How do you personally handle factoring in cooking oil?

Tobysgirl212

Without thinking last night I liberally oiled my saute pan, threw in the trout and cooked away. Later I served myself a portion I weighed out and completely forgot about the oil. I even tipped the pan and added the drippings, thinking this was rendered fat and part of the weight. Would you have weighed and cooked your portion raw? Kind of a pain, but if that's what must be done, it must be done! I guess I really get annoyed with being slowed down in the kitchen when cooking family meals and just want to get it on the table without extra steps.

JustMissTracy

If I'm not sure, I guess, but I over guestimate...that way you narrow the chances of error...I forget to weigh sometimes too, but find that after time, you start to know approximately what size a serving should be. You will too, have patience, it sounds like you've got this! xo

Aetheldreda

Personally I weigh everything in it's raw weight (unless the nutritional information on the packaging is specifically for cooked weight) and make sure I measure out any oil that is used for cooking also.
I only cook for 2 and it can be a bit of a pfaff sometimes, however it has now become habit and I am used to it. I probably use butter more frequently than oil, but my method is the same for both.
I understand your frustration with kitchen time, I detest cooking (OH cooks very well, but gets annoyed with me 'hovering' in the kitchen checking on what is going into the recipe because he 'ad-libs' ingredients).

callsitlikeiseeit

measure your oil into the pan.

divide servings.

thats how much oil you account for.

ie: 1 tbsp oil in a pan with 4 chicken breasts - makes 4 servings, and .25 tbsp of oil

youre actually consuming less, as there will be oil in the pan left but much easier to do it that way than weigh it all out again.

Lourdesong

I would weigh the fish raw, and weigh it again cooked if it's going to serve many. If just for me I just weigh raw, log that, and eat it cooked.

You only need a minimum of 2 ingredients to build a recipe in MFP, and that can make things a little easier. Input raw ingredients, including oil, and then the final cooked weight of the dish can be entered as number of servings. Weigh your portion and log it as x servings of y recipe, and the oil and whatever else is accounted for.

An easy way to track oil while cooking is to put your bottle of oil (or butter dish, etc) on your scale, tare it out, take what you need and log or input the negative reading. You would have to switch to weight entries vs volume tho.

Cortneyrenee04

Personally, I got really frustrated with all of that and just stopped using oil. But I understand that's not always real life!

It's so hard for me because I was never taught to follow recipes and measure everything, but now it's second nature! You'll get it with time

niniundlapin

callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »

measure your oil into the pan.

divide servings.

thats how much oil you account for.

ie: 1 tbsp oil in a pan with 4 chicken breasts - makes 4 servings, and .25 tbsp of oil

youre actually consuming less, as there will be oil in the pan left but much easier to do it that way than weigh it all out again.

I do it like that too. The additional cooking oil shouldn't be part of the raw food (especially for something like eggs). I can't imagine the consequence of underestimating the caloric intake of cooking oil after eating hundreds meals with it, but it's also a hassle to track down every single bit of it because I tend not to "drink" the oil in my plate (especially for something like pan-fried vegetable). This method is a happy medium for me.

Mistraal1981

5ml of olive oil which is basically a teaspoon of oil (a teeny tiny amount) is 45 calories to give you some perspective.

May be worth considering that low cal spray oil.

lynnstrick01

a dietitian once told me that anything that is fried to "double" the calories, I personally don't see how that is possible, but that's what she said.

mkakids

lynnstrick01 wrote: »

a dietitian once told me that anything that is fried to "double" the calories, I personally don't see how that is possible, but that's what she said.

Deep fried. Pan fried is different.

But personally im not sure that accurate for deep frying either.

mkakids

I measure the oil (by putting the bottle on the scale), and then add it all to my count. I cook for 6, but never use more than 1tablespoon of oil at once....so i just log 1 tbspn of oil in my diary....id rather over log

WinterSkies

I will take a stab at how much oil was in my serving of whatever I cooked. So, if I pan fry fish, and I put oil in the pan, and eat 1/5 of the fish, then I'll enter 1/5 of the total oil measurement. It's not super accurate, but it works for my purposes. I usually try to be short of my calorie goal by 50-100 calories per day to account for that sort of inconsistency.

I'm sure that once I'm near my goal weight, I will have to tighten up my logging. For now, it works for me.

sammyliftsandeats

I usually cook for just me, so if I put in one tablespoon of oil - I log it as that.

I mean, some of it gets absorbed or remains in the pan but I would rather over-estimate than underestimate.

Francl27

I measure what I put it then divide by 2/3 servings, depending on how many people I'm cooking for.

jeepinshawn

I don't log cooking oils at all.

Anonycatgirl

You're making this harder than it needs to be. Measure your cooking oil before putting in the pan. If it's one serving, that's how much oil you log. If it's several, divide by x. We strive for accuracy but really it's all a close approximation.

girlwithcurls2

Francl27 wrote: »

I measure what I put it then divide by 2/3 servings, depending on how many people I'm cooking for.

This. And in the future, just be aware that trout "renders" zero fat, so whatever you put in the pan and then pour over your food and eat, you need to measure out and log.

annette_15

I use oil spray and if I feel like I've used a lot ill just add like 3-5g of fat to my diary

Merkavar

Can't say I have used cooking oil. I never had issues.

But I guess I would just log what ever I put in to the pan. I probably wouldn't be trying to work out how much I ate vs cooked off vs left in the pan.

I would rather over estimate.

tomteboda

I take the difference between what I put in & what's left when I'm done if there's a lot of oil left over. This actually only happens if I allow my father to cook now, though. If I cook, the measurement is how much went in because I use minimal oil. Most of the time I strive for oil-free cooking, or as near close as possible.

RoxieDawn

I measure for example 1 tablespoon and split that between me and my husbands servings.. But basically I give myself always a half of the measurement, The same with cooking with butter, but I have down played the butter in my cooking a great deal. I use 0 calorie PAM a lot.

Lounmoun

I would measure the oil I put in the pan and divide it by servings or just log 1 Tablespoon of oil.