Detirmining Calories for meals

joobey wrote: »

megancakemiller wrote: »

I cook for my whole family, so I have a hard time Detirmining how many calories are in each portion. Is there an easy way to do this? Or should I just measure how much of everything and do the math? I have a 4 yr old and 5 month old so I don't have a lot of time to think lol. Last night I made chili but just used an estimate already on here... Not sure if it was over or under which is frustrating

I hear you and have been there and still there even though my kids are teens now. It can get cumbersome if you allow it and with little ones, there's not much time. Don't fret. Seriously. I have used the recipes already on here or have even used restaurants knowing that their foods probably have many more calories than I'm using in my recipes and just use their nutrition base or estimate a little above or below what I think it is given my ingredients. If that makes sense? I've lost 20+ lbs doing this many of nights but also do use the recipe builder as well! I weigh all of my foods or have measured too. I've also found that sometimes it's easier for me to especially at the beginning to eat a lot of salads for myself even though I make my family a meal. Or eat a sweet potatoe, roasted veggies, chicken breast...basically whole foods! Those are just easier to calculate the calories, lol! Maybe it's called being lazy on my part but many times depending on what's going on, I don't have the time to input each ingredient. That's stressful. Hope that helps! Just don't give up.