why can't you use the food log to track all your calories -- that's what I do, and probably what most people here do -- that's what it is designed to do.

Or am I mis-reading the question?

Thank you for your reply.

I guess what is difficult for me is to measure everything...like for my lunch I have a salad. I put multiple ingredients...celery, tomatoes, baby spinah, tofu, scallions...I imagine that it would take me at least double the time to weigh every celery stick, carrot and half tomatoe...write down everything, enter it in the log, one by one...how do people deal with this?

If I am dealing with something like undressed salad ingredients and other vegetables, I often just make a guess at them -- unless it is a high cal veggie like corn or peas.  I actually do weigh just about everything and put it into my log, but understand that it can be time consuming if you haven't been doing it all along.

after a while, you get a feeling for how much of something you are eating -- again, I recommend only for no/lo calorie things like veggies -- and you can dispense with the weighing.  It is a rare person who takes in too many veggie calories.

with a salad, the most important things to weigh/measure are the proteins/fats (tofu, egg, beans, meat, seeds, nuts, cheeses) and the dressings.  if you add croûtons, I guess that also

Its true initially it will take your time but if you tag the items, then it becomes a lot more easier, assuming you always eat in the same portions. For example, I know my bread is 2 oz (57g), the apple is 200g, my salads are usually 100g...

Eventually it gets better. For me trick is in tagging them so it takes less time. Initially, you so need the scale to get it right. Also the calorie labels on the package help so I check with CC. If the item is not there, I add it there (sometimes CC does give it a grade!) or find the equivalent. But I can't absolutely get the real correct figure so I make allowances too.