Roasted veggies

I love roasting veggies in the oven but am having a hard time figuring the calories out. I use onion, red pepper, carrots, zucchini and yellow squash. I can weigh everything by grams before cooking but they shrink down tremendously in the cooking process. Suggestions? I can't separate everything after cooking as I mix them all together when roasting.

Replies

  • FFeric
    FFeric Posts: 100 Member
    Honestly, if you're killing it with the veggies I don't know that you need to worry about those calories. Your body will thank you for consuming good stuff like that. The nutritionist i worked with a few years ago told me to eat as much green and veggies as i wanted because the benefit to your body outweighs the intake. Do you ever roast sweet potatoes or beets?
  • Skyblueyellow
    Skyblueyellow Posts: 225 Member
    You could use the recipe builder function to get an estimate. Weigh everything raw, plug it into the recipe builder, and then it will give you the calories for the entire dish. You could then decide how many servings to divide it into or you could do you own math and figure out (roughly) how many calories/gram or calories/ounce you are looking at. Yes, it is going to be a bit inaccurate.

    The other option is to cook yours separately. Weigh out your own raw ingredients and place in a separate roasting dish.

    Sometimes, when cooking for a number of people, you just have to be as accurate as you can be.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    Weigh ingredients raw, add to recipe builder.
    Add other ingredients to recipe builder.
    Roast veggies.
    Weigh roasted veggies in grams.
    Edit recipe to show number of servings equal to weight in grams (e.g., if entire tray of veggies weighs 1000 grams, set recipe to show it makes 1000 servings.)
    Weigh out however much you want to eat, in grams.
    Log what you eat using your portion's gram weight as number of servings (e.g., 257 grams would be 257 servings.)
  • FFeric
    FFeric Posts: 100 Member
    bbell1985 wrote: »
    FFeric wrote: »
    Honestly, if you're killing it with the veggies I don't know that you need to worry about those calories. Your body will thank you for consuming good stuff like that. The nutritionist i worked with a few years ago told me to eat as much green and veggies as i wanted because the benefit to your body outweighs the intake. Do you ever roast sweet potatoes or beets?

    I eat a couple hundred calories in veggies every day. Why would you not count that? They have calories.

    I get where you're coming from...the old "3500 calories to lose a pound" thing that is beaten into our heads. I didn't believe it either until I lost 30 pounds in 2 months after undergoing a bunch of surgeries that had me basically sedentary for two years. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but try it. Pics don't tell everything, but from your profile pic you look like you are in great shape so I won't argue with what seems to work for you, because we all find different things that work for us. I guess what I'm trying to advocate for in a very brief manner is that we shouldn't be as concerned about "how much" we shove into our bodies as we should be about "what" we are shoving into our bodies. If you're eating clean meats, veggies, and drinking tons of water the weight is going to come off and your body will be happier.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    bbell1985 wrote: »
    FFeric wrote: »
    Honestly, if you're killing it with the veggies I don't know that you need to worry about those calories. Your body will thank you for consuming good stuff like that. The nutritionist i worked with a few years ago told me to eat as much green and veggies as i wanted because the benefit to your body outweighs the intake. Do you ever roast sweet potatoes or beets?

    I eat a couple hundred calories in veggies every day. Why would you not count that? They have calories.

    Not only that but when I roast veggies I use at least a tbsp of olive oil, which would add another 100 or so calories.
  • FFeric
    FFeric Posts: 100 Member


    Okay, but that is false. If you eat clean meats and veggies and you're in an energy balance, you will not lose. If you eat them in a surplus, you will gain. Period.
    [/quote]

    If I understand what you are saying correctly, you are telling me that if I eat clean protein and veggies and the caloric intake is exactly what I burn per day, I won't lose any weight. But if I go out and stuff myself with an average of 100 more calories (then what I burn off) of the same foods per day at the end of the month I will be roughly a pound heavier?

  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    FFeric wrote: »
    bbell1985 wrote: »
    FFeric wrote: »
    Honestly, if you're killing it with the veggies I don't know that you need to worry about those calories. Your body will thank you for consuming good stuff like that. The nutritionist i worked with a few years ago told me to eat as much green and veggies as i wanted because the benefit to your body outweighs the intake. Do you ever roast sweet potatoes or beets?

