Calorie Guessing

Kiyomoo
Kiyomoo Posts: 354 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone! I am trying to keep track of my calories, but it's very difficult when I don't know how many calories are in whatever I'm eating.

I love getting this "Asian Chicken Salad" at work, but I have no idea how many calories it has and I'm terrible at guessing. Is there anyone here who is good at calorie guessing? I have pics of the salad with a quarter for reference. I don't know what the sauce is, but it's not honey mustard (or if it is, it tastes a bit more sour than most honey mustard would.)

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I appreciate any estimates provided! I don't need to be exact on the dot, but just any general ideas would help me greatly. Thank you!

Replies

  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    Deep fried chicken breast?
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,730 Member
    Personally, depending on how much dressing you used, I'd go with 1,000 (I, myself would actually underestimate) and call it a day.
  • ReevesKimberlee
    ReevesKimberlee Posts: 12 Member
    Could the sauce be an avocado ranch dressing? If so, a packet of that dressing at chic fil a was 320 calories
  • swirlybee
    swirlybee Posts: 497 Member
    @glassyo is probably right. I'm gonna guess roughly 600 calories for the chicken, 150 for the crispy noodles, 50 calories for the lettuce and veggies, and 280 calories for the dressing. That looks like it's a 4 oz container for the dressing but I can't really tell from the second picture. Assuming you ate all the dressing, that's about 1,080 calories right there.
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    urgh i hate how salads can be the WORST for calories :P but they did throw multiple double wammy's (deep fried chicken, creamy dressing, crispy noodles - at least it didn't include bacon and/or cheese).

    a solid 800-1000 if you ate more than half the dressing.
  • Kiyomoo
    Kiyomoo Posts: 354 Member
    edited February 2019
    Thank you everyone! I did use all the dressing... guilty as charged. I went ahead and just wrote it down as 1000. Next time I will go about using only half the dressing.
    L1zardQueen wrote: »
    Deep fried chicken breast?
    Sadly so, there wasn't an option to get grilled. But I figure that it's okay since I only have this about once every 1-2 weeks.
    ReevesKimberlee wrote: »
    Could the sauce be an avocado ranch dressing? If so, a packet of that dressing at chic fil a was 320 calories

    I don't think so, it didn't taste like ranch or avocados! I had someone else taste it and they said it tasted like honey mustard + mayo, which sounds disgusting, thus I refuse to believe it.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    Kiyomoo wrote: »
    I don't think so, it didn't taste like ranch or avocados! I had someone else taste it and they said it tasted like honey mustard + mayo, which sounds disgusting, thus I refuse to believe it.

    It might sound disgusting but it is probably accurate. That is a common recipe.

    Salads are very often among the worst choices on a menu. The one you ate was probably conservatively 1000 calories and more likely closer to 1300.

    My only rule for that is that if you eat something that is higher calorie that you really enjoy it.
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    Kiyomoo wrote: »
    Thank you everyone! I did use all the dressing... guilty as charged. I went ahead and just wrote it down as 1000. Next time I will go about using only half the dressing.
    L1zardQueen wrote: »
    Deep fried chicken breast?
    Sadly so, there wasn't an option to get grilled. But I figure that it's okay since I only have this about once every 1-2 weeks.
    ReevesKimberlee wrote: »
    Could the sauce be an avocado ranch dressing? If so, a packet of that dressing at chic fil a was 320 calories

    I don't think so, it didn't taste like ranch or avocados! I had someone else taste it and they said it tasted like honey mustard + mayo, which sounds disgusting, thus I refuse to believe it.

    It wasn’t a knock about the chicken, it was a question of what type of protein. You needed to add that bit information in your OP. I think Chick-Fil-A has salad like yours, you could use that entry. I’m not sure where you are located.
  • Polydactylkat
    Polydactylkat Posts: 32 Member
    Salads can be so deceiving!! But so delicious :(
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    Even before I started using mfp, I was having my salads without dressing. I learned to like them.
  • cnjg6677
    cnjg6677 Posts: 177 Member
    There is a free app on iPhone called kcal and you take a pic of your food and it tells you the calories hope this hekps
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    Nice to see you, @Kiyomoo ! I remember you from a thread a while back... hope everything is going well :)

    My husband likes the Dole chopped salads for work (he eats the whole bag), and it's something like 540 calories, almost all of them from the dressing and a couple of TBs of toppings. He started swapping out the dressing for one of the lower-calorie ones we keep around the house (Ken's light sweet onion is good).

    While it's perfectly fine to have the one from work once in a while if you enjoy it, an easy swap would be one of these salad mixes with a generous amount of deli turkey and your own dressing.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    My guess would actually be a little under what most are saying. A 165 g serving (3 strips) of KFC chicken strips is 390. That's about 5-6 oz and I really doubt there's any more there than that. It's a very small sprinkling of crispy noodles, but we can call it 100. If that's 2 servings of dressing, close to 300. The salad probably isn't even 30, but we'll call it 50. So my generous estimate is 850. :)
  • trntbowles
    trntbowles Posts: 12 Member
    Luckily I haven’t ever liked dressing much. If you want a healthier salad try ordering it with no croutons or chips, even if grilled isn’t an option ask if you can substitute it any way ( they will probably say yess ), and ask for the cheese and the dressing on the side so you can control how much you put in it.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    I squirt Balsamic Glaze on the salad and toss. Alternatively, 14g of Hellmans will cover 4 cups of greens if well stirred. Then add a tbsp of grated parmesan.

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