Question about Romaine Lettuce carb amount for induction

[exiledone1]

Hi everyone,

As some of you knew I feel off the wagon a few weeks ago and have since been getting super serious and dedicated again.

Well I was re - reading the Atkins New Diet Revolution book and had a question about the two to three cups a day of salad vegetables. My main salad vegetable of choice is romaine lettuce as I love salad.

I usually buy the Dole hearts of Romaine salad. Now when I googled the info for carbs for 1 cup of salad it said on different websites that its about 1 carb for 1 oz. So if that is the case that equals 8 carbs for one cup and if you eat the three cups a day that is 24 carbs????

I thought we were supposed to stay under the 20 grams of carbs a day. Is that carb amount wrong?

It must be cause that doesn't make sense to me. So can someone here please tell me about how many carbs in one cup because that 1 carb for 1 oz doesn't work math wise. I need a number That is accurate so I can keep track.

Thanks in advance for the help. Today I've already had my three cups of romaine lettuce and I'm worried I went over.

Oh and is it okay for me to stay under 20 grams of carbs and not get exactly 20? The reason I ask is because most of the time I never even get close to 15 carbs a day as I usually just eat chicken, salad, eggs and cucumbers. I'm assuming its okay as long as I stay under 20.

Thanks for the help

Josh

[Dottie]

Weight and volume are 2 entirely different measurements.
To "measure" your lettuce, use a scale not a measuring cup

[exiledone1]

Originally Posted by Dottie

Weight and volume are 2 entirely different measurements.
To "measure" your lettuce, use a scale not a measuring cup

So how many carbs are in one cup of romaine lettuce measured on a scale? Because if its still 8 carbs for one 1 cup that doesn't make much sense as 3 cups is 24 grams of carbs unless I'm just not understanding. Thanks for letting me know that btw too I have a scale actually and that will make the potion control much easier

[Dottie]

1 cup is under 2oz
Your best bet is to look at the package it came in and divide it up into the number of servings it states are in the bag and then you know (more or less) exactly how to count it because you go by the nutritional panel on the package

[exiledone1]

Originally Posted by Dottie

1 cup is under 2oz
Your best bet is to look at the package it came in and divide it up into the number of servings it states are in the bag and then you know (more or less) exactly how to count it because you go by the nutritional panel on the package

Oh wow! So that means one cup is only 2 grams of carbs!!! Awesome! That is awesome and makes me feel much better. Well this explains why I've been so hungry lately as I've been measuring wrong. I suck at measuring lol, but thank you for explaining this to me.

So for now on your saying I should measure my food using the scale? This means all my veggies correct?

Thanks again Dottie! Your awesome and rock

[Dottie]

Scale weighing is a lot more accurate because a lot of trackers and things say "1 medium apple" but they don't say what a medium apple is
So yes, scales are (IMO) the way to go if you want to be the most accurate

[exiledone1]

Originally Posted by Dottie

Scale weighing is a lot more accurate because a lot of trackers and things say "1 medium apple" but they don't say what a medium apple is
So yes, scales are (IMO) the way to go if you want to be the most accurate

Okay cool. So just to make sure i understand 100 percent I just checked my weight scale and it is in Oz. So when Atkins tells me I can have up to 3 cups a day that means If I want a cup of lettuce for lunch that I can load up the lettuce on the scale until it hits the 8 oz mark on my scale? Is that correct? That should be 1 cup correct? This should also work for any other veggie we are allowed to eat as well correct?

