Help counting calories on a salad

Sejordan64

So when I go to my local grocery store that has a huge build it yourself salad bar and I'm building a mix greens salad with various vaggies, how would one best try to account for the calories on that?

Ready2Rock206

I go with the best guess method. Limit high calorie items like cheese, nuts, dressings, dried fruits, etc. Then I eyeball it and log each item as best I can. If you're eating it out and logging later take a picture on your cell phone so you can remember what all you added.

williams969

Ready2Rock206 wrote: »

I go with the best guess method. Limit high calorie items like cheese, nuts, dressings, dried fruits, etc. Then I eyeball it and log each item as best I can. If you're eating it out and logging later take a picture on your cell phone so you can remember what all you added.

I do this^^. Although, I've weighed enough shredded cheese, chopped chicken, and crumbled eggs at home to be a very good estimator of those things so I put my "usual" quantities of those on a takeout salad.

Pob25

All you can do is guess it, focus on the bulk like Ready2Rock said, limit these and play around at home with quantities so you know roughly how much grated cheese etc is in a scoop

Sejordan64

Ok thanks, as ready rock was saying, I rarely use the meats or cheeses and various fruits and nuts. I usually have a sizable foundation or base of mixed greens or spring mix, sliced or chopped beets, broccoli, sliver or chopped mushrooms, and so forth, I have been looking at it and trying guestimate on how much it is but thought I would ask the community to see if there was a better option

arditarose

Sejordan64 wrote: »

Ok thanks, as ready rock was saying, I rarely use the meats or cheeses and various fruits and nuts. I usually have a sizable foundation or base of mixed greens or spring mix, sliced or chopped beets, broccoli, sliver or chopped mushrooms, and so forth, I have been looking at it and trying guestimate on how much it is but thought I would ask the community to see if there was a better option

If you weigh your food at home often enough you can get a good guesstimate down to the gram. If it's mostly veggies you can use a cup estimate too. But for me-I know I like about 50g of mushroom so I can eyeball that when I add it, I eat enough lettuce to be about 30-60 calories, 25g of carrots, 25-50 of cucumber. Peppers are usually about 25 grams for me, tomatoes 50-75grams...so on and so forth. If there is grilled chicken available I'll try to portion out 3oz.

OyGeeBiv

If you *did* decide to use a more calorie-dense item and you wanted to make sure you got the right weight for it, put it in a separate container and have it weighed at checkout.

GettingThere62

The dressing is important too.