Turkey Meatloaf - Calorie Calculations

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Marksman21
Marksman21 Posts: 126 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Okay, so I tried something new yesterday and made my first Turkey Meatloaf, VERY cheap, quick one ... but now I'm getting conflicting calorie numbers. Here on MFP, a single serving of what I made is around 680 Calories. Normally I just go with it, but for what I put in, that didn't make any sense. So I tried again, same ingredients on another site, only to see that calorie count dropped by nearly half!

Ingredients used:
2 lbs Honeysuckle Ground Turkey 85/15 (Fat Drained)
2 Eggs
2 Cups Hillshire Farm Bread Crumbs
Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 cup Heinz ketchup
Total: 5 Servings

I admit, first attempt so the ingredients might be off (though the dang thing crumbled at the touch), it still came out okay. However, now the hard part is the calorie calculation, because no one seems to agree.

Any help?

Replies

  • Marksman21
    Marksman21 Posts: 126 Member
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    *Bump*
  • SirBonerFart
    SirBonerFart Posts: 1,185 Member
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    Have you tried looking online for a website with some kind of food database? Then you could log each thing and see what it comes out to
  • Marksman21
    Marksman21 Posts: 126 Member
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    That's what brought up this situation. MFP and other sites seem to have different ideas and calculations. To a point, a reliable location or calculator would be helpful.

    Same ingredients.
    Same quantities.
    Different answers from everyone.
    See where thigns get a little confusing? This isn't just maybe 100 - 150 calorie difference, we're talking several hundred calorie differences. That's gonna mean a good bit when trying to keep your calories in check.
  • chezjuan
    chezjuan Posts: 747 Member
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    Okay, so I tried something new yesterday and made my first Turkey Meatloaf, VERY cheap, quick one ... but now I'm getting conflicting calorie numbers. Here on MFP, a single serving of what I made is around 680 Calories. Normally I just go with it, but for what I put in, that didn't make any sense. So I tried again, same ingredients on another site, only to see that calorie count dropped by nearly half!

    Ingredients used:
    2 lbs Honeysuckle Ground Turkey 85/15 (Fat Drained)
    2 Eggs
    2 Cups Hillshire Farm Bread Crumbs
    Worcestershire Sauce
    1 tsp salt
    1 tsp onion powder
    1/4 cup Heinz ketchup
    Total: 5 Servings

    I admit, first attempt so the ingredients might be off (though the dang thing crumbled at the touch), it still came out okay. However, now the hard part is the calorie calculation, because no one seems to agree.

    Any help?

    I get around 572 calories per serving from the data above (not accounting for draining fat). Since fat can't necessarily be drained completely, if you assume that you reduce the fat to be more along the lines of 93/7 turkey, you are probably still around 500 calories per serving.

    The turkey meatloaf I make uses a similar recipe to yours, and comes out pretty good. I use about 1/2 the quantity, but divide it into 4 servings, and it comes out to about 352 calories per serving.

    1-1/4 lb 93/7 ground turkey
    1 egg
    1 cup bread crumbs
    1 packet onion soup mix
    Worcestershire Sauce
    Oregano (3 tsp)
    Black Pepper (2 tsp)

    ETA: I would suggest looking for USDA numbers in the MFP database. They seem to be more accurate, especially for bulk items like ground turkey. If a number on MFP looks really weird, I sometimes go to the USDA database itself and double-check the number.
  • Marksman21
    Marksman21 Posts: 126 Member
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    Okay, so I tried something new yesterday and made my first Turkey Meatloaf, VERY cheap, quick one ... but now I'm getting conflicting calorie numbers. Here on MFP, a single serving of what I made is around 680 Calories. Normally I just go with it, but for what I put in, that didn't make any sense. So I tried again, same ingredients on another site, only to see that calorie count dropped by nearly half!

    Ingredients used:
    2 lbs Honeysuckle Ground Turkey 85/15 (Fat Drained)
    2 Eggs
    2 Cups Hillshire Farm Bread Crumbs
    Worcestershire Sauce
    1 tsp salt
    1 tsp onion powder
    1/4 cup Heinz ketchup
    Total: 5 Servings

    I admit, first attempt so the ingredients might be off (though the dang thing crumbled at the touch), it still came out okay. However, now the hard part is the calorie calculation, because no one seems to agree.

    Any help?

    I get around 572 calories per serving from the data above (not accounting for draining fat). Since fat can't necessarily be drained completely, if you assume that you reduce the fat to be more along the lines of 93/7 turkey, you are probably still around 500 calories per serving.

    The turkey meatloaf I make uses a similar recipe to yours, and comes out pretty good. I use about 1/2 the quantity, but divide it into 4 servings, and it comes out to about 352 calories per serving.

    1-1/4 lb 93/7 ground turkey
    1 egg
    1 cup bread crumbs
    1 packet onion soup mix
    Worcestershire Sauce
    Oregano (3 tsp)
    Black Pepper (2 tsp)

    ETA: I would suggest looking for USDA numbers in the MFP database. They seem to be more accurate, especially for bulk items like ground turkey. If a number on MFP looks really weird, I sometimes go to the USDA database itself and double-check the number.

    I had a feeling the MFP site was a bit more accurate than others, it was just the discrepency between them was getting a little overwhelming. I usually just go with the fat within the content since the difference is usually minimal.

    Thanks for the recepie, I'll give it a shot sometime. I usually made twice that much due to the fact I prefer having leftovers to work with over the week (lunches, dinners, etc).
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    Did you look at the nutrition information on what you used to make sure it was accurate? Because clearly one of the databases had the wrong info. You could easily double check that.

    Also the fat draining tip is probably messing everything up anyway. I don't think you can really drain all the fat, and it sure makes it impossible to calculate exactly how many calories are in it. Is it 99% fat free turkey or 93%? That will make a difference too.
  • Annieway987
    Annieway987 Posts: 24 Member
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    For 2 lbs of meat plus 2 eggs and the other stuff, those 5 servings are huge. Did you use the same number of servings for each calculation? I think you could get up to 8 reasonable size servings out of that much meat plus eggs and the other ingredients.
  • Marksman21
    Marksman21 Posts: 126 Member
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    For 2 lbs of meat plus 2 eggs and the other stuff, those 5 servings are huge. Did you use the same number of servings for each calculation? I think you could get up to 8 reasonable size servings out of that much meat plus eggs and the other ingredients.

    Truth be told, I did the corrections, the amounts ... maybe 6 or 7 max, deal is I don't cut paper thin outta the loaf. If I'm gonna have a meatloaf, have a nice slice. But to make sure i'm not over doing it, I need to make sure how much each slice is.

    That's another big deal with doing this is figuring out an appropriate serving size.
  • Thewatcher_66
    Thewatcher_66 Posts: 1,643 Member
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    My turkey meatload recipe is pretty basic but it's as folows:

    Onions - Raw, 1 large
    Spices - Thyme, dried, 1 tsp, ground
    Spices - Sage, ground, 1 tbsp
    Egg - Raw, Nothing Added, 1 large
    Tomato Paste, 2 Tbsp.
    Generic - Worcestershire Sauce, 1.25 tsp
    Jane's Crazy Mixed-Up Seasonings - Original Mixed Up Salt, 1/2 tsp
    Turkey - Meat, 20 oz
    Progresso - Bread Crumbs - Plain, 28 g (1/4c)


    It serves about 6 and I get 190 calories per serving (each serving is very thinly sliced)
  • AlabasterVerve
    AlabasterVerve Posts: 3,171 Member
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    My meatloaf recipe serves 4 and it's 819 calories a serving. No wonder I'm never hungry, I eat more than everyone else. :laugh:

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