calorie management when you cook your food.

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  • Tionne31
    Tionne31 Posts: 91 Member
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    Lounmoun wrote: »
    I cook but I generally follow recipes and do measure quite a few things. Since I have been cooking and measuring food a long time I am pretty confident about what certain measurements look like. I have checked my estimates with measured portions so I know I am pretty good at eyeballing some things.
    Do you make the same things pretty often? If you eyeball/guess/measure once, jot down the amounts you used and what a portion size was, then enter the recipe here then you can just use that recipe entry in future and never have to measure again. Even if a dish isn't really prepared exactly the same every time it will give you a fair idea of the amount of calories you are eating.
    If you eat maybe 20- 30 different recipes in rotation you only have to enter it in the recipe builder tool once for each thing.
    Find a recipe on the internet that is most similar to the food you make. If the amounts are pretty close to what you probably use copy it into the recipe builder. Save it. Use that entry every time you cook that thing. Again, it won't be exact like if you weighed and measured everything but will give you some idea of the amount of calories you are eating.

    If you do this and don't lose weight then you might need to just go ahead and weigh and measure everything.


    I agree with this wholeheartedly, I keep a host of foods in rotation and as such I merely entered them on MFP with the portion sizes and now all I do is click and add...it has made calorie counting for me a breeze. Prior to the option of adding a homecooked meal as a recipe here, I utterly DESPISED calorie counting...because it used to take up too much time.
  • yourpalsoap
    yourpalsoap Posts: 88
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    I don't understand the issue with weighing everything, as if it takes a million hours to do? When I'm cooking, I weigh out everything before I add it to the dish and either use the recipe builder or just add the foods under the correct meal.

    If I'm cooking for more than one person, I make their meal in one pan and mine in a separate one (i.e. if I'm cooking for 4 people who don't count calories and myself, all theirs goes in one pan and mine in the other). it means I have one extra pot to clean but I know exactly what I'm eating and it doesn't take any longer than it would have.
  • Ellaskat
    Ellaskat Posts: 386 Member
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    BFDeal wrote: »
    Ellaskat wrote: »
    BFDeal wrote: »
    .

    You can change nothing about what you're doing and keep the 18lbs.

    I'm not interested in your judgements. You can keep them for yourself. I'm sorry you are so unhappy that you feel your best option is to antagonize others.
    I'm not judging. I'm trying to lose more weight than you. I'm just kind of stating the obvious. If what you're doing now isn't working then the logical alternative is to change what you're doing.

    If you're not judging, you're making assumptions about whether what i'm doing is working or not. An assumption is pretty similar to a judgement. Anyone should be able to reach out on these forums for new ideas - that's what they're for. Looking for new ideas doesn't mean what I'm doing isn't working (i've actually already lost 5 inches - in only 10 days) it just means i'm open to continuing to learn and try new things that might be even better.
  • Ellaskat
    Ellaskat Posts: 386 Member
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    yourpalsoap wrote: »
    I don't understand the issue with weighing everything, as if it takes a million hours to do? When I'm cooking, I weigh out everything before I add it to the dish and either use the recipe builder or just add the foods under the correct meal.

    If I'm cooking for more than one person, I make their meal in one pan and mine in a separate one (i.e. if I'm cooking for 4 people who don't count calories and myself, all theirs goes in one pan and mine in the other). it means I have one extra pot to clean but I know exactly what I'm eating and it doesn't take any longer than it would have.

    no issue - that just doesn't work for me - i'm glad it works for you.
  • pscarolina
    pscarolina Posts: 133 Member
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    I have a few recipes saved, but it's actually easier for me to eat single item foods. (especially now that my daughter is in college) I like cooking, but not feeling the complicated, multi-ingredient recipes since it's just me now. For stuff you make often it's worth the effort to enter the recipe the one time & have it available to pull later. I don't want to log each item in my overnight oatmeal every time I eat it. That would take longer than making it.
  • kaseyr1505
    kaseyr1505 Posts: 624 Member
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    I measure ingredients, make a recipe and log that. Usually, I enter the recipe into MFP once a week, because I meal plan, and log it all at once.
  • jellybeanhed313
    jellybeanhed313 Posts: 344 Member
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    Ellaskat wrote: »
    i'm wondering how people keep an awareness/manage what they eat if they do not count calories. There are ways to be healthful without counting each one - so i'm curious what others do.

    Eating only when actually hungry and stopping before you are "full" is a great way to do this without counting calories. If you aren't hungry, you don't eat. If you lose weight, eat more. If you gain, eat less. That is if you're trying to maintain. If not, eat for the desired effect.
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
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    NoelFigart1 wrote: »
    I guess I do the insane thing. I weigh all the ingredients I toss into the recipe, record it and divide by intended servings.

    Works for me.

    I eat almost no pre-packaged food, either.

    If you're insane, you had a good teacher.

    This is what I do. Bonus, it lets you determine per serving cost.
  • jhall260
    jhall260 Posts: 111 Member
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    I cook a lot, from scratch. I have numerous recipes that I have created. I don't measure out ingredients to the gram or mL when I am cooking so the recipe varies from time to time. Good enough for me though.
  • Ellaskat
    Ellaskat Posts: 386 Member
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    kaseyr1505 wrote: »
    I measure ingredients, make a recipe and log that. Usually, I enter the recipe into MFP once a week, because I meal plan, and log it all at once.
    I do the same thing - I cook 4 nights a week, with leftovers the other 3 nights.

    Also - thank you to all you 'old timers' who encouraged me to give the recipe maker thing another shot. 4 years ago IT WAS A NIGHTMARE!!!! Most of my recipes started on the internet, or else have simple ingredients. I just gave it a shot and entered what i believe i'll be eating today and it was really pretty easy now:) I'll have to give it another shot. It actually looks like i'm under eating - which as i remember from the last time i cal counted was a problem. ugh. apparently I either eat lindt truffles all day, or go into starvation mode from too few calories. figures.
  • Ellaskat
    Ellaskat Posts: 386 Member
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    BFDeal wrote: »
    When
    Ellaskat wrote: »
    BFDeal wrote: »
    . You can change nothing about what you're doing and keep the 18lbs.

    Guess I can change nothing about what I'm currently doing AND lose my 18 pounds since I've lost 3 pounds in 2 weeks and 7 inches.



  • ldrosophila
    ldrosophila Posts: 7,512 Member
    edited January 2015
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    i just do a best guess and hope it's close. my recipes are never consistent and can change depending on what I have in the fridge, and I add a lot of ingredients. I'll usually add a 1/2 portion more to it just to cover any missing calories.

    Oh and sometimes instead of doing the individual ingredients I'll just weigh out my portion after served and use whatever is on the database.

    I'm sure it's not the most accurate, but it's better than nothing.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    I'm single. Non-issue.

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