Do you track salad etc

If I'm logging (I don't always), the point is to know what I'm eating, so I log everything (I currently log at Cron and without my veg my nutrient amounts would be way off). I am more likely to estimate amounts of low cal veg if for some reason that happens to be easier than weighing. If it's really a very small amount of something, I might be lazy about logging it or make another veg a bit bigger to account for it.

If you consume it; log it!

BattyKnitter wrote: »

I do because I eat giant salads and my spinach and romaine can sometimes add up to a lot. Todays spinach, romaine, green onions, radishes and cucumber which are usually very low calorie amounts intake adds up to over 50 calories so it can make a difference. I mean if your talking one leaf of iceberg on your sandwich that won't make a difference but everything else yes, I do weigh and log.

I think people have very different ideas of what a salad is and many times think it's those cute little side salads that come with meals at restaurants. When I make a salad it's game on My lunch salad today had 4 cups of leafy greens, a cup of cherry tomatoes, 6 sweet peppers, 1/2 of an onion, a head of broccoli, green and black olives, sunflower seeds, a serving of pinto beans, mild pepper rings, feta cheese, hot sauce and then low calorie Catalina dressing. Now that's a salad lol.

My answer would be to ask you the very same question

Do you need to log everything? That's a question only you can answer.

In the end the goal is to manage your weight and how diligently and vigilantly you need to track your food in take to achieve this will differ from person to person. The aim is to do enough to get the result you're looking.

I, for example, find that I am able to successfully achieve my goal (to reduce my weight) by logging consistently if not necessarily as rigorously as others. I usually don't bother counting condiments or if I grab a couple of lollies out of the bowl at work I'll not always bother to log them. Right now logging my food loosely is enough for me to be successful so any additional time and effort would be wasted or at the very least provide diminishing returns.

Some people on the other hand find that they need to be far more strict with their logging so will have to log everything meticulously.

So I suppose that the real answer to this question is something you'll need to discover for yourself. Log to a certain standard, a standard that you can easily stick to long term and see if it works. If you're getting results then you're level of logging is fine and if not you know that you'll need to pay more attention and log more strictly.

Also bear in mind that your approach to logging will change over time. Mine definitely has. While I am still pretty relaxed with my logging I am more strict that I used to be and fully expect to have to tighten up my logging more and more as I lose weight and the margins I'm working with get smaller.

G'luck

There are some things I don't track. Mustard on a sandwich, iceberg lettuce, coffee. It's my little way of raging against the machine. I realize my calories aren't exactly accurate because of that and I'm okay with that. I've lost weight and maintained just fine.

Yes: Track as accurately as possible, including low calorie foods.
You'd actually be surprised how many calories are in some fruits and vegetables such as strawberries and lima beans.

echmain3 wrote: »

Danp wrote: »

That kind of illustrates the point I was making. Some can maintain a healthy weight while doing exactly zero tracking. In fact most of the world does just that.

They aren’t in these forums.

That's not true. There are people on the forum who lost weight logging, but are now maintaining and no longer logging.

There are also plenty of people who are here who lose weight logging casually.

And even if people who can lose or maintain without logging aren't here on MFP, it's no reason to tell someone they are doomed to fail if they don't log 100% accurately. That doesn't make sense. Lots of people use mfp lots of different ways for lots of different goals.

@thanos5 water and saliva, lol!