figuring out calories in homemade food?
Trish1c
Posts: 549 Member
Ugh. This concept seems to elude me.
When I made things like grilled chicken & steamed vegetables it's easy. You weigh; it's on MFP; viola, you know what you ate.
But what do you do for other things? For example I make a Mexican Lasagna . . .reasonably healthy, fresh vegetables, a can of black beans, a can of corn, lots of salsa, some cheese & totillas etc. Do I add up all the calories from the packages & divide by the # of portions I cut it into? Again, that seems do-able.
But here's the real problem: things made in the crock pot. I made a chicken dish. You put the chicken in the pot & pour on other ingredients. The majority of what was added wasn't that healthy -- a bottle of French dressing, a can of cranberry sauce & a package of onion soup mix for flavor. It simmers away all day but I ate the chicken & maybe a tablespoon of sauce. The bulk of the sauce was left in the pot / thrown away. How do I calculate the calories? I just guessed & rounded up. I was still under my calories for the day & have been steadily losing weight so I'm not all that concerned, but I would like to know how to measure it correctly.
Please help. Thanks in advance
When I made things like grilled chicken & steamed vegetables it's easy. You weigh; it's on MFP; viola, you know what you ate.
But what do you do for other things? For example I make a Mexican Lasagna . . .reasonably healthy, fresh vegetables, a can of black beans, a can of corn, lots of salsa, some cheese & totillas etc. Do I add up all the calories from the packages & divide by the # of portions I cut it into? Again, that seems do-able.
But here's the real problem: things made in the crock pot. I made a chicken dish. You put the chicken in the pot & pour on other ingredients. The majority of what was added wasn't that healthy -- a bottle of French dressing, a can of cranberry sauce & a package of onion soup mix for flavor. It simmers away all day but I ate the chicken & maybe a tablespoon of sauce. The bulk of the sauce was left in the pot / thrown away. How do I calculate the calories? I just guessed & rounded up. I was still under my calories for the day & have been steadily losing weight so I'm not all that concerned, but I would like to know how to measure it correctly.
Please help. Thanks in advance
1
Replies
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Use the recipe builder.2
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AlabamaMama224 wrote: »Use the recipe builder.
What is that? Where is it? How do I use it?0 -
The first couple of times I make a recipe, I weigh every ingredient...then it gets easier after a couple of times. I sit my scale on the counter, a notebook and pen, and a bowl picked out for the process. Zero your scale before each ingredient. Then enter it all into the recipe builder. I save "my meals", because I tend to eat the same 10 or so meals all month long, with the odd variance. I cook only for myself during the week, so I only make enough for one, but this can easily be done for more, with a little math. It's work, but after awhile, it's like brushing your teeth. Good luck!2
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I use the recipe builder for everything, and if I've over estimated the calories because I don't eat all the sauce so be it.
I suppose you could log the sauce separately in the recipe builder and portion that out according to what you used?1 -
Recipe builder!!0
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The recipe builder is fab here - go into food diary and click on recipes and you can import your recipe there or add your ingredients one by one. MFP will do the work for you and save it so its there for you next time you make it.0
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I also suggest using the recipe builder. In some cases, I'll use go back after the "recipe" is done and enter the number of servings based on total ounces or grams in the dish, then as I eat it, I can weigh what I'm eating and enter the proper portion from the recipe. This is probably more helpful for those who have multiple household members, but it still helps me stay accurate from day to day.
For example, if I make something that comes out to 800 grams as a finished product, I will put in 800 "servings." If I eat 135g for a meal, then I log 135 "servings" of my recipe.2 -
That didn't work.
When I tried to build the recipe the system did not let me measure my chicken correctly. It gave me "pieces", milliliters or fluid ounces in all of the generic chicken choices. It didn't let me pick the more accurate one I picked last night which allowed me to weigh the piece I ate.
My guess last night was that each serving was about 500 calories. MFP said 321 with the recipe builder. That made no sense because it was a 5 oz chicken thigh which alone is 320 calories (I ate the skin
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But at least I think I better understand how the tool works. Thanks for that0 -
Where do I find the recipe builder?1
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That didn't work.
