It was me who said to take out the calories from one thing and replace it with the fruit calories - if she wanted to keep the fruit.

Look, I'll be frank. I'm here in the weight loss section because I had a baby 16 weeks ago and obviously gained some weight from that. I have maintained for 6 years.

Calories in, calories out - it doesn't matter if you do WW, calorie counting, Atkins, or even "no diet" - if you eat more calories than you need to maintain or burn, you will not lose weight - that's it.

You will not find one person on this site who is a maintainer or who has successfully lost their weight who ate more calories than their body needed to maintain or lose. None.

She wanted to know what was going wrong and she has made it clear that she did not realize that she was consuming over her calorie allowance in fruit. She has found the solution to her question, and it is simply that she is eating too many calories. Whether it be fruit, broccoli, a chocolate bar, it does not mater - a calorie is an energy unit no matter what colour or taste it has.

With all due respect, you are over 50lbs heavier than the OP and just because you can lose without counting fruit, does not mean she can. The smaller you get, the tighter you need to keep your diet.

I agree--

I was disputing the assertion that one should have to cut out something like meat or whatever just to get in a banana. Obviously, overeating on fruit will not lead to weight loss. I'm sorry if I was unclear. I responded the way I did because people were chastising her for not counting fruit like it should *never* be done, which I have found, does not have to be true.

It's all about budgeting. You've got a calorie budget you must adhere to. You get to decide what you spend those calories on. If one wants more fruit or anything else for that matter, one will have to play around and shift the calories so they stay within their budget.

Obviously the higher the nutritional value of those calories the much better off one will be. Empty calories, calories with little or no nutrition is not going to keep you full, it's going to bring on cravings for more empty calorie foods, so you want as little or none of those as possible. We need to be FULL and satiated from those calories, so where they come from matters a lot.

You mentioned that you haven't counted fruit calories, according to your stats, it looks as if you are fairly early in on your journey, that coupled with the fact that you are somewhat heavier than the OP, so for now, you may still get a calorie deficit while not counting your fruit. But I am afraid at some point, and some point soon, that's not going to work out so well and you may be frustrated with either slow losses, no losses or a gain. But it's nothing to fear. You'll do a little tweaking, a little shifting of calories and you'll be on your losing ways again.

I firmly believe that one should always count their fruit (and veggies for that matter) calories, even from the start. I hold that if you are counting your calories, you should count ALL of them. It keeps you aware, forces you to make better choices, keeps you brutally honest, teaches you about portion control and budgeting, calorie values, what's worth it, what's not, avoids the *free* food mindset, etc and it helps to avoid situations where one is working very hard, with little or no results, or a gain, gets frustrated and throws their hands up.

I don't have anything new to add but I wanted to say, I strongly agree with rockin robin. If you are going to count calories, count them all! I never understood the weight watchers program, just for that reason. How could a person lose a large amount of weigh while eating a free range of fruits and veggies. I eat 500 calories or more from produce most days. I couldn't imagine losing weight while adding that amount on top of my allowed calories.

i had the same challenge when i started, i stopped losing weight for some weeks. What i did was to check to be sure i was eating healthy, continued eating healthy, added exercises to my diet and i started losing weight again.
The main thing for me is not to be discouraged.