Measuring calories of home made food

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myjoy2012
myjoy2012 Posts: 25 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I would like to know how I can measure calories for home made food. I am new to this counting calories thing and just needed advice.

Any help would be great!

Replies

  • Rachlmale
    Rachlmale Posts: 640 Member
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    Weigh out each ingredient you're adding in and add it to MFP as you go along. Eventually when you regularly have things they will instantly be added to your most used foods and it'll be all ready to go!
  • Cait_Sidhe
    Cait_Sidhe Posts: 3,150 Member
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    If you've made it yourself, why not use the recipe feature?
  • joeysox
    joeysox Posts: 195 Member
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    if its a meal use the recipe function :) all you do is type your ingredients in and how many people it serves and it will save in a list. saves doing it every time :) xxx
  • Railr0aderTony
    Railr0aderTony Posts: 6,803 Member
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    Make and save recipes using the recipe tab under food, then just put in total number of servings and ingredients and it will give you the calories for what you are making. I use it everyday.
  • llsand
    llsand Posts: 87
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    It's hard but I’ve found a pretty good tool here on MFP that might at least help a little. You have the possibility to enter your recipes on here. For that, you need to break down the ingredients just like doing normal recipe and enter how many it serves. At the end, MFP tells you how much calories each serving has along with the nutritional data like sodium, sugar etc etc.

    It's probably not very accurate but it at least gives you a good idea of the calories a home cooked meal has.

    Hope this helps !
  • oohmercyme
    oohmercyme Posts: 279 Member
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    Another nod for the recipe thingie- it's fantastic!
  • AprilRN10
    AprilRN10 Posts: 548 Member
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    I agree. Use the recipe tab.
  • sarahcuddle
    sarahcuddle Posts: 349 Member
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    Also if you are doing a recipe, click on the recipe tab in food and log all the ingredients for the recipe here. There's a box at the top for how many servings and it will calculate the calories and breakdown of the macros for one serving. Really useful if you cook from scratch like I do. Trouble is I have 5 pages of recipes now and it's hard to find the one I am looking for ;)
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    use the 'recipe' tab if its something like stew or lasagne. you put in all the ingredients, and then it calculates each portion, and then you can use it whenever you have that food again in the future!
  • ksizzle911
    ksizzle911 Posts: 130 Member
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    The Recipe Builder is an awesome feature on this site. I have at least 50 recipes on there now. It does take a little time but totally worth it to get your calories right on.
  • fitnotfluffy
    fitnotfluffy Posts: 213 Member
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    Yep, like everyone else said-use the recipe feature on MFP! :) It does take a little bit of time but it's really useful because it saves everything and you can use it again later on!
  • AmyP619
    AmyP619 Posts: 1,137 Member
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    I guess I do it the long way Lol. If it's a casserole type dish, I write down the calorie content of each product in the recipe on a piece of paper. I add them all up. Then I divide it by the number of servings. OR if it's a recipe I found online that already has the nutrition facts, I find a similar recipe on here and adjust the serving size until the calories match. Otherwise, if it's just chicken/meat and veggies and a side I put those in individually. I've never played with the recipe tab. I'll have to check it out!
  • myjoy2012
    myjoy2012 Posts: 25 Member
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    Thanks guys. Will definately check it out

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