Lettuce Accuracy

tiaamyom
tiaamyom Posts: 30 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Alright so I eat a side of lettuce with pretty much every one of my meals. I used to do iceberg but I switched over to romaine and I have a pretty decent amount (between 150-350 grams)
I use a food scale to measure everything but I’ve noticed some MFP entries have some slight differences in the caloric values and I’m worried I’m not tracking as accurately as I could be.
The top entry for Romaine Lettuce has it listed at around 15 calories for 100g but some of the others below (also green check marked) have it a little higher at 18 calories for 100g. I know people say not to split hairs, especially with leafy greens, but since I eat lettuce so often, I’m not sure if I’m underreporting or if those 2-3 extra/less calories really matter in terms of tracking
I’m also worried because I alternate between regular romaine and this smaller “artisan” romaine from this one brand but Im not sure if it’s okay to use the same romaine entry when tracking them both

Any insight from seasoned food-measurerers and the like would be appreciated
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Best Answer

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,061 Member
    Answer ✓
    IMO, you're overthinking, and thinking you need a level of accuracy that's unachievable. You're taking about something like a dozen calories per salad.

    Your home food scale's likely giving you more calorie error than that when you weigh peanut butter or oil. One apple may be that much sweeter than the next.

    Unlike some others, I do weigh lettuce, but I do eat a big heap of it at a time, plus I like to keep tabs on my total daily veggie/fruit servings. Others are right that lettuce tracking could probably be skipped, in an overall personal approach that was less structured. It sounds like you like to be structured. But there's such a thing as too structured . . . it can be one step on a slippery slope to obsession or anxiety.

    Keep in mind the smallness of this one item in your overall dietary picture (even with a lot of salad), and what that means given the variability in every single food measurement. Even if you have a tiny calorie goal like 1200, 12 calories is literally 1% of that. Your exercise calorie estimate, your basal metabolic rate (BMR) calorie needs estimate, your activity level setting: I'd pretty much guarantee that they're off by that much or more, and the real life values (even BMR) vary from one day to the next.

    If you want to log lettuce, pick a good entry to start. If you're concerned, look it up in the USDA FoodData Central database to find a valid typical value. Then use that entry. I use the same entry for any old lettuce (though I usually eat romaine). It's close enough, even though I'm one of those "weigh pretty much everything" people myself.

    After that, don't worry about it. Measurement error is inevitable. Sure, maybe try to pin down the easily fixed sources of major error, but let the tiny, unavoidable stuff go. Otherwise you'll drive yourself crazy, I fear. The unders and overs will tend to cancel each other out, over time. It'll be fine.

    Try to relax a little. Maintenance weight will be a range of several pounds up and down. Even as a person who still counts in year 7+ of maintenance, I endorse working toward a little more flexible attitude. Part of healthy eating is a healthy attitude toward food, realizing that perfection is unachievable, and that "pretty close, on average" is plenty good enough to work.

    Best wishes!

Answers

  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,399 Member
    I don’t count lettuce
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,952 Member
    edited January 2024
    I've never counted lettuce. Unless you're eating multiple heads of lettuce at every meal, realistically it's probably not even a drop in your calorie bucket. And even then, it's probably only a drop. It's the things you put on the lettuce that matter.

    ETA: if you obsess over it to that level, you'll likely burn out and stop tracking altogether.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 10,411 Member
    Depending on the calorie allowance, 350gr of lettuce might still be 60kcal. I would certainly log that. My local supermarket has romaine at 17kcal, but not sure how accurate.
  • Sett2023
    Sett2023 Posts: 158 Member
    I agree with @sollyn23l2, "It's the things you put on the lettuce that matter."
    That's why I usually go for 30 cal fix for every kind of lettuce, and then log a full spoon of olive oil (119 cal, if my memory helps) even if in fact I use less than half a teaspoon in a very big bowl of lettuce. So I'm sure to go even (indeed, probably log more than I really eat). That's about what I do for every veggie, log it roughly and then log more oil than I really use (we don't use dips etc, only olive oil and simple vinegar, and sometimes a little pinch of salt), or breadcrumb if it's au gratin etc.
  • csplatt
    csplatt Posts: 1,278 Member
    edited January 2024
    doesn’t matter at all. in reality, much of what we log is likely off a bit. certainly the calories we say we have BURNED are off a bit. but in the end it all rounds out.

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