Calculating calories for resturant salad?

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ValkyrieOnline
ValkyrieOnline Posts: 160 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hello folks!
Was just curious to see how everyone counts their calories for a restaurant salad/any meal they eat! I know the portion of the salad, and what they use in the salad vary with each restaurant, do you stress too much about the calories while eating a salad that you did not prepare yourself?

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  • raquele3394
    raquele3394 Posts: 180 Member
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    The most popular nationwide restaurants are on MFP database! But if it is restaurant that is local I ask dressing to be on the side, no croutons, no cheese. If you are adding chicken you can ask them to put on side.
  • ValkyrieOnline
    ValkyrieOnline Posts: 160 Member
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    Thank you so much! Didn't think about telling them to put stuff on the side!
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
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    Restaurant salads usually have as many calories as any other item on the menu. Reason why I do not eat dinner salads at restaurants. Might as well have a burger or something else that I actually want! Lol. If it's a chain the nutrition info will be available online most likely. If it's a local type place, I will just kinda guess. Like I'll search the database for something similar and choose that.

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    If it's a restaurant with online nutritional information, I use that. If it doesn't have it online, I will do my best estimate of how much of each ingredient is in the salad and log them individually. Because I know from past experience that I am not the best at eyeballing, I will usually add a buffer to higher calorie ingredients.
  • zipitzippy
    zipitzippy Posts: 86 Member
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    I try to check online if I can - if not, I ask for dressing on the side, I hate those damn hidden dressing calories! Generally cheese & avocado are the big calorie adders to salads, so attempt to avoid those/calculate mentally the calories.
  • laurenebargar
    laurenebargar Posts: 3,081 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    If it's a restaurant with online nutritional information, I use that. If it doesn't have it online, I will do my best estimate of how much of each ingredient is in the salad and log them individually. Because I know from past experience that I am not the best at eyeballing, I will usually add a buffer to higher calorie ingredients.

    I do this too if I dont have my scale (which I never do at a resturant) lol I just log each item and add a little more than I think is there, it seems to be working so far.
  • ValkyrieOnline
    ValkyrieOnline Posts: 160 Member
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    hesn92 wrote: »
    Restaurant salads usually have as many calories as any other item on the menu. Reason why I do not eat dinner salads at restaurants. Might as well have a burger or something else that I actually want! Lol. If it's a chain the nutrition info will be available online most likely. If it's a local type place, I will just kinda guess. Like I'll search the database for something similar and choose that.

    This made me laugh, because it is probably true!! :D
    Thank you everyone for the posts! I feel a little less guilty for eating out now :p
  • kwtilbury
    kwtilbury Posts: 1,234 Member
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    Get dressing on the side. Hold the cheese or ask for it on the side. Avoid fried proteins. Look out for high calories additives: nuts, bacon, avocado.

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