How to track a salad when the calories in MFP vary BIG time??

I wouldn't worry too much about the lettuce, cucumbers etc. The feta I would measure - a small cube probably has more calories than you realise. And I'd log the dressing separately.

I add in every ingredient individually and if need be, over estimate.

Weigh each individual ingredient to log it. Or use the recipe builder, weighing and inputting each ingredient. Don't use MFP 'salad' entries, you have no idea what that person put in their salad. Many of the entries are user created and flawed.

I was also noticing the same thing when tracking my salads. I do what was mentioned ^^ and track the fatty things separately. Veggies are overall very low in calories and not bad for you. I'd focus more on the other items that add a lot of fat and sodium content. A three cup salad with lots of other veggies should only account for about 100ish calories not including the dressing, cheese etc..

A food scale is very helpful. When I'm making something like that for myself with multiple things going into a bowl, I set the bowl on the scale, tare it to zero, and add the first thing, make note of the weight, then tare, then add the next, and so on. I do this with my oatmeal, burrito bowls, etc. Most of the items are already in my recent foods, so it's easy to log by going down the list, checking the boxes and adjusting the portions as needed.

As for database entries for foods, it takes some hunting around sometimes to find the most accurate entries, and those that give the option to log in grams. Rather than brand names for things like rice, veggies or meats, I search for the things like "rice - brown, cooked", or "lettuce - romaine" and then choose the one that does NOT have an asterisk next to it. These generally have the most complete nutritional info as well, including potassium and other items that aren't necessarily included on labels of packaged foods.

If you don't have a food scale, do the best you can with measuring spoons and cups, but for better accuracy, pick up a good scale - they aren't expensive, and are a great tool to have.

I add everything in separately and saved it as a meal, It is almost always the same base with the spinach, cucumber, onion, tomatoes, cheese and dressing. Select the meal when you have it and add or subtract if I do something different. I am such a creature of habit that I eat the same thing a lot.

If it's just a garden salad, I used to put my bowl on a scale and tare it and start adding stuff...I pretty much just picked some random vegetable that was in the salad and used that times the weight...not perfect, but it was close enough for me. I mostly worried about accurately measuring the dressing or any other toppings like eggs, cheese, etc...those are the calorie hits. A large garden salad itself with just the veggies isn't going to amount to a whole lot of calories.

that said, it just depends on how accurate you want to be...I personally never felt the need and never had the time to add every single salad ingredient.

Track separately, with usda after your query. For example, baby spinach usda. Try to be careful measuring the higher calorie stuff.

mamapeach910 wrote: »

If I'm making a really simple salad of just, say, lettuce and tomato, I log the individual ingredients.

Yup. And even if it's complex I'm weighing it all separately. Chicken / Steak / Fries / Cheese. Yes, don't ask, it's as amazing as it sounds.

Weight/ measure every single ingredient and enter it separately. If it's something you eat often, build a recipe. I cheat sometimes in that if I eat something similar every day with slightly different quantities, I will just copy from the day before and amend the amounts (faster than entering again).

Never use a random generic entry in the database when you can log what you actually ate. If you are making the salad log what you put in it.

What others have said, when at home, use a mixing bowl and a scale.
Place bowl on scale, tare, chop vegetable, weigh, record, tare, repeat ad terminus.
Search MFP Food Database in the format "vegetable - raw" to get non-asterisked entries.

Here is my usual daily lunch salad with items I keep on hand.

I make a huge steel bowl of salad to last for the week. I add each ingredient into a recipe, it's divided by 7 for servings. Each of these servings fills a plate, last week my "Everything But the Kitchen Sink Salad" was only 46 calories. To each of these servings I add and track separately, X number of grape tomatoes, half of an avocado, and 2 ounces of meat strips and 2 tbsps of dressing. Those are the real calories, total 351 calories.