How to measure food if...

beatyfamily1

How do you measure food if it's being distributed between the family? When it's dinner time I usually have trouble logging my calories because I really don't know how many calories I'm eating. I can weigh the food before all the ingredients are cooked, but I'll only know how many calories the meal is all together and not just for me. Is there a more accurate weigh to know how many calories I'm eating when cooking for the whole family or is it just my best guess?

janejellyroll

You can weigh the final result to determine how much of it you're eating. I weigh the ingredients to determine how many calories are in the recipe. I weigh my serving to determine how much of it I am eating.

beatyfamily1

@janejellyroll So how would you weigh something like home made potato salad? Do you weigh it after it's made and log it as home made potato salad? I have know idea if the home made potato salad option is close to being accurate.

janejellyroll

beatyfamily1 wrote: »

@janejellyroll So how would you weigh something like home made potato salad? Do you weigh it after it's made and log it as home made potato salad? I have know idea if the home made potato salad option is close to being accurate.

I would use the recipe builder on MFP to enter the ingredients and quantity that I actually used. I would enter 1 serving for each 100 grams of the recipe (example, 450 grams of potato salad would be 4.5 servings) and then I would weigh my finished serving and enter that. So if if I had 120 grams of potato salad, I would enter 1.2 servings.

I avoid using the generic options (like "homemade potato salad") in the database whenever possible because -- as you pointed out -- we have no way of knowing if our ingredients and quantities match those the person who created the entry made. When I make things myself, I always use the recipe builder.

beatyfamily1

@janejellyroll Where would I find the recipe builder? I didn't know MFP had one.

The_Enginerd

beatyfamily1 wrote: »

@janejellyroll So how would you weigh something like home made potato salad? Do you weigh it after it's made and log it as home made potato salad? I have know idea if the home made potato salad option is close to being accurate.

Create your own recipe with the ingredients you actually used. Then, you can weigh how much the entire recipe is to figure out a serving.

For instance, I'll create a recipe for my chili, and put it as 10 servings. If the weight of the whole batch is 155 oz, I know 15.5 oz is a serving. I'll weigh how much I actually eat to log it (e.g. if I ate 23 oz of chili, I log 23/15.5 = 1.48 servings of that recipe.)

Some folks weigh the final product and put the number of servings as a large number to make the math easier. So in the chili example, you could use 155 servings in the recipe maker, than 1 oz = 1 serving for logging purposes.

janejellyroll

beatyfamily1 wrote: »

@janejellyroll Where would I find the recipe builder? I didn't know MFP had one.

It's under the Food tab -- go to "Recipes."

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

Lounmoun

beatyfamily1 wrote: »

@janejellyroll Where would I find the recipe builder? I didn't know MFP had one.

https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1731403-how-does-the-recipe-importer-in-the-ios-and-android-apps-work-

illyich

I eat dinner pretty regularly with two friends who don't log their food, but I ask that everyone take the same serving size - two ladles per serving, for instance. That way, I know how many servings the recipe is and can more accurately log my meal.

beatyfamily1

Thanks everyone.