We count food calories, but what about oil?

Eckert7
Eckert7 Posts: 3
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi. I usually cook with canola oil (1 tbsp or less) scrambled eggs, grilled chicken breast and whatnot.
The thing is, especially when I'm eating out of home, I have no idea how much oil was used when cooking those foods.

Do you guys just ignore it, count it, or just eat some calories under your daily goal?

Replies

  • qtgonewild
    qtgonewild Posts: 1,930 Member
    absolutely i count it.
  • Eckert7
    Eckert7 Posts: 3
    absolutely i count it.
    But how?
  • qtgonewild
    qtgonewild Posts: 1,930 Member
    i count it when im at home. in a restaurant setting im assuming that they have accounted for that in the calorie listing. nothing can be 100% accurate because of course different employees cook in different manners. but hey, im doing the best i can. thats all i can do.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Ummmm....yeah....super calorie dense...cooking oil, butter, all that stuff has a ton of calories....1 measly little Tbsp of olive oil has like 120 calories Use a measuring spoon and log it.

    If you're eating out just do the best you can...it's generally accounted for in the calories of that particular meal as listed.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 8,049 Member
    absolutely i count it.
    But how?

    Estimate by how rich or oily it tastes, compared to what you cook at home.
  • sguterogers
    sguterogers Posts: 8 Member
    I do try to count it. I put in 1 tsp of oil in a meal if it doesn't seem like much and maybe a tablespoon if it seems like a lot. Yes, sometimes you have no idea and it's probably always more than we think.
  • jayb0ne
    jayb0ne Posts: 644 Member
    I use like 4-6 sprays of fry-light at 1 calorie per spray.

    Out and about I just do the best I can.
  • inverseofmissy
    inverseofmissy Posts: 114 Member
    Oil is pure fat- that's as calorie dense as it gets! Definitely needs to be counted if you want an accurate log. I measure everything out using a measuring spoon for oil or butter EVERY single time, no matter what I'm cooking. I had no idea how much I was using before but now I try to decrease it in recipes and use as little as possible. If I'm cooking for the whole family I enter the total amount of all ingredients used (even cooking oil/butter) as a recipe and figure out how many servings it makes so I will know how many calories are in my portion of the meal. Sometimes I may cook something in butter but it doesn't all get soaked up by the food (like I have a chicken recipe that's sort of oven-fried and there is a lot of butter but half of it stays in the bottom of the pan after you remove the chicken) and in that case I guesstimate on the high end how much actually went into the food I'm eating.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,379 Member
    Yup count it, oil is food.
  • annekka
    annekka Posts: 517 Member
    I leave myself a daily deficit due to that. My school provides lunch and I never know how much oil goes into it. I like to leave myself a couple hundred calories as a deficit to account for the unknown factor. But, you also have to consider I'm living in China, too, so calorie counting enters a whole new dimension.
  • TribeHokie
    TribeHokie Posts: 711 Member
    Just measure it. If you're saying you use 1 tbsp or less, that means you're using enough to measure....so do it and log it. Simple. and yeah it adds up.
  • sarah456s
    sarah456s Posts: 98 Member
    If I make scrambled eggs at home, it goes in my tracker as 2 whole eggs, 1 tbspn of butter (or whatever I used). If someone else makes it, then it goes in as scrambled eggs and I guess on the quantity because that entry has oil or butter accounted for and I don't know exactly how much was used. If I'm at a restaurant, and the scrambled eggs seem greasier than homemade, then I'll select scrambled eggs from a not-so-healthy chain if there's an entry for that, just to be on the safe side. Or, I'll select the generic version and add an extra butter entry.

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