Fall is rapidly approaching! Summer’s bounty of choices for fruits and vegetables is beginning to taper off. What should you be looking for this fall to make the best choices for lower calorie, high fiber produce to stay on track with your weight loss (or weight management) efforts?

Fortunately, a few of summer’s best choices should still be available at good prices in the fall: broccoli, carrots, and beans (see my previous post on Best Low Calorie High Fiber Summer Fruits and Vegetables for calorie and fiber counts). And there are a number of additional choices for fruits and vegetables this season.

As with the summer produce, I did my best to pick ten fruit and vegetable choices that should be easy to find. Fall is time for winter squash, spinach, beets, cabbage, and cauliflower in the vegetable department. Your best choices for fruits include pears, apples, oranges, bananas, and kiwis.

I’ve listed the fruits and vegetables in order by fiber count, but you may want to note the calorie count! Just as with the summer fruits and vegetables, some of the fall choices are so low in calories that you can pretty much eat all you want and quickly boost your dietary fiber intake. This is how you can fill up without sabotaging a lower calorie diet. (See 1200 Calorie Diet)

As with the summer list, the calories refer to the fruit or vegetable, both prepared and served, without added sauces, sugar, or other additional calories.

Vegetables

Winter Squash (acorn, butternut, etc.): ½ cup baked squash has about 40 calories with 2.8 grams of fiber.

Spinach: ½ cup cooked spinach has a mere 20 calories or so and 2.2 grams of fiber.

Beets: ½ cup cooked beets offer about 1.7 grams of fiber with only 37 calories.

Cauliflower: ½ cup cooked cauliflower is a top low calorie high fiber choice for fall with only 15 calories and 1.7 grams of fiber!

Cabbage: ½ cup cooked cabbage is very similar to cauliflower with just 17 calories and approximately 1.7 grams of fiber.

(Potatoes, both white and sweet, are also good choices when eaten with the skin. A ½ cup portion of baked sweet potatoes yields about 48 calories whereas white potatoes have about 67. Both have approximately 1.7 grams of fiber.)

Fruits

Pears: 1 medium pear will provide you with 4.0 grams of fiber for about 98 calories.

Apples: 1 medium apple with 81 calories has approximately 3.7 grams of fiber. Compare this with ½ cup of apple juice with 56 calories but only 0.1 grams of dietary fiber.

Oranges: 1 medium orange has only 62 calories with 3.1 grams of fiber. Compare this with ½ cup of orange juice at about 55 calories but with only 0.2 grams of dietary fiber (with or without pulp).

Bananas: Bananas weigh in with the most calories at 108 for a medium banana but this is still a reasonable number of calories for a healthy snack. A medium banana provides about 2.8 grams of fiber.

Kiwis: These are a personal favorite of mine. At only 46 calories for a medium kiwi with 2.6 grams of fiber, how can you go wrong? Two of these add up to 5.2 grams of fiber and all for less than 100 calories!

Remember to include 4-6 servings of fruits and vegetables in your diet every day even on a low 1200 calorie diet . For higher calorie diets include a minimum of 5 to 9 servings.

To read more about dietary fiber and weight loss read my earlier post: Dietary Fiber: Can it Help You with Weight Loss? For additional ideas on ways to incorporate more fiber in your diet you may want to read High Fiber Diet for Weight Loss.