When I tried to build the recipe the system did not let me measure my chicken correctly. It gave me "pieces", milliliters or fluid ounces in all of the generic chicken choices. It didn't let me pick the more accurate one I picked last night which allowed me to weigh the piece I ate.
My guess last night was that each serving was about 500 calories. MFP said 321 with the recipe builder. That made no sense because it was a 5 oz chicken thigh which alone is 320 calories (I ate the skin )
But at least I think I better understand how the tool works. Thanks for that
If it is available in the database, you can add it to a recipe. There are a lot of useless entries in the database, and you probably selected a different food entry from the database that looked very close or perhaps even looked identical to what you used last night, but was not actually the same.1 -
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midwesterner85 wrote: »That didn't work.
When I tried to build the recipe the system did not let me measure my chicken correctly. It gave me "pieces", milliliters or fluid ounces in all of the generic chicken choices. It didn't let me pick the more accurate one I picked last night which allowed me to weigh the piece I ate.
My guess last night was that each serving was about 500 calories. MFP said 321 with the recipe builder. That made no sense because it was a 5 oz chicken thigh which alone is 320 calories (I ate the skin )
But at least I think I better understand how the tool works. Thanks for that
If it is available in the database, you can add it to a recipe. There are a lot of useless entries in the database, and you probably selected a different food entry from the database that looked very close or perhaps even looked identical to what you used last night, but was not actually the same.
Yeah, the database can be pretty much a PITA to use at times.
If you import a recipe, say from Allrecipes.com, can you count on those calories being correct? Or do you still have to check every ingredient for accuracy?
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midwesterner85 wrote: »That didn't work.
When I tried to build the recipe the system did not let me measure my chicken correctly. It gave me "pieces", milliliters or fluid ounces in all of the generic chicken choices. It didn't let me pick the more accurate one I picked last night which allowed me to weigh the piece I ate.
My guess last night was that each serving was about 500 calories. MFP said 321 with the recipe builder. That made no sense because it was a 5 oz chicken thigh which alone is 320 calories (I ate the skin )
But at least I think I better understand how the tool works. Thanks for that
If it is available in the database, you can add it to a recipe. There are a lot of useless entries in the database, and you probably selected a different food entry from the database that looked very close or perhaps even looked identical to what you used last night, but was not actually the same.
Yeah, the database can be pretty much a PITA to use at times.
If you import a recipe, say from Allrecipes.com, can you count on those calories being correct? Or do you still have to check every ingredient for accuracy?
You can't count on them to be correct because each brand you use of each product will differ in nutritional information than the ones they may have used.
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Personally, I find it frustrating that I can't use "my foods" in my recipes. I have spent the time to enter a lot of stuff properly, for example, fruits, and vegetables, but if I want to combine them into a recipe I have to use the database entries... maybe my personal one is in there somewhere.... but impossible to find.3
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The recipe builder sucks but it's what I use too. Then weigh the final product in grams and enter that as the number of servings (if I know I'm the only one who's going to eat it, I just make it 4/6/8 whatever servings though and don't bother being accurate).
I'm also lazy and will reuse old recipes without reweighing everything sometimes - close enough. I don't do fancy meals that much though - my kids are picky and it's more annoying to log.Personally, I find it frustrating that I can't use "my foods" in my recipes. I have spent the time to enter a lot of stuff properly, for example, fruits, and vegetables, but if I want to combine them into a recipe I have to use the database entries... maybe my personal one is in there somewhere.... but impossible to find.
Tell me about it. I wanted to use some of my mashed potatoes in my shepherd's pie and it was a real PITA to figure out.0 -
I live and die by the recipe builder, but it can definitely be frustrating once you get pages and pages of recipes.0
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samanthaluangphixay wrote: »midwesterner85 wrote: »That didn't work.
When I tried to build the recipe the system did not let me measure my chicken correctly. It gave me "pieces", milliliters or fluid ounces in all of the generic chicken choices. It didn't let me pick the more accurate one I picked last night which allowed me to weigh the piece I ate.
My guess last night was that each serving was about 500 calories. MFP said 321 with the recipe builder. That made no sense because it was a 5 oz chicken thigh which alone is 320 calories (I ate the skin )
But at least I think I better understand how the tool works. Thanks for that
If it is available in the database, you can add it to a recipe. There are a lot of useless entries in the database, and you probably selected a different food entry from the database that looked very close or perhaps even looked identical to what you used last night, but was not actually the same.
Yeah, the database can be pretty much a PITA to use at times.
If you import a recipe, say from Allrecipes.com, can you count on those calories being correct? Or do you still have to check every ingredient for accuracy?
You can't count on them to be correct because each brand you use of each product will differ in nutritional information than the ones they may have used.
DEFINITELY check for accuracy!!! Just a quick example, this morning I built a recipe that had 1/2 tsp of garlic powder. The option MFP chose had it logged as 664 calories. Once corrected, it was 5 calories. Everytime I import a recipe, I ALWAYS double check each and ingredient and usually have to change at least one thing based on the calories or the amounts MFP imported.0 -
Recipe builder0
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I like to use the recipe builder for things like cookies, crisps, and the lasagna you gave an an example, but in the case of your chicken, I would just log it separately as the chicken piece, then maybe log 1 TBSP for each of the ingredients in the sauce, or whatever amount you feel is appropriate for how much you ate. Overestimating a little doesn't hurt.0
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Personally, I find it frustrating that I can't use "my foods" in my recipes. I have spent the time to enter a lot of stuff properly, for example, fruits, and vegetables, but if I want to combine them into a recipe I have to use the database entries... maybe my personal one is in there somewhere.... but impossible to find.
Agree. So much.0 -
jmbmilholland wrote: »I like to use the recipe builder for things like cookies, crisps, and the lasagna you gave an an example, but in the case of your chicken, I would just log it separately as the chicken piece, then maybe log 1 TBSP for each of the ingredients in the sauce, or whatever amount you feel is appropriate for how much you ate. Overestimating a little doesn't hurt.
I wasn't sure that accurately accounted for any absorption into the chicken. Sauce on top that I added, sure but does the whole basting thing add calories? It has to but how many?
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For a lot of recipes, I like to figure out the calories per ounce, which makes it so much easier to log portions when more than one person is eating from the recipe.0
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jmbmilholland wrote: »I like to use the recipe builder for things like cookies, crisps, and the lasagna you gave an an example, but in the case of your chicken, I would just log it separately as the chicken piece, then maybe log 1 TBSP for each of the ingredients in the sauce, or whatever amount you feel is appropriate for how much you ate. Overestimating a little doesn't hurt.
I wasn't sure that accurately accounted for any absorption into the chicken. Sauce on top that I added, sure but does the whole basting thing add calories? It has to but how many?
Basting is more a technique that you are going to use for roasting or grilling, and that is tricky because, while you're going to be basting with added fat, or the chicken's own fat, it's also going to be rendering fat at the same time, in the form of pan drippings. That makes it really hard to calculate.
With something like you are describing, or barbecue sauce, it is going to sit on the top of the skin (if you think about eating barbecue, the smokiness pervades the meat but the sauce itself doesn't); the thicker the sauce, the more that will be retained, but I think 1T of dressing and 1T of cranberry sauce would be a pretty close estimation to what would be on an average wing of it's just a light coating.
If the chicken is breaded, then you're going to be getting into more absorption issues, but the chicken itself isn't all that absorbent (that's why a lot of chefs will put herbed butter pats between the skin and interior meat). You said you eyeballed the sauce at 1T, so logging 2 T (the soup mix probably doesn't add too many calories, but log it too if you want to be rigorous) should cover you. You can bump it up a bit if you're still uncomfortable.
If you browned the chicken in olive oil before hand, that would probably have some calorie impact as well, but again you have the questions as to what was added vs. what was rendered.
Ultimately, judging the exact calorie content is just going to be an estimation--and art, rather than a science--but I think this would get you the closest, rather than calculating based on the entire ingredient roster. It's also important if you are tracking your protein macro, or any macro for that matter.
Just my two cents.1
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