How do you calculate calories when sautéing something in oil

Options
riccillo65
riccillo65 Posts: 1 Member
in Recipes

Answers

  • lesdarts180
    lesdarts180 Posts: 3,415 Member

    If you are using oil from a bottle, weigh the bottle before you start (in grams for accuracy) then weigh again after you have finished. The difference will tell you how much oil you have used - I'm assuming no oil left behind in the pan.

    You could consider using a spray oil which will generally result in less oil being used. Use the same weighing method unless you are really strict with the number of sprays (and even a few squirts will have some calories as oil is very calorie dense)

    You could look at the recipe and consider a different cooking method - depending on your calorie allowance for the day and your own preference for "spending" calories.

    Personally I don't saute or fry in oil these days, but I'm a little old lady on a pretty restricted calorie allowance even now in maintenance.

    Good luck!

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,985 Member

    I weigh the oil, including oil in spray cans**, and log all of it as something I ate. The only exception would be when there's oil left in the pan - that can't have come from the food being fried - that I can pour off or wipe off and weigh.****

    ** Put the can on the scale. Zero/tare it. Spray your pan or food or whatever. Put the can back on the scale, which ideally is still "awake". Read the negative number on the scale, and log that much oil. If your scale won't stay on long enough to do that, then weigh the can before, note the weight, weigh the can after, subtract. Most scales will stay on long enough to do it the easy way.

    **** Weigh a paper towel. Wipe out the pan. Weigh the paper towel with the oil in it. Log the difference. OR put the pan on the scale, zero/tare the scale. Wipe or pour out the excess oil, put the pan back on the scale, note the negative number. Substract that number from the amount of oil you put in the pan before cooking.

    This sounds more laborious than it is, though it may feel fussy until you can do it without much thought in the moment.

    Personally, I was surprised how little oil I could use, when I was using the right pan, and get good results. For some foods, stir-steaming in a bit of broth, soy sauce, or seasoned water is as tasty as sautéing in oil.

Categories