Anyone else shunning homemade food due to calorie confusion?

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Replies

  • PinUp2014
    PinUp2014 Posts: 79 Member
    ready meals will not just be packed with salt, but also more sugar.. huge contributory factor in visceral fat.

    I wouldn't touch a ready meal with a barge pole, personally.

    This. The sodium content is just through the roof.

    For two meals a day, I make shakes for the sake of ease and convenience but I prefer taking the five extra minutes to input ingredients and build my recipe and know what is in my food over the boxed yucky food.
  • LCFulmer
    LCFulmer Posts: 183 Member
    I eat homemade much more. It's far healthier than any ready-made meal - at least what I make.

    This.... I get also go to sites like http://allrecipes.com/ and https://recipe.livebetteramerica.com which includes nutritional values for their recipes.
  • momofgilliam4
    momofgilliam4 Posts: 43
    I am going to go against the grain here and simply say, "I know what you mean"! I do make much more homemade than ready-made... but there is a certain comfort level in being able to scan a bar code!! As others have said, it's not an exact science, but I know what you mean.

    Don't fear the recipe builder. It will make you feel much more comfortable about what you're eating. It is a bit time-consuming, but it's worth it.

    Best of luck, it seems you are doing really great!!! Keep it up!!
  • sfbaumgarten
    sfbaumgarten Posts: 912 Member
    I think OP means when other people make the food... In that case I am a little hesitant to indulge because I don't usually have all the info. I just practice moderation and use my best judgement when logging it. As for my own homemade food, I use the recipe builder with no problems.
  • sassyjae21
    sassyjae21 Posts: 1,217 Member
    I'm on both sides of the fence. It's much better to eat homemade foods. But sometimes I get lazy and frustrated. I don't mind putting it into recipe but trying to figure out the serving sizes can sometimes be too much of huge pain in the hoohaa and I don't always feel like doing it. A lot of times when I do, unless I sit there and separate it all out equally, it's a crap shoot. I just get tired of all this s*** sometimes lol. But's it's working so I will keep it going lol
  • amfmmama
    amfmmama Posts: 1,420 Member
    Try skinnytaste.com. Great recipes and all the work is done for you. My kids even like her stuff. I do suggest you invest ina food scale though. I did after year of never having one and I love it.
  • Tracey_B_72
    Tracey_B_72 Posts: 1,021 Member
    I still make homemade meals, having a chilli tonight, I just make sure I personalise the recipe to me, I work out all my baking too.
  • ThatSoundsHard
    ThatSoundsHard Posts: 475 Member
    Nope, it's far healthier and tastier. Ready made will inevitably have junk I don't want or need and it is so much more expensive than homemade.

    Just because you have it printed in front of you doesn't mean it's wholly accurate. There are tons of recipe/calorie counters

    All of this.

    Also, recipe builder and many recipes found on popular cooking websites can be found in the mfp database.
  • easjer
    easjer Posts: 219 Member
    I know how you feel. Even though the recipe builder is available, it's extremely time-consuming to enter in a new recipe AND figure out how many servings it makes, the latter being even more difficult when it's some kind of one-pot dish or similar. It really constrains cooking and I find myself eating more prepackaged foods and making simpler recipes. But such is eating healthy.

    My go-to for things like one-pot dishes or casseroles is to pre-portion and put into containers immediately. Or, if sharing with family, I will divide in a way that makes sense (there are 3 adults, 1 child eating dinner at my place). I'll take my portions first (set one aside for the following meal) and then let everyone else eat as they like.
  • Losing_Sarah
    Losing_Sarah Posts: 279 Member
    No, I also use the recipe builder. It's easy to enter the ingredients into it and know exactly what you are eating without relying on highly processed and expensive pre-made meals.

    Besides, I've read about studies that were done that often pre-made meals and restaurant foods nutritional information isn't as precise as people think. Not that using the recipe builder is going to be super precise, either, but there are variables with both options.

    I've heard some gripes about the time it takes to use the recipe builder, but here is my experience. Initially it might take me a few minutes or more, but once you have your recipe entered it is saved for future use and you can edit them in case of variations when making certain things from time to time.

    One more thing. If you are really concerned about the time thing I always make large batches of things. For example, a huge batch of chili, soup, slow cooked/shredded beef or pork, etc can be packaged in serving sizes or family sized portions (in my case) for my very own "pre-made" frozen meals. Sometime I'll make multiple things in a day when I'm just home doing things there already then freeze them all up for later.
  • raven_ous
    raven_ous Posts: 223
    Simple solutions if you are doing this out of fear of incorrect nutritional/calorie values...

    1.You can find the correct or at least closest nutritional/calorie values for whole foods via Google and other search engines.

