I only really count the calories in fruit and veg like bananas, avocados, any dried fruits and potatoes.
Most other fruit and vegetable I don't bother counting. If I'm making a vegetable stew, I'll count the calories in the beans, the sauce, and then maybe add 20 for the rest of the veg if there's a lot, but I don't see much point in counting it It hasn't hampered my weight loss, and it means I end up eating more veggies since I'm not 'using up' calories on them.
This might not work for everyone, so I was curious what the people on here do?
I use a calorie counter on another website and I count every calorie at this point. I have to because if I didn't then I would probably go into graze mode and go way over my target calories for the day even eating veggies and fruit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by serendipity907
I only really count the calories in fruit and veg like bananas, avocados, any dried fruits and potatoes.
Most other fruit and vegetable I don't bother counting. If I'm making a vegetable stew, I'll count the calories in the beans, the sauce, and then maybe add 20 for the rest of the veg if there's a lot, but I don't see much point in counting it It hasn't hampered my weight loss, and it means I end up eating more veggies since I'm not 'using up' calories on them.
This might not work for everyone, so I was curious what the people on here do?
I count fruit, but not veggies. The plan I'm using, The Complete Beck Diet for Life, advocates counting everything on the theory that overeaters don't need to be thinking of any food as "free." But then she delineates things like a serving of onions is 1 cup, chopped. Heck, that might as well be free, because I'm sure not sitting down to a cup of chopped onions!
But what a bargain most veggies are! Tomatoes are in season here and I LOVE that I can slice an entire big tomato and eat it with dinner for a whopping 33 calories!
Yes, you'd be suprised how fast it all adds up. I have a huge bowl of sauteed veggies every night which is usually just brocolli, asparagus, onion, bell pepper and because of the volumn it usually runs me 100 cals depending on what other stuff I add (i.e. sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, jalepenos, etc.)
I count most veggies unless its a small piece of celery or green onion in a sauce. On a typical day, about 200 calories come from my fruits and veggies. That is a lot of calories to overlook.
Thinking about it now, I should count them since being a vegetarian they make up a large amount of my food, as Passionista said. But I seem to be okay letting the sprigs of broccoli slide, and accounting for the bananas
I think sometimes I have a tendency to under eat on more 'filling' foods, and pack out meals with low-cal veggies, so I guess it's breaking even somewhere.
I almost feel like I'm doing the counting calories thing wrong now
Thinking about it now, I should count them since being a vegetarian they make up a large amount of my food, as Passionista said. But I seem to be okay letting the sprigs of broccoli slide, and accounting for the bananas
I think sometimes I have a tendency to under eat on more 'filling' foods, and pack out meals with low-cal veggies, so I guess it's breaking even somewhere.
I almost feel like I'm doing the counting calories thing wrong now
It really, really doesn't matter as long as you are consistent and are seeing results.
I mean, I think I eat 1600 calories a day and burn 2400, but I don't really know--all I really know is that I burn 1.5-2 lbs a week on average, which means that I am burning around 1000 calories a day more than I am consuming. If it turned out my scale was broken and I was actually eating 3000 calories a day (unlikely), I wouldn't suddenly gain weight back--the only way that could possibly be true is if I was also wrong about how many calories I was burning, and I was really burning around 4000.
However you are counting calories, and whatever calculators tell you your numbers SHOULD be, the amount of weight you are losing (on average) IS the size of your deficit. It's the only real data you have--everything else is an estimate based on averages.
So if you are eating more or less the same things (averaged over a week or 10 days) and losing an amount of weight you are comfortable with and not starving/having break out eating, then you have the right size deficit. Everything else is just a tool to figure out that spot.
If you are not losing weight, then you don't have a deficit, even if calculators say you should.
I count most, but not all. I definitely count all fruit. And if I'm having something with a lot of veggies, I count it. But if it's just a small amount, especially a slice of tomato or lettuce on a sandwich, I usually don't count it. But I do tend to overestimate my other foods and I burn a lot every day so I think it all evens out.
Do you count the calories in fruit and veg?
It hasn't hampered my weight loss, and it means I end up eating more veggies since I'm not 'using up' calories on them.
