Hey everyone! This is my first post here (although I may or may not have been lurking the past month :P) I started WW online on Jan 9 and am down 20lbs just 8 more to my goal..wooooohooo!!!

But anyways, on to the point I am still confused about fruits and veggies being 0 points. When I add them individually on the tracker, they are 0. But, if I add them in a recipe on the recipe builder tool, they suddenly become worth points?Example: Sauteed Zucchini. If I go to the recipe builder and put in 1tsp olive oil (1pt) and 1 zucchini (it adds another point)=2pts. But, if I add them separately on the points tracker the zucchini is 0, but the olive oil is of course still 1, making the whole dish just 1 point. Make sense?? So should I actually be counting that zucchini as a point?

Same question goes for Green Smoothies. If I make a smoothie with 1c. ice, 2c. spinach, 1 banana, 1 c. pineapple, 5oz fat free plain greek yogurt. Would it be just 1 pt for the yogurt?

I only use the recipe builder for something that I am cooking a large batch of. If I did sauteed zuccini for my whole family, then I wuld add it into the RB and divide by the number of servings. If I make it for 1 person, I add it seperately.

I have asked about this a lot...here is what I think I know...lol. When you put anything in the recipe builder, be it a fruit, vegetable or meat. The receipt builder takes all the nutritional information for all those items adds them together and then does the WW calculations on them. As fruit and veggies do have nutritional counts they add up in the recipe builder. So what I have done is not add them to the recipe builder but keep them in mind as to how they impact the serving size. That is my take on the fruit and vegetable confusion with the recipe builder. I am not the only one that is using the recipe builder in this way. If you were to ask WW themselves...they use this example. If you eat an apple or two it is 0 points, if you bake them in a pie they are no longer 0 points. Me I disagree, it is everything else that is not 0 points, the apple still is.

That is how Ive been doing it for the past 3 months, and I guess its working lol. Its gotten me to eat ALOT more fresh fruits and veggies anyways. I was just more concerned with the Green Smoothie because I dont want to be getting too much.

But I get anywhere from 10-12 activity points a day from running/spin class and use a few of those points to work in my smoothie for the day. Guess as long as Im not going over the activity points I earn Im alright though.

Yeah I've had the same questions and get iffy vague answers from various leaders! Drives me crazy!!! I kinda do what Sally does...just really depends on the complexity of the recipe and if I feel like I'm cheating myself or WW by thwarting the program. But I think you are OK with counting your sauteed zucchini separately!

Btw congrats on your losses!!! NICE!

Think of smoothies like a beverage. They really are juice and we have always had to count juices. Because they are blended your body has less work to process them.

Apple juice has to be counted. but apples are 0ppv. Smoothies should be counted (they are juice) but the fruits separate and unblended are 0ppv.

I wondered the same thing. Like a smoothie, a banana and a couple strawberries = 0 pts, right? Yeah not so much in the recipe builder LOL.

I just add them individually to my tracker

Smoothies and juice are two totally different things. Yes, they are both essentially liquid fruits and veggies but the process for each is different. With juicing you are extracting just the juice from the fruit and the fiber gets left behind. Blending a smoothie includes the entire fruit, including pulp and fiber.

I frequently make single serving green smoothies before my yoga class and I never count the fruits and veggies in it.

My leader said that the reason fruits and veggies can count in certain situations is that fresh, unprocessed fruit & veg takes longer (and more energy) for the body to process than cooked or processed. This means that it will keep you full longer and burn more calories digesting than raw. Makes sense. Although, I tend to fudge this a little sometimes.... ie not counting the points for sauteed veggies on their own, but I do use the recipe builder if I am making a full dish.

I have never heard about the green smoothie. Wow that sounds really good. I think I'll try it today.

btw, what yogurt are you using that's 1pt for 5 oz? I have been counting 2 pts for 4oz (half cup) and 3 pts for 1 c for fage...

When fruits and vegetables are used in recipes, we have to count points for them if we are doing WW by the book. There is no confusion because its right in the first book they gave you.

The WW plan is based on 5 fruits and vegetables a day (hence the 5 check marks in the tracker).

Sorry I just kind of made that up off the top of my head for an example But I normally use 6oz of plain Greek Yogurt which is 2pts. Or the light n fit toasted coconut yogurt which is also 2 pts for 6oz.

Since Im doing it online I never got a manual or anything. I guess I could have browsed the site more and found some of the answers, but meh lol. I guess I will need to start counting the fruit I put in. Makes sense I guess. If I go to Tropical Smoothie, and get something with just fruit/yogurt...those count.

But it's still processed differently and it's still a beverage, that was all I'm saying. We have always had to count beverages. You could drink many many cups of fruit but you'd rarely sit down and eat that many.