Eating out & calculating entree modifications?

sironae

Hi there, I'm pretty new to calorie counting, not so new to alternate diets. Here is my question: If I'm, say, going to a restaurant where I can look up the number of calories in a specific entree, is there a tried and true method of subtracting whatever ingredients I don't have included? The example is this: I'm going to Brixx pizza tonight, and sadly, I will not be eating pizza. I'll likely order a salad, bring my own dressing, and add chicken, however, I'll probably also request that they hold the cheese and croutons, and that they add olives or something like that.

Should I just estimate the amounts of each, look up their generic counterparts, and subtract those calories from what I know to be the original total, adding the substitutions? I feel a little silly even asking this because I might have just answered my own question (and clearly I'm in the obsessive stage of calorie-counting), however, I'm curious to know if any of you do something similar to this!