how to calculate nutrition values of homemade/grown food.

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LMBrooks
LMBrooks Posts: 3
in Introduce Yourself
I'm new to this site... just wondering, as someone who produces most of my own food (we raise all of our meat, eggs, milk, produce, and I bake all of our bread and make my own granola), how do I calculate the calories, nutrition info, etc.? I'm nearing that pre-menopausal age and the weight has crept on, even though I am very active. thought this site would be good, but now find that it's pretty much impossible to calculate info because everything is determined by prepackaged food. Any suggestions? :smile:

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  • sherriaustin
    sherriaustin Posts: 1
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    I wondered the same thing. I don't grow my own yet but I do make things from fresh ingredients rather than packets or ready meals.
  • Fit4Europe
    Fit4Europe Posts: 8 Member
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    Try sparkrecipes.com - they have a calorie calculator where you can input all of the ingredients and amounts, select portion size and then it tells you nutrition information per portion for the recipe.
  • EmilyStrick
    EmilyStrick Posts: 267
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    for meat, veggies and fruit, i would just google the nutritional values by weight. for bread and granola, maybe find some store-bought items that have similar ingredients (or recipes that have similar ingredients and contain nutritional values).

    and, by the way, that is so awesome that you grow your own!!! i would love to do all that someday!!! unfortunately, i live in the hot desert right now where nothing much grows but cacti!!!
  • boniekatie
    boniekatie Posts: 147
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    It takes a little time but you can figure out the total recipie amounts and then devide by the number of servings. If you can't find all of the ingredients on this site there are others that can help. I set up an excell page to help with the calculations. After you have the calculations you can enter your own recipes on here and put in the information in and then you can put it in your food log. If you need help figuring it all out let me know.
  • drvvork
    drvvork Posts: 1,162
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    I use for recipes: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp
    For homegrown (it was the only place I was able to find Elderberries.... LOL): http://www.nutritiondata.com/

    Good luck on your journey! :flowerforyou:
  • ractayjon
    ractayjon Posts: 365
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    you can look up individual foods by just doing a google search "strawberries nutritional value" (or whatever food) just because you grow it wont change the values, but you will know that there are no extras in them (good for you!)
    There are also recipe calculators that you can input the entire recipe and it will divide it into portions for you.
  • Cyndy3708
    Cyndy3708 Posts: 1
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    I am having the same problem, and am new to this site so till figuring it out some. I eat a lot of Salvadorian and Mexican foods made fresh, and I am having to guess at what to pick for the calories. I am trying to be as honest as I can be to get a accurate reading, but its hard. Example, today I had a taco, ok made the way my sister in law makes them its two small shells ( soft ), beef, cilantro and onions....nothing like that in my selections. I am also haven to fudge on the exercise log as well, though I have found I can take out their calories and add what the WII told me I burnt so that makes it a little easier. Anyones suggestions on the food part would be helpful.
  • LisaS47
    LisaS47 Posts: 1
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    I hear ya! we scratch make almost everything--bread, pasta, etc. A lot of times I substitute something similar because I'm lazy, but for some things the husband and I have actually calculated out our recipes using the package info (flour, sugar, etc), Google for produce/basic meat, and a spreadsheet. It's tedious, though. While I don't usually envy those who eat everything out a box, this is definitely one case where I do! :wink:
  • 3babybeans
    3babybeans Posts: 8,268 Member
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    Try this. http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

    We also make our own bread & such & it comes in quite handy. Just have to transfer the data from that site to this site & save it. Do it once for each food & you'll have it forever. HTH! :drinker:
  • Emma424
    Emma424 Posts: 1
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    Wow, thats fantastic that you grow/make most of your own food!! I wonder if the "create your own food" part of the site would be of any help?? Either that or I would email them to find out how you could do it. Or you could search the web and once you find out and add it to your personal food log it will always be there. Good Luck
  • LMBrooks
    LMBrooks Posts: 3
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    Thanks everyone! Great suggestions! I'll have to get busy implementing them now!
  • LMBrooks
    LMBrooks Posts: 3
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    I will definitely check that out.. thanks!!

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