College student tracking calories

Ow3593

My parents cook most of the food. How should I figure out the calories in food my parents make at home? I use a weight scale and ask what ingredients was used, but I don't really know the exact amount of each ingredient that was used in the food so I could easily be off by about 200-600 calories.

What exactly should I do?

z_bra

You are in college... Learn how to cook

Ow3593

Nice answer. Also I live with my parents so I eat what is given. I know how to cook, but I'm not living on my own.

Aspiration_Jay

If they are preparing the meals while you are at home and your not bogged down with school work you should get in the kitchen and help. This will provide you a way to know what's really going in, spend time with the family and maybe exchange ideas about how to make the food healthier ( if that is a concern).

ana3067

Nice answer. Also I live with my parents so I eat what is given. I know how to cook, but I'm not living on my own.

I live at home, too. Also a university student, last semester or year depending on what I want to do for graduate school.
I cook every meal that I eat. Study 3-4 hours a day most days, gym for about 90 minutes 4x a week, laundry and dishes and cleaning the litter box.

Either get more involved and cook your own meals or cook for the family, have them weigh everything and write it down on a board or paper, or weigh everything yourself and let them cook it.

Ow3593

Lol guys my family eats healthy because well they weren't born in America and still eat like they did in their own. That's not the problem.

The issue I have is trying to figure out how many calories is in the food with no labels. I use a scale and weigh it out, but then what do I do, guess the numbers for the ingredients?

.If there isn't any way to do that then I suppose I'll start cooking myself. All I was wondering if there was a way to do that, but seems like it would be impossible to accurately track calories in food after it is cooked.

365andstillalive

Lol guys my family eats healthy because well they weren't born in America and still eat like they did in their own. That's not the problem.

The issue I have is trying to figure out how many calories is in the food with no labels. I use a scale and weigh it out, but then what do I do, guess the numbers for the ingredients?

.If there isn't any way to do that then I suppose I'll start cooking myself. All I was wondering if there was a way to do that, but seems like it would be impossible to accurately track calories in food after it is cooked.

Correct, once it's cooked, or even all put together, if you don't know if it was 1 cup of something or two, that greatly changes the calories.
What people are suggesting is that either you, or whoever in your family is cooking, weighs or measures the food (as in, each individual ingredient) so that you can tally everything up and figure out at least an approximate caloric intake for your portion.

Editing to add that while many people in the Western world don't eat traditionally "healthy" diets, many do. Where you're family is from matters less than what foods they like to eat and how they prepare them -- many cultures around the world douse things in oils, even if they aren't using it to deep fry them.