Quick Questions about Counting Calories (1 Viewer)

[godgers12]

I was looking for the other thread which has inspired me to download the app and start counting calories, lose wait, etc. 

Question I have is firstly, I ate at Salata today, walking down the line it says certain things like tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, etc. have 0 calories, but when I look here https://www.salata.com/nutrition it says they do. Which should I use? According to the place my regular salad w/chipotle chicken, romaine, tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, red onion, celery, banana peppers, and the spicy chipotle chicken was only 150 calories. But according to the website it would be 230 calories, am i missing something?

Secondly, how accurate and trustworthy are the selections that are already in the my fitness app? There is a Wild Chef Salad at Wild Wing Cafe that I was surprised is only 400 calories, are those things usually fairly accurate? Thanks for any help!! 

 

[godgers12]

and when i input the items for the salad seperate into myfitness app it says it is 172 calories, is that the best way to do it??

 

[Ramsay Hunt Experience]

None of them are going to be completely accurate.  Your portion size of any component is going to vary.  It's a rough guideline.  The very act of tracking is going to cause you to eat less.  Don't worry so much about accuracy.  Maybe build 100 to 200 calories of leeway into your plan and then do the best you can. 

 

[ChiefD]

and when i input the items for the salad seperate into myfitness app it says it is 172 calories, is that the best way to do it??

When I was tracking my calories through mapmyfitness I would just go online and find several different examples and entries that were consistent. And also the ones in the app itself. If you have one that says 125 calories, and one that says 600 for the same thing, but then you see three or four with 325 calories, I pick the one at 325.

I didn't spend all day trying to get it exact. The important thing is to get a real accurate ballpark of where you are and where you can improve. And some things will jump out right away.

 

[godgers12]

ok great that is what i assumed i just really did not want to cut corners and make sure I was thinking and doing it right. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[culdeus]

Counting vegetables is a waste of time. Most of them have negative calories anyways when you finally metabolize them.  For a salad your count should primarily be any beans/protein and then whatever dressing you used.  

The counts you find native to the app are just some person that's added that item themselves.  If you can add the ones the store used it's obviously going to be better unless you did something like have it with no dressing or whatever and need to edit it.

 

[godgers12]

Counting vegetables is a waste of time. Most of them have negative calories anyways when you finally metabolize them.  For a salad your count should primarily be any beans/protein and then whatever dressing you used.  

The counts you find native to the app are just some person that's added that item themselves.  If you can add the ones the store used it's obviously going to be better unless you did something like have it with no dressing or whatever and need to edit it.

Yea exactly thats why I had to enter it seperate as I do not eat dressing or anything. I just used the seperate items from the app and it was very small on the veggies like less than 10 calories, ill just leave that as is as if it really is 0 calories in the end thats just a error in my favor anyways

 

[NutterButter]

Counting vegetables is a waste of time. Most of them have negative calories anyways when you finally metabolize them.  For a salad your count should primarily be any beans/protein and then whatever dressing you used.  

The counts you find native to the app are just some person that's added that item themselves.  If you can add the ones the store used it's obviously going to be better unless you did something like have it with no dressing or whatever and need to edit it.

Don't forget the craisins.  And those candi coated walnuts.  Delicious.