I find measuring vegetables by the "cup" to be very unreliable... so what exactly is a cup of lettuce??

Is it loose lettuce leaves up to the cup line?

Is it the volume of a cup in lettuce??

Is the lettuce "smooshed" into the cup???

Why can't they just give me a weight?????

Thanks for asking this! I was just about to post a thread on salad veggies. I've been reading other posts and I am now confused. I have reread the DRNDR and from what I gather the WHOLE salad is a couple of loosely packed veggies. If this is true then my salad would be 1 carb according to the back of the salad bag!!

1 cup of shredded looseleaf lettuce is .9 carbs, according to the carb counter on this site.

obviously, you can get alot more lettuce in a cup when it is shredded than when it isn't... I don't worry too much about exact numbers when it comes to lettuce in a salad. But I'm not on induction anymore either.

Ok not to beat a dead horse here but I'm still a little confused. For Induction, does the whole 2 cup salad include the lettuce AND all the other salad veggies. I ask because it stills seems that doing this way would keep my carb count extremely low for veggies.

No, basically you salad is going to be 1 to 2 cups of green leafy veggies. Then you are also allowed a cup of the other veggies. To measure a "cup" of salad greens I tear mine into bite size pieces - which is something I would do anyway - and just drop them into my measuring cup - not smushed.

I get more mileage out of my salads by adding some other things to it: black olives (5 medium = 1 carb), a couple of strips of bacon (use the low sodium kind) - chopped hard boiled egg - some shredded cheese. Sometimes I'll use a cup of greens then add veggies from the other list - up to one cup of those - like little pieces of cauliflower of broccoli - sometimes I even add one or two very small cherry tomatoes (tomatoes are loaded with carbs). As long as you're keeping track of the carbs in the different veggies you're using so you know your total net carb count for your salad - I don't see why you can't mix them up a little.

I also make sure I measure what I'm using so I have veggies available to eat with my evening meal. I prefer a 2-cup salad with cheese, bacon, olives and chopped egg, then to have a cup of the other veggies for the evening.

I also avoid iceberg lettuce simply because I don't like it - but I do love the other, more flavorful lettuces and fresh spinach - besides, they give you a lot more flavor and nutrients per cup of veggies.

Also, be sure to use a full fat dressing or olive oil (lots of other great oils too like sesame or grape seed).

I hope this gives you a better idea of what a "cup" of salad is.

Also, watch your labels - they are not all that accurate. The best carb counters I've found are Dr. Atkins little pocket size carb counting book, the carb counter on this site, and fitday.com.

As far as carbs go, cheese has carbs, your salad dressing will have some carbs (unless you use oil), eggs have carbs, bacon has carbs if you eat very much of it. The veggies from the other list all have more carbs that the leafy green veggies on the salad list.

Good luck to you.

OK, well, my take on the instructions in DANDR is that for those who don't "count" their carbs by tracking religiously (cos you know some people don't have the patience or desire to do so), then the 2-3 cups salad and 1 cup other veggies is a guideline which makes allowances for some of the other items mentioned such as olives, cream cheese, sour cream, Splenda etc. However, if you are willing to track your carbs with a carb counter book, Fitday.com or other source, THEN you use the up-to-20-carbs per day (net of fiber) "rule" and make sure that the bulk of your carbs come from good sources like veggies. 1 cup of lettuce greens adds < 1 carb, so I would say feel free to have 3 -4 per day, along with "other veggies", always remembering to COUNT them and stay as close to the 20 carb level as possible, including olives, cream cheese, sour cream, Splenda and the other items that were quantified. Again, this is my take on it, based on advice I got when I started. Hope it helps. Oh, and if you'd like further corroboration, you can go to the Atkins Center site and send them an email... heck, it might even be in the FAQs.

[edit] Well, I just looked and, you know, it's kind of a grey area. I did find this: http://atkins.com/Archive/2001/12/15-325810.html but the part about "up to 20 carbs per day" doesn't really answer the question. I would suggest emailing to ask them. As for me, I never did measure my salad greens, only eye-balled.. and I KNOW I was eating more than the 2-3 cups of salad veggies. With respect to the "other" veggies, I probably ran around 1 - 2 cups during induction, depending on which ones they were (peppers, tomatoes and onions are quite carby so I ate less; spinach, for instance, is very low, so I ate more). However, I am of the firm belief that we didn't get fat by eating lower carb veggies, so I didn't stress myself out by measuring cups of lettuce, that's for darn sure! Hope this perspective helps.

Thanks so much for clearing that up for me. I was confused with the Atkins book and fitday. It just didn't add up!