Accuracy When Making Recipes

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KatieAnneEtcetera
KatieAnneEtcetera Posts: 21 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So say, for example, that I am making crockpot chili. What is the most accurate way to count calories? I'd assume that I would start by weighing each ingredient and calculating the calories that goes into the whole recipe, and then if I divide that into say 6 servings, I can try to eyeball 1/6 of the chili. But isn't there a more accurate way? If I weigh my serving then ... agh! Please help me with math!

Replies

  • jacquifrench304
    jacquifrench304 Posts: 131 Member
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    Yup weigh your empty crock pot , enter all your weighed recipe items to the recipe builder, weigh the pot when cooked weigh the pot including the food when you finish , subtract weight of empty pot, enter serving size to recipe of 1 gram per serve , weigh your portion and enter the servings (100g would =100 serves)
  • dljones67
    dljones67 Posts: 88 Member
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    Hi there. Yes, this is exactly what I do when creating a recipe. Weigh meat raw, all dry ingreds & veggies on scale. Liquids by container. Add all together then divide in portions and see how many you get. Once this is all done you create your recipe. It's a pain in the a_s but pretty accurate. I just made Turkey Cabbage Soup that has about 110 cals/cup. It gets easier the more you do it and get everything ready to weigh at one time makes things quicker. Hope this helps. :)
  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
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    Personally, in your example, I would eyeball 1/6th of the chilli. I agree that it is not the most accurate way but, I'm begin honest here, it's the way I do it.

    Some points to consider:
    • If you alone are eating all 6 portions over a relatively short period of time, the variation between one portion and another will even out.
    • When I eyeball the portions I'm reasonably accurate because I tend to plate up a portion of myself and a portion for Mrs StealthHealth and then put another 4 portions into individual Tupperware containers for future lunches. This way you can get pretty consistent portions.
    • If I were struggling to hit my weight targets this would be an area that I would tighten up.
  • TheLittleRedHairedGirl
    TheLittleRedHairedGirl Posts: 154 Member
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    What I do is portion out what you think the serving size should be, like 1 1/2 cups, using a measuring cup into a separate container until you empty the crock pot, and that would give you how many portions it makes.
  • KatieAnneEtcetera
    KatieAnneEtcetera Posts: 21 Member
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    Thanks for all the replies! I think I will continue eyeballing it ... I might try TheLittleReds idea of separating it all ahead of time so that I know about how much a serving size is. If only there were some magic way to know exactly how many calories a particular serving was!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    I weigh the final product. I did the eyeballing thing once and used cups, and once I added all the servings I had eaten, it didn't match the total amount of cups of the recipe. Oops.

    It's obviously easier if you're the only person eating the dish though, then yeah, I just divide by 4 or something.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,947 Member
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    jacquifrench304 wrote: »
    Yup weigh your empty crock pot , enter all your weighed recipe items to the recipe builder, weigh the pot when cooked weigh the pot including the food when you finish , subtract weight of empty pot, enter serving size to recipe of 1 gram per serve , weigh your portion and enter the servings (100g would =100 serves)

    Ya, this is the most accurate way to do it. It also gives you more flexibility if you don't feel like eating an entire serving and don't want to be fussed with was this 1/2 serving or whatever.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
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    My scale can't weigh the entire crock pot - I think it has an 11 pound limit and the ceramic crock pot is not light.

    So I weigh the ingredients. And for the finished product when it comes to something like chili: I put it in storage containers, and weigh the finished product. Then if it comes out to 1800 grams I log it as 1800 servings. If I take 180 grams as my portion, I log 180 servings for me.

    This also means I can clean up the crock pot sooner which makes for easier cleanup.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    StaciMarie1974 wrote: »
    My scale can't weigh the entire crock pot - I think it has an 11 pound limit and the ceramic crock pot is not light.

    So I weigh the ingredients. And for the finished product when it comes to something like chili: I put it in storage containers, and weigh the finished product. Then if it comes out to 1800 grams I log it as 1800 servings. If I take 180 grams as my portion, I log 180 servings for me.

    This also means I can clean up the crock pot sooner which makes for easier cleanup.

    Same. I just weigh the food as I put it in containers. Easy.
  • KatieAnneEtcetera
    KatieAnneEtcetera Posts: 21 Member
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    The logging grams as servings thing just clicked in my head! lol ... well that sounds doable. I was searching the recipe builder for a way to log with grams ... then I got it. I'm not sure why I found that so difficult! :P
  • whmscll
    whmscll Posts: 2,254 Member
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    jacquifrench304 wrote: »
    Yup weigh your empty crock pot , enter all your weighed recipe items to the recipe builder, weigh the pot when cooked weigh the pot including the food when you finish , subtract weight of empty pot, enter serving size to recipe of 1 gram per serve , weigh your portion and enter the servings (100g would =100 serves)

    I don't understand "enter serving size to recipe of 1 gram per serve." Serving size is where I really get screwed up in recipe builder. Can someone provide clarification, please? I want to do it more accurately than I have been.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    whmscll wrote: »
    jacquifrench304 wrote: »
    Yup weigh your empty crock pot , enter all your weighed recipe items to the recipe builder, weigh the pot when cooked weigh the pot including the food when you finish , subtract weight of empty pot, enter serving size to recipe of 1 gram per serve , weigh your portion and enter the servings (100g would =100 serves)

    I don't understand "enter serving size to recipe of 1 gram per serve." Serving size is where I really get screwed up in recipe builder. Can someone provide clarification, please? I want to do it more accurately than I have been.

    If it makes 100 grams, enter it as 100 servings. Then, if you eat 30 grams (for example), put in your diary that you had 30 servings.

    You can do this with multiples of ten if it's easier. So it it makes 100 grams, you could enter it as 10 servings and then enter that you had 3 servings if you eat 30 grams.
  • Rosyone
    Rosyone Posts: 74 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    whmscll wrote: »
    jacquifrench304 wrote: »
    Yup weigh your empty crock pot , enter all your weighed recipe items to the recipe builder, weigh the pot when cooked weigh the pot including the food when you finish , subtract weight of empty pot, enter serving size to recipe of 1 gram per serve , weigh your portion and enter the servings (100g would =100 serves)

    I don't understand "enter serving size to recipe of 1 gram per serve." Serving size is where I really get screwed up in recipe builder. Can someone provide clarification, please? I want to do it more accurately than I have been.

    If it makes 100 grams, enter it as 100 servings. Then, if you eat 30 grams (for example), put in your diary that you had 30 servings.

    You can do this with multiples of ten if it's easier. So it it makes 100 grams, you could enter it as 10 servings and then enter that you had 3 servings if you eat 30 grams.

    I designate 100 grams to be the serving size to minimize rounding errors and make the math easy. So a serving of 30 grams is logged as 0.3 servings, 120 grams as 1.2 servings, and so on.

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