How Much Fruit In Your Low Carb Plan?
 

Recently I've been trying to decide where fresh fruit fits into my plan... and I guess more importantly how much fruit to fit into my plan...

Currently I include 2 to 3 pieces of fresh fruit or roughly its equivalent in servings of fresh berries a day... and I could easily eat more and not have it affect my weight because of my activity level and the amount of running that I do... but I do worry sometimes about the amount of fructose that I'm consuming and its possible negative health implications, even if it isn't affecting my weight...

So I'm interested to hear what other people are doing when it comes to the amount of fruit that they're eating on their plans... and how did you figure out how much was too much for you?

I just started adding fruit back in, but I'm doing it slowly. I'm adding 100 grams of strawberries to my daily diet and seeing how it affects my weight. I eat about 30 net a day.

Hi TripSwitch,

Ah yes the eternal question about fruit - how much we should have. The bottom line on that is your temptation threshold and the "just one more won't hurt" syndrome.

There are however two things that you can do to help yourself. Stay away from temptation [maybe] and still feel like you're eating lots of fruit and that is to choose vegetables that have a similar consistency to the fruit you want to eat and chop up smaller pieces of fruit into the roughly chopped vegetables. That way you get the sweetness and taste of the fruit without consuming high levels of fructose and remember to choose as much as possible fruits that are low in carb.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Thanks for the feedback StephanieM and Jez... I really appreciate it...

And thanks MarkMoxom for the suggestions... that's a really good idea... and actually I've already been doing something like that... I'll add maybe a little bit of chopped apple to some tunafish salad or maybe a few orange sections or other citrus fruit to a fish dish, so one piece of fruit is enough for 2 to 4 servings...

Actually after starting this thread I've thought about doing a short 2 week "induction" and then see if fruit maybe has been part of my problem with some of my sugar cravings lately... so we'll see...

I've stopped having fruit for a while, as well (as the nuts, and low carb wraps) because those sneaky cravings were starting back up....and also because I want pull out the stops and make better progress.
You have only 5 lbs to go...I so want to be in your shoes !

I just eat an apple

that's where I am right now. When summer fruit comes out, I will probably experiment with having a small amount and see how it goes. I think I would be ok if it slows my loss a little bit but not ok if it stalls it completely or sets up any cravings so I'll just have to see how it goes.

But I am also amazed at how much I enjoy roasted veggies now and therefore don't miss fruit nearly as much as I would have thought.

I have about 1 1/2 cups fruit (3 servings) a day. I've never really found that fruit triggers me to want sugary stuff, so my only issue with fruit is to make sure I stay within my carb allotment for the day.

One weird thing I've found is that combining fruits makes my brain thinks it's getting more fruit. Like, if I eat 1/2 cup blueberries, my brain is all like, "I want more!" But if I eat 1/4 cup blueberries with 1/4 cup sliced kiwi, my brain is satisfied. :dizzy: Combining fruits also enables me to eat higher carb fruits. Like, 1/2 cup of sliced banana is 18 carbs, but if I do 1/4 cup of sliced banana with 1/4 cup sliced strawberries it's only 11 carbs. I still get to eat banana but it's less carbs.

I stick with berries and apples although I love all fruit and since citrus is in season, I've had some recently.

But even with the apple, for example, I'll have it with a nut butter (usually almond or cashew) because I need to balance it out.

This is exactly what I do too... Although in a moment of weakness recently I bought a jar of caramel almond butter and rationalized the 10g's of sugar per serving it contains as better than dipping my apple in Nutella like I had been known to do in the past :)

Lol. I didn't even know caramel almond butter existed!

Mm. Nutella. But I haven't had nutella in years.

I wish I didn't know that it existed now as well... lol... :)

I aim for 50 carbs/day or fewer, and 15 carbs/meal or fewer, so while I might have some berries now and then, I'm not likely to eat a whole apple.

When pit-fruit comes into season, though, I definitely eat a plum or peach now and then. And sometimes watermelon or cantaloupe. But I measure it all, and balance it with the other carbs for that day.

I make sure to have a little fresh fruit everyday. Maybe one banana or an apple now in the winter. In the summer time I do not limit my consumption of canteloupe, watermelon, figs, or berries. Low carb or not fruit is delicious and important in overall nutrition. I don't see it as sugar.

I'm still tying to figure out if fruit is stalling my weight loss... and while I'm not exactly sure of this for me yet... it does seem since I'm not really eating any "added sugars" anymore that I do notice that fruit seems to set off some sugar cravings, but I'm not certain of it yet...

I definitely know that since I think that fruit is "healthy" for me... I can easily overeat it... for instance yesterday I cut up a whole cantaloup which should have lasted for a few days... well, I wound up having some with all of my meals and it was gone by the end of the day... although in my defense some other family members did have some as well... but that's not the point really... for some reason when it comes to fruit I have a real hard time with portion control...

I'm debating on whether I should do a little fruit "fast" for a week or two... and then really start weighing and measuring again... But it's looking like that's what I might have to do...

TripSwitch, maybe. I know that if I eat fruit alone it does make me hungry but not for more fruit, for more carbs. I don't have a hard time with portion control when it comes to fruit, I can really only eat a few berries. I find that by pairing a small amount of fruit with protein it is very satisfying without bringing on huge carb cravings.

- apple slices with peanut butter
- figs with ricotta cheese
- melon with cottage cheese
- canteloupe with proscuitto slices

Thanks... those all sound so good... and kind of what I do sometimes... In fact last night the cantaloupe that I mentioned I had with some really good proscuitto, olive oil, balsamic, and arugula.... and that was basically my dinner... actually, one of my biggest downfalls is I can get a little carried away when it comes to using really high quality Italian ingredients... I use to live and work in Italy and real true Italian food is one my passions...

And thanks for reminding about the figs... I love those with really good Gorgonzola... I think I'm gonna have to swing by Eataly later... :)

Holy cow, I was just there (Eataly) last night! I was trying to be good and low-carb and my friend dragged me kicking and screaming to their pizza/pasta station. Had a thin crust pizza and avoided the edges. It was the best I could do. But I picked up a delicious little purple cauliflower from the produce department and my hummus can't wait to be dipped with it. And you have to stop by and smell the soap made by the nuns at Santa Maria Novella, I almost bought some but at $30 a bar it was a bit extravagant. Enjoy!

That place is dangerous isn't it? LOL... But I love it... :)

I just started doing an atkins/ketogenic style diet (I'm supposed to do ketogenic, but am having trouble keeping my carbs low enough, I average around 62 grams a day). I used to eat tons of fruit, normally 2-3 large pieces (apple, orange, banana, grapefruit) a day, and strawberries/blueberries for snacks.

Since Is started this diet I would say I'm closer to 1 serving a day, either an apple, strawberries or raspberries/blackberries. I miss pineapple and mango.

Since I need to get my carbs down to 20-30 grams or thereabouts, I will probably continue to cut them down.

I've been still eating bananas and apples. 1/2 banana in the AM, 1/2 banana in the afternoon. If I have an apple it's sometimes just 1/2 with a little peanut butter.

It doesn't seem to cause me to not lose, so why not. I feel like those are two fruits that are super good for you so you should eat them.

I feel like fruits are very very "clean" carbs to eat, plus if you will eat them before your work out then that's really absolutely fine