Counting salad calories...

hmparkin23
hmparkin23 Posts: 91 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi all. Day 1 around here, and I can already see how counting '1 cup lettuce, 1/2 cup cucumber, 1/2 cup tomatoes...' at nearly every meal (in my case!) is going to drive me nuts! Is there a reasonable figure that I can use to Quick Add each time for how many calories the veggie parts of a salad could be? I'd think maybe 45-50 calories, but I'm not sure.
Thanks,
Helen.

Replies

  • bathsheba_c
    bathsheba_c Posts: 1,873 Member
    You can also save them as a meal or as a recipe, which makes it much faster to add. That's what I do when I go for falafel.
  • noahsmommie
    noahsmommie Posts: 71 Member
    If you generally make the same type of salad, you can create a recipe for it and then log the number of servings you had of that recipe.
  • Whart0603
    Whart0603 Posts: 92 Member
    You can add it as a recipe in MFP and have it for easy access if you are always adding the same amount in the salad.
  • rosekittie
    rosekittie Posts: 28 Member
    I'm not sure how others do it, but I search for a cup of generic salad with no dressing and then add my counts for the dressing afterwards. I did the same with my tortilla soup I got from the place next door. Sometimes you can't always know exactly what it is.
  • RedWeb
    RedWeb Posts: 108 Member
    If you use the same ingredients a lot they will come up when you add a meal i.e. you just select them from the list.
  • sophiathedss
    sophiathedss Posts: 97 Member
    I create a recipe for every type of salad I eat...it makes things ALOT quicker and easier for me....that's just my opinion and how I do it...good luck and hope you find a solution that works for you :)

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  • LittleMissDover
    LittleMissDover Posts: 820 Member
    As I eat them often they're in my 'recent' foods so I just go tick them, only takes a few seconds.
  • Anna800
    Anna800 Posts: 639 Member
    I have a food scale and measure everything. I only eat salads with spinach because it has so many more nutrients. If you want your logging to be accurate, you do need to know the exact weight of everything. I weigh strawberries in the morning for my breakfast because I want an accurate sugar number. I weigh bell peppers that I snack on. No different than measuring 1 tablespoon of salad dressing or peanut butter.
  • pastryari
    pastryari Posts: 8,646 Member
    If you use the same ingredients in every salad, you can make your own recipe under the food tab on here and it will save it for the future. But other than that, sorry weighing and measuring are the keys to counting calories.
  • GreekByMarriage
    GreekByMarriage Posts: 320 Member
    I quick copy from a prior day just in case any of my amounts change.
  • simonlcube
    simonlcube Posts: 73 Member
    On the list is a "Crazy Horse mixed salad greens." I have found by calculating everything separately and comparing to this a few times that is is accurate to a few calories, and now tend to just use that regardless of what actually goes in (unless I'm feeling particularly OCD about calories that day).
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Why wud u just at salad every meal? That not really sustainable, you will get so fed up of salad!!
  • MinMin97
    MinMin97 Posts: 2,674 Member
    At the top bar, go to recipes, the make a salad recipe. I do this, as I tend to make the same type of salad for a while.
    Then when you change the salad, you can change the recipe's ingredients.
  • LittleMissDover
    LittleMissDover Posts: 820 Member
    Why wud u just at salad every meal? That not really sustainable, you will get so fed up of salad!!

    She said nearly every meal, I have salad most days for lunch, with a variety of things but still salad, that's not so strange or dull!
  • hmparkin23
    hmparkin23 Posts: 91 Member
    Thanks everyone, and thank you Little Miss Dover - I eat a salad every day for lunch as the salad bar in our canteen is so good. I always have mixed low cal veggies with some lean protein, maybe some carb, and a few pumpkin seeds. It's a little different each day and so cheap, it's not even worth trying to make lunch at home!

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