Serving Sizes

mulletmaggie
mulletmaggie Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I know there is a MILLION threads talking about serving sizies in MFP but I STILL don't get it :(

I made a HUGE batch of delicious Cauliflower 'Potato' Salad and I haven't even touched it because I dont know how to divy it up correctly. I want to avoid cups and stick to grams as it's more accurate.
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Replies

  • RobertWilkens
    RobertWilkens Posts: 77 Member
    I think MFP has a thing called recipes (not sure haven't used yet) and i think you add the ingredients you used to make your 'cauliflower potato salad', and it'll probably tell you the total calories, if you tell it the portion you made (did you make x # of cups?) you can do some math (or maybe it does it for you) to figure out the serving sizes that are appropriate....

    I've not done this before on MFP but years ago i did on other similar sites.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    Weigh the whole thing in grams and make each serving one gram. If you eat 50 grams, log it as 50 servings, etc.
  • mulletmaggie
    mulletmaggie Posts: 8 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    Weigh the whole thing in grams and make each serving one gram. If you eat 50 grams, log it as 50 servings, etc.


    What do I put as the overall serving size? I inputted the recipe under the 'recipes' option.

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    Weigh the whole thing in grams and make each serving one gram. If you eat 50 grams, log it as 50 servings, etc.

    That's a cool idea. Much simpler than trying to figure out how many grams a servings should be and dividing that into total grams.

  • JustMe2691
    JustMe2691 Posts: 111 Member
    mulletmaggie wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    Weigh the whole thing in grams and make each serving one gram. If you eat 50 grams, log it as 50 servings, etc.


    What do I put as the overall serving size? I inputted the recipe under the 'recipes' option.

    The number of servings will be the total amount in grams. That will make 1 gram the serving size. Then, when you take a portion, you will weigh that and put in that number as the number of servings you are eating.

    If it weighs 100 grams, you record it as 100 servings in the recipe set up. Then when you log it, you will eat 40 grams, so your number of servings for that meal will be 40.
  • mulletmaggie
    mulletmaggie Posts: 8 Member
    JustMe2691 wrote: »
    mulletmaggie wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    Weigh the whole thing in grams and make each serving one gram. If you eat 50 grams, log it as 50 servings, etc.


    What do I put as the overall serving size? I inputted the recipe under the 'recipes' option.

    The number of servings will be the total amount in grams. That will make 1 gram the serving size. Then, when you take a portion, you will weigh that and put in that number as the number of servings you are eating.

    If it weighs 100 grams, you record it as 100 servings in the recipe set up. Then when you log it, you will eat 40 grams, so your number of servings for that meal will be 40.

    Thank you so much for explaining! I think I finally understand. Will try it out tonight!
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    A serving of potato salad is about 100 grams.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    mulletmaggie wrote: »
    I know there is a MILLION threads talking about serving sizies in MFP but I STILL don't get it :(

    I made a HUGE batch of delicious Cauliflower 'Potato' Salad and I haven't even touched it because I dont know how to divy it up correctly. I want to avoid cups and stick to grams as it's more accurate.

    Weigh all the ingredients
    Use the recipe builder
    Weigh the final dish
    Divide by the number of 100g portions there are
    when you log it eat log the weight ...eg 50g = 0.5 serving, 350g = 3.5 servings
  • mulletmaggie
    mulletmaggie Posts: 8 Member
    edited June 2015
    ok so i just weighed the entire dish, not including the bowl - and it came to 1565g. I made that the serving size, and wanted to eat 200g so i put 200 of 1 serving - and it says there is only 1 calorie per serving. this doesnt make sense!
  • RobertWilkens
    RobertWilkens Posts: 77 Member
    1 calorie per serving, but 200 servings makes it around 200 calories, does that make sense?
  • mulletmaggie
    mulletmaggie Posts: 8 Member
    yes but this is way too confusing. Im really upset cause i basically just wasted all this food because there is no legit way to log it
  • BWBTrish
    BWBTrish Posts: 2,817 Member
    Did you wrote down and weighed all your ingredients?
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    mulletmaggie wrote: »
    ok so i just weighed the entire dish, not including the bowl - and it came to 1565g. I made that the serving size, and wanted to eat 200g so i put 200 of 1 serving - and it says there is only 1 calorie per serving. this doesnt make sense!

