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| Asian pear with cinnamon, good, but a small slice will do! |
** special note for my Paleoish friends*** I still hop on a calibrated scale 1-2 times a month at WW. I DON'T count points, but I do want access to a scale that is going to weigh me clothed, calibrated, and what my doctor will see my weight.
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| Berries are my favorite fruit |
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| Orange slice after a 2 hour long hike in Torrey Pines |
I sleep better, maintain my weight better and just have fewer binge urges when I keep my fruit levels on the lower side.
Here's what worked and is working for me:
1. Fruit played NO part of weight loss. I think high sugar fruit like bananas, pineapple, and other fruits probably stopped my weight loss progress in the past.
2. Fruit does play a part of weight maintenance. Berries and occasional in season fruit slices. I eat fruit usually only in the last meal of the day.
3. Fruit plays a part in fuel for long travel days. I can often have some pineapple slices in the mornings of travel days where I'll be walking and sight seeing all day long for hours on end.
What did not work for me:
1. Eating loads of fruit for weight loss. It didn't work! Bananas made me sick to my stomach and I ate them because WW told me they were a good source of potassium. I must have parked my brain at the door of the WW meeting. Glad I went back and picked up my backbone while I was at it. Not WW fault, by the way. But I did do some banana un-brain washing somewhere on one of my walks... Now I understand.... fruits are NOT Zero points, for me.
2. Eating dates and raisins in weight maintenance daily. Too much sugar... just too much. I might have dates or raisins 1-2 times a year. Great for hiking for hours. Not so much for a desk job.
3. Binging on fruit: Yes! I probably did this. I know because I averted a binge last week on pineapple. Sigh..... Onward. I count myself lucky as I know there are people who cannot eat fruit at all due to binge urges. That's a tough one!
So, my take away lesson...... yes, fruit probably did "make me fat". But to know is the real gift. To bust that myth and do what I need to do for myself is pure gold. No longer checking my brain at the door. I'm tough, not moderate when it comes to fruit.
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| Fruit bear from an Alaskan cruise |
Thank you Karen. This post has really crystallised something for me - even though I now 'only' eat fruit in the form of berries (and a few pomegranate arils) I probably need to look a bit carefully at my fruit intake during the week. Not that I'm looking to lose, but to make maintenance easier. I've been having small/moderate amounts of blueberries and raspberries daily with yoghurt, but every day - maybe that isn't the most sensible mid-morning snack to choose.
ReplyDeleteDeniz, I love those pomegranate arils. I do those from time to time when they are in season because some of my co-workers have trees and bring them in to work!!!!! One of the only foods I'll eat from work. Yeah, I tend to eat my berries with my dinner. The placement with a big meal at the END of my day seems to really work well for me.
DeleteI look at fruit -in some respects- as I do alcohol. Although 'allowed', and having some medicinal properties (more for a few fruits)...in the long run, the body still metabolizes like sugar. Maybe a tad slower than white sugar, but still like sugar. Like you, I can't eat a whole lot and keep this weight. I probably should eat more. 4-5 times a week I have about 4-6 dried cherries; for my bladder. It helps that I adore cherries. But I know not to overdue, unless I'm actually having some kidney stone cramps. (which, thankfully, seems to be becoming a thing of the past.) I do like red grapes, a lot, but keep those to just a tiny bunch. I don't eat much fruit beyond that. I am looking forward to finding those red grapefruit morphed fruit-I can't recall but I think they are called mineola's-that I discovered last year about this time at Pavillions. (no where else.) I'll look for them today after work. But yeah, fruit is a lot of natural sugar and so I avoid mostly. I do try to get cantaloupe in the warmer months; I don't much enjoy the taste of any melon, but they are pretty good for us, so I try to eat a little. LOVE fresh pineapple, so really am careful about those, too.
ReplyDeleteGwen, smart on limiting fruit- IMO. Blood oranges... love them from the farmers market , few small slices. Not sure about the morphed grapefruit.. tell me if you find them.
DeleteJust putting fruit into the insulin spiking bucket for me helped me know when and how to use them for my best health.
Such a great post, as usual, Karen!
ReplyDeleteI don't believe I've ever commented here before, but gotta tell you, you are an inspiration! I love your analytical style.
The fruit thing is such a trap that a lot of "dieters" fall into. I know someone who is currently on WW, doing quite well, and she has a banana and strawberries for breakfast every day because they are free. She was frustrated at her stall lately, and I made the comment that I wish I could eat fruit like she does, but it's too much sugar for me (I didn't offer this without her first starting the conversation, and made it an "I" statement) It didn't sink in for her, and that's OK, but it kind of makes me angry that fruit is seen as "free", when it's really not.
Off my soapbox
Mainly wanted to tell you how much I admire your story, and your approach, and willingness to share. As you say, we are stronger together!
Jess, thanks for stopping by the blog... I was sooooo hooked on massive amounts of strawberries, bananas, and berries on big bowls of "healthy whole wheat" waffles and cereals when I was 60-70 pounds overweight. The carb aspect of even fruit so escaped me. I think listening too much to the people who could tolerate fruit and still lose weight (think WW discussion at the meetings). Sigh.... live and learn and clarity to connect our own dots.
