any ideas about calories

amye353
amye353 Posts: 21 Member
edited September 18 in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone--I just made a baked rigatoni. I have no idea how many calories to even estimate. I'm wondering if it would be okay to estimate about the same amt of calories a restauraunt serving has in it, like fazolis. The pasta was rigatoni and enriched, I used prego sauce w/mini meatballs, it had some broccoli and cauliflower in it, 4 cheese italian shredded cheese mixture and homemade croutons on top made with sara lee multigrain 45 cal. bread and some sprinkles of parmesan. I know this is a high cal meal, but I didn't have any lunch plus I did exercise. Any ideas on how I should estimate?

Replies

  • amye353
    amye353 Posts: 21 Member
    Hi everyone--I just made a baked rigatoni. I have no idea how many calories to even estimate. I'm wondering if it would be okay to estimate about the same amt of calories a restauraunt serving has in it, like fazolis. The pasta was rigatoni and enriched, I used prego sauce w/mini meatballs, it had some broccoli and cauliflower in it, 4 cheese italian shredded cheese mixture and homemade croutons on top made with sara lee multigrain 45 cal. bread and some sprinkles of parmesan. I know this is a high cal meal, but I didn't have any lunch plus I did exercise. Any ideas on how I should estimate?
  • pam0206
    pam0206 Posts: 700 Member
    This dilemma is what I hate most about counting calories....Could you guesstimate how much you had for each ingredient? 1/2 c of sauce, 1/4 c cheese, 1 cup noodles? I went out to eat last night and I had pasta and shrimp dish. I just used the calories from an Olive Garden dish, even though I just went to a local restaurant. So I think either way works.....BTW, no one is judging you for eating pasta....you don't have to explain it to us. Enjoy it!
  • loman13
    loman13 Posts: 52
    I don't know how many calories this meal is but it does make it tougher to lose weight eating a big meal like this. The best thing to do is to not eat over 300 calories a meal and to snack the other two to three times. If you work out then you may eat more calories in those meal but it should never be over 600 calories. When you eat every few hours it keeps your body fueled and you will burn more calories in the long run. Sorry for the negitive news but it's how I have been able to lose weight and many other of my family and friends. If what you do works for you then please just ignore this post from me. I hope you have a wonderful week.
  • lotusfromthemud
    lotusfromthemud Posts: 5,335 Member
    sparkpeople.com has a recipe calculator that I use all the time.
    :flowerforyou:
  • createsure
    createsure Posts: 55
    Hi everyone--I just made a baked rigatoni. I have no idea how many calories to even estimate. I'm wondering if it would be okay to estimate about the same amt of calories a restauraunt serving has in it, like fazolis. The pasta was rigatoni and enriched, I used prego sauce w/mini meatballs, it had some broccoli and cauliflower in it, 4 cheese italian shredded cheese mixture and homemade croutons on top made with sara lee multigrain 45 cal. bread and some sprinkles of parmesan. I know this is a high cal meal, but I didn't have any lunch plus I did exercise. Any ideas on how I should estimate?

    You don't have to "estimate" when you make it yourself... you used the ingredients to make it right? Look on the packages and enter the info. All you have to estimate is how much of the total dish you ate, which isn't that hard. Like maybe you ate a twelfth or an eighth of the whole thing. You should know exactly how many calories are in the whole thing because you assembled it yourself out of the ingredients. I do this all the time, and I believe making your own dishes is the best way to control what you eat.
  • kayla_larsen
    kayla_larsen Posts: 40 Member
    Yeah, as the post above said, Spark People has a recipe calculator you can use. You just type in every ingredient used along with the number of servings and you'll have the amount of calories, total fat, carbs, etc. Hope it helps!

    Here's the site:

    http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp
  • cmrmure
    cmrmure Posts: 7
    This is great! Thanks!
  • amye353
    amye353 Posts: 21 Member
    thanks for the website I will have to check this out! Sounds very helpful in this calorie counting craziness! I'll have to use it next time, otherwise I would have to go dig through my trash and find all the containers/packaging I used for this dish. It had a little bit of this a little bit of that. I would say that the ony thing that was terribly bad was the cheese. Thanks again!
  • pam0206
    pam0206 Posts: 700 Member
    Great! I think that's the whole idea here....Everything within reason. For me nothing is off limits, it's the portion that I control. Good luck!:flowerforyou:
  • createsure
    createsure Posts: 55
    thanks for the website I will have to check this out! Sounds very helpful in this calorie counting craziness! I'll have to use it next time, otherwise I would have to go dig through my trash and find all the containers/packaging I used for this dish. It had a little bit of this a little bit of that. I would say that the ony thing that was terribly bad was the cheese. Thanks again!

    Yeah, it can be a pain sometimes. I try to record what I eat as I am making it, or even right before I make it... then again my computer is about 10 feet away form my kitchen so it's easy for me!! Another thing to think about is this: once you enter a product, it will always be there, so it's really only a pain in the butt that first time.

    I agree with your assessment of cheese, by the way.
    I was shocked to see how much calories cheese has... one cup of shredded cheddar has something like 460 calories!! I use cheese in only VERY small portions now, pretty much just on scrambled eggs. I do 2 eggs with about a tbsp. of shredded cheddar. It actually totally works, because cheddar is so flavorful.
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