Fruit
 

Hi Everyone!

Do any of you measure/weigh your fruit? For the past couple weeks I've been eating an entire container of strawberries and blackberries. Both are low on the glycemic index and calories. I just don't know how much is too much when it comes to fruit!

So far it hasn't affected my weightloss, last week I lost over 4lbs but I want to make sure I'm getting all of my fruits and veggies in everyday.

nope. sometimes i'll eat a bunch of bananas a day... i actually find i lose better when i do that - i think because im grazing the entire day

WW defines a "serving" of fruit as 1/2 cup.

I do measure, and get about 3-4 servings (1 1/2 - 2 cups) of fruit everyday. I then eat veggies, too, to meet the guidelines.

When I checked my blueberries on wwonline this morning they defined one serving as one cup. Maybe things have changed with points plus?

I use WW online, and points plus. On both the healthy guideline checklist, if you hover over it, it says a serving is 1/2 a cup. Plus I think I saw it in one of the articles online, too.

Here we go! I knew I saw it in one of the articles (on GHG. Which makes total sense, yet I spent like 15 minutes trying to find it. Haha)

1. Fruits, vegetables and leafy greens
Serving sizes are 1 cup for leafy greens and 1/2 cup for all other vegetables and fruits. The lettuce alone in a large salad may well count for 2 or more vegetable servings. The default portion for most fruits and vegetables in the Plan Manager is one cup.

So you all think that the fruit is helping you. Are you all on the PP with WW?
I have started today with more fruit and vegie I hope it works for me. Thanks

You are eating too much fruit when your weight loss stalls or you can't get all your daily points in. Fruit has a lot of carbs. Maybe eating more vegetables would be better.

i put in blueberries into the tracker.. i put in some ridiculous numbers... 200 cups of blueberries is still 0 points =p

i got this from the handout when i WI today.. "is there a limit on how many servings of fruit and vegetables i should eat per day?"
Answer: No, we'd like you to eat at least 5, to fulfill your GHG requirements. We'd be happy if you had a few more, too. because they would probably "crowd out" other less great choices. But do eat to satisfaction not to excess: while there is no limit, we did use 5 servings as the basis for the allowance for fruits and vegetables that we built into the daily points plus target.

I've been curious about this. I don't really get it, and it is in large part what threw me off of trying PP.

The average banana is about 100 calories. Five of those is 500 extra calories, and that is just the recommended allowance? You can go over?

How can an extra 500 calories possibly be "free"? You may as well have eaten a quarter pounder with cheese. I know for cholesterol's sake the banana is the better choice, of course, but as far as weight loss is concerned it is still 500 calories less of a deficit.

Granted, berries are a little lower than bananas-about 80 calories a cup.

Am I misunderstanding? Is there some metabolic magic that happens when the calories come from a fruit or veggie as opposed to other foods?

There's no magic. But, a banana is still better for you than that 100 calorie snack of cheez-its.

I know there's no actual strict limit on the amount of fruit and vegetables we are told to eat on plan, but there still has to be common sense added in as well as personal responsibility as there is on any plan.

If I ate 20 bananas every night and counted them as zero after I ate all my other food, I know I'd either gain or not lose weight.

However, a reasonable amount of fruit and vegetables are already included into the daily plan. They aren't zero calories, they're just already counted in before you even get your daily points number. Let's say between 5-8 as that's what they show being tracked. They're included as to encourage people who wouldn't normally pick up the fruit or veggies to eat those more than the would the 100 cal snack packs. (As they might've chosen on the last plan, hey, they were both 2 points, right?)

Fruit and vegetables can even be more filling than that 100 cal snack pack.

But, it's about finding a healthy balance, and encouraging people to eat more fruit & veg by giving it to them for "free" is doing just that.

This comes up alot in our meeting. People mistake "zero pts" for "free". Nothing is free unless you are drinking water imo lol! Like the above poster, it's a better choice than ice cream for 500 calories. That's how i took it anyways. Oh she also says weekly "we all didn't get here from too much fruit" .. i love her, she's a riot!!

No, you're not misunderstanding. WW is just trying to encourage people to eat more fruits and veggies. And, I admit: when I've done WW in the past, I rarely ate fruit. Because it cost points that I would rather spend on something else. So now, I eat a small piece of fruit with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don't think I've ever eaten fruit so consistantly before in my entire life.

There is a common sense aspect to it. Don't gorge on fruits, because the sugar and carbs could cause you stall or gain. Don't only eat fruits. As Quilter said, if you are eating so much fruit that you are full and can't meet your daily requirements, well, then, you're eating too much fruit.

I'm with PPP and Tudor. On the old plans, I'd save my points for chocolate or other treats. Here, I'm eating zero point fruit and I'm full - which is a way better option. I've never eaten so many fruits and veggies in my life! LOL! The sad part is that I'm probably eating the RDA of those fruits and veggies for the first time in my life as well.