I was just wondering how important it is to have your 5 pieces of fruit a day and loose weight? I looove my fruit but i always think i eat too much of it(people always saying bananas are not too good?then what is good? who knows? ..it's better than the twix bar i use to have after evry meal ..). I usually always have fruit in my bag, mouth or room .

I'm planning to stick to 5 a day , one with breakfast, then mid morning, then lunch, then one mid afternoon, then 1 piece after dinner.

But how much fruit is too much?Can you actuallly eat too much fruit? Does more fruit = more weight loss?

Its not five pieces of fruit - its five portions of fruit and vegetables. Some fruit has got quite a lot of sugar in it so its best eaten in moderation. Bananas are 80-100 cals each whereas a portion of, say, broccoli, or a HUGE bowl of salad leaves is less than a quarter of that.

On the five a day thing the recommendation is you should aim to have 1 or 2 portions of fruit and 3 or 4 portions of vegetables.

As for does fruit = weightloss. Well, like you say, its healthier to eat fruit rather than chocolate / cake / crisps - but in actual calories there isn't much between a two finger kitkat (104) and a banana (100) - and I can say from personal experience that its very easy to clock up 200-300 calories in grapes if you put them on a surface you walk past a lot. Certainly eating fruit and veg helps you keep 'regular' (best veg for that is sprouts!)

I eat a LOT of fruit and veg - normally about 10 portions a day - I have a portion of berries at breakfast and vegetables with my lunch and dinner and usually a portion of grapes in the evening.

5 a day is pretty much the only "rule" I follow properly. I always try to make sure that each of my 3 main meals and 2 main snacks have at least one portion - if I'm eating out it makes me look at the menu and think "where is the veg in that". Most days at work I'll scribble down what fruit and veg I've had so far so that I can work out what I need to eat in the evening.

I'll admit that some of what I eat isn't necessarily "better" than the alternatives - e.g. if I eat dried fruit it's still quite calorific, and juice has a lot of the good stuff removed, so I only count those as one, no matter how much I have, and I try to make sure that there's more veg than fruit (but I don't always manage).

My other rule is if I'm having real chocolate cravings I have to eat a piece of fruit first. If I still want the chocolate I can have it, but I have to eat the fruit first

I don't know how much of my weight loss is down to this, and how much is down to other stuff like marathons, but it's certainly a nice rule for keeping myself on track. It's turning into a bit of a motto. "WHERE IS THE VEG?"

This is one thing I can't do. There are so many vegetables that I don't like, and I'm sick of buying veg that I don't get round to using and then it rots in my fridge, so I tend not to buy it. If I have porridge, I'll have stewed apple and chopped banana in it, but other than that I feel that any fruit or veg I have on top of my normal meals stops me from losing weight. I know I should make more effort, but even having a glass of pure orange juice every day makes me put on.

I think veg is one of those things that kind of grows on you. It helps to eat lots of different kinds. I've read that the brighter/stronger/darker the colour the better it is for you - its white or neutral colour vegetables & fruit which don't have the high vitamin content - not sure where that leaves cauliflower!

I always try to put beetroot in sandwiches if i can, and I love homemade leek and potato soup, but that's about as far as I can get really. I was one of those really fussy children that refused to eat anything, grew up on processed potato products. But I really dislike salads, and feel like I need to find a way to get green veg into my diet somehow, just not sure how. I'd love to be able to eat less of the stodgy stuff and fill up on greens instead.

I love veggies so I'm lucky, but fruit I'm not a huge fan of. I do have a banana around 10 am most days because I'm hungry. I get up at 5:30 for school and eat breakfast early so by 10 I'm starving and I need something to fill me. I know it has more calories but at least it's fruit.

I also love watermelon, I eat that all the time besides that I'm not a fruit fan but I eat tons of veggies.

Sorry keep what regular? And how big is a portion? I totally agree with eating a lot of calories with grapes, some times when i'm studying in the libary i can't help but eat the whole bag..on slimmming world fruit is free(like u can eat as much as u like) but i wanna learn habits for life now just for rite now. also a banana does way more for your body than kitkat..doesn't it?

A banana is definately going to give you nutrients that aren't in a kitkat, but I guess if you're counting calories, you just have to be careful even though it's fruit - don't make the mistake that it's 'free' calories or anything. This website is good - http://www.5aday.nhs.uk/

Oh - yes - a banana is much better for you than a kitkat - I was just giving them as an example to show how similar they are in calories. A lot of people think that fruit should be eaten freely whereas it actually has quite a lot of calories and can completely stop weight loss if you fill up on it.

Actual portions of fruit and vegetables are much smaller than you would think.

Being 'regular' means going to the loo (but not just for a wee).

Wow Sarah I can't believe how small those portions are. Apparently I just had about 5 servings of broccoli in my lunch. Last night I went out for Chinese and had chicken with steamed veggies. Probably 3 cups of mixed veggies all very good....and I'm probably a days worth.

Very enlightening...thanks for posting.

Same here - I just had a huge mound of spinach with my helping of bean, vegetable and chorizo casserole, plus a jacket baked sweet potato - looking at their portion size list it adds up to about 10 portions. (Its gonna be windy around here... phew!)

Obviously their version of a portion is a lot smaller than mine!

thanks for that post SarahAnn..i think this is what stopped me losing before cos i was eating a lot of fruit compared to the recommened amount..i can eat a whole bag of grapes in one sitting..ooo i get you bout keeping regular..

Same here with the grapes - I love those big sweet juicy black ones

wana - I used to hate veg I grew up on chick sticks and alphabites. Doesn't seem to have done me tooooooo much harm

But I do like veggies now. A bit like YP has said before somewhere - I made an effort to try new veggies when I was out for dinner. Then at least you know they've been cooked in the right way. As for buying stuff off the shelves that you don't know what to do with

I got a great recipe for apple and parsnip rosti yesterday - basically grate the parsnips and the apples and bind with a bit of egg and fry. I like parsnip I never used to until I bought aunt bessie's honey roasted ones for Christmas once. I really like them now with or without honey. Oh and carrots are good, and I've found I love mange tout/sugar snaps. I can even manage to eat broccolli where my VEGETARIAN husband won't I figure if fussiest child in the world can manage to eat broccoli, then why can't he?

A good way to get some veggies in is get a veggie stir-fry pack from Tesco or Sainsbury's, whack it in a wok with soy sauce and some chicken and munch away! <- stir fry...

Mmmmmm stir fry.... Haven't had one in ages!