Do you count your salad?

christinasoonmrsnewton

Both my friend and I are counting our calories. We are both losing weight.

We just had a chicken salad for lunch and she only counted the chicken. She didn't count the cals from lettuce, cucumber, pepper, carrot and a few cherry tomatoes.

I know it's not many calories, but do you count them?

Thanks

cityruss

Yes.

singletrackmtbr

Everything gets counted for me. Everything.

snickerscharlie

If it's food, you count it.

snowflake954

Always count everything--it's a good habit to get into. Also you don't say anything about your salad dressing. Sometimes that has alot of calories. Be sure you count that.

ladyreva78

I count them for the micros; especially fiber since I tend to have just a little bit too little of that.

What I'm really careful about, on the other hand, is the condiments (salad dressing and such) because that can up the calorie count quite drastically.

snickerscharlie

I recall that Weight Watchers say that fruits and vegetables are a "free" food in that, on their program, you can eat as much of these as you like.

May be fine for someone who is obese, but as you get closer to goal, the margin for error in your logging becomes much smaller, and "free-loading" on fruits and vegetables can easily result in weight gain.

kazminchu

I count them - roughly. I make pretty much the same base salad every day, 6-8 months a year. I just change up the protein element. Sometimes I use a bit more cucumber, or a bit less lettuce, or I'll add radishes, or half a pepper. In the grand scheme of things I don't think it makes a lot of difference.
So, once I weighed every ingredient and entered them into the recipe builder, it came back with my salad being around 75cals, before dressing and additions. So I just use that recipe, and add all the higher calorie things in manually. Saves me having to weigh out 8 different things every day.

MalcolmX1983

Count it.
It all adds up.

MelaniaTrump

Different point of view:
She might be on maintenance and taking it "easier".
I do not count lettuce or low sodium v-8's.
Onions, peppers, garlic.

UncaToddly

christinasoonmrsnewton wrote: »

She didn't count the cals from lettuce, cucumber, pepper, carrot and a few cherry tomatoes.

I know it's not many calories, but do you count them?Thanks

This reminds me of my wife when she is making things for us (she is not working on weight loss or counting calories). When she is telling me what she made so I can log it (sometimes as a recipe or simply ingredients) I will often hear things like "There is some tomato, onion, carrots but they don't really count to any real degree."

For me, if we are having a salad with dinner or AS dinner, I weight each portion and log it. Things like the lettuce and tomato on a BLT don't add much either compared to the bread, bacon and mayo but I still count them so why wouldn't I do it with a salad?

nikkxjohnson

I count them, not really for the calories but for the nutrition. I like to know all the nutrients I get. You have to be careful of the add ins though, that's where the calories come from.

Wysewoman53

I count and log everything...even the stuff I know isn't the lowest in calories or the best stuff I can eat. Everything adds up even the bites of something here and there. I can't figure out the 'bites' so I just don't eat them anymore.

srecupid

I make them at home and i log everything. It's actually one of the easier things to log. I just zero out the scale after adding each ingredient

Lounmoun

Yes, I log vegetables from a salad. I want a complete log of what I eat not just for calories. I don't worry if I am off slightly with those kinds of foods like I would with the chicken or salad dressing.

Do what works for you and let your friend do what works for her. If she complains about not losing at some point suggest she log everything including vegetables.

Purplebunnysarah

I don't usually weigh low calorie veggies. Sometimes I'm sure I overestimate. Sometimes I underestimate. I'm pretty sure it all evens out eventually. Overconsumption of veggies isn't likely to hinder my loss for a long time yet (28 lbs gone, 90 lbs left to lose).

Pam_1965

On Nutrisystem veggies were never counted. I understood that for most vegetables but carrots really add up. I eat 50 calories of Cherub tomatoes and 70 calories of baby carrots at least once a day, so I always add them. When an entire bag of spinach is 20 calories, and I only add a small handful to my omelette, I don't worry so much. Now I have my omelette stored as a recipe, so everything is added.

85Cardinals

I don't, unless I put cheese in it or something. But I also don't use dressing.

jennifer_417

Yep.

butterfli7o

I'll do a rough estimate for very low-calorie things like lettuce, carrots, cucumber, etc. But if there's avocado, cheese, meats, dressing, etc., it gets counted.

futuresize8

My question would be, why not count them? It's one or two clicks. If you're logging anyway, it seems like a no brainer to put it in. Also, if you are in it for the long haul, knowing exactly what you were doing at peak times of success can be VERY helpful. Without entering everything, you don't get a complete record.

kgirlhart

I count everything. But I will sometimes eyeball a salad and not worry about it too much. It depends on what you put in the salad. I often eat bagged salads and it is 15 calories for 85g and I have a pretty good idea of how full the bowl will be for 85g. But even if I eyeball the salad I weigh anything I add like cheese avocado or egg. And always weigh the dressing.

TeaBea

butterfli7o wrote: »

I'll do a rough estimate for very low-calorie things like lettuce, carrots, cucumber, etc. But if there's avocado, cheese, meats, dressing, etc., it gets counted.

I do a variation on this^

I start with a basic "recipe"....then add higher count things individually.

85Cardinals

Logging and weighing 98% of my food and skipping the lettuce is close enough for government work imo. I'm more of a big picture type.

kshama2001

I didn't count low calorie veggies when I was here in 2012 and did not have a digital food scale. Did not hinder my weight loss.

Now that I have a scale and all these foods are in my Recent, I do count them. My meal would look weird without them.

I also count some low calorie veggies as a way to eat more of them. I'd eat about 75 grams of broccoli without weighing but want to eat 100, so weigh it out.

rainbowbow

these foods are inherently low in calories, so i imagine if you still have a lot of weight to lose you have some wiggle room.

For me, since i'm so close to my goal weight/maintenance everything must be counted (accurately, too!). Otherwise i can do an entire week's deficit in veggies.

indiacaitlin

I do, I weigh it all out. Every bit of lettuce, tomato, cucumber etc gets weighed and added. Never used to but I'm trying to really tighten up my nutrition!

Ready2Rock206

Of course, they have calories - but maybe she's doing WW or something similar where veggies are "free" - they have a drastically lower base calorie goal to account for the fact you're supposed to be eating a lot of veggies and fruit.

bradmorris67

This one does

bradmorris67

This one does (click pic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISW1IDroVyY

AgentFlex

Absolutely!