Counting calories on homemade foods?

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  • belgd
    belgd Posts: 26 Member
    I enter every ingredient separately. It's time consuming at times but I feel better knowing exactly how many calories I'm eating rather than an estimate that might be too low or high.
    I have to use the food scale and measuring cups/spoons constantly.
  • coolraul07
    coolraul07 Posts: 1,606 Member
    Weigh all the ingredients as you add them to your recipe, enter in recipe builder, then weigh entire final recipe (might need to weigh baking dish/container before cooking so you can subtract). I enter the weight of the whole final recipe divided by 100 in the "number of servings" field. So if my entire pan of spaghetti weighed 1352g, I'd enter "13.52 servings". Then when I serve myself, if I take a 123g portion, I'll track it as "1.23 servings."
    ...
    ^^^
    I have been doing this except for the '100g' part. I've been dividing the recipe by the number of servings that I thought there should be. Trouble being that serving size would vary, even with the same recipe (e.g. 178g this time, 154g the next time, etc.) Makes it a pain when I eat off of something for 2-3 days I have to remember/document the serving size each time.

    I like your '100g' method better and will start doing that from now on. Thanks! :drinker:
  • gaidinsgir1
    gaidinsgir1 Posts: 3 Member
    Weigh all the ingredients as you add them to your recipe, enter in recipe builder, then weigh entire final recipe (might need to weigh baking dish/container before cooking so you can subtract). I enter the weight of the whole final recipe divided by 100 in the "number of servings" field. So if my entire pan of spaghetti weighed 1352g, I'd enter "13.52 servings". Then when I serve myself, if I take a 123g portion, I'll track it as "1.23 servings."

    You could enter "1352 servings" and not divide by 100, but I think MFP does some rounding of very small fractions so it won't be as accurate- that's why I do the 100g method.

    Sounds like a pain but it takes like 10 seconds per ingredient to weigh. I keep my iPad right on the kitchen counter as I cook to quickly enter. If you're not using a food scale already, GET ONE! When I estimated portions, I did NOT lose consistently and kept giving up out of frustration, for years- until I started measuring like this. Otherwise you truly have no idea how much you're eating.

    This is what I do, except I weigh in ounces and whatever the soup or casserole or whatever weighs, I put that number under servings. The whole casserole weighs 211 ounces so I put it in as 211 servings and then I weigh my portion, if it's 5 ounces, I add it to my log as 5 servings.
  • missdibs1
    missdibs1 Posts: 1,092 Member
    I usually add my recipes on my phone so I can scan the barcode of any foods that have them. We menu plan so I usually take 20 minutes or so to add the recipes for the week after I get home from the grocery store. I do not add any herbs or spices though.

    scan bar code? explain?

    Please and thak you

    I bought a scale but that is 1/2 the equation...would love to be able to weigh and scan!
  • Spilogale
    Spilogale Posts: 6
    I usually add my recipes on my phone so I can scan the barcode of any foods that have them. We menu plan so I usually take 20 minutes or so to add the recipes for the week after I get home from the grocery store. I do not add any herbs or spices though.

    scan bar code? explain?

    Please and thak you

    I bought a scale but that is 1/2 the equation...would love to be able to weigh and scan!

    On the mobile app... when you go to add a food to your diary you have the ability to scan in the bar code of your item. Bottom right on the iPhone. Haven't had an item it can't recognize, works great.


    Thank you everyone on else for you comments

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