how do you (and how closely) calculate your salads?

twikoff
twikoff Posts: 65 Member
in Food and Nutrition
most things i eat are pretty easy to track
but from time to time, ill run to the cafeteria of one of the business up the road and hit the salad bar..
I dont track it very closely.. and typically splurge a little by putting croutons, ham, cheese, bacon bits, and a bit of ranch on the salad.. to go with the lettuce, carrots, onions, broccoli, etc...
but when i enter into MFP, i typically just take a random guess..

how do you typically list a salad bar trip? do you actually try to calculate it, or just pull a number out of your backside?

(example.. today, i would say my salad was smaller than a normal 'meal' salad.. but with the bit of extras i dropped in there.. i just put down 500 cals, figuring it was safe.. but honestly have no clue how much it really was)

Replies

  • BigT555
    BigT555 Posts: 2,067 Member
    any type of buffet style meal is going to be a complete guess. just do your best to guess accurately
  • schelly81
    schelly81 Posts: 161 Member
    I would just put my best guess and try to log as accurately as possible. You've already lost 28 pounds so I'm guessing that you've been measuring out your foods and are probably fairly good at eyeballing a tbsp or a cup. Estimating weights are a little trickier. But I would eyeball as I made my salad and log everything seperately
  • maroonmango211
    maroonmango211 Posts: 908 Member
    I dont really go to any salad bars but at home I log the veggies at a guestimate but if I'm putting anything high calorie on I try to portion out properly either with scale, counting (nuts/dried berries etc) or measuring spoon. Might be tacky but if you think you might be cheating a bit on the higher density things and you want to crack down I guess you could bring your own measuring tool for those items so you could log them at least by tbsp.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    If you go there regularly I'd take one time and try to log it as accurately as possible as a recipe or a meal (obviously you'll still be guessing a lot on the amounts). Then in the future you can easily adjust as needed and won't be as tempted to just say screw it and throw in a random number or not log it.
  • twikoff
    twikoff Posts: 65 Member
    I would just put my best guess and try to log as accurately as possible. You've already lost 28 pounds so I'm guessing that you've been measuring out your foods and are probably fairly good at eyeballing a tbsp or a cup. Estimating weights are a little trickier. But I would eyeball as I made my salad and log everything seperately

    well.. my weight loss is a bit of a misleading number.
    Ive been using this site for going on 2 years now.. and lost 60 lbs between Jan and Aug/Sept 2013.
    Then went back up about 40, before starting again (had intended to put 20 back on, but meant to do it in a better way)..
    didnt adjust my numbers or start them over again.. so my weight loss in the past 3 weeks is only a few lbs
  • maryseb63
    maryseb63 Posts: 98 Member
    The low calorie things, greens is fine to just guess, but if you have a bunch of high calorie things, I would put them all in individually to make sure I am close to the calories. Easy thing to do is take a picture of it, so when I get home I can check to make sure I put it all in. May sound silly but ive been called worse :)
  • dedflwrs
    dedflwrs Posts: 251 Member
    I do my best to estimate but I don't log it as "salad". For example, I did have a big salad for lunch yesterday (my first healthy meal in a week, yikes) and I entered everything individually: romaine lettuce, hard boil egg, falafel, corn, tomato, avocado and the dressing. I have actually gotten pretty good at figuring out measurements. I also have a chart that visually shows sizes. I took a pic with my phone so it does not look great but it's still helpful. Have not used it in a while so I have to look for it but once I find it I will post it.
  • aedreana
    aedreana Posts: 979 Member
    The McDonalds 20-calorie prepackaged side salad is the only salad I find suitable for when I am dieting. I don't use salad dressing when dieting. I am a vegan. I believe that it would be too difficult for me to estimate accurately the calories in a non-portion-controlled green salad.

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