Do I have to weigh and measure it?
It is recommended you do at home or at the office for education. However, 1 cup is about ~100 grams and a closed adult fist is about 1 cup. About 6 cups (6 fists) ends up being 800 grams. Except, leafy greens in salads don’t weigh much. They only weigh ~25g/cup – so think about it as 6 cups a day and as many leafy greens as you want when you are estimating. 

The cup/fist method can be used to estimate grams on the road or out at restaurants. And the more you weigh and measure at home, the more accurate your estimates become.

How do I account for veggies in recipes like chili?
Add up all the qualifying items in the recipe, and then divide by the number of servings. It will be close enough!

Is 800-grams the number for everyone?
Yes. While not a single number can be perfect for everyone, 800 grams is considered the baseline where people can scale up from there. Eight hundred grams of mixed fruits & veggies ends up being ~400-500 calories (up to 600 calories with avocado and potatoes). This is usually about a quarter of most people’s daily caloric needs. The carbohydrate load depends on the types of fruits and veggies consumed; it will often be 100g of carbs or less. People also eat about 3,000 grams a day of food by weight, so 800 grams is a reasonable volume dedicated for fruits & veggies.

Can I do this with ALL fruit?
Sure. Remember, it’s ideal to eat a diverse array of fruits and vegetables to maximize the variety of vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytochemicals in the diet. ANY fruit and vegetable choice is usually better than other items in the diet (e.g., grains, processed carbs), but then to optimize that, you need variety.

WAIT – pickles and white potatoes count?!
Yes, they do but remember: you can “cheat” any diet. If you are relying on pickles to hit your 800 grams every day, you can do better (they are heavy with low nutrient value). Also remember, people may be at different stages in their diet. Someone eating a standard American diet is WAY better off eating 800 grams of pickles and white potatoes a day. But, is that an optimal nutrient density? No. 

Am I going to lose weight?
Maybe! What usually happens with the #800gChallenge® is that people fill up on the lower calorie fruit & veggies, and don’t have as much room for all the junk food. So, many people have lost weight. However, if you continue to have too much beer, pizza, and ice cream on top of the 800 grams of fruits and vegetables, you will not lose weight. 

What about kids and the #800gChallenge®?
Check out these posts here and here; be sure to read the comments with great insights from parents.

Why 800 grams?
Because Aune et al. (2017) found it was associated with better health outcomes and this volume also meets or exceeds multiple other fruit and vegetable recommendations (e.g., USDA). See more on the “why” and benefits here.

The idea for the #800gChallenge® started in the summer of 2017 after OptimizeMe Nutrition’s founder EC Synkowski reviewed the research by Aune et al. (2017). She publicly announced the challenge on Jan 7, 2018.