    I eat a couple hundred calories in veggies every day. Why would you not count that? They have calories.

    I get where you're coming from...the old "3500 calories to lose a pound" thing that is beaten into our heads. I didn't believe it either until I lost 30 pounds in 2 months after undergoing a bunch of surgeries that had me basically sedentary for two years. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but try it. Pics don't tell everything, but from your profile pic you look like you are in great shape so I won't argue with what seems to work for you, because we all find different things that work for us. I guess what I'm trying to advocate for in a very brief manner is that we shouldn't be as concerned about "how much" we shove into our bodies as we should be about "what" we are shoving into our bodies. If you're eating clean meats, veggies, and drinking tons of water the weight is going to come off and your body will be happier.

    Setting aside whatever "clean meats" are, I happen to agree that it's good to be concerned about WHAT you eat. That -- plus wanting a reasonably accurate TDEE number when I'm logging -- is one of the big reasons I like to log my veg somewhat accurately (if I have to estimate a cup or whatever I do, but usually I'm chopping so it's easy to put them on the scale). If I log them I can look back and make sure I am getting all that I think I am and a good variety too. (When I wasn't logging I did this in other ways, but it's nice.)

    I don't think of logging as about putting down foods that are counting against my calories only (although all foods go to my total). I think of it as a way of monitoring my nutrition.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    keharty wrote: »
    I love roasting veggies in the oven but am having a hard time figuring the calories out. I use onion, red pepper, carrots, zucchini and yellow squash. I can weigh everything by grams before cooking but they shrink down tremendously in the cooking process. Suggestions? I can't separate everything after cooking as I mix them all together when roasting.

    To answer this, are you sharing it with others? If so, weigh the total and figure out your percentage of it, that you won't have exactly the same proportions isn't going to make that big a difference. In fact, since veg aren't that high cal, I would normally eyeball it -- half for me, half for him or some such. Then apply that percentage to your raw numbers.

    If all for you, ignore cooked weight and use the raw weights.
  • FFeric
    FFeric Posts: 100 Member

    Setting aside whatever "clean meats" are, I happen to agree that it's good to be concerned about WHAT you eat. That -- plus wanting a reasonably accurate TDEE number when I'm logging -- is one of the big reasons I like to log my veg somewhat accurately (if I have to estimate a cup or whatever I do, but usually I'm chopping so it's easy to put them on the scale). If I log them I can look back and make sure I am getting all that I think I am and a good variety too. (When I wasn't logging I did this in other ways, but it's nice.)

    I don't think of logging as about putting down foods that are counting against my calories only (although all foods go to my total). I think of it as a way of monitoring my nutrition.[/quote]

    I would consider "clean" to be certified organic, but we are lucky to have access to protein sources like moose, elk, buffalo, or local cattle. Unfortunately we don't have many local veggies or produce so you trade one for the other.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying counting calories is bad. I get a lot of use out of the calorie counter on MFP, but like you, it's more of a way to see what I'm eating and to hold me accountable when things go off the rails.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    FFeric wrote: »
    I would consider "clean" to be certified organic, but we are lucky to have access to protein sources like moose, elk, buffalo, or local cattle. Unfortunately we don't have many local veggies or produce so you trade one for the other.

    Ah. I actually do like getting meat from local farms (the one I use happens to be organic, but that's an ethical thing, not health related, and I wouldn't call it "clean." Whether it's organic or not doesn't affect whether it's going to cause weight gain or loss.

    I mostly posted to sympathize about the produce. I get produce locally as much as possible too, and we have great produce, but definitely not in January, so the supermarket is my main source for veg right now!
  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
    edited January 2017
    FFeric wrote: »
    Setting aside whatever "clean meats" are, I happen to agree that it's good to be concerned about WHAT you eat. That -- plus wanting a reasonably accurate TDEE number when I'm logging -- is one of the big reasons I like to log my veg somewhat accurately (if I have to estimate a cup or whatever I do, but usually I'm chopping so it's easy to put them on the scale). If I log them I can look back and make sure I am getting all that I think I am and a good variety too. (When I wasn't logging I did this in other ways, but it's nice.)

