Logging Fruits and Veggies.
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You can use MFP however it best meets your needs. As long as it is working for you log how you choose...when/if it quits working then you can change how you do it.
I log everything but I don't weigh. Most everything that I eat I have entered a recipe for it. I just log the serving size. I did recipes for my vegetables and I just add whatever my serving has come out to. On fruit such as a banana I calculated the calories based on 100g and log that...some are larger and some are smaller than 100g. This works for me right now since I am losing about 2lbs a week which is what I am aiming for. I might have to go back to weighing at some point but I know I can't do that for the rest of my life so I am trying to work on learning serving sizes.4 -
_MichelleLynn__ wrote: »If you want an accurate picture you need to log EVERYTHING that you eat. Just logging some stuff and not others doesn't really make sense to me. But I'm interested in watching carbs and sugar, not just calories. It's really easy to add apples, bananas and oranges so why not?
Because you can lose weight without logging them. Just because you’re logging with MFP tracker doesn’t mean you have stick to their weight loss plan. I track all my food in MFP and at the in of the day I export it into WW.
MFP is easier to track your food by calculation and it has a huge database.
A note of caution-there are a LOT of inaccurate database entries (inputted by users), so make sure you're choosing accurate ones!2 -
_MichelleLynn__ wrote: »If you want an accurate picture you need to log EVERYTHING that you eat. Just logging some stuff and not others doesn't really make sense to me. But I'm interested in watching carbs and sugar, not just calories. It's really easy to add apples, bananas and oranges so why not?
Because you can lose weight without logging them. Just because you’re logging with MFP tracker doesn’t mean you have stick to their weight loss plan. I track all my food in MFP and at the in of the day I export it into WW.
MFP is easier to track your food by calculation and it has a huge database.
A note of caution-there are a LOT of inaccurate database entries (inputted by users), so make sure you're choosing accurate ones!
I totally agree. I do watch that very closely0 -
When I was transitioning to MFP from WW, I took about 300 calories off my goal everyday and called it fruits and vegetables and didn't track them any further than that for the first few months. That was a pretty good average of calories used for those foods. But still, that's a pretty significant number of calories each day, and I'm not even much of a veggie person and even less of a fruit person.2
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What I wrote in a similar thread bumped today:
"I eat a lot of veg and at least a couple servings of fruit on a typical day (more fruit in the summer), and it adds up.
A more important reason to me for logging it is I like my total calories to be at least somewhat accurate -- I don't want to think I'm eating 1200 when I'm really eating 1750 or whatever. And -- important for me -- I like to be able to compare days and see what choices helped me and which ones did not, and arbitrarily leaving out some of the foods I eat would make that less useful. Plus I aim for at least 10 servings of veg and a variety, and not logging would mean I might not be making that goal and not know it.
Right now I'm mainly logging at Chron and paying attention to various nutrients like potassium and fiber and those would be way under without fruit and veg. And veg provide some protein too."
I'll add that for it to work without logging veg and fruit, you either need to choose a higher than ideal loss rate or otherwise eat fewer calories than your normal goal would be (or accept a slower loss rate) -- as someone noted, perhaps not eating back exercise calories OR your total amount of veg and fruit would be on the low side (which I think is a bad idea).
IMO, better to use tracking to encourage you to eat more veg and fruit if you aren't already eating a lot (of veg, at least). But I realize people have different preferences, both about diet and logging. The WW approach would drive me mad, as I like to have more information.2 -
For me, a big bonus of logging is the data you compile. I can look back over the last week, last month, last year and see trends and data points. If you don't log things simply because they're not calorie dense, that data is less useful.
I feel like if you're logging your meal anyway, it just takes a couple of extra seconds to add in your produce. I don't weigh low cal veggies, just eyeball the volume measurement, but weigh fruit because depending on the day it can really add up.
I also like to make sure I'm getting enough fiber, another reason why I log it.3 -
Agree with logging everything. I am snacking on rasberries and blackberries. Sometimes all of 12 calories. Still, it reminds me that I had three afternoon snacks on those days where all I had for lunch was chicken noodle soup and an apple.2
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Log everything. I weigh the majority of the fruits and vegetables I eat as well.
I was curious the other day on how many calories in "free foods" I eat a day (if I were on WW). Curious because I have a few co-workers on WW. I calculated that over 500 calories would be "free" if I were on WW (for that particular day). How on earth would I lose weight with that many "free calories" AND eating my daily points?4 -
I have used WW...it works for those that use the system correctly. There are many people there that have lost the weight and kept it off. My main reason for not continuing with WW is the lack of breakdown on micronutrients.1
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runnermom419 wrote: »Log everything. I weigh the majority of the fruits and vegetables I eat as well.
I was curious the other day on how many calories in "free foods" I eat a day (if I were on WW). Curious because I have a few co-workers on WW. I calculated that over 500 calories would be "free" if I were on WW (for that particular day). How on earth would I lose weight with that many "free calories" AND eating my daily points?
It's not mandatory to eat all of the points. There is a -10 to +5 range around your points value. So 23 pts, for example, is actually a range of 13 to 28. Works for many🤷🏾♀️0 -
New_Heavens_Earth wrote: »runnermom419 wrote: »Log everything. I weigh the majority of the fruits and vegetables I eat as well.
