Anyone who has been dieting a while, may start to wonder why they are paying so much attention to counting calories in fruit, or other foods that are typically thought of as good for you and good for dieters. Even though fruits and vegetables are indeed very nutritious, their calories may need to be counted to maintain steady weight loss. This can be an oddly tough subject as well. Between the odd dieting books out there that tell you that calories do not count, but that only the type of calories count, as well as the other idea that people do not need to lose weight to be healthy (which may have truth to it depending on the circumstance), the information can be quite confusing and tough to get through. Where does that leave people trying to decide whether or not to count these calories?
The question lies on when the weight has to come off by, how much weight has to be lost, and why you are losing weight to begin with. As an example, a figure athlete or bodybuilder who needs to get into a condition with a ridiculously low bodyfat percentage will need to do things differently than the general weight loss population. The general population though, probably is not going to worry about lower calorie fruits as long as the number on the scale continues to drop. Assuming that you are not concerned with getting into extreme weight loss territory, you are probably in this group. Some may do really well disregarding fruit and veggie calories, and keeping track of other calories that are not plant based. While, on the other side, letting the calories from plant foods like fruits and vegetables slide.
Here are a couple of things people who are concerned with over eating can do. the first is that they can just start counting the calories in fruit. Since we can safely assume this is not appealing for most, most will choose something else. The other option or strategy, is to make some different fruit choices than usual. As an example, large bananas are decently nutritious, but fairly calorie dense, with plenty of sugar. Each large banana has approximately 25-30 grams of carbohydrate, with almost none of it being fiber. To contrast that, blueberries only have 80 calories per one cup serving, and 20 grams of carbs. The carb count also includes the four and a half grams of fiber that each cup contains. This equals a net carbohydrate count of only about fifteen grams.
If you are still kicking around the idea of counting all the calories in fruit, know that your decision should include your goals, and also whether you are willing to choose more low calorie and also low sugar fruits.