I'm assuming 8oz is still one cup using my weight scale. If not, what number in oz on my scale would be 1 cup worth? This is the final question I have and thanks a ton Dottie! This has opened my eyes and will help make my diet much more accurate

I'm so excited now

[Dottie]

lol well not exactly.
8oz of romaine (example) is about 9 or 10 cups of actual lettuce.
In the older, older books, he says "1 cup" is roughly a handful of lettuce, he didn't use weight.
1 cup by weight is 8oz. 1 cup, by volume, is just under 2oz by weight.
(confusing but you'll get it)

[exiledone1]

Originally Posted by Dottie

lol well not exactly.
8oz of romaine (example) is about 9 or 10 cups of actual lettuce.
In the older, older books, he says "1 cup" is roughly a handful of lettuce, he didn't use weight.
1 cup by weight is 8oz. 1 cup, by volume, is just under 2oz by weight.
(confusing but you'll get it)

Oh lol, yeah it sort of confusing haha so basically when putting my lettuce on my scale your saying just keep it under the 2 oz mark on my scale and ill be fine correct? So for now on ill just make sure when I measure my veggies on the scale I keep it under the 2 oz mark to equal around a cup. Very helpful Dottie. Thanks

[Puppy]

There are online conversion calculators that can help until you get the hang of it.

[CurveControl]

another way to look at it is that there are dry measures and wet measures and displacement and density. if you fill a 4 cup bowl with cut up romaine it will not weigh the same as if you filled that same bowl with water. 8oz is a liquid measure.

[exiledone1]

Originally Posted by Puppy

There are online conversion calculators that can help until you get the hang of it.

I'm looking into that now and it is still confusing me lol, but it helping I think. The part confusing me is going from one one metric to the other.

Basically to make it easy on me I'm just trying to make sure that 1 cup of lettuce out of my 3 cups recommended a day is basically 2 oz of lettuce weighted in my scale?

So basically to make this simple on my brain if I just weight my veggies on the scale as long as I keep it a little under 2 oz I will be keeping it around 1 cup out of the three recommended cups a day.

What may help me too is when you measure "your" veggies in weight to equal your 1 cup of the recommended three what number does your scale stop at, im assuming this is 2 oz. so confused now lol. Thanks for the help so far though

[kimberlyann11]

What's confusing you is the ounces. The 8 ounces in a cup are fluid ounces. Since lettuce isn't a fluid, its a solid, you can't use the 8 oz per cup to measure it. You will find that one cup of marshmallows weighs a lot less than one cup of ball bearings. That's because the density is different.

Take one of your measuring cups and fill it with lettuce and then weigh the lettuce and then you will understand a little better.

[watcher513]

How about this. Break up your romaine into bite-sized pieces and measure out 2 cups. Then, weigh it and see how many ounces it is. I'd think that would be much easier.

[exiledone1]

Originally Posted by kimberlyann11

What's confusing you is the ounces. The 8 ounces in a cup are fluid ounces. Since lettuce isn't a fluid, its a solid, you can't use the 8 oz per cup to measure it. You will find that one cup of marshmallows weighs a lot less than one cup of ball bearings. That's because the density is different.

Take one of your measuring cups and fill it with lettuce and then weigh the lettuce and then you will understand a little better.

Hi Kimberly

Okay, I just did that. I put my romaine lettuce into the measuring cup and filled it up to the one cup line. I then put it into my weight scale and it comes out to about 1 to 1.5 in oz (in weight).

That part I understand and all. My problem I'm having is the following.

Atkins says to have two to three cups a day. I'm assuming from all your responses that Atkins meant cups in weight and not volume?

So based on what you all are saying don't use the measuring cup, use the scale. I got that part, but here is where I'm get confused....... So now I put up the measuring cup so it's out of sight and out of mind and I'm only going to use use my weight scale which measures in OZ. So I pull the lettuce out of the fridge. It's the one from Dole where the romaine lettuce hearts are already chopped up, but not shredded or anything.

I want to get 1 cup worth of romaine lettuce using only my weight scale since Atkins says to use two to three cups of a salad vegetable in his book. So my question is what is one cup of my romaine lettuce equal too on my weight scale? Is it 2,3,4,5,6,7 or 8 oz in weight?

So it other words when filling up my weight scale with lettuce and my arrow starts moving up to the different numbers (1oz, 2oz and so on in weight) which number on my weight scale do I need to stop at to equal around one cup that Atkins is talking about?

