Cooking at home.

sizco30

Alright lately I’ve been really counting my calories but when I eat at home say if I cooked voila which is pasta in a bag and say mc and cheese how do I count these? Or say spaghetti which I cook it with hamburger meat and mix it with preggo sauce. Is the real only way to count these calories is to buy a food scale?

TavistockToad

Yes

Lounmoun

Use the recipe builder.
Use a food scale.

livingleanlivingclean

If you're using things in packets you could do your best to guesstimate how much of the packet you use and enter rough quantities. (or just eat the whole lot to make life easy)...

I cook most meals from scratch and would be lost without my food scale, although I can chop 100g chunks of zucchini with good accuracy. Using a food scale means you can say you are making the best effort to track your intake accurately.

FL_Hiker

I cook at home and don't use a food scale, I over guess the calories though so I'm pretty confident I'm not over eating. I use measuring cups as well...

funjen1972

Food scale is the most accurate method. You can get an estimate by using the serving size in the nutritional data on the package. Example: A jar of pasta sauce says 70 calories per half cup. You ate 1 cup, which is 140 calories. You can do the same for the pasta. The ground meat will have a weight on the package. Figure out how much of it is in your serving and base your calories on that value.

These are just estimates, though. Package weights are often inaccurate. Measuring by volume (cups, tablespoons, etc,) introduces lots of opportunity for error.

Food scale is the way to go for accurate Measuring.

emmamcgarity

A food scale is the most accurate way to log your food. But, if you are willing to accept a margin of error with your calorie estimates, you can measure by volume and estimation. I use volume and estimation with the full recognition that my calorie count will likely be off.

Eyeballing is almost always wrong.

For a meal you are describing, here is the strategy I would use for estimating.
Pasta - look at the serving size info and the number of servings per package. Cook the whole package and divide it equally into the number of servings stated on the package. Put one of those servings on your plate. Enter that serving into your tracker. If I want more pasta than that, I take another serving and adjust my tracker. Or I take another 1/2 of a serving and adjust my tracker.
Meat - look at the number of pounds of meat marked on the package and the type.
Sauce - look at the number of servings on the jar and the serving size.
Once I have the meat cooked and sauce combined, I have to do some eyeballing/estimating. If I know I cooked exactly 1 lb of uncooked meat, I feel fairly confident taking 1/4 of what is cooked in the dish to consider it 4 ounces of meat (16 ounces of meat makes one pound). That also means I am taking 1/4 of the jar of sauce that was added. So, whatever amount of sauce I added to the dish, I need to do the math to determine how many servings is on my plate.

It's basically math. So far this method is working for me. I fully recognize that I would be more accurate with a scale. I'm just not currently willing to weigh my food. If I find I hit a plateau where I am not losing weight, I may revisit the scale idea.

CarvedTones

Food scale is best; I have one and use it when I can. It can be difficult when cooking for the family. Sometimes I just have to estimate the portion and there is a good chance I get it wrong but I always log everything, even if I am not sure about it. This has proved to be okay over the long run. I think I end to overestimate portions out of concern that I will underestimate.

RodaRose

Food scale. You can buy one for 20 dollars or so at Walmart, Target, Amazon, . . . .

callsitlikeiseeit

food scale and the recipe builder. they are your friends .

MelissaPhippsFeagins

A food scale is by far the most accurate. However, I confess to not using one. My dad's parents had a dairy farm and my mom's sister had a restaurant I spent time at and both of my parents were professional cooks. (Dad taught culinary classes and mom managed a school cafeteria.) By the time I left home, I had and still have a great eyeball for portions.

Spaghetti is always 1/6 of the box for me because my hubby and I have 4 kids. Ground beef (85/15 usually) is 4 ounces because I use a 1.5 lb package and 2 servings of sauce. If I am not particularly hungry, I put half of my serving in a container for lunch the next day and count both meals as half the calories.
But, if you are really wanting to be accurate, weigh it.

Cbean08

I agree that a food scale is the best in terms of accuracy. However, I have successfully lost weight without one. You have to make smart, educated choices though. I also ate under what I could have in order to make sure I was in a deficit. You also have to be very, very honest with yourself.

If you are going to use cups and tablespoons, you don't get a heaping cup or a heaping tablespoon of food. I always rounded up to the package calories too. So, 2 tbsp of peanut butter is actually 200 calories, not 190. 2 slices of bread is 200 calories, not 180. A medium apple is 100 calories, not 70. And 2 eggs are 160, not 140.