hey all,
i only started last week to diet and to be honest i never counted calories before. in fact i thought only anorexics did that, obviously i am wrong!!

now to my questions: i have read in some weight loss diaries that things like vegetables and fruit are "not counted" or "free food". now if i go by that, my cal count goes down extremely and i do this diet to be a bit thinner but also to be well (i have a number of chronic illnesses unrelated to weight, i just want to live as well as possible with my lung, bowel and irrigation problems), so i don't want my cal count to be under 1000.

so my question is: do i count cals in fruit and vegetables?
i read that an apple has a mean cal count of 50, a small fruit like a berry of about 2, a banana of 100, a carrot of 40, a piece of cucumber of 10, a leaf of lettuce of 10-15, etc...
i usually dine either soup or salad, and count my bowl of salad as 300 cals, for instance!

what do you guys think? also,is this a stupid question? i am new to this so i apologize if this was already brought up earlier.

thanx, mila

I have never really taken cal counting seriously and only today have decided to tally up what I am eating. I have included the banana I ate as 100 cal could make a difference, however with small calorie foods like peppers which are something like 6 cals each I wouldn't count. I would prob count anything 40-50 cals up but I guess everyone is different.

Hey Mila!

I suggest that you count fruits and veggies; i mean they are calories too, right? This is just what i think, other people may not agree.

ps. an apple, depending on its size is more around 100 calories!

Ditto...

Until i started weighing and measuring and counting calories of things i ate, i would have sworn on a stack of bibles that I ate right and just couldn't lose weight.

While I don't think you should be obsessive about it- long term anyhow - I think everything should be measured and calories of everything should be counted... just so you can see where calories are sneaking in.

It's just as difficult to lose weight NOT eating enough as it is by eating too much so make sure you are staying within a proper calorie range I'd suggest a site like Free Diet Plans at SparkPeople to help you get started

I count the fruits and veggies. However, I do skip stuff like onions, garlic, etc. because they are so low cal. A 100 calories banana makes a big difference, though, at least to me. I think the reason that some people skip the calories is because of the idea that with certain foods, it takes more energy to digest them than they actually contain. I guess I feel that the body uses a certain amount of energy to digest anything I eat, and I don't know how much (exactly) that is, so I'm just adding up how much I take in. Take a look at my journal, if you like, to see how I do things.

Anyway, if you are just counting to make sure you get enough calories, definitely include the fruit and veg. However, a bowl of salad without dressing may not be 300 calories, especially is it is mostly lettuce.

they contain calories, so if you're counting calories, yes, they should be included.
what kind of salad are you having for 300 cals? a typical 8oz garden salad is around 40 calories, without dressing.
I think you're adding up whole pieces instead of what you use for the ingredients. for example, 1/2 cup of cucumber is 8 cal, not 1 piece. 1 cup of carrots is 52, etc. so break all that down to how much you actually use in a salad and its a lot smaller.

well i do use dressing on it (virgin olive oil and balsamico vinegar plus salt), and a lot of lettuce!!! i love salad and i eat huge ones, sometimes i put an egg in, etc... that is why i averaged it at 300 cal, it might actually be less, you people are right!!

thank you very much for your answers, it is just when i read some of the weight loss diaries i get very confused! also i have no clue what catabolic food means, or if there really is a difference for your weight if you eat 1200 good cals (as in healthy food) or 1000 bad ones (chocolate). some people seem to eat a lot of sweets and stuff, just less normal food... i reckon that it is always about intake and expenditure (I study a medical degree and feel stupid not knowing this stuff), but i somehow still think it is much better to eat a 200 cal salad than a 200 cal chocolate bar.

love, mila

it is much better to eat a 200 cal salad than a 200 cal piece of chocolate. even though they're the same calories, a person could eat 5 pieces of that chocolate, so that's 1000 calories. who could eat 5 large salads at once? so while they contain the same amount of calories, after you eat that one piece of chocolate, you're still going to be hungry, but if you eat the salad, you'll be full.

as for eating 1200 calories of junk vs. healthy food, for calories alone, it doesn't matter. what comes into play then is all the other stuff (vitamins, nutrients, etc) our bodies gain from eating healthy food.

Personally I don't think calories r the be-all and end-all of weight loss. Fats etc come into it too; a pack of "snack-a-jacks" for example has the same calories as a regular packet of Walkers crisps, BUT they are really low in fat levels which is much better.

So I myself only count calories very roughly -"about 1200" or whatever, and I just estimate what a meal of veg will be to keep a rough guide along with keeping track of how many cals I burn in a gym session. But it's a choice everyone will see differently, and I guess it depends how religious your weight-loss regime is going to be.