New Member....

Stephie_D

Hi All! I have been on MFP before, but did not really commit to tracking my activities. I am hoping this time I will stay on track...maybe with the help of others that really care about the foods they eat and enjoy cooking from scratch (at least as much as my lifestyle will allow). I look forward to seeing your healthy creations and sharing mine...but first I need to go to the grocery store.

fallenangelloves

Welcome! You will see we LOVE to cook and share! And we have all been very successful with our weight loss too!

Can't wait to see what you make!

ajd241

I can't believe how good all this food looks. Makes me realise you can make delicious healthy food and lose weight.
Can't wait to try out some of these recipes you've posted up. I'm drooling looking at these photos!

2012dancingqueen

i'm a big foodie... and having started counting calories 2 weeks ago it's been quite a struggle but i'm trying to figure out to find a good balance.

My main problem lately is - since i cook a lot with lots of fresh produce - sometimes it's hard to gauge how much quanity (and thus serving) goes into each dish.

Does anyone have any tried and true methods for being more accurate in counting the calories cooked? (btw i already use the recipes part of the site)

Nikkie_too

i'm a big foodie... and having started counting calories 2 weeks ago it's been quite a struggle but i'm trying to figure out to find a good balance.

My main problem lately is - since i cook a lot with lots of fresh produce - sometimes it's hard to gauge how much quanity (and thus serving) goes into each dish.

Does anyone have any tried and true methods for being more accurate in counting the calories cooked? (btw i already use the recipes part of the site)

Hi! Welcome! I have a couple of tips for you.

- In the food database, the items with an asterisk at the start (*) are user-added items. When I enter generic things like produce,meats, butter, sour cream, etc. I always look for an entry that doesn't have an asterisk. That means it's a food built into MFP and is probably pretty reliable.
- If I do use a user-added item (espeically for brands/prepared foods), I either pick one that has several confirmations and/or I look at the nutrition info to make sure it's complete. Sometimes people just enter the calories when they enter a food.
- I put my name in my recipe name so I can find "Nikkie's" stuff quickly.
- I usually weigh or measure the ingredients for a meal as I prepare it. Then I'll weigh/measure the entire recipe. I'll often enter a recipe with one-ounce serving-size, so when I portion it out, I can have more or less without having to fuss with serving sizes. For example, I'll weigh a pot of chili and know that it's 60oz - so I make that recipe 60 servings. It's easy then to have an accurate count of a 13oz bowl.

I hope that helps a bit! You'll do great! Visit often and show us your meals.

fallenangelloves

Agree with Nikkie! I usually cook from Cooking Light Magazine and always measure my food! If a recipe calls for 56g of something, I measure at out. Before my scale I still measured but used a cup for 8 ounces etc.... Wasn't as accurate but close enough.