This is what is confusing me..

Thanks
Josh

[Dottie]

I'll make the lettuce (and other leafy greens) easier: in the 1972 version, Atkins gave a rough estimate on the leafy greens as "1 cup is about the size of a fistful" (paraphrasing) - so I always used that as my lettuce guide for induction

Using the weights you gave above, 3 "cups" of lettuce would be about 3.5-4oz of lettuce by weight

4oz of dole chopped romaine is 4g carbs

[exiledone1]

Originally Posted by Dottie

I'll make the lettuce (and other leafy greens) easier: in the 1972 version, Atkins gave a rough estimate on the leafy greens as "1 cup is about the size of a fistful" (paraphrasing) - so I always used that as my lettuce guide for induction

Using the weights you gave above, 3 "cups" of lettuce would be about 3.5-4oz of lettuce by weight

4oz of dole chopped romaine is 4g carbs

Hi Dottie,

Okay so I just grabbed a handful of the lettuce, about what you described and dropped it on my scale and it says it's about 1.5 oz in weight. I'm guessing that sounds about right based on what you said above. Thank you. That helps me out a lot.

So when Atkins says a "cup" what he means is about 1.3 or 1.5 oz in weight I assume.

So when doing other vegetables like chopped up peppers I assume that 1.3 to 1.5 oz in weight is about one cup as well for the peppers correct? So no matter what salad vegetable as long as when I weigh it around 1.3 to 1.5 oz that is about a "cup" in Atkins terms??

Sorry to make this thing seem so confusing, but numbers really confuse me and always have. I failed math many times in school lol. See, the way my mind works is I see Atkins talking about a cup. You guys say to use a scale and well the scale only measures in oz and pound. So the way my mind works it says well what is 1 cup measured out in the measured cup than weight on the scale in oz (weight) lol

An insight into how my crazy brain works lol I think part of the issue for me is not seeing it done. I'm a visual person so seeing the exact process of getting a "cup" worth of veggies weighed in oz in a video format would help. I'm about to check Youtube to see if I see any videos to help me even more.

Well thanks for the help everyone. It really does mean a lot to me

You all are super awesome!

Josh

[Puppy]

Don't stress over lettuce so much. I know you are trying to understand but a little more or less lettuce will not sink you.

[hippiegirl]

Atkins was talking about measuring out a cup, which has ounces.

The nutritional information you looked up is also based on ounces, but they're talking about the weight.

So, to make the two jibe, measure in your measuring cup to get the amount of food you're going to eat, and then weigh it to check out the carb content. You need to mix the two.

An example: A cup of zucchini and a cup of lettuce are going to have different weights because zucchini is more dense. They both fit in the same cup, but they weigh different amounts.

[hippiegirl]

So no, 1.5 oz of a denser vegetable is not going to be the cup that you're after. Use both tools: First the measuring cup, then the scale.

[hippiegirl]

And I agree with Puppy - Romaine is the least of one's worries, generally speaking.

[stews]

oh and believe it or not it is okay to have extra veggies besides the 3 cups while on induction. as long as it doesn't put you over the 20 carbs for the day.

and I agree too. don't stress over the lettuce. you are going to drive yourself crazy and then this will be too big of a chore to stick to if you worry about it down to that degree. I'm not saying don't try and keep track, but don't stress over something being exact when there is so few carbs in that item in the first place.

[exiledone1]

Originally Posted by hippiegirl

So no, 1.5 oz of a denser vegetable is not going to be the cup that you're after. Use both tools: First the measuring cup, then the scale.

Hi Hippie girl

AHHH!! The way you worded it just made perfect sense to me. So basically you are saying the following:

1. Cut up some peppers for example and put them in a measuring cup until they reach the one cup line packed loose. This gives you your cup of vegetables as far as what Atkins meant in term of "1 cup"

2. After you have used the measuring cup to get your 1 "cup" than you need to measure them using the weight scale which will give you the more accurate way to figure out the carb count.

