Count Calories from a Salad Bar

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gbargsley
gbargsley Posts: 55
in Food and Nutrition
Good morning everyone...

My work has a cafe that I eat lunch at each day. I have recently started doing salad. I am having a tough time figuring out the calorie count or at least estimating the calories from what I build. I am not much of a salad person, but I am trying. The salad I build is below.

2 cups romain lettuce
1 sliced boiled egg
1/4 cup diced turkey
1/4 cup diced ham
1/4 cup diced chicken
1/4 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup shredded cheese
5 tiny tomatoes

I don't do any dressing. Since none of the items are in containers that I can scan the barcode or see the nutrition information it makes it hard to see the estimated calorie count. Since it seems like I am eating more than just salad I worry that it might not be very healthy.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Replies

  • dls06
    dls06 Posts: 6,774 Member
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    Create a recipe. This will tell you how many calories are in it.
    Go to your food section. At the top is a recipe botton. Click on it and you will see a botton that says Enter new Recipe. Add everything and save.

    I would track the sodium in this too. That's a lot of salty meats.
  • gdengler
    gdengler Posts: 18 Member
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    Just look up each item in the food database and add them in for lunch. Or, if you eat the same salad a lot, add all the ingredients as a meal and add the meal to your lunch for that day.
  • Hellbent_Heidi
    Hellbent_Heidi Posts: 3,669 Member
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    Create a recipe. This will tell you how many calories are in it.
    ^this^
    Definitely create a recipe...you might be getting a lot more calories than you think with the meat and the cheese.
  • Hellbent_Heidi
    Hellbent_Heidi Posts: 3,669 Member
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    (deleted duplicate posting)
  • yager8725
    yager8725 Posts: 267 Member
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    I agree. i love creating recipies and saving because I can use them over and over without typing everthing it
    Create a recipe. This will tell you how many calories are in it.
  • chubbychristianchick
    chubbychristianchick Posts: 217 Member
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    That's a lot of meat cheese and egg... I bet it's over 400 calories. Usually when I eat salad bar i don't track any veggies but i track all my toppings.
  • SaintOnEarth
    SaintOnEarth Posts: 160
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    2 cups romain lettuce- 15 cal
    1 sliced boiled egg- 70 cal
    1/4 cup diced turkey- ~80 cal
    1/4 cup diced ham- ~100 cal
    1/4 cup diced chicken- ~90 cal
    1/4 cup shredded carrots- 20 cal
    1/4 cup shredded cheese- depending on cheese ~ 100 cal
    5 tiny tomatoes~ 20 cal

    so total I am estimating around 400-500 calories. I would probably cut down on the ham and chicken and simply keep it turkey if possible. Will cut down on a lot of the calories. Again this is an estimate, was simply trying to help.


    ~Miguel
  • beautifulbrat
    beautifulbrat Posts: 171
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    That's a lot of meat cheese and egg... I bet it's over 400 calories. Usually when I eat salad bar i don't track any veggies but i track all my toppings.

    i go ahead and track it all personally
  • Vegan_Chick
    Vegan_Chick Posts: 474 Member
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    Since none of the items are in containers that I can scan the barcode or see the nutrition information it makes it hard to see the estimated calorie count.

    How do you scan the barcode? Does MFP calculate the calories for you? IS this an ap or something? I want!
  • beautifulbrat
    beautifulbrat Posts: 171
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    2 cups romain lettuce- 15 cal
    1 sliced boiled egg- 70 cal
    1/4 cup diced turkey- ~80 cal
    1/4 cup diced ham- ~100 cal
    1/4 cup diced chicken- ~90 cal
    1/4 cup shredded carrots- 20 cal
    1/4 cup shredded cheese- depending on cheese ~ 100 cal
    5 tiny tomatoes~ 20 cal

    so total I am estimating around 400-500 calories. I would probably cut down on the ham and chicken and simply keep it turkey if possible. Will cut down on a lot of the calories. Again this is an estimate, was simply trying to help.


    ~Miguel

    with the meats i shudder to see the sodium
  • gbargsley
    gbargsley Posts: 55
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    Thanks everyone for the responses. I realized I could enter a recipe, but all the ingredients are just guesses and generic. I get the idea though, I will probably cut back on some of the meats.


    Vegan_Chick there is an iPhone app I used to enter my food. It has a feature where it scans the barcode and has the item and all nutrition information. Pretty accurate, I have only found a couple things it does not scan correctly.
  • Thirstygirl
    Thirstygirl Posts: 122 Member
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    have you thought about taking a salad to work??? making your own you can control and know what you are putting in it exactly and it would save you money:) i take a salad to work almost every day:)

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