Weighing food and cooking for two?

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ajc1309
ajc1309 Posts: 255 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I live with my other half and I cook our meals together but I'm unsure how I accurately weigh my food? Tonight for instance I cooked a chow mein stir fry. I weighed out my noodles, meat and vegetables before cooking but then had to cook them all together with my boyfriends portion, so how do I know what I'm actually putting on my plate? I always make sure I have a smaller portion that my boyfriend.

Replies

  • cathipa
    cathipa Posts: 2,991 Member
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    Build the recipe in MFP and measure the whole recipe to get the serving size (what ever it weighs in grams) then weigh your portion and add it into MFP. I do this often since I cook for the 4 of us.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
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    I use the nutritional info for cooked items.

    If it's multiple items, I add the calories and weight of each ingredient to get a calories-per-gram number and then weigh what I put on my plate.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    Time to get to know the recipe builder. :) Makes life so much easier when cooking more than one serving at a time!
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    Ready2Rock206 wrote: »
    Time to get to know the recipe builder. :) Makes life so much easier when cooking more than one serving at a time!

    Yep!
  • faurotann
    faurotann Posts: 405 Member
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    Where is recipe builder? Is that the same as "recipe importer"?
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,952 Member
    edited July 2015
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    There are two methods on http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/box
    - Import recipe
    - Enter new recipe
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
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    Just as a tip, when I was cooking for two (but the only one counting calories) I would typically make one meal but then have shredded cheese or things like that served on the side, or I'd throw his portion back in the oven with the extra cheese/topping/etc. and serve him extra rolls. That way the meal really was still split in half, but his had extra calories via the carbs or toppings added after I'd dished out my half of it. Or make more casseroles where I could use a knife to more evenly divide something into, like, 4ths and then only give myself 1/4 and give him 2/4. Just some more options for the future.
  • ajc1309
    ajc1309 Posts: 255 Member
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    I'm still a bit confused. I've built a recipe but am not sure what the meal is in grams? My portion is always smaller than my boyfriends so how do I accurately log my portion? I can obviously weigh my portion but how to I log how many grams it is?
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    I weight the entire dish post cooking (I cook for 2 or 3) after putting it in the recipe builder.

    Then I put that in the recipe and log my portion.
  • chloeelizabethm
    chloeelizabethm Posts: 184 Member
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    You can do what the others say and put in say 800 portions in the recipe function, meaning 800g then log 350 portions/grams for example.

    Or, if I'm just cooking for two and not building a recipe then I just weigh the plates as I've dished out each section of the meal so once I've weighed the meat to make sure we have half each, then half the vegetables etc. Make sure you weigh the plates first though, I have a naughty plate that weighs 70g less than the others!
  • flumi_f
    flumi_f Posts: 1,888 Member
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    I weigh and log the all ingredients raw, save as a meal and then weigh the entire dish post cooking (I cook for 2 or 3). Then I log my fraction of the whole meal. I now know the weight of most of my pots and pans by heart ;-)
  • NoIdea101NoIdea
    NoIdea101NoIdea Posts: 659 Member
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    I just add up all the ingredients as the overall meal, then half it (as my boyf and I usually eat half each). Even if I leave some or have slightly less, I still log it as half, just to be on the safe side.
  • Toadstool_
    Toadstool_ Posts: 120 Member
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    WBB55 wrote: »
    Just as a tip, when I was cooking for two (but the only one counting calories) I would typically make one meal but then have shredded cheese or things like that served on the side, or I'd throw his portion back in the oven with the extra cheese/topping/etc. and serve him extra rolls. That way the meal really was still split in half, but his had extra calories via the carbs or toppings added after I'd dished out my half of it. Or make more casseroles where I could use a knife to more evenly divide something into, like, 4ths and then only give myself 1/4 and give him 2/4. Just some more options for the future.

    I do the same sort of thing. I will weigh everything that goes in, and split it in half between our plates. Either I make something extra for the other half in addition or do different sides. Salad on my plate for instance, and a small salad and chips on his plate.
  • Annie_01
    Annie_01 Posts: 3,096 Member
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    OP...Food changes weight during cooking. Liquids evaporate thus changing the weight. Since most food contains water the water weight will change.

    Sadly...to be accurate you have to weight food as you put it in the pot to get the calorie count and after cooking to get the portion weight.
  • daniellepstewart209
    daniellepstewart209 Posts: 32 Member
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    There is currently a bug in the app, the calories are incorrect when building recepie a/ meals. Weigh everything, add up cal and everything else you are monitoring. (Don't forget all oils and sauce!) total the weights of everything.
    Total calories divided by total weight will give you cal per gram. Times that by the weight of what you weighed out on your plate. Do it for fat, cals, carb and protein, that's what I do as all my meals are different. I usually cook for me and the BF and he has a portion for the next days lunch too. It works x
  • Lyreth_5389
    Lyreth_5389 Posts: 5 Member
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    This sounds like more work than it is, but if I'm not sure how much a "portion" weighs for a new recipe, I will weigh my empty dish/pot/whatever the final food will end up in and then weigh the dish again when I'm finished cooking and its full of the recipe (make sure the pan or dish is cool enough to do this that you don't melt something). Subtract the initial weight of the dish and divide by the number of portions. voila the weight of one portion. hth =)
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    rachelyounge wrote: »
    This sounds like more work than it is, but if I'm not sure how much a "portion" weighs for a new recipe, I will weigh my empty dish/pot/whatever the final food will end up in and then weigh the dish again when I'm finished cooking and its full of the recipe (make sure the pan or dish is cool enough to do this that you don't melt something). Subtract the initial weight of the dish and divide by the number of portions. voila the weight of one portion. hth =)

    I do similar

    But I log every recipe by how many 100g servings there are so that I can always change my portion size easily
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,730 Member
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    daniellepstewart209 wrote: »
    There is currently a bug in the app, the calories are incorrect when building recepie a/ meals. Weigh everything, add up cal and everything else you are monitoring. (Don't forget all oils and sauce!) total the weights of everything.
    Total calories divided by total weight will give you cal per gram. Times that by the weight of what you weighed out on your plate. Do it for fat, cals, carb and protein, that's what I do as all my meals are different. I usually cook for me and the BF and he has a portion for the next days lunch too. It works x

    You have to weight the ingredients raw as you put them in to calculate the calories that went into the pot; but you also have to weigh the results after you've finished cooking: The cooked food does not weigh the same as the raw food.

    You can always EDIT your recipe. So just accept whatever the recipe builder chooses, put a portions size of 2 and save.

    Then go back, and edit/clean up the entries one by one by substituting better ones.

    Once you know how much food you produced (the finished product), edit the number of portions to reflect 10g or 100g (or I suppose 1g if not too tedious for you) portions.

    Say the total produces is 1343 g, I would probably call it 134 portions. But if it was 1401g, I might call it 14 portions.

    Then weigh what you eat and enter the appropriate number of portions!

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