    So your 200 grams of cauliflower salad would then be 200 calories. Makes sense to me.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited June 2015
    jemhh wrote: »
    mulletmaggie wrote: »
    ok so i just weighed the entire dish, not including the bowl - and it came to 1565g. I made that the serving size, and wanted to eat 200g so i put 200 of 1 serving - and it says there is only 1 calorie per serving. this doesnt make sense!

    So your 200 grams of cauliflower salad would then be 200 calories. Makes sense to me.

    Yes

    @mulletmaggie you told it there are 1,565 x 1g servings in your entire recipe

    MFP is telling you each 1g serving will cost you 1 calorie

    You would never eat 1g of this .. so you enter 200 servings (which equals 200 x 1g servings)

    so it will cost you 200 calories to eat 200g of your cauliflower potato salad
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,178 Member
    If you find logging several portions of 1 gram confusing, just look at your salad. How many servings does it look like to you? 3, 4, 10? Let's say 10 for simplicity. So, you have 1565 grams for 10 servings, so 1 serving is 156 grams, say 150 for simplicity it will not change things much. Now, when you are ready to eat, weight your food. Divide by 150. Say you have put into your plate 350 grams. 350/150 = 2.3 servings.
  • mulletmaggie
    mulletmaggie Posts: 8 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    mulletmaggie wrote: »
    ok so i just weighed the entire dish, not including the bowl - and it came to 1565g. I made that the serving size, and wanted to eat 200g so i put 200 of 1 serving - and it says there is only 1 calorie per serving. this doesnt make sense!

    So your 200 grams of cauliflower salad would then be 200 calories. Makes sense to me.

    I figured it out :) Works out to be 166 calories per 200g. Thanks everyone.
  • BumbleBreeBuzz
    BumbleBreeBuzz Posts: 83 Member
    With my recipes, i usually go off how many servings the recipe says it makes. (Usually if it gives a range i go with the lower end. Ex: recipes says 4-6 servings, i tell mfp that it is 4 servings) With potato salad u could measure out how many cups the recipe made. Say it made 12 cups then log it as 12 servings. MFP will do the rest for you
  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    Weigh the whole thing in grams and make each serving one gram. If you eat 50 grams, log it as 50 servings, etc.

    OMG this helps me so much! I didn't think of this, it makes so much sense. Thank you!

  • JohnBarth
    JohnBarth Posts: 672 Member
    Conversely, you can make the entire batch as 1 serving. This will give you the entire batch as XXXX calories. If you want 100g to be your serving size, portion out as many 100g servings as the batch contains and update the recipe to that # of servings.

    I did this with a huge pot of chili. It weighed about 14 pounds by the time I was done (I make huge batches of lunch items and freeze them). Because I wanted 14oz servings, I divided the 14 pounds (224oz) by 14 and got 16 servings.

    It can be a little tedious at first, but once you figure it out, it's really easy.
  • nbrisky
    nbrisky Posts: 1 Member
    edited August 2015
    For entering data into recipes, here is the formula: S*N=T. S=serving size, N=number of servings, T=total amount put into the recipe.
    S and T are given, so solving for N gives, N=T/S Example: S = 1 apple, T= 2 apples, then N=2/1=2. You will see that your recipe will have 2 apples in it. If you want your recipe to actually provide 10 portions (which you will enter when you save the recipe), then each serving will have 1/10 of the nutrients in the total recipe. Unfortunately, "number of servings" takes on different meanings. I used the term "portions".
  • swift13b
    swift13b Posts: 158 Member
    I find that entering the total amount (ie. 1565) as the number of servings always gives me 1 calorie, regardless of the recipe. I don't think it's an accurate way of working out servings. I weigh the entire meal and then decide how many servings I think it would be (usually 4 or 6) and then divide the total amount by that. So 1565 with 6 servings would make each serve ~260 grams. Then I write that number in the name of the recipes so I can remember how much a serve is.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    swift13b wrote: »
    I find that entering the total amount (ie. 1565) as the number of servings always gives me 1 calorie, regardless of the recipe. I don't think it's an accurate way of working out servings. I weigh the entire meal and then decide how many servings I think it would be (usually 4 or 6) and then divide the total amount by that. So 1565 with 6 servings would make each serve ~260 grams. Then I write that number in the name of the recipes so I can remember how much a serve is.

