Counting calories in homemade food

joepage612 · November 2014

Hi i lost about 30 pounds counting calories with MFP. I mostly ate packaged food or foods that come with a calorie count on the label. Any bulk foods I would weight and calculate the calories.
Now that i've lost 30 pounds i'm more about maintaining my weight, although i have about 5 pounds more to go. I've set my loss at 0.5 pounds per week.
My problem is that i've pretty much stopped buying packaged foods and make homemade food (like I did when i was 30 pounds heavier). I have will power and self-determination but no math skills. I LOATH to calculate how many calories im going to be eating. It takes me a long time to figure it out. I use a food scale and calculator. My homemade food recipes can have as much as 25 different things in them. I have to figure out the calories per gram for each item. It takes a long time!!! Sometimes i feel like id be better off not calculating the calories and spending the 25 minutes it takes to calculate a dish, and exercise instead!
Trying to calculate the calories in homemade food taking up too much time.
Does anyone have any tips on calculating calories in homemade food???
p.s. i got so burned out trying to figure out calories that i stopped doing it for12 days and gained back 4 pounds.

rgauthier20420 · November 2014

Have you tried the recipe calculator yet? I cook dinner for my family, and my wife and I will pick out recipes online and just use the calculator to have it do the calorie calcs for us. Give it a try. Also, if you make the same thing pretty regularly, then you'd only need to add it once to this calculator. Otherwise, cook simpler meals

ephiemarie · November 2014

I use the recipe builder function on MFP. It can be time consuming, but it's possible to import recipes found online. I don't factor in seasonings or ingredients with negligible calorie contents (like baking soda or chopped celery). I'm not always sure how many actual servings I'll end up making, so I typically weigh the entire finished dish (minus the container weight) and then weigh my portion to figure it out. So, yes, it's a pain in the rear!

JosieRawr · November 2014

@Joepage612 are you the only one eating what you're cooking?

I often make things for myself in bulk so that I only have to weigh each ingredient once. You can put it in the recipe calculator. After cooking I dish it out into how ever many servings I want to have, so if in the recipe builder I say 5 servings I scoop it into 5 bowls which I don't weigh.(doesn't have to be perfect cuz I'm going to eat 100% of it in the end)

For smaller dishes I simplify a little by using constant numbers, like if I'm adding veggies it's going to be 100g or 50g, I don't weigh my spices, and I don't weigh minor low cal add ins like diced onions, fresh parsley, etc(oils, of course, I measure though)

Zumaria1 · November 2014

MFP has an awesome recipe calculator, and at first it can take some time, but once you have your recipe saved, any time you make it again you just click on it and put your serving size. I also don't count every single spice I use, I just make sure I count salt and any oils.
Plus, if you are like me, you have a few key "go-to" recipes for during the week that you tend to make over and over. Once those are added, it becomes very easy to just adjust any changes you made to the recipe. Its worth the hassle for the first few times!!

Vailara · November 2014

I have some difficulties with this too. I do have some saved recipes, but I tend to make things in a different way every time, depending on what's in the house and what I feel like. I also don't like to cook meals separately. Usually I have an idea of the calories in the main ingredients in the meal. I'll count things like pasta and rice at their dry weights, but cook it all together and just divide into portions by eye, instead of weighing. I also know what the right sized portion for me looks like on my plate. And sometimes I do just estimate ... I know exactly what you mean about adding all the ingredients in something. It's such a chore. I try not to eat after the last main meal of the day (a cooked one), so the precise amount of calories doesn't matter too much for my calculations. If I have, say, 600 calories left, and it the portion looks like it's under that, then I know I'm probably OK.

Jams009 · November 2014

I have note book that I use to write down the weights of the ingredients that I use for each recipe so I can use the same amounts next time. That way I only have to work the macros out once.

nxd10 · November 2014

I love the recipe calculator. It doesn't have to be perfect to use it to log. So you put in more of one than than another . . . if the calories are about the same, just log it. Cucumbers instead of lettuce? Parsnips instead of potatoes? Who cares? If you know you threw in extra cheese, use the old recipe and add the cheese separately. If you knew you left out the butter so the recipe has fewer calories this time, decrease the portion.

It's just a tool. All that matters is that the numbers are ABOUT right. I almost always cook from scratch and mostly ad hoc. I actually have a harder time with restaurants because they add things that I don't think of (butter on a steak) so I think it tends to underestimate unless it's a restaurant whose menu is listed online.

Counting calories in homemade food

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