Does Ingredients + Cooking Oil = Total Calories of Recipe?

yogafeline
yogafeline Posts: 15 Member
edited November 11 in Food and Nutrition
I cook a lot of my own food from scratch. I have been using MFP for 12 days. I've been happily weighing everything and entering absolutely everything I eat. I've been scanning barcodes of ingredients and checking the nutritional info matches the packet.

But I am starting to become fearful of eating anything that isn't a processed meal with a a barcode and a cooked calorie value on it, in case I am kidding myself with the amount of calories in things that I make myself. Which I am sure can't be healthy!

When you are entering your own recipes, do you just have to add the dry/raw ingredients plus whatever oil they are cooked in to get the true calorie value when they are cooked?

For example (not planning to live on this, but just for arguments sake), if I had 100g of onions (173 cal) and 15ml of vegetable oil (124 cal), would they always total 297 cal?

So,

100g of onions roasted in 15ml of oil = 297 cal

and

100g of onions fried in 15ml of oil = 297 cal?

Or does the cooking method make more of a difference? If so, how do you calculate it?

I know some foods you can pick the cooked or raw value, but lots of things I cook only have the raw value and most things I eat I cook from scratch.

Would really appreciate any advice, I have looked for articles about this, but haven't been able to find consensus. I want to feel good about my 12 day streak, not like I am cheating.

Replies

  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
    I log the ingredients in the recipe section and then log a serving if a recipe has lots of ingredients. If I'm just logging vegetables that I cook, I log the raw weight of the vgetable and the oil separately in my daily food log. The method of cooking does not matter.
  • jkwolly
    jkwolly Posts: 3,049 Member
    auddii wrote: »
    I log the ingredients in the recipe section and then log a serving if a recipe has lots of ingredients. If I'm just logging vegetables that I cook, I log the raw weight of the vgetable and the oil separately in my daily food log. The method of cooking does not matter.
    This.

    Log raw. Why? Boiling broccoli and it adds weight, etc!

    Good luck!
  • yogafeline
    yogafeline Posts: 15 Member
    auddii wrote: »
    I log the ingredients in the recipe section and then log a serving if a recipe has lots of ingredients. If I'm just logging vegetables that I cook, I log the raw weight of the vgetable and the oil separately in my daily food log. The method of cooking does not matter.
    jkwolly wrote: »
    auddii wrote: »
    I log the ingredients in the recipe section and then log a serving if a recipe has lots of ingredients. If I'm just logging vegetables that I cook, I log the raw weight of the vgetable and the oil separately in my daily food log. The method of cooking does not matter.
    This.

    Log raw. Why? Boiling broccoli and it adds weight, etc!

    Good luck!

    Thank you both :) That is really reassuring. I will stop stressing now! Thanks again :)
  • illyich
    illyich Posts: 195 Member
    You might be overthinking things, which coming from me says a lot! Congrats on weighing your ingredients, that took me a LONG time to start doing.

    But to answer your question, yes. The oil goes into the pan and onto the food which then goes into your mouth. Count it!
  • yogafeline
    yogafeline Posts: 15 Member
    edited February 2015
    illyich wrote: »
    You might be overthinking things, which coming from me says a lot! Congrats on weighing your ingredients, that took me a LONG time to start doing.

    But to answer your question, yes. The oil goes into the pan and onto the food which then goes into your mouth. Count it!

    You are probably quite right, I probably am over thinking things :) Now I know, I won't give it any more thought.

    Thanks for your reply and the congrats :D I started weighing things because some vegetables are logged as '1 pepper' etc and there was such variation in the sizes of the ones I had, it just wouldn't work very accurately for me like that.
  • jennifershoo
    jennifershoo Posts: 3,198 Member
    Oil has calories, so log it!
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
    jennifershoo wrote: »
    Oil has calories, so log it!

    And that wasn't the question at all...
  • yogafeline
    yogafeline Posts: 15 Member
    jennifershoo wrote: »
    Oil has calories, so log it!

    Quite a lot of calories too! I will log it, thanks jennifershoo :)

    I just wanted to make sure the method of cooking didn't add any extra calories on that I was missing. I couldn't think where they would come from... but I was getting in a bit of a muddle :)
  • jkwolly
    jkwolly Posts: 3,049 Member
    yogafeline wrote: »
    illyich wrote: »
    You might be overthinking things, which coming from me says a lot! Congrats on weighing your ingredients, that took me a LONG time to start doing.

    But to answer your question, yes. The oil goes into the pan and onto the food which then goes into your mouth. Count it!

    You are probably quite right, I probably am over thinking things :) Now I know, I won't give it any more thought.

    Thanks for your reply and the congrats :D I started weighing things because some vegetables are logged as '1 pepper' etc and there was such variation in the sizes of the ones I had, it just wouldn't work very accurately for me like that.
    Yes, not very accurate.

    I made all my own entries for most of the food I use, and just weigh accordingly.
  • yogafeline
    yogafeline Posts: 15 Member
    jkwolly wrote: »
    yogafeline wrote: »
    illyich wrote: »
    You might be overthinking things, which coming from me says a lot! Congrats on weighing your ingredients, that took me a LONG time to start doing.

    But to answer your question, yes. The oil goes into the pan and onto the food which then goes into your mouth. Count it!

    You are probably quite right, I probably am over thinking things :) Now I know, I won't give it any more thought.

    Thanks for your reply and the congrats :D I started weighing things because some vegetables are logged as '1 pepper' etc and there was such variation in the sizes of the ones I had, it just wouldn't work very accurately for me like that.
    Yes, not very accurate.

    I made all my own entries for most of the food I use, and just weigh accordingly.

    That sounds like a good way of doing things :) I have made some of my own recipes, but haven't got as far as making foods yet. Thanks again for your help :)
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