Do you track fruits and veggies?
shira77
Posts: 1 Member
Hi, I’m on day 4 and I was wondering if you guys track the fruit and vegetables you eat? When I used to be on Weight Watchers most fruit and veggies were considered 0 points. I don’t eat more than 2-3 servings per day and I’m not sure if I need to track them.
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Replies
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Yes. For weight loss, a calorie is a calorie, whether from a vegetable or a candy bar. Weight Watchers does its whole "zero calorie food" thing as a behavior modification tool to get people to eat "healthier" foods. And also to differentiate it from calorie counting and justify the price. But your body doesn't differentiate. Some fruits especially can be pretty caloric.
For the best results, you want to count everything you put in your body.13 -
Yes, I do.3
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There was a thread about this about 10 days ago, which has some interesting discussion about this very thing. If I could figure out how to put a link to the thread here I would. I’m thinking that maybe that’s not possible using the mobile app, just the web version. Maybe someone else might come along and do it, though!
I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t have asked your question by the way, just letting you know that there’s some stuff to read that you may find interesting.
My answer though, is yes, count it all. As a vegetarian I’d be in a right mess if I didn’t! 60% of my daily intake is vegetables in some form or another!7 -
Yes. 2-3 servings of fruit could really add up. 2-3 servings of non-starchy veg won't, but your numbers will be inaccurate.
I like to have my numbers as accurate as possible when tracking and I like to understand differences between days -- If I'm way over because I went nuts on pears (unlikely) or easily stayed under my cals because I ate a bunch of non starchy veg, I'd like to know.
Also I usually eat 10+ servings of veg plus a couple servings of fruit and I consider that important. For me counting is part of making sure I do that, and am not lying to myself.
When I was counting for weight loss being complete was helpful too.5 -
An apple can easily be over 70 calories. Do you think those 70 calories don't count?4
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when you count calories, you count all your calories. fruit, veg, cake, milk, etc2
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Hi, I’m on day 4 and I was wondering if you guys track the fruit and vegetables you eat? When I used to be on Weight Watchers most fruit and veggies were considered 0 points. I don’t eat more than 2-3 servings per day and I’m not sure if I need to track them.
I track everything I consume. I eat hundreds of calories in fruits and vegetables daily.
You need to stay at a calorie deficit in order to lose weight. If you don't log everything, you'll never know your calorie intake.5 -
Yes, but I have to say I'm less worried about accuracy for calorie sparse items like lettuce...the calorie difference between 1 3/4 cups vs 2 cups is just not significant...unlike something like peanut butter where being off 1/4 cup is a huge amount of calories.3
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tcunbeliever wrote: »Yes, but I have to say I'm less worried about accuracy for calorie sparse items like lettuce...the calorie difference between 1 3/4 cups vs 2 cups is just not significant...unlike something like peanut butter where being off 1/4 cup is a huge amount of calories.
This.
I don't track things like lettuce or mustard because there's not enough calories for me to even care. I probably burn what they're worth in the effort of going to the fridge and getting them.5 -
Maybe think of this in a different way:
MFP is a calorie counting site. It's built around the concept that you eat in a style that works for you, count the calories, hit a calorie goal that's based on your personal characteristics and activity level, and thereby lose weight. You have calories to "spend" on whatever foods you prefer. (Most of us find complying with a calorie goal easier when we spend most of that calorie budget on nutritious, filling foods, but MFP doesn't try to force us to do that.)
Weight Watchers is a program for managing your eating to achieve weight loss and improve the quality of your diet. It gives you points to "spend" on food, but makes some of the nutritious, filling foods have a low cost in points, to encourage you to eat more of those foods. For that to work out, many people find that their assigned points effectively add up to a lower amount of food than would fit into MFP calories (i.e., they assume you're eating a good bit of the free foods, so they don't give you as many points to "buy" other foods with).
In your question, you're essentially asking whether it would make sense to use part of the rules from MFP, and part of the rules from Weight Watchers. The answer is mostly "no, it wouldn't make sense" (though there are ways you can make them work together if you understand what they're trying to accomplish). But it's like asking whether it would make sense to use part of the rules of Poker, and part of the rules from Go Fish, since they're both card games.
You can probably get away without tracking veggies, especially if you still have a good bit of weight to lose, but as you progress and have less wiggle room in your calorie budget, you may find that breaks down (especially if you happen to start eating more veggies along the way). Also, if you haven't tracked veggies, you'll have less accurate data available to help you estimate what changes you may need to make in your eating or exercise along the way, as your bodyweight or goals change. Neither of those issues is life-threatening, but it's worth considering.
