Salad contents and calorie confusion

PamelaSusanHawkins
PamelaSusanHawkins Posts: 1 Member
edited November 2024 in Food and Nutrition
New here! Yah excited to proceed. But I'm confused about the salad listings. I don't buy salads pre-made. It doesn't seem right that the 2 cups salad-salad has so much fat (23) and protein (22), unless it includes dressing & protein, which it doesn't say. I typically eat a 2 cup salad consisting of mixed lettuces, radishes, carrots, asparagus, and 1/4 avocado. Does 490 calories sound right?
Thanks lots,
Pamela

Replies

  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Are you looking at a "recipe" someone entrered in MFP?

    Create your own recipe. I start with a veggie base. Then I have salad add-ins; meat, cheese, nuts, dressing. The add-ins are where the protein & fat are.

    Avocado has something like a 77% fat content (around 80 calories). No way you get that much protein from veggies.
  • mccindy72
    mccindy72 Posts: 7,001 Member
    Definitely add your own ingredients in one at a time, and weigh them. That will be accurate. The veggies will be very light in calories, except for the avocado - you'll get fat and calories from that . 490 calories is way too high, unless you are drowning your salad in a high-calorie dressing.
  • ModernRock
    ModernRock Posts: 372 Member
    If you fix your own salads, then enter the ingredients yourself. You'll rarely use the pre-made meals in the food listings since you have no idea what ingredients they used. I'll occasionally use one in a pinch for restaurant items and other foods people make for me. For example, I ate some coleslaw at a family event, so I used a "homemade coleslaw" listing that I thought was in the ballpark.

    If you don't have one already, then a digital food scale costs less than 20 dollars.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    What does it say when you enter those ingredients into MFP? That would be how many calories your salad is. Don't even worry about someone else's random salad entry. Ignore those and just log what YOU eat.
  • SingRunTing
    SingRunTing Posts: 2,604 Member
    Try not to use generic entries in the database. It just leads to inaccuracies and confusion, like you are experiencing right now.

    Log each ingredient individually. If its something you will eat frequently, consider making it a meal or a recipe to speed up your logging in the future.
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