How to count calories in home cooked meals...

Titus220
Titus220 Posts: 9
edited September 22 in Food and Nutrition
I am having difficulties counting calories in meals that I make at home. For example tonight I am making chili...how do I know how many calories are in the cup that I am eating. I put several different thing in the chili and do not know how much of each I am eating? Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

Replies

  • iluvmine
    iluvmine Posts: 56 Member
    Just input in each ingredient in the food tracker, and divide the total calories by the amount of people the meal will serve.
  • jojoworks
    jojoworks Posts: 315 Member
    this site has a GREAT recipe calculator! Go to the the FOOD tab, and click on the recipes sub tab. you enter your recipe name and how many servings it makes then add the ingredients. When you're done, be sure to hit "SAVE". Then you add it to your food diary!
    good luck, its awesome!
    JoJo
  • sandara
    sandara Posts: 830 Member
    Use the recipe calculator under the food tab. Just put in all the ingredients and number of servings. It works great and you can change them if you tend to alter your ingredients from time to time like I do.

    LOL JoJo beat me to it!
  • jojoworks
    jojoworks Posts: 315 Member
    Use the recipe calculator under the food tab. Just put in all the ingredients and number of servings. It works great and you can change them if you tend to alter your ingredients from time to time like I do.

    LOL JoJo beat me to it!

    LOL, I'm addicted to that tool. I enter a new item at least weekly!
  • alska
    alska Posts: 300 Member
    thanks jojo! i didn't know about that.

    i too was having a hard time with it ... maybe that'll help :D
  • Titus220
    Titus220 Posts: 9
    Thank you so much for the fast help! I really appreciate the support!!!!!
  • ashwebster
    ashwebster Posts: 2 Member
    Perfect, this has answered my last question about how to use this site. As I work from home mostly, I cook all my meals from scratch and rarely buy ready meals or lunches. The Recipe tool is great. I think it will take a while getting all my recipes in as i go along but once they are in, i can point to them quickly in my food diary!! PERFECT!!!
  • melsinct
    melsinct Posts: 3,512 Member
    Half of my time on this website is spent entering my recipes! I am an avid home cook and I would be lost without the recipe tool. It is one of the best things about using MFP to track my food.
  • girlinahat
    girlinahat Posts: 2,956 Member
    I mostly make my own food too, and spend a lot of time creating recipes. The annoying thing is I don't appear able to change quantities with each individual item - so if I made a mistake (like putting one chicken thigh rather than 2) I have to re-enter that item and delete the wrong one.

    what amazed me was discovering how many calories are in spices!!!
  • psychophysique
    psychophysique Posts: 1
    well what about this recipe

    Ingredients

    • 2 cups Wheat Flour
    • 1 tsp Ghee
    • 1 tsp Salt
    • Water to knead dough

    How to make Chapati:
    •Mix ghee, salt, wheat flour and adequate amount of water to knead smooth dough.
    •Leave it for an hour.
    •Make equal sized balls, smear them with dry flour and roll them out on a rolling board.
    •Heat a griddle. Put the chapati on it.
    •Moderately roast both the sides of chapati on griddle.
    •Chapati is ready to serve


    how many calories i am just confused with this thing on fitness pal :S
  • sunsetzen
    sunsetzen Posts: 268 Member
    Name the recipe and put in hw many chappati it makes.

    Weigh the flour and input into recipe calculator.

    Weigh the ghee and input.

    Weigh the salt and input.

    Press save. Add how many you ate to meal.
  • eblakes93
    eblakes93 Posts: 372 Member
    If you have a food scale, weigh and record all your ingredients.

    Make your food.

    Add up all of the calories in the dish from the weighed ingredients.

    Weigh the final product. Now you have the total calories for all the grams of the product.

    When you portion out your serving, weigh it again, and then calculate the proportion of the recipe that use and multiply it by the total calories.

    It is a little tricky but I think it is the most accurate in the long term.
  • Camera_BagintheUK
    Camera_BagintheUK Posts: 707 Member
    I mostly make my own food too, and spend a lot of time creating recipes. The annoying thing is I don't appear able to change quantities with each individual item - so if I made a mistake (like putting one chicken thigh rather than 2) I have to re-enter that item and delete the wrong one.

    what amazed me was discovering how many calories are in spices!!!

    You can also enter meals - that collects a few items together that you regularly eat as a meal and then drops the list into your diary, instead of the meal as an item like the recipe function does. You could do it as a recipe where you want to vary an ingredient from time to time.
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