Calorie Guessing

Kiyomoo

Hi everyone! I am trying to keep track of my calories, but it's very difficult when I don't know how many calories are in whatever I'm eating.

I love getting this "Asian Chicken Salad" at work, but I have no idea how many calories it has and I'm terrible at guessing. Is there anyone here who is good at calorie guessing? I have pics of the salad with a quarter for reference. I don't know what the sauce is, but it's not honey mustard (or if it is, it tastes a bit more sour than most honey mustard would.)




I appreciate any estimates provided! I don't need to be exact on the dot, but just any general ideas would help me greatly. Thank you!

L1zardQueen

Deep fried chicken breast?

glassyo

Personally, depending on how much dressing you used, I'd go with 1,000 (I, myself would actually underestimate) and call it a day.

ReevesKimberlee

Could the sauce be an avocado ranch dressing? If so, a packet of that dressing at chic fil a was 320 calories

swirlybee

@glassyo is probably right. I'm gonna guess roughly 600 calories for the chicken, 150 for the crispy noodles, 50 calories for the lettuce and veggies, and 280 calories for the dressing. That looks like it's a 4 oz container for the dressing but I can't really tell from the second picture. Assuming you ate all the dressing, that's about 1,080 calories right there.

Panini911

urgh i hate how salads can be the WORST for calories :P but they did throw multiple double wammy's (deep fried chicken, creamy dressing, crispy noodles - at least it didn't include bacon and/or cheese).

a solid 800-1000 if you ate more than half the dressing.

Kiyomoo

Thank you everyone! I did use all the dressing... guilty as charged. I went ahead and just wrote it down as 1000. Next time I will go about using only half the dressing.

L1zardQueen wrote: »

Deep fried chicken breast?

Sadly so, there wasn't an option to get grilled. But I figure that it's okay since I only have this about once every 1-2 weeks.

ReevesKimberlee wrote: »

Could the sauce be an avocado ranch dressing? If so, a packet of that dressing at chic fil a was 320 calories

I don't think so, it didn't taste like ranch or avocados! I had someone else taste it and they said it tasted like honey mustard + mayo, which sounds disgusting, thus I refuse to believe it.

NovusDies

Kiyomoo wrote: »

I don't think so, it didn't taste like ranch or avocados! I had someone else taste it and they said it tasted like honey mustard + mayo, which sounds disgusting, thus I refuse to believe it.

It might sound disgusting but it is probably accurate. That is a common recipe.

Salads are very often among the worst choices on a menu. The one you ate was probably conservatively 1000 calories and more likely closer to 1300.

My only rule for that is that if you eat something that is higher calorie that you really enjoy it.

L1zardQueen

Kiyomoo wrote: »

Thank you everyone! I did use all the dressing... guilty as charged. I went ahead and just wrote it down as 1000. Next time I will go about using only half the dressing.

L1zardQueen wrote: »

Deep fried chicken breast?

Sadly so, there wasn't an option to get grilled. But I figure that it's okay since I only have this about once every 1-2 weeks.

ReevesKimberlee wrote: »

Could the sauce be an avocado ranch dressing? If so, a packet of that dressing at chic fil a was 320 calories

I don't think so, it didn't taste like ranch or avocados! I had someone else taste it and they said it tasted like honey mustard + mayo, which sounds disgusting, thus I refuse to believe it.

It wasn’t a knock about the chicken, it was a question of what type of protein. You needed to add that bit information in your OP. I think Chick-Fil-A has salad like yours, you could use that entry. I’m not sure where you are located.

Polydactylkat

Salads can be so deceiving!! But so delicious

JeromeBarry1

Even before I started using mfp, I was having my salads without dressing. I learned to like them.

cnjg6677

There is a free app on iPhone called kcal and you take a pic of your food and it tells you the calories hope this hekps

try2again

Nice to see you, @Kiyomoo ! I remember you from a thread a while back... hope everything is going well

My husband likes the Dole chopped salads for work (he eats the whole bag), and it's something like 540 calories, almost all of them from the dressing and a couple of TBs of toppings. He started swapping out the dressing for one of the lower-calorie ones we keep around the house (Ken's light sweet onion is good).

While it's perfectly fine to have the one from work once in a while if you enjoy it, an easy swap would be one of these salad mixes with a generous amount of deli turkey and your own dressing.

try2again

My guess would actually be a little under what most are saying. A 165 g serving (3 strips) of KFC chicken strips is 390. That's about 5-6 oz and I really doubt there's any more there than that. It's a very small sprinkling of crispy noodles, but we can call it 100. If that's 2 servings of dressing, close to 300. The salad probably isn't even 30, but we'll call it 50. So my generous estimate is 850.

trntbowles

Luckily I haven’t ever liked dressing much. If you want a healthier salad try ordering it with no croutons or chips, even if grilled isn’t an option ask if you can substitute it any way ( they will probably say yess ), and ask for the cheese and the dressing on the side so you can control how much you put in it.

wilson10102018

I squirt Balsamic Glaze on the salad and toss. Alternatively, 14g of Hellmans will cover 4 cups of greens if well stirred. Then add a tbsp of grated parmesan.