Estimating calories in home cooking

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rtjenny
rtjenny Posts: 51
in Food and Nutrition
Hi folks,

Yesterday I made these raw food bars - dates, oats, coconut, almonds & raw honey. I cut them up into 30 gram bars - and I've estimated them to be approx. 100kcal per bar. How do I know this estimate is right??? (I based it on a similar grocery made raw food bar with similar ingredients).

How do you estimate the calories in a home cooked meal? If I use a cookbook recipe - I usually substitute ingredients that I don't have or cannot eat. For example I use a dairy free spread instead of butter and soy cheese instead of regular cheese.

Do you come across similar issues?

Thanks...

Replies

  • andiebaco
    andiebaco Posts: 211 Member
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    You can put the whole recipes in MFP and it will calculate the amount of calories per portion

    :)
  • dakitten2
    dakitten2 Posts: 888 Member
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    I enter them as recipes by listing each ingredient. I weigh/measure each item as I make it.
  • BeccaBollons
    BeccaBollons Posts: 652 Member
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    Yep no need to estimate, just use a food scale to weigh your ingrdients and log them into the recipes section in the food diary.
  • jr235
    jr235 Posts: 201 Member
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    Sometimes I put the whole recipe in MFP, but since I never cook anything exactly the same way twice (if my carrot is 120 grams I'm not going to use 100 grams because the recipe says so) usually I will find something similar from a prepared dish.

    For me the idea is not to be ultra precise with tracking, but to make me more aware of what I'm eating. I've done this and still lost.
  • __Di__
    __Di__ Posts: 1,630 Member
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    Hi folks,

    Yesterday I made these raw food bars - dates, oats, coconut, almonds & raw honey. I cut them up into 30 gram bars - and I've estimated them to be approx. 100kcal per bar. How do I know this estimate is right??? (I based it on a similar grocery made raw food bar with similar ingredients).

    How do you estimate the calories in a home cooked meal? If I use a cookbook recipe - I usually substitute ingredients that I don't have or cannot eat. For example I use a dairy free spread instead of butter and soy cheese instead of regular cheese.

    Do you come across similar issues?

    Thanks...

    Weigh every ingredient and enter them in individually to get the correct amount. It may seem laborious, but it really is the only accurate way.
  • Seesawboomerang
    Seesawboomerang Posts: 296 Member
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    You could weigh every ingredient to be close (you can never be exact).

    Or you can estimate. If you're not busy kidding yourself, estimates are fine.
  • LongIsland27itl
    LongIsland27itl Posts: 365 Member
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    On the MFP add a food, scroll down to create a meal and enter each ingredient, follow the prompts the app does the rest
  • Rarity2013
    Rarity2013 Posts: 196 Member
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    If you play around with the recipe creator, you'll soon find that many of the ingredients that do vary (like vegetables) make very little impact in general.

    I enter all my recipes on the the recipe creator, although I do tend to over-estimate a little. For example, I made some pies over the weekend. I measured the amount of pastry I used, but I know the amount I measured wasn't what I ate, because I trimmed a huge chunk off fitting it in the pie dish.

    Calorie counting is never that precise anyway- everything is estimated and can be a few calories either way.
  • kairisika
    kairisika Posts: 131 Member
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    If I think I have a pretty good approximation, I go with it.

    If it's something of my own creation, and I'm going to be eating it a bunch, I detail it as a recipe and then I know I have it good for the future.
  • rtjenny
    rtjenny Posts: 51
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    Thanks for all the great feedback. Estimating is not always easy, but I've never used the recipe creator on MFP - gonna give it a go.
  • athenasurrenders
    athenasurrenders Posts: 278 Member
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    Even if you end up making these slightly differently every time, (a few grams less of coconut, a few grams more of dates etc) it's definitely worth using the recipe calculator at least once rather than guessing based on a shop-bought version. Shop bought versions could have wildly different ratios of ingredients and/or be packed out with cheap fillers like flour and refined sugar. Best to do it the first time and find out. You'll be upset if it turns out you're way off and you've eaten them every day for weeks.
  • rtjenny
    rtjenny Posts: 51
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    I've done it - my raw oat & date bars works out to be approx. 128kcal per 30g bar. I was estimating 90.....well underestimated.

    thanks for all the advice guys.

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