I was curious the other day on how many calories in "free foods" I eat a day (if I were on WW). Curious because I have a few co-workers on WW. I calculated that over 500 calories would be "free" if I were on WW (for that particular day). How on earth would I lose weight with that many "free calories" AND eating my daily points?
It's not mandatory to eat all of the points. There is a -10 to +5 range around your points value. So 23 pts, for example, is actually a range of 13 to 28. Works for many🤷🏾♀️
I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I could easily eat ALL my calories from free foods AND still have 13 - 28 points to play around with.
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I've found fruits to be high in calories (one banana is 110 calories, an apple can be 72+ calories, a mandarin orange 50 calories). By not logging them, you will easily go over your daily goal. Veggies on the other hand tend to be lower in calories but as a rule of thumb, I log everything.
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A calorie is a calorie is a calorie.
What that means is a calorie from a vegetable is the some as a calorie from a block of lard, there is no difference.
I've seen people wonder why they haven't been losing weight and when I've looked at their food diaries I've seen they've had smoothies almost every day full of fruit, seems healthy but that can actually stop weight lose with the amount of sugar. Nothing in life is free no matter how much WW says so, remember it's in their interest to keep you there as long as possible9 -
DanOutdoors wrote: »A calorie is a calorie is a calorie.
What that means is a calorie from a vegetable is the some as a calorie from a block of lard, there is no difference.
I've seen people wonder why they haven't been losing weight and when I've looked at their food diaries I've seen they've had smoothies almost every day full of fruit, seems healthy but that can actually stop weight lose with the amount of sugar. Nothing in life is free no matter how much WW says so, remember it's in their interest to keep you there as long as possible
You're contradicting yourself here. A calorie is a calorie but it's the sugar that's hindering weight loss? Sugar has calories. It's probably inaccurate logging depending on various factors.
OP, I lost the bulk of my weight on WW but then moved to logging calories when I hit a plateau/WW changed up the plan.
As others have said, there are ways of playing with the system if you don't want to log fruits and vegetables (not counting exercise calories, inflating the calories of what you *do* log) and it might or might not work. I need to keep an eye on fiber and should keep more of an eye on protein so I try to mostly log everything (except for my 200 discretionary quick add calories that may or may not go up to like 600 some days
) As long as your weight trends the way you want it to, it's all good.
Unless you're undereating (which is what happened to me on WW). Then....not so good...and why I will always suggest people on WW also log everything they eat on here just to make sure they're keeping their calories in check too.2 -
DanOutdoors wrote: »A calorie is a calorie is a calorie.
What that means is a calorie from a vegetable is the some as a calorie from a block of lard, there is no difference.
I've seen people wonder why they haven't been losing weight and when I've looked at their food diaries I've seen they've had smoothies almost every day full of fruit, seems healthy but that can actually stop weight lose with the amount of sugar. Nothing in life is free no matter how much WW says so, remember it's in their interest to keep you there as long as possible
Don't you mean the smoothies are full of calories?
I eat green smoothies a few times a week and they can be calorie bombs-not from the fruit though, but from the Greek yogurt (big calorie variations), and the chia and flax seeds that I sometimes use in them.2 -
yes, it is all still calories!0
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runnermom419 wrote: »New_Heavens_Earth wrote: »runnermom419 wrote: »Log everything. I weigh the majority of the fruits and vegetables I eat as well.
I was curious the other day on how many calories in "free foods" I eat a day (if I were on WW). Curious because I have a few co-workers on WW. I calculated that over 500 calories would be "free" if I were on WW (for that particular day). How on earth would I lose weight with that many "free calories" AND eating my daily points?
It's not mandatory to eat all of the points. There is a -10 to +5 range around your points value. So 23 pts, for example, is actually a range of 13 to 28. Works for many🤷🏾♀️
I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I could easily eat ALL my calories from free foods AND still have 13 - 28 points to play around with.
Got it. It might work for heavier people just starting out, but as you get smaller and closer to goal, it won't work anymore.0 -
_MichelleLynn__ wrote: »If you want an accurate picture you need to log EVERYTHING that you eat. Just logging some stuff and not others doesn't really make sense to me. But I'm interested in watching carbs and sugar, not just calories. It's really easy to add apples, bananas and oranges so why not?
Because you can lose weight without logging them. Just because you’re logging with MFP tracker doesn’t mean you have stick to their weight loss plan. I track all my food in MFP and at the in of the day I export it into WW.
MFP is easier to track your food by calculation and it has a huge database.
You log only some of what you eat and then export it to WW?
Of course you can lose weight without logging everything. You can lose weight logging nothing. Fine with me what others do, but like I said, If I'm going to bother logging I want to see the complete and accurate picture, not just parts of it.4 -
I'd say a good half of my cals come from fruit and veg, I'd be a fool not to log them.5
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Honestly, I'm not as strict with low calorie veggies. If I forget to log a cup of iceberg lettuce or a tablespoon of diced onion, I'm not going to sweat it. I do carefully log all fruits and starchy veggies, though. Corn, carrots, peas, potatoes, etc.0
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