    I don't think of logging as about putting down foods that are counting against my calories only (although all foods go to my total). I think of it as a way of monitoring my nutrition.

    I would consider "clean" to be certified organic, but we are lucky to have access to protein sources like moose, elk, buffalo, or local cattle. Unfortunately we don't have many local veggies or produce so you trade one for the other.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying counting calories is bad. I get a lot of use out of the calorie counter on MFP, but like you, it's more of a way to see what I'm eating and to hold me accountable when things go off the rails. [/quote]

    Short old person here trying to lose weight so counting calories is a necessity FOR ME:). I don't have much room for error if I want to continue to lose:).

    ETA - ugg quote feature messed up:).
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    FFeric wrote: »

    Okay, but that is false. If you eat clean meats and veggies and you're in an energy balance, you will not lose. If you eat them in a surplus, you will gain. Period.

    If I understand what you are saying correctly, you are telling me that if I eat clean protein and veggies and the caloric intake is exactly what I burn per day, I won't lose any weight. But if I go out and stuff myself with an average of 100 more calories (then what I burn off) of the same foods per day at the end of the month I will be roughly a pound heavier?

    [/quote]

    If you eat a calorie surplus above your TDEE, you will gain weight, regardless of what type of foods you are eating ("clean" or not). Do you believe otherwise?
  • FFeric
    FFeric Posts: 100 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    FFeric wrote: »

    Okay, but that is false. If you eat clean meats and veggies and you're in an energy balance, you will not lose. If you eat them in a surplus, you will gain. Period.

    If I understand what you are saying correctly, you are telling me that if I eat clean protein and veggies and the caloric intake is exactly what I burn per day, I won't lose any weight. But if I go out and stuff myself with an average of 100 more calories (then what I burn off) of the same foods per day at the end of the month I will be roughly a pound heavier?

    If you eat a calorie surplus above your TDEE, you will gain weight, regardless of what type of foods you are eating ("clean" or not). Do you believe otherwise?[/quote]

    I think if you trade crap foods for clean eats you will lose weight even if your net calories stay the same every day.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    FFeric wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    FFeric wrote: »

    Okay, but that is false. If you eat clean meats and veggies and you're in an energy balance, you will not lose. If you eat them in a surplus, you will gain. Period.

    If I understand what you are saying correctly, you are telling me that if I eat clean protein and veggies and the caloric intake is exactly what I burn per day, I won't lose any weight. But if I go out and stuff myself with an average of 100 more calories (then what I burn off) of the same foods per day at the end of the month I will be roughly a pound heavier?

    If you eat a calorie surplus above your TDEE, you will gain weight, regardless of what type of foods you are eating ("clean" or not). Do you believe otherwise?

    I think if you trade crap foods for clean eats you will lose weight even if your net calories stay the same every day. [/quote]

    My TDEE is 2200 and I'm currently in maintenance. I eat a diet that includes Whole Foods as well as many processed foods. If I understand your claim, you are saying that if I eat the same calories (2200) but trade out things like the doughnut I ate yesterday, or the prepackaged pulled pork I ate tonight, with "clean" foods I would start losing weight again? Even though my total calories wouldn't change?

  • FLBeachluvr
    FLBeachluvr Posts: 110 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    keharty wrote: »
    I love roasting veggies in the oven but am having a hard time figuring the calories out. I use onion, red pepper, carrots, zucchini and yellow squash. I can weigh everything by grams before cooking but they shrink down tremendously in the cooking process. Suggestions? I can't separate everything after cooking as I mix them all together when roasting.

    To answer this, are you sharing it with others? If so, weigh the total and figure out your percentage of it, that you won't have exactly the same proportions isn't going to make that big a difference. In fact, since veg aren't that high cal, I would normally eyeball it -- half for me, half for him or some such. Then apply that percentage to your raw numbers.

    If all for you, ignore cooked weight and use the raw weights.

    They are all for me, lol, over the course of a couple days. What I have been doing is weighing them raw individually and adding them to the recipe builder. I then weigh the whole pan (empty pan and then full pan) to get the total weight of the veggies. Last night the total weight was 1225 grams. I edited the recipe to show 1225 1 gram servings. However once the veggies had all cooked down the finished weight was much less. I weighed out 400 grams of the finished product which was really about half of what I cooked (I don't use olive oil BTW). Just seems like the shrinkage would have some effect on the serving size if that makes sense.