    2.Once you have found the correct values enter the food into the database or your foods or both and just end it with your user name so you can retrieve it easily.

    3.Create recipes as most people will have the same meal more than once and adjust accordingly.

    4.Weigh your portions do not estimate, if you eat for more than one divide it into portions and do the math for the ingredients...recipes have the option of easily being adjusted for any amount of people.

    etc

    A little common sense goes along way.

    It is better to develop a healthy relationship with food than a fear of it.
  • Lizabelle1212
    Lizabelle1212 Posts: 252 Member
    Try skinnytaste.com. Great recipes and all the work is done for you. My kids even like her stuff. I do suggest you invest ina food scale though. I did after year of never having one and I love it.

    I was going to suggest skinnytaste also - it's great! And if you follow the recipe, it tells you the exact nutrition info per serving, and how many servings one dish is.
  • crystalflame
    crystalflame Posts: 1,049 Member
    Get a food scale. You'll be able to enter calories exactly. Even if you stick to packaged food, you still need a food scale - the calorie content is based on grams, and if you follow the serving size instead of weighing it you can still be very inaccurate. For example, I've seen instances where a granola bar says the serving size is 1 bar (100g), but when I weigh it it's 120g - 20% more calories than I was expecting.
  • odusgolp
    odusgolp Posts: 10,477 Member
    A Food Scale is your friend.
  • amfmmama
    amfmmama Posts: 1,420 Member
    But I get it though... I eat the lipton cup of rice because it is portion controlled and I know exactly what I am getting. This time around I have been trying to make more of my own stuff, but I have a freezer of stuff ready for when it just is not convienent. Again....Skinnytaste!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    No, I use the recipe builder...it's really not that big of a deal and once you have the bulk of your recipes built then it's just like anything else. No confusion here...EZ-PZ and way more delicious than a ready to eat meal. I'm a foodie though...I don't know how people eat frozen dinners and stuff that's "ready made"...I pretty much find that **** to be non-edible.
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    I actually have quite a few recipes in here, and we don't deviate from it often when we make stuff. I DO, however, find myself shying away from other people's homemade food. Pot luck lunches at work and goodie bags are usually given to my husband. It's not worth worrying about the accuracy of the calories to me.
  • megsmom2
    megsmom2 Posts: 2,362 Member
    We are cooking at home more. I have control of what's in there...and can have what I like. Packaged foods are ok...but get boring. We eat out now and then...and enjoy it, guilt free.
  • McKenzieLeigh
    McKenzieLeigh Posts: 113 Member
    I "hear" you. I eat pre made meals at lunch because i have class and have to eat at my desk. I can keep my calories low and I don't spend anytime preparing them to disrupt my co-workers lunches.

    I too have trouble with the recipe builder. Last night my husband made beef tips and gravy over rice. I used the barcode scanner to put in all the ingredients, but I can never tell how many people it should serve and how much I am really getting. I entered the recipe as serving 4 since there are four people in my family (even though 2 are kiddos) and I tried to eat 1/4 of the total food. I am always worried that it is not accurate!

    How do you figure out servings in one pot meals like that? and how can I make sure they are accurate on my plate? I can't weigh my food since I don't know how much one portion should weigh or how much the whole thing weighs?
  • crystalflame
    crystalflame Posts: 1,049 Member
    I know how you feel. Even though the recipe builder is available, it's extremely time-consuming to enter in a new recipe AND figure out how many servings it makes, the latter being even more difficult when it's some kind of one-pot dish or similar. It really constrains cooking and I find myself eating more prepackaged foods and making simpler recipes. But such is eating healthy.

    I'd like to point out that if you make a dish that should be four servings then eat that over the course of four days, your daily calories may be a little inaccurate but your weekly calories will still be spot on. Your average deficit will still be what you need it to be.
  • levitateme
    levitateme Posts: 999 Member
    I think OP means when other people make the food... In that case I am a little hesitant to indulge because I don't usually have all the info. I just practice moderation and use my best judgement when logging it. As for my own homemade food, I use the recipe builder with no problems.

    This is exactly what I got out of the OP, too. I am always hesitant to eat homemade food that I didn't make myself.

