You can either take each item and look them up individually or just go with an estimate. I've found that there are different counts for things just by looking in different places. The food label may say one thing, my calorie counter book may say another, and calorie websites may even say something else. You just have to figure out what you are going to do and trust that as long as you are close, then you'll be fine.

If you're making the salad yourself you can get the calorie count for the individual fruits and add them together (i.e. 1/4 cup of blueberries is 20 calories). Otherwise you might just have to go with your best estimate. I attempt to get as close as possible and when I don't have the info available I over guesstimate just to be safe. However, if I under estimate 25 calories it's not going to hurt anything.

I have found that counts vary depending on the source, but I don't worry about being perfect. Some counts in nutridiary are high, others are low... it seems to even out. And I have found that for me, keeping myself in control of what I eat is the important part. I don't know that if my calories are exact is as important as that.

I'm not sure I can do a short answer for this ... be patient with me would ya?
I use fitday.com. They allow you to customize foods. These foods then stay in a drop-down menu and you can find them easily.
Because I am Canadian, there are differences with brands. So I customize using the info on packages.
After a bit of experimenting (pretty much like Carrie and Brandi said) I've customized "mixed fruit frozen" which I use for several different mixtures that add up to pretty much the same amount of calories.
I also customize anything that I use all the time so that it is in that drop-down menu and handy.
Maybe that wasn't as long and drawn out as I thought it was going to be.
Fitday does have it's challenges but with a bit of perserverance, I've got it to where I want it. And I'd be happy to help you, if you'd like.

Like someone else already mentioned, I just count everything individually when I make my salads. How many ounces of lettuce and greens (I usually always add fresh baby spinach) how many ounces of onion, etc etc etc. Just add them as individuals instead of trying to figure out the whole salad.

However, I'll post a site that is great for putting in your own recipes and receiving nutrition information for them.

http://www.fitwatch.com/database/analyzer.php

As far as getting exact numbers for certain foods, it's probably not going to happen, so just use the next closest food item or make an estimate. It's not going to be perfect every time, so don't worry about it too much. Just relax and do the best you can.

I've found the easiest way for me is to weigh everything in grams, not try to measure it by cups, etc. Then I use the nutrional data nutritiondata.com.

Then I see how many cals, fat, etc in 100 grams and calculate from there. Weighing in grams is so easy to do. Just keep a piece of paper near you as you measure everything. The digital scales will let you zero out after adding each food, so you don't have to do any math.

So if my salad had 25 g of oranges I would take 1/4 of the cals for 100 grams of oranges, etc.

Christy K.

Well, if you are making the fruit salad yourself, your best bet is to add the ingredients individually. For instance, if your salad is 1/4 strawberries, 1/4 blueberries, 1/4 cantalaupe, and 1/4 watermelon-and you eat 2 cups of it, then you add up the calories in 1/2c. of each individual item.

The calorie sites cannot do a fruit salad like this, because one person may have pineapple-kiwi-banana, and the next person honeydew-watermelon-cantalaupe, and they would have 10,000 listings for every possible fruit salad variation ever.

Thanks to everyone for all the help.

After messing around on fitwatch.com, fitday.com, & nutritiondata.com I found that my estimation for fruit salad were right on the money.

It takes a little perserverance to find a tool that works for you but I'm sure you'll find it very helpful. I sure do!

I think in order for you to get the EXACT amount of calories, you would have to dissect your fruit salad and weigh each ingredient. Then write down the amount of calories and add them up. Fruit salads tend to mean a LOT of things. For example, my mom makes a really good "fruit" salad with whipped cream, vanilla pudding and a can of fruit cocktail.

To be honest, when I was first starting out, I did dissect everything. Or I wrote it all down as I was making the meal.

Kimberly