How do you accurately measure food?

asalembier

I get the general idea
I weigh my foods and go by weight for portion sizes or by spoon/ cup sizes. First putting my bowl on scale then turning it on so it doesnt weigh it
I am doing good with measuring breakfasts and lunches for myself
What i struggle with is supper time.
How do you calculate it especially with having a family of 4?
Make myself separate meals?
I am reducing my portion size
And smaller plate
Say a stirfry supper or spaghetti dinner for 4
How do you calculate that?
I don't even boher doing my supper as I can never figure it out

tiffanylacourse

Go under 'Recipes' and put in ALL ingredients.

Then, if it serves exactly 4, put 4 servings.

It will automatically calculate the number of calories in a serving.

I do this for many of the meals I make for my family.

djshari

Well... spaghetti for example, should be simple enough unless you make everything including noodles and sauce from scratch. Otherwise read the serving size and go by that.

britzzie

Link to MFPs recipe calulator:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/box

Plug in everything you put in your recipe and enter number of servings. It calculates for you.

However, I think it's easier just to write it on a piece of paper and calculate calories like that. I can't be scanning all that stuff while I'm trying to make a culinary masterpiece!!

And I'd totally drop my phone in the pasta water, sauce, sink, or something.

gzus7freek

Just weigh/measure your portion.
I fix a large meal for my family and then measure out mine on the scale before I eat.

tiffanylacourse

Go under 'Recipes' and put in ALL ingredients.

Then, if it serves exactly 4, put 4 servings.

It will automatically calculate the number of calories in a serving.

I do this for many of the meals I make for my family.

For example,

If you made spaghetti and used a 16oz. package of Great Value Spaghetti and a 16 oz. jar of Great Value Meat Flavored Sauce [Just trying to keep it simple), you'd put those ingredients in under the 'Recipes' area. Name it something simple like 'Family Spaghetti' and DO NOT bother adding it to the MFP database. Nobody else wants to see it, trust me.

Then put in the number of servings you get out of the entire recipe, and voila, it will calculate calories per serving.

Hope this works for you! :flowerforyou:

Ely82010

Use the recipe section and build your own recipe.

Add all the ingredients (weigh, measure), and enter the number of portions. MFP will do the rest. Weigh rice, pasta and grains dry (before cooking).

The only trick is to equally divide the meal in the plates. I hope that this helps.

al369

I just divide by the serving, like pp said. I know there's a little more error there, because I just eyeball it. Say I make 1 oz of pasta per person for four people, I just look at it and try to give myself 1/4 of the total made and log 1 0z of pasta. Maybe I got 1.1 oz... But, really, it should be pretty darn close calorie wise.

Dogwalkingirl

Get a food scale and measure everything before you eat it. Measure each ingredient before you put it in.

iquiltoo

the easiest way I have figured for me to do that with that kind of food is to measure out all the ingredients so I know how many cals is in the whole dish and call it one serving (use the recipe tab). then I weigh the whole dish (put all the spaghetti on the scale - for example 1000 gr.) Then I will weigh out my portion onto my plate (for example 250 gr.) Then I figure out what percentage this is of the whole - in this example it's kind of easy as it would work out to .25 of one serving. You could even throw the sauce on, or work that out separately. Takes a little time but it works, and it's worth it to me. If it's something you make regularly, you can use the recipe all the time if you stick to the same amounts, and if not you just ahve to change the ingredient(s) or weights and re-save it.

Espressocycle

I do my best. Usually a dry measure, particularly if that's all that's listed in the database. I have a scale, but I don't bother weighing and converting all that much except maybe in a recipe I make a lot.

asalembier

Thanks!
I didn't know there was a recipe button
Makes life so much easier!!