This allows you to get about one "cup" potion wise correct and by using the scale your able to get the correct carb count?

Do I have that about right HippieGirl? I see where I got confused now.

I thought everyone was saying don't measure at all. Only use the weight scale to figure out the potion and carbs.

Based on what your saying I was doing part of it correct with measuring my food out in the measuring cup, but I was doing it wrong when it came to figuring out how many carbs. Since I should have been weighing it to figure out the correct carb amount.

Thank you HippieGirl! The way you explained that just clicked in my brain.

Thank you to everyone here who helped too and now based on what you said HippieGirl I understand what Dottie meant as well.

Funny how our brains work lol ! Awesome!

Thank You Thank You Thank You
Josh

[hippiegirl]

By George, I think he's got it! I'm glad that made it click for you.

[exiledone1]

Originally Posted by stews

oh and believe it or not it is okay to have extra veggies besides the 3 cups while on induction. as long as it doesn't put you over the 20 carbs for the day.

and I agree too. don't stress over the lettuce. you are going to drive yourself crazy and then this will be too big of a chore to stick to if you worry about it down to that degree. I'm not saying don't try and keep track, but don't stress over something being exact when there is so few carbs in that item in the first place.

Hi Stews,

Thanks for the advice! I didn't know that so nice to know! As I mentioned in my last reply the way Hippie Girl explained it clicked in my brand so now I understand.

Yeah, your right it's not worth stressing about and I see this all came from a slight misunderstanding on my part of the exact system used. Currently I work 3 jobs so Romaine lettuce and celery are the simplest of the veggies for me for now.

Still, it's good to know I can add some more veggies from my accepted list as long as I don't go over the recommended 20 grams

Thanks again everyone!

[Puppy]

It gets easier. Hang in there. You will be able to eyeball it in no time.

[stews]

Originally Posted by exiledone1

Hi Stews,

Thanks for the advice! I didn't know that so nice to know! As I mentioned in my last reply the way Hippie Girl explained it clicked in my brand so now I understand.

Yeah, your right it's not worth stressing about and I see this all came from a slight misunderstanding on my part of the exact system used. Currently I work 3 jobs so Romaine lettuce and celery are the simplest of the veggies for me for now.

Still, it's good to know I can add some more veggies from my accepted list as long as I don't go over the recommended 20 grams

Thanks again everyone!

you're welcome. it will get easier.

[exiledone1]

Originally Posted by hippiegirl

By George, I think he's got it! I'm glad that made it click for you.

HAHA!!!! Awesome!

It's a great feeling when something that has bothered you finally clicks!

Yeah, I've been doing the whole measuring using the cup for a while now, but when Dottie replied I thought she meant do all of it in the scale so that is when send me down crazy ville lmao so basically I drove myself nuts haha.

Atkins has really changed my life in terms of health and just feeling better and I never want to return to the way I used to look or my old habits which makes me just want to do it correct. So I tend to overthink sometimes

The only real problem for me with Atkins is time to cook (I have 3 jobs) and so most of the stuff I eat on Atkins induction has to be fast stuff I can just grab or quickly cut up and take with me. Ala the salad, green peppers and so on.

I know for proper health though I need to start trying some of the other vegetables too

Thanks again and Atkins Rules

Josh

Btw, I've lost over 55 pounds during long term induction. I feel amazing, look better than ever and I just need to lose 55 more pounds to reach my goal of 140. Oh and the cool part about Atkins is when I fell off the wagon for about 2 weeks a few months ago I never actually gained any real weight back. I stayed right around my weight I was when I feel off the wagon. So when I jumped right back on it was business as usually. The cravings were the hardest part

[DairyQueen]

Congratulations on your weight loss! fantastic!
yes -- measure your lettuce and vegetables using measuring cups
WEIGH your various meats on a scale, like a postage stamp scale or a little food scale.