DeleteI so know too many people , who even when they ask me for advice, say ... oh, fruit did NOT make me fat... I pray for clarity daily!
Hi Karen ... new reader here, also a Karen. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is a timely post as I was just writing up today's post and talking about how I plan to reduce but not eliminate my fruit consumption.
It's the dried fruits that I can't control and stop me dead in my tracks if I even entertain eating them. I am however reducing the fresh fruit I eat daily down to 2 small servings, maybe less as time goes on. Fresh fruit isn't a gateway food for me and doesn't hinder my weight loss or cause cravings for other carbs. Raisins and dates on the other hand ... yikes!
I am in weight loss mode and not maintenance so things may change as time goes by as you have experienced.
That WW allows 'free' fruit is mind boggling.
Dried fruit was really a binge trigger for me, as much as nuts. Combining dried fruit and nuts (think Lara bar) nearly de-railed me on my weight maintenance efforts this time around. Thank goodness I figured it out and reversed my trend.
DeleteGood luck! I added your blog to my feedly blog reader. If my carpool holds up, I can read AND comment a little bit more than I have been doing. :) Karen P.
Interesting that you weigh in at WW!! Do you have to pay for that? I trust my scales at home and every now and always hop on the scales if I go to the doctor. I'm with you on fruit. Sometimes I have a half a banana or half a small apple but that's it really. I would only do that about once a week. I do have apple or peach crumble dessert (primal/low carb) on very rare occasions too but that is definitely treat food!!
ReplyDeleteLynda.. I struggle with weighing in at WW. Sometimes I want to start a local Paleo meet up group and then form a sub-group for weight maintainers. And it would be FREE or a buy me a coffee once and awhile if you feel like it. The former CEO of WW is traveling Asia on my WW money. Thousands of dollars of my money. My fault, I opened my wallet and I know that WW has to make money for their shareholders.
DeleteThe Paleo meet up group would be such a better fit for me. Maybe I'll need to do that.... :) I love to inter-act with the long term maintainers in the group. I also speak up when asked and I'm careful about what I say "I have better results when I eliminated grains and sugars". "I found canola oil to be high inflammatory -WW still lists canola as heart healthy....... whoa!!! Holy Guacamole... so, so WRONG.
The in real life supporters and the fact my WW meeting room is next to Trader Joes (you must come here if you visit the US) I tend to go 2 times a month. I love having a few, thin apple slices with cinnamon about 1-2 weeks. Or a slice or two of a thinly sliced orange. So good, but not too much sugar.
A few blogging friends have suggested that I may want to try eating less fruit, to see how it goes. Except--I really love sweets, and fruit is the best sweets to eat vs. cookies, cupcakes, brownies, etc... I may have compromised my figure with fruit because we all draw the line somewhere, and I really like fruit. However, dried fruit also causes me to have issues including cravings--so I have to limit that. :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Marion... yes, fruit is better than the baked good in one way. The way I think of it is that any amount of sugar- grains, fruit, baked goods.... will raise my insulin, glucose and those "fat storing" hormones. If I can customize my fruit intake to keep my body hormonal signals to a "fat burning" state, that's my nirvana. Once I switched my body over to fat burning... my cravings went away, I got a much leaner body - reducing the belly/visceral fat. Sometimes I need the carbs from fruit,and I feel a little better right away if I have a little bit of fruit. Usually post gym or long hike. I also like the higher vitamin C from and the micronutrients/macronutrients. I can also get that from a variety of veggies, too. Plus some great memories camping in Michigan eating wild blueberries and going to our back yard in Indiana eating wild raspberries. Glad you are aware of your cravings.
DeleteMany of us have had the exact food evolution Marion describes.
DeleteMoving off processed to whole foods. Or even starting more basic than that - moving from junk to better quality processed and then eventually moving to whole foods.
And yes, then fine tuning within whole foods for better balance too.
This, in my opinion, is a factor of how much excess we want off our bodies. Those of us who have it mostly all off, have fine tuned our balance greatly as we have (often) been at this for a long time.
Marion is right that there are people who chose to stay at higher weight levels and fine tune less (speaking in very general terms).
I think that can be a good answer for a lot of people IF it allows them to stop yoyo ing and maintain. I can think of blogger friends who are maintaining in the 170-180 range. They are happy there.
I was unhappy even at 155 (my first maintenance level) because all the excess was on my torso (belly mostly) and I was totally disproportionate in clothes. Not happy having to alter. Not happy walking around looking like everyone else who looked like they needed to drop 20 lbs. I wanted to do what I needed to do to drop the last of it.
So I think the happiness factor is really important. If happy where one is, then that level of fine tuning probably okay. If not happy, then extra fruit is not more important than the persons inner/outer balance. The person is the most important, not the type of food.
Great points, Marion and Vickie. At my other two attempts at weight maintenance- both post WW, I was around 131. And I was NOT happy, but it escaped me at the time on how to loose more or even maintain. As a 5'1" woman with a very small bone structure... I needed to weigh less to have better health- and stop myself from becoming a diabetic.
