We are pleased to announce that on March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor will be introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the upcoming changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

How to calculate homemade dishes

KaylaKilgore
KaylaKilgore Posts: 160 Member
edited December 2024 in Recipes
I have been sticking with small simple stuff, quite a bit of processed. Because I don't know how to calculate dishes..
For instance a crockpot vegetable soup I only use three ingredients.. beef stew tips, tomato juice and mixed vegetables. I've tried to enter it on MFP for recipe but I don't know how many servings per dish, how much is a serving or how the calories are then calculated.
Can someone please help?

Same thing for say hamburger helper or homemade chicken Alfredo

Replies

  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,200 Member
    Use the Recipe builder in MFP. Name of the ingredients, weight, number of portions, give a name to the recipe and the system will calculate the calories and macros based on the number of servings that you posted.
  • MissusMoon
    MissusMoon Posts: 1,900 Member
    Gisel2015 wrote: »
    Use the Recipe builder in MFP. Name of the ingredients, weight, number of portions, give a name to the recipe and the system will calculate the calories and macros based on the number of servings that you posted.

    Yep, this. Sometimes if it's a simple dish I just do the math myself and enter the ingredients in my diary, but it sounds like the recipe builder is the best tool in this case.
  • KaylaKilgore
    KaylaKilgore Posts: 160 Member
    It asks how many people it serves and I don't know how to figure out how many it serves nor serving size to figure out how many it would serve
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    I just decide the portion size based on the number of calories I want each portion to be, and then freeze the remaining in containers into the same portion size. It works because I am the only one eating it.

    If it is something like a pasta sauce, or if you are sharing with family members, what I do is to weigh the completed recipe and then use that number as my serving number. That way, when I take my portion, I weigh it, and use that number as my number of servings (each serving = 1g). It works really well (assuming I have explained it clearly enough). Does that make sense?
  • KaylaKilgore
    KaylaKilgore Posts: 160 Member
    edited October 2016
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    I just decide the portion size based on the number of calories I want each portion to be, and then freeze the remaining in containers into the same portion size. It works because I am the only one eating it.

    If it is something like a pasta sauce, or if you are sharing with family members, what I do is to weigh the completed recipe and then use that number as my serving number. That way, when I take my portion, I weigh it, and use that number as my number of servings (each serving = 1g). It works really well (assuming I have explained it clearly enough). Does that make sense?

    I thought I understood but after I looked into it from what I thought, no I don't:/
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    edited October 2016
    Once I have the recipe complete, I will weight the entire thing, so if it weighs 980g, I will enter 980 servings, so that when I eat it, I can weigh however much I am taking. So if I take 230g of it, I will enter that I had 230 servings of that particular recipe. I think you need to use the old recipe calculator (use your laptop/desktop, I'm not sure it it's available on the app). If I remember correctly, the new one won't let you enter that many servings.

    Let me know, if it's still not clear.

    Edited for spelling.
  • KaylaKilgore
    KaylaKilgore Posts: 160 Member
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    Once I have the recipe complete, I will weight the entire thing, so if it weighs 980g, I will enter 980 servings, so that when I eat it, I can weigh however much I am taking. So if I take 230g of it, I will enter that I had 230 servings of that particular recipe. I think you need to use the old recipe calculator (use your laptop/desktop, I'm not sure it it's available on the app). If I remember correctly, the new one won't let you enter that many servings.

    Let me know, if it's still not clear.

    Edited for spelling.

    Gotcha!! That seems easy enough, thank you!
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    You're welcome! I love doing the recipes that I'm not sure about splitting in that manner.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    KaylaKilgore wrote: »
    It asks how many people it serves and I don't know how to figure out how many it serves nor serving size to figure out how many it would serve

    I weigh it cooked and enter that as the number of servings. That way if I have 200g... I just log 200 servings. So much easier than figuring out a serving size.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories