Tracking oil & butter

cangler

so ive been tracking cals/macs for quite some time now and for the most part have a good understanding but some things confuse me on how it should be tracked... for example when cooking with oils and butters on the skillet/wok, i may throw in a bit of butter or coconut oil, should i be tracking exactly the amount i put in the pan, not really sure how much im actually consuming... little ocd here ppl so bare with me.

Chef_Barbell

Yup I weigh it.

Alatariel75

Put container on scale, tare scale, splash oil/butter in pan, put container back on scale, and then you know how much to log.

trigden1991

I have never and will never track cooking oils. I track my food and drink and adjust as necessary. Life is too short to weigh oils and to worry about how much has gone into the food and how much fat has come out of the food. As long as you are consistent then you'll be ok.

lemurcat12

trigden1991 wrote: »

As long as you are consistent then you'll be ok.

Pretty much this -- if you do this, understand that you might be eating more than you think (a lot more if you use a lot) and be consistent and adjust based on results.

That said, what I do is log what I put in the pan, assuming that I am probably not getting it all in reality, but I log it and use tsp and tbsp, so I might be undercounting what I put in anyway, so it evens out. Or it doesn't, but I'm consistent and adjust if needed.

laurenebargar

lemurcat12 wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

As long as you are consistent then you'll be ok.

Pretty much this -- if you do this, understand that you might be eating more than you think (a lot more if you use a lot) and be consistent and adjust based on results.

That said, what I do is log what I put in the pan, assuming that I am probably not getting it all in reality, but I log it and use tsp and tbsp, so I might be undercounting what I put in anyway, so it evens out. Or it doesn't, but I'm consistent and adjust if needed.

I do this too, If I put a tbsp in the dish and it makes four meals, Ill say each meal I had .25 a tbsp or sometimes even .5 tbsp so im probably over estimating, but my logging on other things then has a little room for error. If I forgot to measure how much I put in, or my husband was cooking that night, I guess on the oils and butter.

thewindandthework

For people like me, prone to overeating, I do think it's important to track calories from cooking fat. For people with different problems than mine and with goals other than weight loss, it may not be as important.

If oil or butter is going into a pan, I measure by volume and log the full amount, even if some is left in the pan after I remove the food. It's not a perfect method, but it's simple and I feel confident I'm not underlogging. I also don't use a lot of excess fat like I did before I started tracking, so there is much less left in the pan than there used to be.

If/when my weight loss starts to plateau, I will start being more precise in my methodology.

MelissaPhippsFeagins

trigden1991 wrote: »

I have never and will never track cooking oils. I track my food and drink and adjust as necessary. Life is too short to weigh oils and to worry about how much has gone into the food and how much fat has come out of the food. As long as you are consistent then you'll be ok.

This is my opinion. If I put a tablespoon of butter on a grilled cheese, I will log that because I ate most of it. Otherwise, life is short and time is precious. I lost from 225 to 160-165 this way and have kept it off for 3 years. Your mileage may vary, but it works for me.

susanp57

I think the OPs real point is that if you cook something in 1T fat, a substantial portion never makes it out of the pan. She wants to be accurate, which in this case is pretty much impossible.

This would also be true with most any food.

toxikon

I always have teaspoons and tablespoons handy for liquid cooking oils and my scale handy for solid butter or coconut oil. It's so easy to measure, and I measure everything else - so why not. If you don't have a big deficit those numbers can definitely affect your progress.

gamerbabe14

I don't include my oils or butter. I have lost weight pretty consistently so it's not a problem for me right now. Once I get closer to my goal though, I believe this will be important for me to track. But that's not on my radar right now.

Sp1tfire

I just eyeball it. Sometimes not even counting it.

kath1mill

I just guesstimate when I log something that had been cooked in butter or oils. I'll put a tsp or something. I try to overshoot if I'm not sure.

dutchandkiwi

I measure and log the cooking oils. I know not all of them get consumed but I figure that overestimate here is better than underestimate

mjbnj0001

I don't try and push the decimal point accuracy on these things.

1. most of my cooking is "recipes," so that the oil/butter/fat is apportioned to the number of servings, with some minor inaccuracy (and presumption that "all added goes to the meals"). I don't waste a lot of time worrying about the deltas.
2. if I'm directly applying something, such as butter to a slice of toast, or a tsp of EVOO to a bowl of salad, then I record it "as is."
3. with summer grilling season here, i'm grilling a lot of veggies. typically, I give them a spritz of coconut or EVOO before they go on to the BBQ. I generally don't count this, as the spray doesn't have much to count. OTOH, I'm probably over-counting fats from other sources in the meals, such as the EVOO that might have gone into the batch of salad, (by #1 above) and left behind in the serving bowl.

As a number of posters have said, similarly, if you're consistent and reasonable, it all evens out, and if the bathroom scale is moving in the right direction, that's a good thing. Sure, you might tune things with more precision for faster weight loss, but at what expense to your brain/time to get better data? And, BTW, the computations underlying the formulas for MFP's macro targets are statistically-based approximations (good statistics/math, but still ...), as are many food labels and values. YMMV in any case. So why twist yourself around so tightly on the pursuit of decimal places? Do what you can to get into a good groove and enjoy the ride from there, LOL.

MalkinMagic71

trigden1991 wrote: »

I have never and will never track cooking oils. I track my food and drink and adjust as necessary. Life is too short to weigh oils and to worry about how much has gone into the food and how much fat has come out of the food. As long as you are consistent then you'll be ok.

Ditto.

ericatoday

I just measure my oils or butter with tbsp or tsp.

GemstoneofHeart

I do track it by tsp or tbsp, I don't weigh it of its just lubrication in a skillet. If I am cooking veggies and I add a tbsp of evoo, and I eat 1/3 of the veggies, I log 1/3 tbsp of evoo. Even though there is a little left coating the pan that doesn't get consumed, I just don't worry about it

KateTii

For me, it depends on what i'm cooking. If i'm cooking steak where I know i'm going to be cutting off the chunk of fat that I don't eat, I won't log the tiny amount of oil i'm using.

jemhh

I'm not convinced that so much of it evaporates off. I use 7 grams of coconut butter to make eggs each morning and log the full amount. There nothing left in the pan.

mazdauk

I track what I put in. If some of it stays in the pan then I reckon that outweighs any odd overestimate on activity.

lilithsrose

I don't worry about oil or butter too much, but if I use it while cooking, I'll usually add an extra 50 calories to my meal. Its not 100% accurate, but its reasonable.

rakowskidp

mazdauk wrote: »

I track what I put in. If some of it stays in the pan then I reckon that outweighs any odd overestimate on activity.

Same here. I just assume it all went into the food!

StarvingDiva

lemurcat12 wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

As long as you are consistent then you'll be ok.

Pretty much this -- if you do this, understand that you might be eating more than you think (a lot more if you use a lot) and be consistent and adjust based on results.

That said, what I do is log what I put in the pan, assuming that I am probably not getting it all in reality, but I log it and use tsp and tbsp, so I might be undercounting what I put in anyway, so it evens out. Or it doesn't, but I'm consistent and adjust if needed.

Pretty much what I do too and figure if I don't consume that whole amount its not going to be that huge of a difference.

FattieBabs

Yes! I measureby tsp or tbsp as on Orlistat so have to be very careful not to go over my fat limit of 15g fat per meal.. I probably overestimate to be on the safe side... hoping to come off the pills in the next 6 months but eating lowish fat and 1600 cals a day working so far!

inertiastrength

Another OCD logger. If I'm putting oil or butter in scrambled eggs I'll weigh it and log it completely because it absorbed completely (pancakes too etc) If I'm putting 10g in to coat my pan on something like chicken I may log it as half that since most stays in the pan but there is SOME on my chicken or meat etc.

callsitlikeiseeit

mrsnattybulking wrote: »

Another OCD logger. If I'm putting oil or butter in scrambled eggs I'll weigh it and log it completely because it absorbed completely (pancakes too etc) If I'm putting 10g in to coat my pan on something like chicken I may log it as half that since most stays in the pan but there is SOME on my chicken or meat etc.

thats how i do it.

works for me and isnt troublesome

Francl27

I log everything I use. I'd rather overestimate than underestimate.

JeromeBarry1

Once upon a time I had a clean skillet. I weighed it. I sprayed olive oil into the pan. This was not a 1/4 second spray as the nutrition label lies. Rather, it was enough to satisfy my need that the pan be lubricated. Then I weighed the skillet again. It weighed 1 gram more. Ever afterward I log 1 gram of olive oil when I spray Pam into my skillet. OCD would be if I weighed it every time.

OCD would be weighing the bacon fat I collect for soap-making to subtract those calories from my log.

lemurcat12

Bacon fat that renders isn't counted if you log cooked bacon. Is it OCD that I add bacon fat back in if I cook eggs or vegetables in the fat after cooking bacon?

rosiekateburns

Hi guys, sorry this thread is so old but can someone confirm if you have to measure coconut oil solid or liquid? Would the weight change drastically? X