Best wishes!9 -
I log almost all fruits and veggies. The only exceptions are when I add a little lettuce, onion, peppers, etc as a topping to a burger, hot dog, or taco, (or lemon/lime juice) since I know that the amounts I add would be under 10 calories and not make or break my day either way. Maybe if I munch a small strawberry or a couple blueberries when preparing the boy's lunches too, lol...0
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Yep.... fruit calories add up quicker than you think. Lots of sugar. Veggies can be tricky too.... like I love steamed brussel sprouts, when I started logging them I surprised to see how many calories and carbs they have.... glad I looked it up. I'm not super strict with veggies like celery and lettuce since they are mostly water... Just depends on what it is I guess!2
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This apple I'm eating for breakfast is 106 calories. My green beans I eat for lunch are around 60 calories. That's usually all I get for fruit/veg in a day.
166 calories a day is 1162 calories a week. If you eat an extra thousand calories a week, your weight loss would slow a good bit and maybe stop.
Not so insignificant. Definitely not even close to zero.7 -
If it passes my lips. it is tracked.1
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I track everything. More than half my daily calories come from fruit and vegetables4
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Yes I track everything.
No matter what program that you follow, someone determined the calories, and advises you what you can, and cannot eat how much, and sometimes even when you eat.
On MFP, we do this ourselves, and all foods and beverages, except water, have calories.1 -
Back when I tracked calories I did weigh out, count and track vegetables and fruit. If your plan is calorie tracking based then you should be including everything you eat/drink.
WW does factor them in, they just do the numbers differently.0 -
I count every single calorie from one grape to one carrot. If I skipped counting fruits and veggies, that would end up being 1/2 my daily calories. If you want to be accurate and succeed, the answer is MOST DEFINITELY YES!2
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I did track them when I was losing but I guessed their weight rather than using a good scale. Maybe that’s silly, but it didn’t stop my progress. I dislike weighing food. I know weighing food makes sense for other people and they don’t have a problem with it. I’ve just decided to start losing a few vanity pounds. Im not weighing fruit and veg at the moment but I may have to if my weight loss stalls.3
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Yes. I track everything. I never tracked cooking oils before and now I track that as well. I'll be tracking water soon LOL. Legit though. Gotta stay hydrated.0
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they have calories, so yes.
some fruit has a LOT of calories. doesnt mean its not healthy, just calorie dense.2 -
Hi, I’m on day 4 and I was wondering if you guys track the fruit and vegetables you eat? When I used to be on Weight Watchers most fruit and veggies were considered 0 points. I don’t eat more than 2-3 servings per day and I’m not sure if I need to track them.
I used to be on weight watchers as well. The first time I did it I lost a lot of weight because I learned what foods were better for me than others. So when I ate a bunch of fruits & veggies instead of a bunch of processed foods I lost a LOT. Now that I know how to eat healthy, I've gained weight again because I'm eating too many calories (even though I mostly eat healthy home cooked meals), so that's why MFP is different than WW. If you're already a healthy food eater but you eat too much, calorie counting is for you!3 -
Yup loosely..1
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Agree with most here with yes. Especially fruit due to the sugar! Good luck on the new start! It will at least get you in the habit of learning what is up calorie and sugar wise with fruit and veggies.2
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I track it all, as well. Weighing fruits, especially, since they vary wildly and can be large. My diet was always “healthy”, but I got too fat because I ate too much. I now know that I must watch everything as a small, perimenopausal woman, because my caloric requirements are not very high. As an example, I’ll frequently have a half banana, whereas before my loss with MFP, I wouldn’t have thought twice about eating a whole one.1
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I do... I count my black coffee too....
I quit WW because I was not doing as well as I should have3 -
callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »they have calories, so yes.
some fruit has a LOT of calories. doesnt mean its not healthy, just calorie dense.
this! I still eat them, but it's quite sad sometimes to see how many calories in not a very large amount of a particular fruit you like. Such as pomegranate. I can only eat promegranate when I'm on maintenance calories!2 -
I feel like the question "do you track fruit and veggies" should be stickied because it seems like someone asks it every other day. It seems to be a prominent question with people who are just starting on this site.2
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I would hazard a guess that 95% of the people asking are former Weight Watchers clients, possibly also Slimming World because I think they run a similar Synfree system where some fruits and veg are free foods, depending on prep method.
Personally I think it’s better if the threads do happen. People maybe read the stickies when they first come here, but I’m guessing it’s the sort of question that crosses someone’s mind once they start to get more used to logging and thinking a bit more about the process. Few will think of looking back at the stickies then and even if they did read every single sticky at the outset, the chances they remember every point in them, is slight!
I’d actually be surprised if it’s not mentioned in the stickies somewhere anyway, just not in an individual sticky!
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The only things I don’t log are black coffee, plain tea, mints (probably have 2 or 3 a week), and gum (maybe one piece a week).0
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