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.

sarahthes

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.