Home cooking and measuring?

Under_Construction13
Under_Construction13 Posts: 60 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi Everyone,

I want to make a list of food that I can kinda stick to for the next 30 days for a jump start on better eating. Breakfast iteams are easy but its lunch and dinner that I have the most issues with. In our home we cook dinner and left overs are for lunch at work the next day (if we dont cook dinner than usually we eat out on our lunch time, but I know try to stick to around 400 calories for lunch and light stuff.) My issue is I am mexican and I dont measure ingredients kinda just guess it, and the food I make somtimes are not the easies to try and figure out measurments and whats what.

So my question is, how, when you have to input your food do you put home cooked meals that you have no idea what the calories are?
I know that some foods I make are bad but I figure that Ill work it out but I mean I still want to know how to keep track.
I want to stick with a 1200 calorie diet, also I google alot of 1200 calorie diets and it brings up all these meal ideas that look great but Im not sure alot of the food is my taste. Am I being picky?

Thanks for anyone who reads all this :)
Adilene

Replies

  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
    It's pretty simple. Just create a recipe by weighing each ingredient, then weigh the whole thing when you're done and divide it by portions. It's a pain the first time but if you note the numbers somewhere it is really easy the next time.
  • WestCoastJo82
    WestCoastJo82 Posts: 2,304 Member
    I'm a home cook and I log amounts and save recipes the first time I make something. Then you can just use the saved recipe when you eat it as leftovers (or make it again). I don't measure/weigh, but I measured a lot when I first started cooking so I think I'm a decent eye-baller. More importantly, I lose/maintain in a way that tells me my estimations are correct. If you estimate and don't lose, measure or weigh for a while so you can be accurate in regard to how much you are eating.
  • lyndausvi
    lyndausvi Posts: 156 Member
    I weigh and measure as much as I can. Then use the recipe option. It's tough because DH does most of the cooking and doesn't measure. GRR. He is a chef so his estimates are fairly good, but I still pad the numbers on such things like butter or oil because I have a feeling he is using more than he wants to admit.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    Use the recipe function under food.

    I cook lunch and dinner everyday. I also measure & weigh everything as well. It's maybe an extra 5 minutes at most. It's not hard. :)
  • Shellz31
    Shellz31 Posts: 214 Member
    You can either do what others suggest measure a recipe once, input it in MFP as a recipe and assume when you don't measure it that it's about the same. Yea it's a pain to measure the first time, but then you never have to do it again.

    Or you can try to find the dish in the database and use that as an estimate. I've done that when eating at a restaurant that doesn't have calorie counts. I usually pick the higher calorie items I find in the database to use. It's an estimate but better than nothing.

    Also, most people don't measure recipes they know. I like the implication that you don't measure because your Mexican :huh:

    Good luck on your journey :heart:

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