Are we logging fruit and veg or not? šŸ˜‚

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lisastephen_
lisastephen_ Posts: 4 Member
edited June 2023 in Food and Nutrition
I know there are pros and cons to both sides, and I know what I was told to do in the past, however I want to know what everyoneā€™s opinions are.

Can I just say I am talking like a sensible amount of veg with each meal or an apple a day, not snacking on about 40 different fruits and then having a fruit smoothie - I would obviously log that šŸ˜‚
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  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 9,114 Member
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    I log it, but if the day ends and I'm over by an amount equal to the fruit/veg, I don't freak out. The high nutritional value more than compensates the calories consumed...if it's the fruit/veg alone. If I'm dunking in ranch, smothering in melted cheese, or sautƩing in butter, that needs to be added.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,645 Member
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    Some yes some no. The yesses would be things like potatoes and bananas and most fruits. The no's are things like broccoli. That's just me though. Some people count everything but that can be too tedious. I usually add another 100 calories a day to compensate for the little minor things I don't log
  • Chaimfonseca95
    Chaimfonseca95 Posts: 10 Member
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    I log the fruits, but not the vegetables. It can be incredibly tedious, but counting calories is worth it in the end. It becomes a habit, and every time Iā€™ve gotten my six pack was when I counted them.
  • lisastephen_
    lisastephen_ Posts: 4 Member
    edited June 2023
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    tomcustombuilder wrote: Ā»
    Some yes some no. The yesses would be things like potatoes and bananas and most fruits. The no's are things like broccoli. That's just me though. Some people count everything but that can be too tedious. I usually add another 100 calories a day to compensate for the little minor things I don't log

    I think Iā€™m probably the same as you. Like mash potato I would log, but broccoli and onions or an apple and a handful of grapes as my only fruit for the day Iā€™m not bothering with.
  • lisastephen_
    lisastephen_ Posts: 4 Member
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    Chaimfonseca95 wrote: Ā»
    I log the fruits, but not the vegetables. It can be incredibly tedious, but counting calories is worth it in the end. It becomes a habit, and every time Iā€™ve gotten my six pack was when I counted them.

    Thankfully I donā€™t really enjoy/like fruit šŸ˜‚ I only eat an apple and a handful of grapes a day just to be able to say I eat some kind of fruit haha.
  • lisastephen_
    lisastephen_ Posts: 4 Member
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    nossmf wrote: Ā»
    I log it, but if the day ends and I'm over by an amount equal to the fruit/veg, I don't freak out. The high nutritional value more than compensates the calories consumed...if it's the fruit/veg alone. If I'm dunking in ranch, smothering in melted cheese, or sautƩing in butter, that needs to be added.

    I really want something dunked in ranch thatā€™s smothered in melted cheese and itā€™s been sautĆ©ed in butter now šŸ˜‚šŸ¤¦šŸ¼ā€ā™€ļø
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,981 Member
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    Pretty much everything. If it's just a little lettuce, tomato, and onion on a burger or sandwich, I probably won't bother. If I'm grazing on some crudite or a bit of grilled asparagus or zucchini at a buffet, I'll probably log something, but I may just pick one of the veg and double my estimate for that one.
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,172 Member
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    I'm not really crazy about fruits and vegetables, but even I eat 200 - 300 calories of them a day. A 250 calorie daily deficit typically leads to half a pound of weight loss a week, so yeah...I count the produce!
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 7,481 Member
    edited June 2023
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    COGypsy wrote: Ā»
    I'm not really crazy about fruits and vegetables, but even I eat 200 - 300 calories of them a day. A 250 calorie daily deficit typically leads to half a pound of weight loss a week, so yeah...I count the produce!

    She said it better (and probably shorter šŸ˜‚) than I could.

    And back to add..,. Itā€™s kinda like when I was going through a gallon of skim milk every couple of days. In my fuzzy head it didnā€™t countā€¦cuzā€¦skim, right?

