Help!!! Fruit and Veg
MPink13
Posts: 7 Member
Hi, i need some help. I have been doing myfitnesspal on and off for a while. But i stopped a month ago as i got fed up and was finding i was making bad food choices. I stopped eating veg and used the calories for that for a treat in the evening.
I have just read someone's post recommending it on facebook and they were saying the dont count fruit and veg except bananas, sweetcorn, peas and a couple of other items. Is this correct or are you meant to count it all??
Thanks in advance, really appreciate any help.
M
I have just read someone's post recommending it on facebook and they were saying the dont count fruit and veg except bananas, sweetcorn, peas and a couple of other items. Is this correct or are you meant to count it all??
Thanks in advance, really appreciate any help.
M
2
Replies
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With MFP, you're meant to count everything. Some other programs (Weight Watchers, for one) assign point values to foods and most fruits and non-starchy veg are zero-point items. But that doesn't make them calorie free.
Realistically speaking, a handful of cherry tomatoes, a cup of carrot sticks, three clementines, etc., are low calorie in and of themselves and won't impact your calories all that much. But if you eat a lot of them, that can add up to 200-300 calories easy and if you don't account for them, you may find your weight-loss stalling.
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I eat a lot of fruit and veg. If I ate the calories allotted to me by MFP plus those from fruit and veg, all I would need is some serious fake sun tanning and I'd be a perfect cast for an Oompa Loompa on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Yes, I am short enough!8
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Hi, i need some help. I have been doing myfitnesspal on and off for a while. But i stopped a month ago as i got fed up and was finding i was making bad food choices. I stopped eating veg and used the calories for that for a treat in the evening.
I have just read someone's post recommending it on facebook and they were saying the dont count fruit and veg except bananas, sweetcorn, peas and a couple of other items. Is this correct or are you meant to count it all??
Thanks in advance, really appreciate any help.
M
I'm a bit confused by this statement, MFP is merely a log of what you eat, I am not sure you can attribute making poor food choices to it, nor for your lack of eating veg. You would have to be on a very low calorie goal indeed to not be able to fit in the occasional treat at the same time as getting some vegetable in your diet.
To answer your question though, no it's not correct, some people may choose not to log fruit and veg, but that is not the way the app is intended to be used.11 -
If you have so little wiggle room in your eating plan that 40 calories of tomatoes prevents you having a treat, you definitely don't have enough wiggle room to just ignore 100 calories of apple.15
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in real life i tend to be lazy on logging fruit and veg - especially veg.
of course I know they have calories and I do log them - but I think every banana, for example, of about the same size is going to average the calories of the one I weighed ages ago - and I often just call any tomato,lettuce, carrot, and similar combination 1 serve of garden salad without weighing or checking each part. and things like a bit of lettuce in a sandwich I ignore altogether.
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How many calories are you eating a day? I'm confused as to why you would feel the need to cut out vegetables to save calories. While it is still a good idea to log them, many vegetables are very low in calories. You are not going to go over your goal by eating lettuce, tomato, broccoli, and green beans. Even fruit, while higher calorie than vegetables usually, is still pretty low in calories compared to other foods.
A calorie is a calorie. No matter where you get it from, it's important to log. But there is no reason to cut fruits and veggies out of your life in order to "diet". In fact, eating more of them usually helps most people control their calories better.2 -
i weigh and log it all. i eat well over 250 calories in vegetables daily. add the fruit. that can add up to almost twice my daily deficit.
also, it's great to make room for a snack and for weight loss, a calorie is a calorie. but for overall health and nutrition it's best you not cut out ALL vegetable to make room for a snack most days.0 -
All foods contain calories so why would someone say you needn't count vegetables/fruit? I think the bigger question is what kind of "snack" are you referring to? If it's manufactured/packaged/processed then it's definitely not healthy and certainly shouldn't replace "real food" calories.
Tracking everything you eat is important if you are trying to maintain a calorie deficit.15 -
All foods contain calories so why would someone say you needn't count vegetables/fruit? I think the bigger question is what kind of "snack" are you referring to? If it's manufactured/packaged/processed then it's definitely not healthy and certainly shouldn't replace "real food" calories.