    My boyfriend cooks a healthy dinner for us every night and weighs/measures everything so I am always confident in the numbers. Going over to his mother's house for dinner... that's another story.
  • eddiesmith1
    eddiesmith1 Posts: 1,550 Member
    Ive found myself eating ready meals as I know exactly how many calories are in it, and when I have homemade food i am anxious about eating it as I cant tell how many calories are in it.
    you cannot be sure, pre-made foods are not accurate they can in fact be off by a fair bit they just need to be within a percentage of the claim on average
    With Home Made you have complete control, you weigh everything and log it, to simplify creat recipes and follow them to the letter (or edit for the changes you made before logging it). I struggle with food at work where i am not sure what went into it (I end up eating a lot of salad for lunch) and eating out I just use best guess based on what I ordered and a background in the industry so I know approximately what they will have done to make it
  • easjer
    easjer Posts: 219 Member
    I mean, honestly, I get tired of the tedium of weighing, measuring, entering, etc. But that's the deal - it is too easy for me to overeat without doing this stuff. I feel much better and look much better (less bloated and puffy) when I make food at home, because there isn't excess dairy, salt and sugar and I have an accurate measurement most of the time. There are still variances - the pound of pork may be 3 larger cuts one day and 4 smaller cuts another day. I still have to do some adjustment. But I take 3-5 minutes to enter recipes we use a lot, save them and then entering dinner is a breeze - hell, I can even pre-enter because I have so many of our staple recipes saved. I already know that I have some extra calories today, so if I need to go get another latte, I can without stressing over whether or not I've got time for an extra run to burn the calories.

    In the end the bit of prep and planning that has gone into entering recipes has saved me a ton of time. Take an hour one weekend and just enter recipes you've got lined up, then bam! You're done.
  • FindingAmy77
    FindingAmy77 Posts: 1,268 Member
    I only eat homemade. its a lot cheaper. Some of those meals are great for on the go days or weekends but they don't have enough quantity in them for me.. and watch out because they have lots of sodium added. If you have a scale you can eat homemade with no problem. it is only a little more difficult in the beginning, once you do it a few times it will be in your memory and your food diary so it does get easier
  • raven_ous
    raven_ous Posts: 223
    How do you figure out servings in one pot meals like that? and how can I make sure they are accurate on my plate? I can't weigh my food since I don't know how much one portion should weigh or how much the whole thing weighs?
    You weigh the whole meal(pot) etc than weigh the portions individually, basic math to the rescue!
  • mparadeis
    mparadeis Posts: 1
    Remember the FDA allows frozen diet meals (any meal or thing really) to be 20% off in calorie count. So that 300 calorie meal..could really be 360. You do that a few times a day..you could overshoot your calories for the day and never know. I often wonder if that is why so many on here have trouble losing.

    So.. I find restaurant food and prepared foods what really throw most of our counts off.

    Interesting, could you cite that anywhere?

    http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm063113.htm

    Look at the How Compliance Works section for the third group of nutrients. Actual calories measured in the lab have to be 120% or less of the label claim to be in compliance.
  • easjer
    easjer Posts: 219 Member
    I "hear" you. I eat pre made meals at lunch because i have class and have to eat at my desk. I can keep my calories low and I don't spend anytime preparing them to disrupt my co-workers lunches.

    I too have trouble with the recipe builder. Last night my husband made beef tips and gravy over rice. I used the barcode scanner to put in all the ingredients, but I can never tell how many people it should serve and how much I am really getting. I entered the recipe as serving 4 since there are four people in my family (even though 2 are kiddos) and I tried to eat 1/4 of the total food. I am always worried that it is not accurate!

    How do you figure out servings in one pot meals like that? and how can I make sure they are accurate on my plate? I can't weigh my food since I don't know how much one portion should weigh or how much the whole thing weighs?

    Exactly what you did. Take the total made and divide into the number of servings you need. I actually find that easier than trying to figure out what a serving of ready-made is (when you are talking about, say, a frozen pizza that is being eaten by 3 but has a serving size of 1/5 - I mean, I know how to calculate, but the recipe is simpler, because the computer does it for you).

    But seriously, in the end, even if you weigh and measure every single thing - it's still not going to be 100% accurate. The 100 g apple may contain more fructose. The sauce may have had a bit more cream. None of this is exact science, ever. EVER. So get as close as you can and realize you are never going to have an exact count on intake or burn. It's about averages and generalities and healthy choices.
  • Miss_james1990
    Miss_james1990 Posts: 214 Member
    Yep i'm guilty! However due to the extremely small portions I top my meals up with vegtables! But then again it's not something I do constant as I do.love cooking!!
  • chelstakencharge
    chelstakencharge Posts: 1,021 Member
    Goodness no! I make more homemade because I can control the ingredients
  • logiatype
    logiatype Posts: 110 Member
    I'm with you OP. I started MFP to keep my caloric intake in check. However, seeing the sodium, carb etc intake from the places I go to for food, has had the unexpected effect of changing my eating habits (where I go to for food and what I buy/order). I don't eat any pre-packaged meals though.
    I normally eat out once a day and my other meals consist of fruits and snacks like yogurt. It's somewhat expensive but it helps me keep track of everything. I like not being able to "cheat" with portions and second helpings when I go out for food.

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