Calculating Serving sizes

jakki_brown

How do you guys keep track of calories in home cooked meals. I find this to be a tedious task and it makes me hate cooking!

It's easy to calculate meals that are separate parts (like a hamburger), but what about meals like spaghetti? I don't have a food scale, but I think it'd be easier if I'd invest in one.

Any tricks or ideas you can give?!

kyylieeeeee

I recommend a food scale in general, they're $10-50. I'd recommend a digital scale that has readouts in grams and ounces.

Also, to calculate calories in homemade meals, there is a Recipe function on MFP that I use alll the time. It's under the "Food" tab. You add all the individual ingredients (which is where food scale comes in handy), say how many servings it makes, and MFP does the calorie/macros math for you!

Crystal817

Food scale and this :
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/box

Mynue_Jeens

I also use the recipe tab a lot.

LisaMariaCallow

Get a food scale!! You can get them fairly inexpensively, and they really help with portion control until you can better gauge serving sizes. You can also create recipes for meals-I do that for things that I eat regularly. It's a bit time consuming, but it does keep you on track.

rockerbabyy

yep, food scale will be your best option. sometimes with things like homemade spaghetti sauce ill pour it all into a big measuring cup... say its 8 cups, i make it 8 servings. its easy to remember 1 c = 1 serving.

bethdris

I lost all my weight with guesstimate(no, I dont reccomend that way, but it worked). I did invest in a food scale when my husband joined MFP and we love it! It makes it a lot faster for weighing food and having it be correct. We got ours from Bed Bath and Beyond for 29.99. Love it!

I also use the recipe function a lot on here. Good luck!

jakki_brown

That's a good idea! thanks!

My biggest problem is a lb of meat is like 4 servings and noodles 8 servings and sauce is 5. I never thought to just put it all together, calculate the meal entirely and then divide it. Awesome!

savvymommy2012

That's exactly what you should do. And the recipe tab does it for you. I just put everything in it and then it asks how many servings it makes and it does the math for me. I appreciate it