Tracking everything you eat is important if you are trying to maintain a calorie deficit.
Fixed it for you.
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I don't log that much, and when I do it's on Cron and my interest is in whether I'm meeting my potassium goal and otherwise hitting all the micros, so not logging veg and fruit would be a disaster.
When I was logging on MFP, I had goals about how I ate that included eating a healthful diet, getting in the amount of veg and fruit I think is desirable, etc., and I wanted an accurate record of what I ate (and it isn't that tough to get in lots of cals from veg and especially fruit if you eat a lot of them).
Rather than blaming MFP for bad food choices, why not change your approach to something other than just calories. For example, also focusing on healthy diet or even macros. If I planned to have, say, 200 cal of ice cream after dinner, I could usually make it fit in my normal cals with a healthy diet. But if I felt like I needed to make room for it, I'd tend to cut some fat (added fat, maybe cheese) and carbs (what I consider optional carbs, like a starchy side) from earlier meals, usually just by varying potion size. I wouldn't cut protein (yeah, cheese has some, but it wasn't a big source of it for me) or veg.
Or to make it even easier, maybe just think through how to get in your nutrients and still have some calories left for whatever else.3 -
MFP allotted me 1,200 cal/day which only allowed me 45 grams of sugar. I was eating fruit but realized the sugar content put me waaaaay over my sugar goal so I cut them out completely for months. I've recently had a stall in weight so I now only eat 1,000-1,100 cals per day, which brings my carbs way down. I'm at a loss as well because I've lost 48.5 lbs and I fear that my nutritional intake is seriously bad even though I take a lot of supplements. I think MFP should clarify added sugars and natural occurring sugars in 2 different categories.6
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MFP allotted me 1,200 cal/day which only allowed me 45 grams of sugar. I was eating fruit but realized the sugar content put me waaaaay over my sugar goal so I cut them out completely for months. I've recently had a stall in weight so I now only eat 1,000-1,100 cals per day, which brings my carbs way down. I'm at a loss as well because I've lost 48.5 lbs and I fear that my nutritional intake is seriously bad even though I take a lot of supplements. I think MFP should clarify added sugars and natural occurring sugars in 2 different categories.
if you did not lose at 1200 the issue was very likely you were not patient enough, it was water fluctuations or problems in your logging.
do you use a food scale for all foods?
1200 is the MINIMUM a woman should eat and that assumes very short very sedentary woman. i recommend starting your own thread so we can help you trouble shoot.10 -
MFP allotted me 1,200 cal/day which only allowed me 45 grams of sugar. I was eating fruit but realized the sugar content put me waaaaay over my sugar goal so I cut them out completely for months. I've recently had a stall in weight so I now only eat 1,000-1,100 cals per day, which brings my carbs way down. I'm at a loss as well because I've lost 48.5 lbs and I fear that my nutritional intake is seriously bad even though I take a lot of supplements. I think MFP should clarify added sugars and natural occurring sugars in 2 different categories.
MFP's database is user-sourced. If the manufacturer's label doesn't break down natural and added sugars, the users don't have the data to do it either. The good news is that unless you have a medical reason to watch your sugar intake, it's really not important. I stopped tracking mine and switched to iron ages ago.9 -
if you did not lose at 1200 the issue was very likely you were not patient enough, it was water fluctuations or problems in your logging.
do you use a food scale for all foods?
1200 is the MINIMUM a woman should eat and that assumes very short very sedentary woman. i recommend starting your own thread so we can help you trouble shoot.
I started at 220 and, as of this morning, have lost 48.5 lbs of my 70 lb goal. I was not losing at 1,200 cal/day. I meticulously weigh food by the gram and log everything that goes in my mouth. I check and recheck nutrition labels against the USDA food database as there is a lot of incorrect info out there. I'm obsessed with accurate logging. 1,200 cals wasn't working even though I was walking 1-2 miles/day!2 -
P.S, I'm 56 years old, 5'5", and started at 220 in Nov and down to 171.5, 48.5 loss.1
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P.S, I'm 56 years old, 5'5", and started at 220 in Nov and down to 171.5, 48.5 loss.
