How Much is Too Much Fruit??
 

I have been doing Weight Watchers on my own using my old books on the Points program, but I recently switched to the new Points Plus program by going to one meeting to get all of the new books. The first week I tried it, I lost 2.7 pounds but this past week, my second week on the new plan, I gained 2 back. I stayed either at my points target or about 5 points below every day and I didn't use any of the weekly points. I did eat about 3-5 pieces of fruit every day, which I have been counting as 0. Do you think I was eating too much 0 point fruit? I can't think of any other reason for gaining. I was expecting a loss and was very disappointed. I like the new program and want to give it a fair chance. I guess I will wait a few more weeks and see if I get a loss before I decide if I should switch back to the old program. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

I think 5 servings of fruit might be a bit much. If you are eating so many 0 point foods that you can't meet your daily points target that could be a problem.

I'd suggest making it a priority to eat all your points every day and maybe cutting down to 2 or 3 servings of fruit. That's about what I have. A banana in the morning (which I count as 2 fruit servings, because our bananas are pretty big) and an apple or orange later in the day.

Also make sure you are meeting all your good health guidelines -- veggies, healthy oil, dairy, water, exercise. Usually you'll know if you're having too much fruit if you have trouble checking off all your little boxes for those things.

I agree with Spooky, if you're eating so much fruit you can't hit your daily points target, you might be eating too much.

Plus, if you're eating lots of 0 pt veggies with all of that fruit, you might want to cut back. On my eTools it says 5 total servings of fruits and veggies is recommended.

Also, what are you counting as a serving? For fruit, a single serving is 1/2 cup, so depending on the size of the fruit you're eating, you might actually be getting more than just 5 servings.

I agree---5 is too much, three is probably good though---another option would be to 'track' your fruit if you go over 3---I don't think there is anything wrong with eating more than 3 fruits if you chose to count them as 1 or 2 points a piece after 3---just a thought:)

I was thinking of doing that actually, eating 2-3 fruits and counting the rest as 1 point. As far as what I was counting as 1 serving, I was following the serving size for the various fruits in my old points books. For example, I was counting 1 cup of watermelon as a serving and 1.5 cups of strawberries as a serving. I didn't see much information in the new Point Plus books about fruit serving sizes or limits. I don't really eat 0 point veggies, just the 3-5 servings of fruit. If the e-tools is saying 5 servings of fruit and veggies is ok, I don't really think I am going over then. I will try cutting back to 3 fruits this week and see if that makes a difference.

I eat about 3-4 servings of fruit a day and I am steadily losing, but everyone processes sugars differently, so it might possibly be fruit. But, there are other possible reasons like excessive sodium, did you start exercising and could be retaining water, monthly cycle...etc. I was at a plateau and stuck at 212 for about 3 weeks and I finally broke through it. And I agree that you should definitely follow the GHG's to a tee and make sure you are filling up on the good stuff.

You don't eat any vegetables? I think the healthiest, balanced diet would include both fruits and veg -- not for etools, even, just so you get the most nutrition bang for your buck.

I use WW online, and in both the eTools section and the articles online, in PointsPlus, WW counts 1/2 a cup as one serving of fruit. So between the watermelon and the strawberries, that's 5 servings right there.

I would eat all the daily points and the majority of the weeklies. That is when I lose the most. Then again, everyone is different.

what are you eating in addition to fruit?

I think the zero point fruit can be a danger zone because they are higher in calories than vegetables and it can be easier to overeat because of the sweetness. Don't eat fruit 'just because' only eat it if you are actually hungry or as part of a meal/planned snack. Watch the portions and pay attention to what a serving size actually is.

I always ate fruit and factored in the points so when we switched to PP I had a hard time at the beginning. I ate more fruit than I should have for the reasons I mentioned above. Now I'm trying to be more aware of what, when, why and how much I eat.

Hi, I've been doing the old system and I've lost some weight and then I got very curious about the new one so I went to WW and got the new books like you did! ...that's funny! Anyway, I am giving it a try this week but somehow this free fruit thing seems very strange since fruits have a lot of sugar. I am tempted to go back to the old system since I still have the books and I don't have to keep re-calculating everything (specially the Lean Cuisine boxes). Good Luck to you!
Please keep in touch!

I eat veggies, just not really 0 point veggies. My roommate and I are doing WW together so we cook our meals together. She isn't really a veggie eater so we end up making corn and potatoes a lot and when we have broccoli or green beans it usually has some kind of sauce on it so it it wouldn't be 0 points either, usually about 1-2 points per serving.

In addition to fruit my typical day is:

Breakfast- a bowl of cereal with unsweetened vanilla almond breeze milk and a cup of coffee with 1 tbspn no sugar coffee mate

Lunch- a lean cuisine and a piece of fruit

Mid-day snack- fruit

Dinner- we make lots of chicken and usually have two veggies on the side but as I stated above we do not use the 0 point veggies

Other snacks- after dinner I usually have a snack or two depending on my points. The snacks I choose from are skinny cow ice cream sandwiches, flavored Greek yogurt, 100 cal bags of smart pop white cheddar popcorn, rold gold pretzels, light mozzarella cheese sticks, funky monkey dried fruit ( I know these aren't 0), soy joy bars, or more fruit

I have been choosing fruit a lot for an after dinner snack. Usually two pieces with one of the other snack choices above. So that's one with lunch, one before dinner, and two after dinner. Some days I will also have a banana with my cereal which is why I said 3-5 servings of fruit.

Anyway, I feel like I generally make healthy choices now and since I don't always go to my full points target i thought that it should make up for eating too much fruit if that were the case. I did just starting incorporating beef into my diet again, maybe that could be messing with my system?

I weigh in on Friday so I am hoping for the best this week and trying not to get too discoursed by last weeks results.

I think 5 pieces of fruit a day is really a lot. Was it your habit to eat that much fruit daily before you began WW? I have a girlfriend who on the older WW plan always ate that much fruit, even when she had to count it.
In contrast, I was not a fruit eater. My leader says that the idea behind making fruit 0 pts was to encourage people who did not eat fruit to try it. As a result, I do try to have fruit at least once a day, although I don't always.
Perhaps you need to make more of an effort to have 0pt/low point vegs available to bulk up your meals. Someone made a suggestion at my meeting that I tried & it works: when you have time, like on a Sunday afternoon, make up a large quantity of side vegetable dishes. Then you can easily microwave a potion later in the week. Roasting veges with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar and seasonings, is easy and they reheat well. Make up a container of salad, and just add the dressing to the portion you are going to eat with each meal. You can buy cut up carrots and celery to snack on, or make your own. Try making 0 pts soup--it freezes well.

As to the beef, I would go crazy if all I ate was chicken. I have found that it is not usually the protein that causes problems, its the carbs. Try incorporating more protein in your diet. Carbs, and especially the sugars in fruit, are going to cause problems with your blood sugar levels, causing more dramatic metabolic swings (I live with a diabetic). Vegetables take longer to metabolize.

Taking care of yourself means not just preparing what your roomate/spouse/kids wants--its making sure you have the foods (tools) that you need to make WW work for you. Fruit is easy, but perhaps you need to vary your meal planning more. Now please don't take this as an insult, it is just an older lady imparting life lessons learned the hard way: "not liking veges" could be interpreted as being somewhat childish. Adults have to learn to eat the things that are good for their bodies and their health. One needs to find recipes/ways to prepare green and yellow vegetables in ways that you can tolerate, if not like, or it will be very difficult, if not impossible to be healthy and strong. Just one of those "acting like an adult sucks" truths.
I don't really like fruit, but I am eating it because it is good for me. :p