How Much Fruit and Vegetables Should You Eat Daily If You Want to Lose Weight?

As you already know, basing your diet on vegetables is one of the pillars of healthy eating, but I am often asked how much is enough to lose weight.

When it comes to fruit, there is the fear that fruit makes you gain weight, that eating it in the afternoon is bad, that it contains sugar, that some fruits are less fattening than others, etc.

The truth is that practically no one has obesity or health problems due to an excess of fruit in their diet; in fact, it is usually deficient in all menus, just like vegetables.

How to Make Vegetables the Main Part of the Dish

The most common problem is that if you look at your usual dishes, vegetables are often used as a side, accompaniment, or an onion stir-fry for flavor, if there are any vegetables at all.

For example, if you think of a pasta or rice salad, from the name “salad,” you already imagine it will be a healthy dish, but the majority of the dish is pasta or rice, then it has tuna, egg... and if you're lucky, you get a piece of tomato and onion.

Do vegetables represent half of the dish in these meals? Clearly not. Because of this, it may have happened that after 15 days of eating “salads,” you expect to have achieved your fat loss goals, but when you weigh yourself, it turns out it didn't go so well.

Don't worry, because it happens to many people; it happened to me too, that I didn't understand why I wasn't seeing the expected results despite my efforts. It’s frustrating, isn't it?

To improve your diet and see how you gradually look and feel better, losing fat and weight, I give you the tips that helped me the most and that I always give to my patients and students: you need to do a diet reset!

I mean, you need to change your mindset and start creating new recipes, thinking of making a salad with pasta or rice, that is, a large fresh salad of lettuce, tomato, onion, or something crunchy, a protein source for juiciness, and a bit of pasta or rice. All this dressed with oil and vinegar makes a delicious dish that you will enjoy eating, something very important that you should not forget. The dish changes, doesn’t it?

This way, you will achieve a greater feeling of satiety, which is fundamental for maintaining good eating habits.

How Much Vegetables to Eat Daily and How

The general recommendations are to eat at least 600 grams of vegetables daily (weighed raw, before cooking). Yes, more than half a kilo of vegetables a day!

We tend to think we eat more than we actually do, so I encourage you to weigh them and check how much you eat daily.

If you want to go a bit further:

• Consume different vegetables of different colors; each color indicates different vitamins (the color is the label of the vegetables). Combine colorful peppers, purple onions, beets, eggplants, carrots, etc. If this is difficult for you, I have an article on how to increase vegetable consumption.
• Consume raw and cooked vegetables throughout the day. You can eat them raw in salads or cooked on the grill, baked, boiled, etc.
• If you don't usually consume many vegetables, increase them gradually. If you are not used to consuming so much fiber, it can cause digestive discomfort (gas, abdominal bloating…).

How Much Fruit to Consume

There are more myths and fears surrounding fruit than vegetables, and the reason is that many restrictive diets eliminate some fruits.

The most criticized have always been bananas, grapes, and figs, but I have good news: you won't have to give them up for a good diet, quite the opposite!

Fruit contains naturally occurring sugar, fructose, but this shouldn't worry you. This fructose is different from the added sugar in processed products; it acts differently in our body. Additionally, fruit provides fiber that helps metabolize it.

Therefore, you can eat fruit without fear, even if you are in the process of losing weight.

The recommended amount of fruit is three pieces a day (minimum one). Like vegetables, there are some recommendations:

• Vary the types of fruit.
• Consume them in season; they will have more nutrients, more flavor, and be better priced.
• Eat them whole, occasionally blended, and avoid juices or smoothies (making juices removes the fiber and turns the sugar in the fruit into free sugar).

Remember that eating vegetables and fruit is beneficial for your health, but not eating them is dangerous and a risk factor for numerous diseases.

Conclusion and Tips

• Introduce fruit and vegetables into your daily diet, vary them as much as possible in type and cooking method. This way, you ensure proper nutrition and avoid the monotony of many diets that end up boring you. You can see different weekly plans to ensure you never run out of ideas.
• Try to balance your dishes well, so that pasta and rice are not the main features of your salads— "Salad WITH rice" and not "rice salad."
• If one day you don’t meet the minimum amounts, don’t worry; remember it’s the overall intake from all meals throughout the week that counts.
• If fruit causes you digestive issues, I recommend my E-book: Digestive Systems, the Great Epidemic.
• If consuming fruits and vegetables causes gastrointestinal symptoms like gas or diarrhea, make an appointment with a nutritionist because it can be improved.

By following these guidelines, you'll be well on your way to achieving a healthy and balanced diet that supports weight loss.