I'm 5'2", 54 years old, 105 lbs on a good day, and eat like crap (and have throughout my 120 lb weight loss). It's not the sugar.
How long have you been stalled for?
(But, yeah, open your diary and start a new thread
) 4 -
You're meant to count it all. Maybe the person you were talking to was referring to weight watchers.
I'm a lot lazier when it comes to logging vegetables for the most part. Lettuce, tomatoes, etc. have such little calories that I just throw a random guess on my diary and call it good.0 -
I log low calorie veggies to encourage myself to eat more of them (and because that is how MFP is designed).
- My target is 100 g of broccoli per serving - prior to weighing, I was probably eating less than 70 g.
- My target for sandwiches is 28 g of lettuce and I was probably eating less than half of that before.
- Etc.
4 -
I'm 5'2", 54 years old, 105 lbs on a good day, and eat like crap (and have throughout my 120 lb weight loss). It's not the sugar.
How long have you been stalled for?
(But, yeah, open your diary and start a new thread)
Open my diary?? How do I do that and what benefits do I have by doing it?2 -
I have a little challenge with myself every day to eat as many of my '5 a day' as I can.
So some days my veg count (I eat very little fruit, not keen) is around 250 to 300 calories. Thats a big chunk to ignore.2 -
I'm 5'2", 54 years old, 105 lbs on a good day, and eat like crap (and have throughout my 120 lb weight loss). It's not the sugar.
How long have you been stalled for?
(But, yeah, open your diary and start a new thread)
Open my diary?? How do I do that and what benefits do I have by doing it?
plase start your own thread VS hijack this one and we can better help you.
benefit is those with experience (more than me) can often spot common logging errors. no matter who meticulous we think we are being there are common errors many of us still make. I made many i only found when i was at my last 20lbs becuase that is when it started to matter.
there is zero way you are not losing at 1200 unless you have a medical issue that needs to be treated.
but again, start your own thread.3 -
MFP allotted me 1,200 cal/day which only allowed me 45 grams of sugar. I was eating fruit but realized the sugar content put me waaaaay over my sugar goal so I cut them out completely for months. I've recently had a stall in weight so I now only eat 1,000-1,100 cals per day, which brings my carbs way down. I'm at a loss as well because I've lost 48.5 lbs and I fear that my nutritional intake is seriously bad even though I take a lot of supplements. I think MFP should clarify added sugars and natural occurring sugars in 2 different categories.
This information is not yet available for most packaged foods.
If you know your sugar is from nutrient dense sources and you have sufficient fiber, vegetables (which also have sugar, but shouldn't be replaced with fruit), healthy fat, and protein, why care about MFP's sugar goal? You can track fiber instead or use it to see if you are getting sugar from surprising sources or less nutrient dense sources too much.
Like I said above, I care about nutrition, so always prioritized that, but I did so by reviewing my own diet and setting nutrition-related goals.
MFP doesn't exactly "allot" you calories, btw -- you decide your calories based on your weight loss desires, as well as stats. It's easy to put in wrong information or overly aggressive goals and get a 1200 cal goal even when it's really too high (even apart from exercise, which is not included).2 -
I'm 5'2", 54 years old, 105 lbs on a good day, and eat like crap (and have throughout my 120 lb weight loss). It's not the sugar.
How long have you been stalled for?
(But, yeah, open your diary and start a new thread)
Open my diary?? How do I do that and what benefits do I have by doing it?
plase start your own thread VS hijack this one and we can better help you.
but again, start your own thread.
I get the picture. I'll bother you no longer!3 -
I'm 5'2", 54 years old, 105 lbs on a good day, and eat like crap (and have throughout my 120 lb weight loss). It's not the sugar.
How long have you been stalled for?
(But, yeah, open your diary and start a new thread)
Open my diary?? How do I do that and what benefits do I have by doing it?
plase start your own thread VS hijack this one and we can better help you.
but again, start your own thread.
I get the picture. I'll bother you no longer!
you are not "bothering" anyone. it's just more polite to start your own thread and will allow us to more clearly help YOUR questions VS the OP's.5
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