    It is an accurate way of working out servings. When you use the "total weight of recipe in grams as the number of servings" method, the Calories per gram may display only 1 Calorie, but the underlying equations that provide the actual Calories per gram (and other nutrients) are still there. You can test that by adding a 100g serving of the recipe to your Food Diary, and then check that the Calorie and other nutrient calculations are still correct.
  • Pinnacle_IAO
    Pinnacle_IAO Posts: 608 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    Weigh the whole thing in grams and make each serving one gram. If you eat 50 grams, log it as 50 servings, etc.
    Getting started just weigh everything, and it time all this will become second nature.
  • modestguineapig
    modestguineapig Posts: 23 Member
    edited August 2015
    If 1 gram servings are too confusing, just do 100g. So divide your total weight by 100 (in your case 15.6). Then put in the recipe title 100g serving, so you remember. Then log it with decimals....like 200g would be 2 servings. or 150 g would be 1.5 servings.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    CyberTone wrote: »
    swift13b wrote: »
    I find that entering the total amount (ie. 1565) as the number of servings always gives me 1 calorie, regardless of the recipe. I don't think it's an accurate way of working out servings. I weigh the entire meal and then decide how many servings I think it would be (usually 4 or 6) and then divide the total amount by that. So 1565 with 6 servings would make each serve ~260 grams. Then I write that number in the name of the recipes so I can remember how much a serve is.

    It is an accurate way of working out servings. When you use the "total weight of recipe in grams as the number of servings" method, the Calories per gram may display only 1 Calorie, but the underlying equations that provide the actual Calories per gram (and other nutrients) are still there. You can test that by adding a 100g serving of the recipe to your Food Diary, and then check that the Calorie and other nutrient calculations are still correct.

    Precisely. :)
  • spolce12
    spolce12 Posts: 3 Member
    robertwilkens wrote: »
    I think MFP has a thing called recipes (not sure haven't used yet) and i think you add the ingredients you used to make your 'cauliflower potato salad', and it'll probably tell you the total calories, if you tell it the portion you made (did you make x # of cups?) you can do some math (or maybe it does it for you) to figure out the serving sizes that are appropriate....

    I've not done this before on MFP but years ago i did on other similar sites.

    He is right the do but I personally recommend working with a fitness group I know. It's called TD Nation. I was once struggling with portion control and balance diet. After being told about TD nation and they Boot camp my life has not been the same. Thanks to them I have now lost 76 lbs and I'm getting fit and health with each passing day. They have designed a program that really works.

  • Furbuster
    Furbuster Posts: 254 Member
    I've made a huge pot of veggie stew today and was going to do this method but then it occurred to me it wouldn't work because the weight contains a lot of water (plus some lost in cooking ) - have I got the idea wrong here?
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Furbuster wrote: »
    I've made a huge pot of veggie stew today and was going to do this method but then it occurred to me it wouldn't work because the weight contains a lot of water (plus some lost in cooking ) - have I got the idea wrong here?

    Yeah same with my ratatouille. Tons of liquid. I just weigh and log it that way anyway, it's just impossible to be completely accurate.
  • Furbuster
    Furbuster Posts: 254 Member
    And I put 4 litres of added water in the recipe builder?
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    Furbuster wrote: »
    I've made a huge pot of veggie stew today and was going to do this method but then it occurred to me it wouldn't work because the weight contains a lot of water (plus some lost in cooking ) - have I got the idea wrong here?
    You can add the weight (or volume) of "water - municipal" to your Recipe, but as you note, some of that is going to evaporate during cooking and cooling. To get the most accurate Calorie count, you will have to let it cool completely, weigh the cooled batch, and then complete the Recipe, noting the total weight of the entire batch cooled. Alternately, note the amount that you and your family use at the time it is still hot, then when the leftovers are cooled, add the weight of the cooled food plus the weight of the food that was eaten, and then update the Recipe. It may be slightly inaccurate, but close enough.
    Tip: I keep a list of the weights of my pots/pans and storage containers on my refrigerator, so I can just quickly put 1000g of food into a serving pot or container of known weight and serve the food from that.

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