Accurately Measuring Servings of "Family Style" Dinners

rugare
rugare Posts: 25 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I am going to start to track macros and calories. Let's say I typically cook a big family style recipe with a bunch of ingredients for my husband and children and we all eat together. And let's also say I own a food scale.

What is the best way to enter the recipe into myfitnesspal? Let's say I measure out all of the ingredients as I am cooking and enter them into the recipe builder. How do I decide how many portions my recipe will have? How do I know how much to eat in order to eat enough protein, etc?

Replies

  • solieco1
    solieco1 Posts: 1,559 Member
    I use Recipe Builder and then weigh the final product in grams if possible. Then fr serving in Recipe Builder I make it 100g portions. Then it is super easy to just measure and log accurately. Sounds time consuming but not really especially if it's a recipe you use repeatedly.
  • solieco1
    solieco1 Posts: 1,559 Member
    So for instance if the total finished dish weighs 850g I'll put in 8.5 servings.
  • DaintyWhisper
    DaintyWhisper Posts: 221 Member
    Going off of what Solieco recommended.. If the whole finished meal weighs 850g, you could put in 850 servings. That way, when you measure out your portion and find that it weighs 198 grams, you could entire it as 198 servings. Kind of simplifies it even further!
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    One caution. It seems that when it comes to leftovers, evaporation is a factor with a lot of foods. So, if I make something that's 4 servings and the total weight (less the container) is 1000 grams, on Day 1, I weigh out my 250 grams and enjoy. Day 2? Maybe the net weight is 732 grams.

    If it's a family dinner, there's not much you can do about it. If it's something you made specifically for you, I guess the options are to weight it each time and divide by portions remaining, or right when you've finished cooking, divide the dish into individual serving containers.
  • rugare
    rugare Posts: 25 Member
    Thanks, everyone! This is very helpful.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,943 Member
    This worked for only two people: record everything cooked with. Say a pot of rice, some curry and some naan to go with it. Other person takes 3 serving spoons of rice, I take two. 1 left in pot. So i log 2/6 for me. Same for the curry and the bread. There's a lot of uncertainly in there of course, thus keep that in mind.

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