Breaking down calorie counts

After you scan the barcode, you can assist the number of servings and also the serving size. So if you bring it down to grams, then just weigh your ten crisps and enter that as your servings. I didn't know about that for the longest time.

I take the amount of calories and divide it by the amount of grams in a serving to find out how many calories in each gram.
For example: I have shortbread cookies on my desk. The package says one serving size = 8 cookies (30 grams) and that serving = 130 calories. I take 130 divide it by 30 (grams) and get 4.333333333... each gram equals approximately 4.3 calories. To make sure my math is okay I take the 4.3 and multiply it by the serving size, again this is 30 (grams) 4.3 x 30 = 129 (so approximately the 130 calories it says one serving is).
Weigh your food and depending on the amount of grams is how many calories it is and how many you log.
So, for example, lets say each cookie is equal to approximately 4.3 grams (just an example), if I eat 2 cookies I log 8.6 grams (actually I would do 8.8 since my total came out to just a little below the serving size).
I hope this makes sense!
I do it all the time and I'm losing weight just fine!

^^What every said above. But let's say you don't have a food scale, and let's also say the label doesn't specify how many chips are a serving? I guess in that case you could literally count how many crisps are in the bag for a total, and then divide the total by 5 to find out how many crisps = 1 serving?

If you'll end up eating all the servings eventually, just estimate the % of the package, and record it. I do this all the time when I make things like Pasta Roni, and put half away in the fridge. It doesn't matter if you ate 55% or 50% today, if you eat the remainder a day or 2 later ... it all balances out in the long run.

If your sharing the package, then the best ( and recommended ) option is by weight, as suggested. After a few sample sets, you can take an average, and use that in the future ... sufficient if you are happy being generally accurate.

Lastly, realize that all of it is just estimation anyway, due to variances in packaging and ingredients/composition. Its never going to be 100% accurate.

DoreenaV1975 wrote: »

I take the amount of calories and divide it by the amount of grams in a serving to find out how many calories in each gram.
For example: I have shortbread cookies on my desk. The package says one serving size = 8 cookies (30 grams) and that serving = 130 calories. I take 130 divide it by 30 (grams) and get 4.333333333... each gram equals approximately 4.3 calories. To make sure my math is okay I take the 4.3 and multiply it by the serving size, again this is 30 (grams) 4.3 x 30 = 129 (so approximately the 130 calories it says one serving is).
Weigh your food and depending on the amount of grams is how many calories it is and how many you log.
So, for example, lets say each cookie is equal to approximately 4.3 grams (just an example), if I eat 2 cookies I log 8.6 grams (actually I would do 8.8 since my total came out to just a little below the serving size).
I hope this makes sense!
I do it all the time and I'm losing weight just fine!

I don't know if you care anymore but...
I just realized I explained some of this wrong.. LOL

Sometimes you can choose the measurement of 1 of the item vs the serving size.
In the case of my example the choices in MFP are: 8 cookies, 1 cookie, or 1 container.
In this case if I ate 8 cookies - I would log 1 of the "8 cookie" serving.
If I ate 4 cookies - I would log .5 of the "8 cookies" serving
If I ate 2 cookies - I would log 2 of the "1 cookie" serving.

The mathematical equation I gave you was when you don't have all those options.
Lets say 1 serving of beans is 1/2cup (130 grams) = 110 calories and there are no other options.
If I want to eat half of that I can just measure out 65 grams because 1/2 of 130 grams is 65.
And when you log it you can enter .5 of the "1/2 cup(130g)" serving.
Easy, right?

What if when you measure a serving you want to eat and you get 137 grams. Well obviously that is more than the 1/2cup (130 grams) serving. You can re-measure taking away the additional or if you still want to eat the amount you measured you can just log the 1/2 cup serving and do a "quick add calories" in MFP to account for the rest.
That's where the math comes in.

110 cals -divided by- 130g = .85 calories per gram.
So if you ate 137 grams you would log: 1 of the "1/2cup(130 gram)" serving
+ do a "quick add" of .85 for each gram you are over the serving.
In this case you are over the serving by 7 grams so you would log an additional 5.95 (.85x7) calories (I would round up to 6).
Total calories = 116 (not the 110 serving size) for 137 g of beans

The opposite is true as well.
If run out of the food before I get a full serving I can log it a full serving and miss out on some of the calories I could still eat or I can log it as the true serving.
Lets say I only have 115 grams of beans left.
I just do a quick add into my food log of 97.75 (.85 x 115 g) calories (rounded up to 98) to account for those beans.

You shouldn't have to do this too often.
I generally only do it when I am eating the last of something and it doesn't fit neatly into the serving sizes provided.