Vegetables as part of caloric intake?

I'm doing a Jenny Craig diet....they've taught me to have small portions of meat and carbs...and to fill myself up on veggies....I was told certain veggies were free food...because they were so low in calories...

But to answer your question...I log everything into my diary...even my 7 calorie lettuce.

Also, and many may not agree with me....I've made a change on how I cook my veggies...

I used to steam them...because steaming them is better for you. When gosh, darn it...it may be better...but it certainly doesn't taste better....and when 85% of what I'm eating is supposed to come from low calorie vegetables...I had to make them taste good.

So, since I can have a specified amount of fat in my diet per day...I've budgeted that fat to be low calorie butter....to spice up the veggies.

I think it's okay to go over a little bit, especially for a veggie. Better to go over with a simple carb than a complex one. I go way over my sugar intake because of all of the fruit I eat in the morning, but that doesn't stop me from eating it. The site can't distinguish between the good/natural sugar and the sugar from syrups, ect. This is all just an estimate anyway, so I wouldn't worry about going over just because you had veggies with your dinner. Perhaps you can eat smaller portions of everything else instead so you don't go over. For example, instead of eating as large of a steak as I would like, I will eat approx 8oz instead of 10 or 12. I do 1 cup of the carb for the night and then 1-1.5 cups of veggies.

I would say it's better to go over on a complex carb than a simple carb. simple carbs will cause a sugar spike. complex carbs stay in your system longer and help regulate your sugar levels (in very basic terms). Also your body doesn't distinguish where your sugar comes from, candy, straight from the sugar bowl, or from fruit - it's all the same to your body and behaves the same way. So you should not over do the sugar even if it does come from fruit. However, of course fruits are much better for you than sweets are so it you're going to have sugar get it from fruit and get all the vitamins. minerals and fiber you need too.

Hi.

Dr. McDougall's plan (which I try to follow) is a starch based diet that includes vegetables and fruits and legumes. Starch foods like rice, potatoes, corn, yam, is considered a starch food because it gives you the energy you need to get on with your day. It is one of the best non meat ways to get your calories. The next tier are fruits. We must always include vegetables because we wouldn't get our nutrients otherwise. You can actually live on starchy foods and vegetables (look at my food diary, I have been doing so for a while) and lose weight while maintaining nutrition. If you are curious about the McDougall plan, google his name, his website has a free program in which you can read and follow up on.

Dr. Furhman is a fruits and vegetables doctor that doesn't rely on starchy foods, people lose a ton of weight because they are not receiving the energy (calories) due to a lack of starchy foods in the diet.

You can always mix the percentages of starchy foods with fruits, but both include vegetables for weight loss or weight maintenance.

Since I am lazy, I buy frozen bags of mixed vegetables (saves me time and food as it doesn't go to waste). Under McDougall, I can eat as much starch and vegetables as I want, without counting calories (and we know why, vegetables doesn't have hardly any calories and McDougall believes that our stomach will tell our brain when we are satiated). However, this is calorie restriction because you cannot eat all that starch and vegetables without you becoming full (your stomach becomes full really fast because he asks that you chew your food a lot before swallowing).

Veggies are important!! You might find they arent as filling as the other options you were thinking of but they offer a varity of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and nutrients in general that your body needs.

To someone who has alot of weight to lose, I can see how counting vegetables calories is important but I only have a few pounds to lose and most of it will probably be taken care of with just plain old exercising. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing because I'm looking pretty good.

To someone who doesn't understand why counting vegetables in your daily calories might be important, I wish you all the best.

To someone who has alot of weight to lose, I can see how counting vegetables calories is important but I only have a few pounds to lose and most of it will probably be taken care of with just plain old exercising. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing because I'm looking pretty good.

I would actually think that the closer you are to goal, the more important it is to get an accurate calorie count.

But if not counting veggie cals is still working for you, carry on.

If you've never measured it out, 100g is a LOT of spinach.

LOL I can only imagine how much spinach that is!

I log everything, including all fruits and veggies. My girlfriend is on Weight Watchers, and she says all fruit and veggies are 0 points. So you can have as much as you want...I would seriously be scarfing down some fruits and veggies!! :laugh:

I try to stick with lower calorie veggies like broccoli, mushrooms, squash, tomatoes. We do eat corn on the cob a lot, because it's soooo good this year. I steam everything, so cooking doesn't add any cals. A HUGE bowl of broccoli and mushrooms is less than 100 calories. I'll take that over a cup of rice any day.

I count everything... Veggies count too!

I don't get why we have to count or vegetables in the food diary... I was planning on eating some vegetables with my dinner tonight but at 120 calories it seems I should maybe go ahead and subtitute with something that will sustain me more for about the same amount of calories, like maybe some couscous or a bit of rice. What do you all think, do you count your veggies as part of your calorie intake?

I think a little reading on nutrition would be helpful.

"it seems I should maybe go ahead and subtitute with something that will sustain me more for about the same amount of calories, like maybe some couscous or a bit of rice."

Rice and couscous take longer to digest than simple carbs (candy, for example) but they don't "sustain" you the way a high fiber vegetable will. Yes, they're both carbs but veggies take longer and have more vitamins, generally speaking, than something like rice. (Veggies are lower on the glycemic index - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index )

And you don't "have" to count veggies as part of your calories in the same way that you don't "have" to count anything for your calories but, if you don't, your nutritional and caloric info will be inaccurate.

Why wouldn't vegetables count as part of your caloric intake?

Anything you consume that contains calories counts.

I don't get why we have to count or vegetables in the food diary... I was planning on eating some vegetables with my dinner tonight but at 120 calories it seems I should maybe go ahead and subtitute with something that will sustain me more for about the same amount of calories, like maybe some couscous or a bit of rice. What do you all think, do you count your veggies as part of your calorie intake?

I sure do, I mix my regular calorie veggies with zero/negative calorie veggies. Then I'm not filling up on too much of a good thing.

Brilliant!!! I never thought of that... I can toss some celery in with my veggies when I sautee them... I never thought of that. It would definately add some bulk!

Every ww point is 50 calories.. when I was alloted 20 ww points, I was eating 1000 calories a day but I could eat as many veggies as I wanted and those were not counted. I still lost 30 lbs even if I didn't count the veggies.

No, you're missing the point, you were not eating 1,000 calories a day on that weightwatcher diet.

You were eating 1,000 calories a day PLUS a lot of vegetables.

Not counting them doesn't mean they're calorie free.

This site works by your counting everything, including vegetables, but allows more than a baseline 1,000 calories.