Question on Logging food
mrsmia73
Posts: 14 Member
How do you log foods like homemade spaghetti (with ground turkey, turkey sausage, spaghetti sauce and mushrooms) salmon patties(with eggs light mayo, scallions, bread crumbs), tuna fish salad, etc etc.... or ANY food that has several ingredients? Do you log each and every ingredient separately and then say you had a cup of it? I am very confused on how this could possibly be accurate. 
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Replies
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use the recipe builder. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/box
(to navigate to this, from your Foods tab select the Recipes link and it will take you to the place where you can either enter a new recipe by hand or import a recipe from an online source)0 -
use the recipe builder. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/box
(to navigate to this, from your Foods tab select the Recipes link and it will take you to the place where you can either enter a new recipe by hand or import a recipe from an online source)
ohhhh--okay thanks0 -
Your best bet is to use a food scale to measure all of these items out, and then use the recipe builder as Phrick said above. Using cups for solids like meat and bread crumbs will lead to inaccurate calorie counts. Food scales will help make your recipes more accurate.0
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And some people wonder why folks trying to lose weight get discouraged!
Seriously, if one wants to be that precise... that is a LOT OF WORK.
Ugh. Seems like the time would be better spent exercising...and you can just "guestimate" the calories.
JMHO
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Ditto what the others said, if the item may be recurring. If it is a random thing, which you are just going to eat once, you could just log quick calories. FYI0
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And some people wonder why folks trying to lose weight get discouraged!
Seriously, if one wants to be that precise... that is a LOT OF WORK.
Ugh. Seems like the time would be better spent exercising...and you can just "guestimate" the calories.
JMHO
It actually gets easier over time! I was overwhelmed and felt like it was a ton of work when I first started. Once I got into a routine, it became muscle memory for me. Especially since I tend to eat a lot of the same things in a row (I eat for one, so leftovers and bulk fruit/produce purchases are a regular thing for me), a lot of my entries are already in my frequently used tab, so all I need to do is just throw it on the scale, and adjust my entry. Scales are also cheap as well; I got mine for under $25 at Walmart, and it's a digital scale that tares the container that you use, and measures in both ounces and grams.
Guesstimating gets people in trouble; I had no idea that I was underestimating hummus (I would do 3-4 tablespoons for one "serving", not realizing that I should have been having half the amount ofr a serving), and overestimating chicken (which was exciting, because I got to eat more chicken! I used to eat tiny portions thinking it was four ounces). It's definitely a great tool to incorporate into a lifestyle change.
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Using a measuring cup or a scale for a while and spot checking from time to time helps with portions, and other than that I do guesstimate. You get good at "kitchen math." I eat a lot of the same things for breakfast and lunches so that makes it easier, there's really only one meal a day that's work to log.
If someone close to me cooks for me, I interview the chef. "How much olive oil did you use in the whole dish - and what percent of it did you serve me?" Is a common question in my house.
The recipe builder is awesome especially for recipes you find online, you can copy the URL, adjust the number of portions and the site does all the work.
Over time you know what ingredients have significant calories (pasta, oil) and what don't (trace amounts of seasonings) so unless you're concerned with macros, you can shortcut your logging.
It sounds sloppy, but as long as I always tell myself to err on the side of OVER-estimating calories eaten, and conservatively estimating calories burned, it works for me - losing!0 -
I don't have a food scale right now and I am making spaghetti today so it will be almost impossible to measure out anything
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I don't have a food scale right now and I am making spaghetti today so it will be almost impossible to measure out anything
Use your best judgment!
Your meat package should have a weight on it, so that is one shortcut you can use. For the spaghetti, if you plan on using the whole box, put in that information on the box, and divide into portions as best as you can once it's all cooked.
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I use the recipe builder most of the time. If it's something that I am only going to have 1 time or something I'm eating at a friend/family member's home (for example my mom's homemade salmon patties) I usually just find 2-3 generic entries for that item and choose to log the one that is highest in calories or most realistic sounding.
This is also what I do for restaurant meals. For example, I know a plate of pad Thai is not going to be 280 cal, but it may be 550 or 725 so I just pick whichever sounds right for the food I ate. It's not perfect but it's close-ish. To me, logging everything even if some of it's less than accurate is still good because it is keeping me on track. I'd rather be off by 300 cal occasionally than not know what I am consuming in general.
I'd definitely use the recipe builder if it is something that you are going to eat multiple times, as leftover, in the future, etc.0 -
If one serving, I just enter every ingredient. Otherwise, I enter everything in the recipe builder, weigh the final product, and enter the number of grams as the number of servings.
I'm actually really annoyed at the recipe builder right now because it's a piece of junk. I had to go on my phone this morning and uninstall/reinstall the app just so that I could change the serving size of the soup I made this morning (and entered using the website). It wasn't showing on the app at all and it never saves when I try to change the number of servings with my browser. Ridiculous.
So yes, it's a pain to make recipes, which is why I don't bother that much. You could always estimate but then you could end up 200 calories over or something without realizing.0 -
If one serving, I just enter every ingredient. Otherwise, I enter everything in the recipe builder, weigh the final product, and enter the number of grams as the number of servings.
I'm actually really annoyed at the recipe builder right now because it's a piece of junk. I had to go on my phone this morning and uninstall/reinstall the app just so that I could change the serving size of the soup I made this morning (and entered using the website). It wasn't showing on the app at all and it never saves when I try to change the number of servings with my browser. Ridiculous.
So yes, it's a pain to make recipes, which is why I don't bother that much. You could always estimate but then you could end up 200 calories over or something without realizing.
I have decided to just estimate. I usually eat pretty basic stuff but for today I will just give myself about 250 calories for this meal. I don't think one off day will kill me. I am actually more interested in the sodium and cholesterol. 2mrw its back to the basics lol0 -
Recipe tool on here0
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