Help on figuring out recipe calories

Ronnie715
Ronnie715 Posts: 29
in Health and Weight Loss
My girlfriend is cooking dinner tonight and following a recipe she found online. I need some help and pointers on trying to figure out how many calories I will be consuming. This will go for any future recipes as well, not just this one. This is the first time I am encountering this and I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. I posted a link to a picture of the recipe if you guys wouldn't mind giving it a look and explaining to me how the hell to do this.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/109/imag0019ch.jpg/

Thanks!

Replies

  • SARgirl
    SARgirl Posts: 572 Member
    Go to the recipe tab under the food tab and plug it in. It will figure out the calories for you based on the recipe and number of servings.
  • Ronnie715
    Ronnie715 Posts: 29
    So for every single recipe we make, I have to find out all the calories for each and every ingredient? Geez, that's even more work on top of cooking and cleaning up. This keeps getting harder and harder. There really isn't a way to find out the macros then right?
    What about when eating by a family members for dinner? I can't keep asking to see recipe's and even if I were, it would take a long time to log it all in.
    Side question. Do you normally weight food raw or cooked?
  • zoemayberry
    zoemayberry Posts: 3
    its going to be a little tough. i tend to pick recipes that already have everything calculated out per serving like skinnytaste.com. Otherwise just do your best to guess what the proportions are. I usually guess a little over just to be safe.
  • CherokeeBabe
    CherokeeBabe Posts: 1,704 Member
    It's work, yea, but it gets easier once you get used to it. Before you know it, even your estimates will be fairly close. As for eating from a family member, just go with the closest option you can find in the database, add or subtract some cals if necessary based on any differences, and workout. That's all you can do really.

    I weigh raw and cooked depending on the food. If it's meat for example, I weight it after cooking it, then add it to the rest of the recipe. Just a quick drop on the scale before tossing it into the pot.
  • 40Marbles
    40Marbles Posts: 188 Member
    You could look for recipes on eatingwell.com or other websites that focus on healthy eating. They will include the nutritional info along with the recipe.
  • squeakyfish
    squeakyfish Posts: 109 Member
    "you" don't have to figure anything. If you plug your ingredients in, MFP will enter all the macros and calories, add it all up and then tell you how many per portion. I just did it for tonight's dinner and it took me approximately 4 minutes. About the same time as it took you to compose, post, and read any responses.
  • Onaughmae
    Onaughmae Posts: 873 Member
    enter it in under the recipes section where you build recipes..it will calculate it for you. You can save the info for if you have it again:flowerforyou:
  • mdepko
    mdepko Posts: 283 Member
    So for every single recipe we make, I have to find out all the calories for each and every ingredient? Geez, that's even more work on top of cooking and cleaning up. This keeps getting harder and harder. There really isn't a way to find out the macros then right?
    What about when eating by a family members for dinner? I can't keep asking to see recipe's and even if I were, it would take a long time to log it all in.
    Side question. Do you normally weight food raw or cooked?

    Actually if the ingredient is in the data base it will bring it up for you when you add it so you don't have to look up the calories for every ingredient. Also, once it's in, it's there to use again and you can even share with everyone else on MFP.
  • michelle7673
    michelle7673 Posts: 370 Member
    It's pretty fast, really.
  • TeresaJTuck
    TeresaJTuck Posts: 64 Member
    You add all the Calories together(every one of your ingredients).
    Then you decide how many serving you want to have with what you make.
    You divide the Calories you came up with by the Servings.

    Example: 2,400 Calories divided by 16 = 150 Calories per Serving

    I hope that helps.
  • savithny
    savithny Posts: 1,200 Member
    It's really quite easy -- you go to create a recipe, you enter the ingredients, you save them. You edit it to reflect how many servings. It's now saved for future reference.


    So: I make homemade cookies to avoid trans-fats in the kids lunches. I went through once and entered each ingredient. For "number of servings" I put how many cookies I get with my regular cookie scoop. And now whenever I make them, I know that my oatmeal cookies are 90 calories a cookie. To add them to my diary i can just choose them from my recipe list and indicate I had one.
  • Ronnie715
    Ronnie715 Posts: 29
    Alright thanks for the help

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