calculating meals

annnastasia6776

trying to get back on track, I've been slacking for about 3 weeks (maybe 4, lol)

my downfall has always been calculating calories in home made meals. I found it easy to calculate and keep track whenever I just are store bought pre packaged items but I am trying to cut the junk out of our diets so trying to mostly eat only from scratch which is where calculating the portions/calories becomes tricky. How exactly do I do it?? I mean if I make a pot of chili or spaghetti sauce or something how do I calculate exactly how many portions are in it. I can measure how much the pot holds but chances are slim that I will ever get it to that level. It would be so nice if pots and pans would have measurement levels in them (actually I think one did once but it wore off). Same thing with casseroles and such. I could be over or under estimating.

hiyomi

Buy a food scale! They are very cheap and sell them at Walmart/convenience stores Start measuring/weighing your home cooked meals and that will keep you on track!

annnastasia6776

I don't see how weighing would help either unless I weigh the whole pot first???

capaul42

Typically I use the recipe builder and make my servings the weight of the total dish. Then I weigh my portion as my serving size. Say my total dish is 1200g. I put the servings in the recipe as 1200. Then I weigh my portion, which we'll say was 175g. I would then put in 175 for my serving of the recipe.

barbara3213

There is a tool on here that will help you calculate calories in your own recipes. Weigh the empty pot, weigh the finished product, weigh your portion and divide it into the whole.

Troutrouter1968

Look up the calories for each ingredient and weigh/measure each so that you can calculate the total calories for the meal then divide by the number of servings.

annnastasia6776

barbara3213 wrote: »

There is a tool on here that will help you calculate calories in your own recipes. Weigh the empty pot, weigh the finished product, weigh your portion and divide it into the whole.

that's what I was thinking, just don't want to do the extra work, lol. plus it means buying a new scale, mine just broke, lol.

melissa6771

I wouldn't put my big pots on my food scale. I have weighed smaller ones before I cook in them, but... What I do is, after they are cooked, I put them in and weigh them in containers, usually need two for a pot of stew or chili, I have made both between yesterday and today. I log the total weight of the cooked food and divide it by the number of servings. I keep a piece of paper on the fridge with the grams or oz. for the food that I have cooked in the fridge. Such as beef stew, 180 grams, chili, 409 grams, etc. I Plan on getting a magnetic whiteboard to keep this information and be able to change it as necessary. Then I put my plate or bowl onto the scale and scoop out that amount. Sounds like a bit of work but it only takes a minute and is extremely accurate.

Floreadsalot

I use the scan barcode option on mfp for every item i put in my dishes. It brings up all the pertinent nutritional values, etc. Takes all the hassle of counting and measuring out. As most is counted by oz or cup or pieces its easy for me to determine servkng sizes that way.

annnastasia6776

Floreadsalot wrote: »

I use the scan barcode option on mfp for every item i put in my dishes. It brings up all the pertinent nutritional values, etc. Takes all the hassle of counting and measuring out. As most is counted by oz or cup or pieces its easy for me to determine servkng sizes that way.

most things I use now don't have barecodes on them

Floreadsalot

Hmm..i have barcodes for most everything. Even stuff from my farmers market. When i make food, i scan barcodes to every single ingredient i put in the pot. Initially its a pain cuz I have to measure but then i save the meal and its there for next time.

rldeclercq4

annnastasia6776 wrote: »

barbara3213 wrote: »

There is a tool on here that will help you calculate calories in your own recipes. Weigh the empty pot, weigh the finished product, weigh your portion and divide it into the whole.

that's what I was thinking, just don't want to do the extra work, lol. plus it means buying a new scale, mine just broke, lol.

Well you've now been told exactly the answer to your question and you say it's too much work... So the question remains, do you really care? If you did then the $10 is costs to buy a new good scale on Amazon and take the 10 or so minutes it takes to enter and weigh your ingredients wouldn't be a hinderence

annnastasia6776

Floreadsalot wrote: »

Hmm..i have barcodes for most everything. Even stuff from my farmers market. When i make food, i scan barcodes to every single ingredient i put in the pot. Initially its a pain cuz I have to measure but then i save the meal and its there for next time.

a few items I use have barcodes, like pasta or if I used canned tomatoes, but most produce items do not have barcodes and that is what I'm "trying" to stick to


rldeclercq4

I didn't say I wouldn't do it, I was just complaining a little, something we are all allowed to do every once in a while!!!

elaineamj

I bought a flat stainless steel scale from Amazon for $10. I wanted stainless steel so that I could put pots off the stove onto it without worrying about melting plastic. Flat seemed to make the most sense from the perspective of space/ease of cleaning/and putting giant pots on it. I even put my giant wok on it (the thing is 1461g - I left a note on my fridge LOL!). This way, it makes it easier for me. Sometimes I suck it up and set out an extra empty dish and weigh things that way.

Like others said, I enter total servings as the total number of grams of the whole dish. So if I make a stirfry, its 1250 servings and I log what I eat as 350 servings.

Most of my stuff don't have barcodes (typically raw meat and raw veggies) so i use the usda entries where possible. I'm in Canada if that makes a difference. I can't imagine barcodes of farmer's market stuff!

What's easiest for me is to keep a notebook in the kitchen. I scrawl out the weights of everything as I cook (although it bugs me that my hands are always wet because I wash my hands a lot when I cook). Then after, I'll sit down and log it. I've tried logging directly into my laptop or iPhone app but find that it is a bit too time consuming to search for each ingredient when I'm in the middle of cooking. Thinking about it, I could just input it and then check each ingredient later. Then again, my hands are always wet and I would hate to mess up my phone/laptop.

Yes, it's a bit of a pain to weigh everything. Yes, I often use an extra bowl or two when doing it this way. It's worth it.

But I have to estimate sometimes. Several times, I have forget to weigh the raw veggie and then have to use the cooked entry. Not so sure I will do this in maintenance though. We will see.

annnastasia6776

elaineamj wrote: »

(although it bugs me that my hands are always wet because I wash my hands a lot when I cook).

I guess I'm not the only one, my hands are constantly wet while cooking too because I am constantly washing my hands while cooking

perkymommy

annnastasia6776 wrote: »

trying to get back on track, I've been slacking for about 3 weeks (maybe 4, lol)

my downfall has always been calculating calories in home made meals. I found it easy to calculate and keep track whenever I just are store bought pre packaged items but I am trying to cut the junk out of our diets so trying to mostly eat only from scratch which is where calculating the portions/calories becomes tricky. How exactly do I do it?? I mean if I make a pot of chili or spaghetti sauce or something how do I calculate exactly how many portions are in it. I can measure how much the pot holds but chances are slim that I will ever get it to that level. It would be so nice if pots and pans would have measurement levels in them (actually I think one did once but it wore off). Same thing with casseroles and such. I could be over or under estimating.

If you are making a pot of chili, soups, or casseroles at home then do a recipe for it here on this site through the recipe builder. You can put in each ingredient and the amount you are using and in the end choose the amount of servings it has. That way you can choose your serving size from there.

Weigh and measure everything you eat.