EVOO

karonyc

Hi, i'm fairly new to this. I have a question i'm hoping someone can help with. I cook most of my dinner and lunch meals using a bit of extra virgin olive oil but i dont track those calories. For those of you who do, how exactly do you track them. I'm cooking for me and my kids so its not like i'm eating all the evoo that i use. thanks!
Karina

rosebarnalice

You might want to actually MEASURE how much you use-- at least a few times-- until you're confident that you're not underestimating "a bit".

One tbsp of olive oil is ~ 120 calories. If you use 1 tbsp to prepare a dish for 3 or 4 people, then you're only "untracking" 30 - 40 calories--and that's probably no big deal. But if your eye/ hand is actually a bit heavier than you think and you're regularly adding 2-3 tbsp to a pan, then you could be underestimating on the order of 90-120 calories, which is more significance.

lemurcat12

I'd measure it and divide it based on the percentage of the overall food you eat.

karonyc

thanks to you both!

auddii

For me, easiest way to measure is use a food scale to weigh the bottle, pour out what I'm going to use and weigh again. If I'm only using it once, I tare the scale with the bottle on, and then the amount of negative grams listed when I'm done is how much I used. Pretty simple.

Lourdesong

For meals that serve more than one person, I measure/weigh the entire amount of oil used and include it as an ingredient in the recipe builder here on MFP.

If I'm using oil on a salad for me, or something, I measure or weigh what I use and log it.

I don't log spray oil, though.

I find weighing easier than measuring. I typically weigh the bottle of oil or tray of butter and tare out the scale, take the fat/oil I need for the recipe, reweigh the bottle or butter tray and log the difference.
I've attempted this with spray oil, but I guess I never use enough spray for the difference to register on my scale.