    Well a gallon is 1280 calories.

    šŸ¤¦šŸ»ā€ā™€ļø
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    I haven't logged regularly in years, but when I did I logged my fruit...not that I ate a bunch, but a medium sized apple is around 100 calories...same with a banana or really a serving of most fruits other than berries. That said, I never bothered weighing my fruit really...I just used entries like medium apple or whatever, but I logged something.

    I logged most veg as well, but again not worried about being meticulous to the gram or anything. For garden salads I built a recipe in the recipe builder that had everything weighed out and I just used that anytime I had a garden salad but I wasn't really concerned that it didn't exactly match the recipe I built...it was good enough.

    Your mileage may vary...some things can be pretty small and insignificant while other things like having an apple and a handful of grapes would probably add up to 150-200 calories...and whether or not that is statistically significant to you would also come down to the size of your deficit and precision in other areas of logging. A smaller deficit requires more precision because there's less wiggle room for error...also, your calorie target matters. I have a relatively substantial calorie budget even to lose one pound per week...little things here and there are for the most part immaterial to my actual target...my wife on the other hand has a much smaller calorie budget to work with and some of those things that are immaterial to me are very much material to her.

    In the end it comes down to whether you're achieving your weight management goals. If you're "doing everything right" and not losing weight, it's likely that those little things are more material to your goals than you realized.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,910 Member
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    I get not logging on WW, where some foods are free and your point budget is designed accordingly.

    Here in MFP, I log everything. I log lettuce and broccoli to encourage me to eat MORE of it. For example, I shoot for 30 g of lettuce on a sandwich and previously probably used closer to 10 g. I'm eating more broccoli since I started logging as well.
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,620 Member
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    kshama2001 wrote: Ā»
    I get not logging on WW, where some foods are free and your point budget is designed accordingly.

    Here in MFP, I log everything. I log lettuce and broccoli to encourage me to eat MORE of it. For example, I shoot for 30 g of lettuce on a sandwich and previously probably used closer to 10 g. I'm eating more broccoli since I started logging as well.

    I do the same thing... I log it to challenge myself to eat more fruits and veggies, so that it stares me in the face if I haven't eaten any veg on a given day.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,200 Member
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    kshama2001 wrote: Ā»
    I get not logging on WW, where some foods are free and your point budget is designed accordingly.

    Here in MFP, I log everything. I log lettuce and broccoli to encourage me to eat MORE of it. For example, I shoot for 30 g of lettuce on a sandwich and previously probably used closer to 10 g. I'm eating more broccoli since I started logging as well.

    Good point. No way I could have an "800g of veggies and fruits daily" goal - and mean it - if I didn't log them.
  • PAPYRUS3
    PAPYRUS3 Posts: 13,259 Member
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    I eat a lot of veggies (some fruit) each day. Since it's the majority of my meals, I most definitely log it! I log everything though.
  • Pdc654
    Pdc654 Posts: 317 Member
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    I log everything. It's even more important now that I'm in maintenance and dialing in my maintenance calories. I know I'd be gaining weight if I didn't log the 200-300 calories of fruit and vegetables a day. I also I'm paying a lot more attention to my macros now. Before weight loss I hardly ever ate a lot of fruits and veggies. Now I'm making a point of eating them daily and trying to choose the more nutritious ones. I'm making salads with vegetables I never thought I would eat and I am finding I don't hate them. I never thought I would purposely add cucumber, tomatoes, or avocado to my salads, or make salads using raw spinach either, but I am now. Logging everything not only helped me lose 115 lbs but it's now helping me ensure what I am eating is also nutritious.
  • Athijade
    Athijade Posts: 3,247 Member
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    I may not log something like a slice of tomato or some lettuce on a sandwich, but I log all other fruits and vegetables. The reason I skip the teeny tiny things is due to a history of obsession and anxiety when it comes to food and logging. So for me it is a balance of mental and physical health.

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