I was just wondering if anyone that counts calories has adopted WW new philosophy on free fruit? Thoughts? I have not, but I was just curious if others had??

I think for some people this could be dangerous. Fruits and veggies are great, but those calories count!

I've always had a semi-free fruit plan. I don't gorge on 1300 calories of watermelon at once as part of being "on plan," but my policy has always been that if I'm still hungry once all my calories for the day have been used up, I eat some fruit to tide me over (or sometimes a green salad.)

Fruit can be pretty high in calories, so that wouldn't work for me.

I'm not really sure how WW points is done, but I'm pretty sure there must be something different about it than calorie counting that makes it work.

If I consumed my goal of 1,600 then ate some "free" fruit on top I could really be getting 1,700 or 1,800 cals which would decrease my deficit and slow my loss.

I love fruit! And eat it everyday. But I make sure to get it in my count. =)

I just started WW, but put my foods into Sparkpeople just to see how they came out. I had 29 points, plus free fruits, and that came out to around 1300 calories. I don't eat that much fruit, so the fruit and veggie calories came to about 200.

So, fruit may be "free" but it's only free if your base calories are quite low and you are eating the fruit and veggies on top of that.

Under Sparkpeople, they were having me eat between 1450-1700 calories per day. Normally I would eat the 1700, so I'm guessing I'll lose some weight on WW since the calories are so much lower. Although, with the better choices I'm making now with the nudge from WW, I don't feel hungrier.

I have found that I can very easily overeat with fruit, especially with grapes. I definitely have to count the calories in them.

I count my fruit and veggies. If I dont then I worry. I usually wont deny myself any sort of fruit or veggies but I do add it in it helps my mind feel better about it even if its not helping my body any.

See that's my school of thought. You tell me it's free.....all bets are off. That would so not work for me.

It's free, not a free-for-all. WW guidelines still state that you should have around 5 servings a day of fruits and veggies, and only eat until you are satisfied, not stuff.

No - I count everything, even fruits and veggies. I try to get good servings of them in every day but I have to count the calories or I could very easily go way over.

I've never been a big fruit eater. I enjoy an apple, or the packed in juice/water grapefruit/pineapple, or an occasional orange. Hmmm maybe some blueberries. But if you're given a "free" food most people will go overboard on it. I'd rather go nuts on a nice big dark salad with lots of good stuff in it, or have something I really want than fruit. Not the most mindful eating, but honest.

I have also found that if I don't count everything, I am more likely to hit a plateau or gain weight. Free fruits? hahaha! those really large bananas (the dole kind that you find in the supermarket) are almost 200 calories!!!

Bananas
Mangoes
Papayas

are very high in sugar and calories and can set some people up for "insulin spikes" which may make them crave sweets again. I know for me, I am easily stimulated by sugar and sweet, so fruits must be counted and as a rule, I avoid the tropical really sweet ones in favor of the berries, and ones with lower glycemic indexes.

I've tried "free fruit" many time, and it doesn't work for me. My weight loss stalls when I don't limit fruit, because I can easily eat 1,000 calories a day ( or more, if I don't mind diarrhea) just from fruit.

I even went on an all-fruit diet once, and still managed to maintain my weight rather than lose (and I was eating nothing but fruit, just eating as much as I wanted).

That being said I use exchanges to count calories, and I'm more generous with my fruit allotments than my starch/breads.

My best friend has been very successful with WW. Her and I often have friendly "debates" and discussing the similarities of WW and CC. I was ragging on the free fruits thing.

I DO understand the concept of the free fruit thing in the WW points model. Eating a big apple IS more beneficial than a 100-calorie pack of oreos or something, and people should be encouraged to eat an apple over the alternative. Making them free offers that encouragement; it tips the decision scale in the right direction.

I don't think the word "free" works in the CC model, however. 0 points does not equal 0 calories. CC and WW are both based on calories, but a point isn't a fixed amount of calories, so they're not necessarily interchangeable.

I can eat a lot of fruit. If I allowed myself to consider it free, I'd be able to consume a few hundred extra calories everyday. That wouldn't work for me. I'd much rather count the calories in fruit. Because I know from experience that 100 cal of fruit is much more satisfying than 100 cal or junk.

Fruit is "free" on the new WW plan because the calories for a "reasonable" amount of fruit have already been factored into your points. The calories didn't just dissapear. The materials explicitly states that free fruit does not work with the old plan because those extra calories aren't factored in. For much the same reason, free fruit wouldn't be a great idea for calorie counters