Can I eat as much salad as I want on a low-cal diet?
Hello, everyone.
I was wondering if on a low-cal diet I could eat as many leafy greens (such as spinach, cabbage and romaine lettuce) as I wanted. That is, of course, without dressing.
Can I add shaved carrot or tomatoes to that without too much worry?
There is this program where vegetables and fruits don't count towards your consumption for the day- I don't think it's TOPS (take off pounds sensibly) but it's a similar program.
When I first started CCing, I would count all the raw, fresh veggies into my total. Over time, I decided to stop counting them at all, and it's been working well for me. I eat as many as I want and I'm a CC'er
Carrots and tomatoes can rack up the calories quickly if you aren't careful, but are great additions to a salad, yes.
1 med (123 g) tomato = 28 cals - all I've used weigh at least half again that
1 med (78 g) carrot = 35 cals - again, the ones I pull out of the back usually weigh 100 g+
Last big salad I made I used about 100 cals of tomato & carrot, plus another 50 cals of broccoli. I have to weigh or I go crazy. Leafy greens are pretty much unlimited for me though.
Last edited by Shannon in ATL; 06-04-2010 at 04:18 PM.
I count all my veggies, but I don't weigh stuff like lettuce, spinach. I do weigh carrots and broccoli and some others because those can start to add up, but a whole cup of lettuce is just a few calories so I don't think it's a major deal if I'm slightly over.
I also don't worry about going slightly over my range if it's fruit or esp. veggies. I figure that I'm in this for the long term (the rest of my life!) and I'm not going to go hungry because that is not going to help me stay on plan. But that doesn't mean it's an excuse to eat whatever I want, I don't give myself the same flexibility to go over range with anything besides fruit or veggies, but I know an extra 50 calories of broccoli or lettuce or apple is not what is going to keep me from losing weight.
You can do whatever works for you. I personally count everything. I have heard of serveral plan that do allow for unlimited salad. I'd be careful though it you're getting out of hand and "bingeing" on salad. Tomoates, carrots, etc. can add up quickly and before you know it you've added a couple hundred cals to your day.
For produce, you really, really want a kitchen scale: measuring it is a pain in the butt, but weighing it is easy: you just put your bowl or plate on the scale, zero it out, add one thing, record, zero it out, add another thing, record, zero it out. Trying to measure veggies by volume (which don't pack into spaces very evenly) always seems inaccurate, and it creates more mess.
Remember, too, that there are reasons beyond calories for recording everything: I like to flip back into my past days and weeks and months and I am often surprised to see that I have fallen out of useful habits without even realizing it. It also gives you a more accurate picture of things like vitamins, fiber, and water.
I tend to eat a lot of salad and I have found it easiest to calculate the calories for your basic salad once and record it in your food log. Try to add roughly the same ingredients each time and just go by that count. A few extra calories here and there from veggies is not going to effect your weight loss. I usually allow 50 calories for each large salad and I fill the same bowl each time. I always weigh the tomato separately though because I agree that they do add up
I eat buckets of salad so I count the calories. But my 9.5 cup tupperware container including dressing and all is usually between 280 and 500 calories, depending on dressing, avocados and cheese additions.
So eat leafy greens, and don't stress! 6 cups of raw spinach is like 60 calories, and six cups of spinach is a lot to eat. (Lettuce is less.)
Can I eat as much salad as I want on a low-cal diet?
