Counting Calories

swest222

This is my 2nd week here and Im having a hard time figuring out which food to pick from the database.
For example, for Sunday dinner we generally have slowcooker roast beef, with potatoes and carrots in the crockpot.
I have no idea how to count that for calories/sodium etc and there's so many different choices.
Im trying to build up "my recipes" so I can just click it later when we have the meal again.
Help please!!

GLLove

Adding it as a recipe is probably going to be your best bet. At least then you know you are getting a more exact number. Sometimes I just log the individual ingredients. (pasta, sauce, meat vs "Spaghetti") Especially when there is such a broad spectrum of individual recipes.

ChaseAlder

One thing I have found helpful is I just enter my ingredients individually. For example, this morning I'm having tomatoes stuffed with eggs and spinach. I'm just going to enter:

3 beefsteak tomatoes
3 eggs, poached
1/8 cup spinach.

I didn't add anything else to them except salt (which I don't track because my cardiologist instructed me years ago to eat ridiculous amounts of salt for my heart condition), so there are no extra calories to consider.

I do the same with meals... if I were to do a slow cooker, I would enter the ounces of meat I ate, how many potatoes, how many carrots, etc. Individually.

I'm not sure abut sodium though, wish i could help there!

innerfashionista

I tend to log my food individually (like bread, peanut butter, jelly instead of a peanut butter jelly sandwich) because I have more controls. You can also make and save recipes on this website in the food tab, so you can be as exact as necessary. Make sure to log any spices used too, to make sure your calories and sodium are accurate.

cardbucfan

I agree with GLLove. Any time I make stuff from scratch, I enter it in the recipe calculator. It's a great feature of this site and will be available in your food log the next time you make it.

TripleJ3

You could try calorieking.com.

I like to check in there first then see if I can find something similar in MFP's database. Otherwise if nothings close then I add it myself, or if that meal is something you eat on a regular bases I'll add it in my recipes or as a meal.

swest222

thanks .. Ive been using the recipe calculator which I love, I just have a hard time picking out for example, the cut of meat etc
and then when I do pick it out, it's what someone randomly entered and sometimes is not accurate.
It's a painful process! LOL