DeleteIt's so individual!!!! So true!
I have to say that although I probably eat more fruit than you do I have definitely lowered how much I eat. I no longer eat bananas or pineapple. I usually choose berries and the occasional apple. I have found that it definitely helps with my cravings to have less fruit.
ReplyDeleteSusanne, I did have food cravings when I was fruit heavier. This in turn made me heavier, too. !
DeleteFruit and green veggies are not interchangeable. A lot of people think they are. That false concept gets a lot of people stuck for long periods of time, I agree.
ReplyDeleteNot only is dried fruit naturally higher in sugar, it often has sugar added.
Trail mix not only has pit fall of dried fruit, but also has deadly combination of salt and sugar. That causes cravings even in people who do not have food or weight issues (like my husband). The other thing we have noticed - if the salt/sugar thing gets going, then often crave fat as the next step. And the opposite is also true - too much of the wrong kind of fat (like fried food) and crave sugar and salt in turn.
I eat two servings a day on average - rotating between apples, oranges, mangoes, blueberries, strawberries, red raspberries, pears.
I totally avoid melons (migraines), bananas (GI), pineapple (over eat).
Good post.
Thanks, Vickie!! Your comments brought back memories of me wanting to hike as a kid.... so I could binge eat the M&M's mixed in with the raisins (sweet) and peanuts (salty/binge food/legume). Oh the younger me! I once (during the overweight years 2006?) got some snack sized bags of trail mix for a kids birthday party. Not a good plan.....very addictive. Even with the fresh golden raisins from the Central California Coast- I fell into that fruit trap the summer of 2012 during weight maintenance. Thank goodness for daily weighing and a clear brain to connect the dots.
DeleteI know too many people in real life who pack back the 0 WW point. People who understand insulin, glucose, etc,... but don't connect the dots... Gives me the sads sometimes. Hopefully they will try that elimination tool.
I think free foods concept (0 WW points) is REALLY UNKIND. It is not looking out for someone's long term success. What might be 0 points at higher weights, is often not 0 points at lower weights or ever if one tends toward insulin resistance. That whole topic used to make me mad, now, like you, mostly sad.
DeleteAnd my two servings a day of fruit is replacing starchy veggies (in general). So if I eat sweet potato or red potato (for example) then eat less fruit. I rarely eat rice or beans, but again, if I do, that too replaces some of my fruit. It is very much a give and take thing.
DeleteI love your fruit bear ! LOL
ReplyDeleteIf you are diabetic bananas can raise blood sugar numbers, and you need to keep a close eye on your numbers.so maybe for diabetics they are best avoided.
However, what each of us chooses to eat is always an individual choice. As I am not diabetic, nor do I want to lose weight, I can tolerate more fruits.
My favourite fruits are blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries. But nature is wonderful and provides us with such a wide choice. So if we all choose wisely, and take account of our health and any underlying health or allergy issues, we can each achieve our own individual goal.
Great article as usual Karen ... thanks
All the best Jan
Jan, it's so true! I suspect I would be a type 2 diabetic right this second and the only thing that keeps me from converting to type 2 is a a low sugar, low carb Paleo-ish template.
DeleteI a variety of fruit around for my daughter (mostly lower glycemic fruit) and she is still growing. It's a very individual thing.
I was told that fruit was 0 or 1 on my faulty points counting scheme! Just glad that I have clarity in my back pocket!!
I am fortunate in that I really do not like many fruits. I prefer vegetables over fruit any time. I think I have, at most, one or two fruit a week...some weeks none. I know it does slow my weight loss....and as slow as my weight loss, I certainly cannot bear any slow down.
ReplyDeleteLynn, so true. I lost with a commercial program that included NO fruits. Many people in real life were freaking out "You won't poop!, You'll get sick, fruit is healthy" I got to add "2 fruits" back in during my transition to real food ( I switched to a Paleo-ish template in Feb 2012) and quickly realized 2 fruits were way, way too much. More like 1 serving, usually berries.
DeleteI hear you on the slow weight loss. Mine was very slow, too... common for post thyroid types. I didn't realize that I was just about to go through menopause, too.
Keep up the good work. Now that I use coconut oil or avocado oil and some good sea salt, I have learned to like veggies and the carbs that come with them, as much as fruit. That didn't happen for along time. :) Keep up the good work.
When WW announced that fruit was "free", I cringed inside because I knew that was not true and not a good thing for me. For a while I allowed myself one piece of fruit that I did not count, and I counted any others as one point each. Now I count all fruit because that works best for me. I still count points because after ten years it is a habit. I could probably just as easily count calories but this works for now. My favorites are apples, oranges, and watermelon and strawberries in season. :)
ReplyDeleteCaron, when I was counting points, I always counted fruit... like you said, habit. I still sometimes have a point value flash in my mind... funny! I have a food sensitivity to both watermelon and strawberries. The strawberry season is almost year round here in coastal San Diego. Awesomeness!!!
DeleteI agree...sweet fruit makes me want other sweets, especially pineapple. There was a time in my life where I would have laughed when thinking of fruit as a sweet, once in a while treat. Almost tastes TOO sweet now.
ReplyDelete