Caution: unknown calories inside

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yeslecake
yeslecake Posts: 2
in Food and Nutrition
I just started really counting calories and noticed a dangerous trend! I don't like to make my own meals at home (or go to friends' houses for dinner) because I don't know the calorie content of the foods. I COULD weigh out all the ingredients I put in my cooking, calculate the total calories and such, but I've been reaching for granola bars and packaged foods because I don't have to play the calorie-guessing game. I end up preferring more unhealthy factory made foods over homemade meals.

Calorie counting experts, advice and help please?
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Replies

  • kristin0715
    kristin0715 Posts: 10
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    I need to see responses for this too!
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    Suck it up, start cooking. Really, that's the best advice I can give! Use the recipe builder (use the "old recipe builder" link on the lower right - the new one SUCKS).

    Get a food scale, weigh your ingredients, work out the portions. It takes extra time, but unless you want to live on granola bars, it's a necessary evil!

    It doesn't need to be complex. Some lean protein, a carb and some veg = meal. Weigh the ingredients, add to tracker!

    Also check out lighter cooking blogs/sites like skinnytaste or cooking light, where the calorie count is done for you with the recipe (do be aware that it can be off and it's better to add it up yourself, but it is good for a ballpark).

    I get why you're going for the packaged stuff, but if you want to eat home cooked meals with fresh ingredients, there's really only one way to go about it, and that's to use the tools at your disposal and add it all up.

    Good luck!
  • Commander_Keen
    Commander_Keen Posts: 1,179 Member
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    I just started really counting calories and noticed a dangerous trend! I don't like to make my own meals at home (or go to friends' houses for dinner) because I don't know the calorie content of the foods. I COULD weigh out all the ingredients I put in my cooking, calculate the total calories and such, but I've been reaching for granola bars and packaged foods because I don't have to play the calorie-guessing game. I end up preferring more unhealthy factory made foods over homemade meals.

    Calorie counting experts, advice and help please?

    Stop being lazy and do the damn math.
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
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    I just started really counting calories and noticed a dangerous trend! I don't like to make my own meals at home (or go to friends' houses for dinner) because I don't know the calorie content of the foods. I COULD weigh out all the ingredients I put in my cooking, calculate the total calories and such, but I've been reaching for granola bars and packaged foods because I don't have to play the calorie-guessing game. I end up preferring more unhealthy factory made foods over homemade meals.

    Calorie counting experts, advice and help please?

    You realize even "factory made foods" are just an estimate, right?
    Get a food scale, plug in the ingredients into MFP, and log what you eat. There's no secret...that's pretty much it.

    PS-Factory food is not unhealthy/healthy. It's just food.
  • Go_Mizzou99
    Go_Mizzou99 Posts: 2,628 Member
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    Start out simple...
    Breakfast - couple of large eggs - 70 calories each, a little cheese (look at the package), some veggies (almost nothing - say 15 calories), some breakfast meats maybe (look at the package). Coffee, black - zero.

    Make a simple lunch roll up.

    Supper - chicken breast (weigh it on your scale - look at the package), veggies, a potato, etc.

    After you get some basics in your food diary, it gets much easier. Hang in there for 2 weeks and you will be amazed at the variety of foods in your diary.

    Good luck!
  • tibby531
    tibby531 Posts: 717 Member
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    if that's what you're ready for right now, do that. I've been slowly but surely adding my most-popular/frequent recipes to my recipe section so I can quick-add them, now. but if it's more comfortable to grab the granola bar because it's an easier add, don't feel bad about it. getting into the habit of being honest with your diary is fantastic. don't push comfort levels until you're ready to. :smile:
  • ashleearoha
    ashleearoha Posts: 165 Member
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    It is really not that hard to buy a set of scales and weigh and cook your own food.
  • happyapathy
    happyapathy Posts: 44
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    MFP's recipe calculator is pretty helpful, measure your food and put it in that.
  • elephant2mouse
    elephant2mouse Posts: 906 Member
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    It's easy to do simple meals... but once you pull out that slow cooker I feel like it's impossible to get exact calories!
    So I feel you.
  • SandyBVTN
    SandyBVTN Posts: 367 Member
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    Honestly it's so easy! I pre-log all of my foods so I know how many teaspoons of olive oil or oz of cheese to budget for my salad. That takes about two minutes per meal, if that.

    When cooking, I just have my measuring spoons and cups, and food scale handy. It takes about ten extra seconds to weigh or measure out an ingredient.

    Friend me if you'd like to get some ideas of the kinds of food I eat. I'm preparing 95% of my meals at home and they are generally pretty simple and satisfying.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    It's easy to do simple meals... but once you pull out that slow cooker I feel like it's impossible to get exact calories!
    So I feel you.

