Working out calories in stew

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stephenhopkins2
stephenhopkins2 Posts: 14 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Ok so I want to make a stew but I'm not sure how to work out the calories in eating. It's a very watery stew so the juice is not like gravy so I doubt it's got many calories.

Should I weight it without juice and how do I work out how many calories in each portion because one portion may have more potatoes or meat etc. I'm very confused.

Replies

  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
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    Use the recipe builder.

    Add all the ingredients, it is best if you type swede 200g, potatoes 300g etc as you are listing them. Then say how many servings you will get out of it. Then you can log it from there. It is really easy once you are used to it.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
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    Just enter a recipe here on MFP with all the ingredients. Once it's complete weigh it in either oz or grams then decide how many servings it is going to make. The recipe calculator will figure out the calories per serving. It's a pain, yes, but my wife and I have entered many of our home recipes in MFP for this very reason. Now we know exactly how much sodium, protein, calories, etc. is in a serving and we use the recipes now over and over so that they are the same every time.

    In a nutshell, the first time you make it it'll be a pain in the butt because you will be weighing each ingredient and logging it in a recipe. The second time you make it, you'll know exactly what it costs you in calories and nutrients.
  • LazSommer
    LazSommer Posts: 1,851 Member
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    Weigh all ingredients, weigh final product and divide by # of servings.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    edited August 2016
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    I wouldn't worry too much about the amount of meat vs. potatoes in a single serving. It all usually works out in the end. If it's possible without looking like a nutcase, and you really want to, you can empty the cooking vessel into the proper number of single serving containers (bowls or resealable containers for later). Using a scale you can try to get the servings as close in weight as possible including an equal amount of the juice. Not sure if you really want to get that picky about it but it's possible if you do. :smile:
  • frawley23
    frawley23 Posts: 31 Member
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    I use the recipe builder too but use the cooked weight as the amount of servings so 1g is 1 serve. Then i can log exactly how many grams i have. I find it more accurate. Include the broth in the cooked weight and don't worry about small discrepancies in ingredients between servings they occur in everything and generally don't amount to much.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 4,980 Member
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    I use the recipe builder and enter the entire dish as one serving. Then I weigh out my portion and divide by the total weight and enter that. So if the entire dish weighs 1200 g and I eat 250 grams then I enter .208 as my serving size. That is easier for me when I don't really know how many servings something will make.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,649 Member
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    Only variation to the above is that if the recipe builder has trouble dealing with 3356 servings, you can use 335 servings of 10g each or 33 servings of 100g each.

    If you then serve yourself 88 grams you can still choose 8.8 servings of 10g or 0.88 servings of 100g.

    Once you've got the total weight that was produced by your raw ingredients... you can just apportion it into storage containers.

    Yes some will have slightly more or slightly less meat vs potatoes but this will be a very small variation over time especially if you're the only person eating it which means that eventually you will be consuming the whole thing.
  • Care76
    Care76 Posts: 556 Member
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    I personally don't like the recipe builder on MFP unless it's something where I have the same amount each time. I have a book with recipes I make with the macros for each ingredient. I weigh everything in grams raw then I weigh the final recipe cooked. I add all the macros up individually and then divide by the amount of grams I have of final product. Then all I have to do is enter my own food in MFP and use whatever amount I think I'd average in a serving (100 or 200g) and multiply my number in grams for the recipe by the number I chose in a serving. It sounds confusing when explaining but it's super easy. For soups, tomato sauce, stirfry, etc I find this works best. For things like cookies, wraps, or muffins I can make say a dozen every time so the recipe builder works fine.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,998 Member
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    I think the easiest way to work out servings is to weigh the lot and divide by 100 and call it that many servings eg if total weighs 2300, it s 23 x 100g servings
    Is then easy to work out an individual portion - dish into bowl/ plate and easy maths - eg if the portion is 475 g that is 4.75 serves.

    Another thing I found handy for stews,soups etc made in slow cooker or crockpot - weigh the empty pot first, then weigh total in the pot, deduct weight of pot. Easiest way to get total weight.
    I do this empty weighing once then write number on bottom of pot for future reference.

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