calories even if you don't. But I also find value in being able to look back through my diary and see what I ate on certain days. Without fruits and veg, that would be a very incomplete picture.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited May 2018
    This should answer your question. Why do you think potatoes or a couple of cookies are worth logging, but other foods are not?

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  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    Whether you count them or not, your body will.
  • Momepro
    Momepro Posts: 1,509 Member
    If they have calories, and you are paying attention to the amount of calories you eat, count them. You'd be surprises how even fruits and veggies can add up.
  • flagrantavidity
    flagrantavidity Posts: 218 Member
    I sure do, I can eat 200 calories in a huge salad. I also track seasonings even if they olnly add a couple of cals.

    I’m on vacation right now, and still try and track what I eat and often over estimate.

    If I don’t track, or attempt to track everything I feel that I’m failing.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    I don't necessarily log the 5 calories of lettuce on my sandwich or a stick of celery, and I don't always weigh vegetables with a low calorie density, but considering I eat about 500 calories a day in fruits and veg, it would be a little self defeating not to log at least a close approximation. One good sized piece of fruit can easily be 100 calories. If you eat the recommended daily allowance of fruit and veg, not logging it would quickly wipe out any deficit you might have.
  • flagrantavidity
    flagrantavidity Posts: 218 Member
    Momepro wrote: »
    If they have calories, and you are paying attention to the amount of calories you eat, count them. You'd be surprises how even fruits and veggies can add up.

    Agreed. Weigh everything too. I see entries like a “large” banana entered as 90 calories. Every banana that I have is 120-138 grams, which is closer to 130 cals.
  • tennisdude2004
    tennisdude2004 Posts: 5,609 Member
    OhHon97 wrote: »
    I usually eat my set calorie goal for the day but dont count the calories of fruits or veggies (unless its something like a potato or avocado). Is this what most people do?

    If you are following a calorie counting diet model then definitely count them - they are not free.

    CICO!

  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    I trt to track what I eat including fruits and vegetables. I like to have a record.
    I don't stress if I don't log a tiny bit of spinach accurately but vegetables and fruits might add up to quite a few calories.

    It is up to you what you want to do. If you are not losing at the rate you expect start logging everything though.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Obviously your body will count the calories even if you don't. But I also find value in being able to look back through my diary and see what I ate on certain days. Without fruits and veg, that would be a very incomplete picture.

    100% this.

    I also found logging useful because I was able to see my diet overall, and I liked thinking of it as a way to make sure I was eating well, getting enough nutrients and a variety of foods, maybe comparing days regarding things like fiber, fat, protein to see what made a difference (and fruits and veg not only supply fiber, but some non starchy veg really add to the protein content). Thinking of logging as just about calories wouldn't have worked as well for me, and I'm another who eats a lot of cals in veg and fruit.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    When I tracked, I logged my veg and fruit but I wasn't as precise as I was with other, more calorie dense foods. I typically get 8-10 servings of veg and fruit per day...that's hundreds of calories in produce.

    I never bothered logging a bit of lettuce or something on a sandwich, but I logged my big *kitten* salads and such. If I don't have a big salad at lunch, I typically have a 200g serving of broccoli or some other veg...same at dinner. 200 grams of broccoli is around 70 calories...twice per day, that's 140 calories right there not accounted for.
  • workinonit1956
    workinonit1956 Posts: 1,043 Member
    I have to, I eat l lot of fruits and veggies.
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    I wish there was a way to query all the data I have in mfp to find out things like % of my total calories that was fruit (I eat a lot of fruit) and/or highest total fruit calories in a day (probably under 1000, but not way under).
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    I wish there was a way to query all the data I have in mfp to find out things like % of my total calories that was fruit (I eat a lot of fruit) and/or highest total fruit calories in a day (probably under 1000, but not way under).

    You can do something similar if you have premium. You can find where most of your calories come from in reports. Most of my calories, interestingly, come from tomatoes. Here is my top entry for the past 90 days:
    p3myk1lw4gl9.png
  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,256 Member
    I took a quick look at my diary, and just yesterday my fruits and vegetables added up to 320 kcal.

    Just because they’re good for you doesn’t mean they don’t contain calories!
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