    That's true. I'm really finicky about counts, so I put it all into the recipe builder as raw weight, with however many serves, then when it's cooked I put it all into a container on my scale, get the total weight, divide be serves and serve according to that weight. But then I wonder about how one serve might have more meat than another serve, or less veg etc... But I figure that calories counting is an inexact science in any event and it will be close enough!
  • SandyBVTN
    SandyBVTN Posts: 367 Member
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    It's easy to do simple meals... but once you pull out that slow cooker I feel like it's impossible to get exact calories!
    So I feel you.

    Totally! What I end up doing in that case is pulling out my big liquid measuring cup and figuring out how many cups of soup/chilli whatever, then usually assuming that a cup is one portion. It's a pain, but it's already done for the next time once its in the recipe calculator.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,731 Member
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    Most of your ingredients can be scanned with the phone app, even in the recipe builder. Just enter new recipe name, add ingredient, scan the barcode, and enter the weight. It goes so much faster than you'd think. Save the recipe, and later you can go back and adjust it if you want to use it again.

    ETA: And for large recipes, determining the number of servings: I just tare a large container and put it in that to see how many total ounces it is, then calculate that into some reasonable equal portions...so if it's 40 ounces, then I might decide to make 8 portions at 5 ounces each. Sometimes I go ahead and divide it up into those portions in small containers so that I can freeze some and grab the others fast.
  • elephant2mouse
    elephant2mouse Posts: 906 Member
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    It's easy to do simple meals... but once you pull out that slow cooker I feel like it's impossible to get exact calories!
    So I feel you.

    That's true. I'm really finicky about counts, so I put it all into the recipe builder as raw weight, with however many serves, then when it's cooked I put it all into a container on my scale, get the total weight, divide be serves and serve according to that weight. But then I wonder about how one serve might have more meat than another serve, or less veg etc... But I figure that calories counting is an inexact science in any event and it will be close enough!


    Yup! I usually weigh it all, put down the calories of each item, add the calories to a total, cook the food, transfer the food into a bowl, reweigh the food, then do the division for calories per each gram...
    Then make my serving, weigh and multiply...
    It's a hassle... but better to not underestimate and overeat! :laugh:
  • KameHameHaaaa
    KameHameHaaaa Posts: 837 Member
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    Start cooking! At first I took the easy route of always grabbing something that had a nutrition label. But once I started getting into cooking I LOVED it. I'm always looking for a new recipe, tweaking it so it's lower in cals if it needs to be. I even made a fitness/diet instagram just to post pictures of the food I was creating haha
  • Colorfan
    Colorfan Posts: 230 Member
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    When Im lazy, Ill buy some "healthy" frozen foods. Easily trackable calories. Perdue lightly breaded chicken breasts, 190 calories. Steamfresh steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, 120 calories.A bit of dressing for the veggies, 50 calories. Maybe a couple of tortillas (200 calories) and a piece of cheese or two (80-160 calories).

    Easy peasy and I get to eat a bunch of veggies and protein.
  • RunsOnEspresso
    RunsOnEspresso Posts: 3,218 Member
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    I keep a small notepad by my scale. I write all the weights in there and then either enter the recipe on MFP or if its 4 portions I divide everything by 4 and log. I find it is easier to log it later. We have a few dinner recipes we make a lot so I have the recipes entered. After a while you kind of start to know what the calories will be so it isn't a total surprise. (But I still weigh/measure everything)
  • yeslecake
    yeslecake Posts: 2
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    Thank you for all the helpful responses! I'm glad most of the responses were positive & encouraging. I'm completing my doctorate degree and I haven't had as much time to cook this semester. REALLY great ideas- I'm going to buy tons of steamable veggies and start using repeat recipes that I can plug into my phone for easy retrieval.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    I don't really cook but I eat vegetables and fruits and cottage cheese a lot so it hasn't mattered for me. If I do cook I measure it out. I don't understand what's so hard about that.
  • klkateri
    klkateri Posts: 432 Member
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    I DESPISE cooking. Really, I'd rather get "insert worst medical exam ever" in it's place everyday for a month then cook.

    Then I started noticing that even those ravioli's are easy to make they are a lot of calories and in a couple hours I'm back in the fridge... racking up more calories. But by cooking up some meat and a veggie.. now I have a meal that sticks to my ribs and the snack monster takes much longer to rear it's calorie snatching head!!

    Do I still grab a pre-packaged meal? Of course, especially when I have to work or when I am swamped with work or life or both but I tend to look now at cooking dinner as a break from whatever crap I was doing. And to perfectly honest, I'm starting to not hate cooking... dare I say perhaps even enjoy it?!

    Also, I look on sites like Food.com and Pinterest for ideas, menus, inspiration and just some good ole' food porn!!

    Ease into the cooking... it takes time but if you strive to cook even once a day and ramp it up from there you'll be fine... I know I was!!

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