  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,147 Member
    I weigh out and log my veggies raw along with the amount of oil (and other condiments) I use. Like a PP said, most of what is lost is water/moisture when they're cooked.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    Just log the raw weights under 'raw' entries in the database. The only thing they tend to lose in cooking is moisture, which won't affect the calorie count to any relevant amount.

    This is correct. The water is that is lost has no calories.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,551 Member
    Just log the raw weights under 'raw' entries in the database. The only thing they tend to lose in cooking is moisture, which won't affect the calorie count to any relevant amount.

    This is what I do.



    And a reasonable amount of my calories do come from veggies, so yes, I count them. :)
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    keharty wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    keharty wrote: »
    I love roasting veggies in the oven but am having a hard time figuring the calories out. I use onion, red pepper, carrots, zucchini and yellow squash. I can weigh everything by grams before cooking but they shrink down tremendously in the cooking process. Suggestions? I can't separate everything after cooking as I mix them all together when roasting.

    To answer this, are you sharing it with others? If so, weigh the total and figure out your percentage of it, that you won't have exactly the same proportions isn't going to make that big a difference. In fact, since veg aren't that high cal, I would normally eyeball it -- half for me, half for him or some such. Then apply that percentage to your raw numbers.

    If all for you, ignore cooked weight and use the raw weights.

    They are all for me, lol, over the course of a couple days. What I have been doing is weighing them raw individually and adding them to the recipe builder. I then weigh the whole pan (empty pan and then full pan) to get the total weight of the veggies. Last night the total weight was 1225 grams. I edited the recipe to show 1225 1 gram servings. However once the veggies had all cooked down the finished weight was much less. I weighed out 400 grams of the finished product which was really about half of what I cooked (I don't use olive oil BTW). Just seems like the shrinkage would have some effect on the serving size if that makes sense.

    If you know how many serves you'd have (say, 3 meals of vegies) input the raw weights, and make it for that many serves. Once you've baked it, reweigh and divide by the serves to find out how much weight per cooked serve.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    keharty wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    keharty wrote: »
    I love roasting veggies in the oven but am having a hard time figuring the calories out. I use onion, red pepper, carrots, zucchini and yellow squash. I can weigh everything by grams before cooking but they shrink down tremendously in the cooking process. Suggestions? I can't separate everything after cooking as I mix them all together when roasting.

    To answer this, are you sharing it with others? If so, weigh the total and figure out your percentage of it, that you won't have exactly the same proportions isn't going to make that big a difference. In fact, since veg aren't that high cal, I would normally eyeball it -- half for me, half for him or some such. Then apply that percentage to your raw numbers.

    If all for you, ignore cooked weight and use the raw weights.

    They are all for me, lol, over the course of a couple days. What I have been doing is weighing them raw individually and adding them to the recipe builder. I then weigh the whole pan (empty pan and then full pan) to get the total weight of the veggies. Last night the total weight was 1225 grams. I edited the recipe to show 1225 1 gram servings. However once the veggies had all cooked down the finished weight was much less. I weighed out 400 grams of the finished product which was really about half of what I cooked (I don't use olive oil BTW). Just seems like the shrinkage would have some effect on the serving size if that makes sense.

    Since you are going to eat them all I'd say use the raw weights and just divide them into portions.

    The entries (the good ones) should either specify raw or are for raw, cooked ones will say cooked.

    Good source for good entries (https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list?qlookup=&qt=&manu=&SYNCHRONIZER_URI=/ndb/search/list&SYNCHRONIZER_TOKEN=d3cea83a-4136-495a-84be-b13b2fbea72e&ds=Standard+Reference): the same words are used to find the identical entries on MFP.
  • I saved time by initially using the recipe builder to work out how many calories in a bowl full of various veg (roughly 200 for the bowls I have). I now assume every veg bowl is 200cals. I know it will vary from day to day, but averaged over a few weeks, it's accurate enough for me.
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
    edited January 2017
    FFeric wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    FFeric wrote: »

    Okay, but that is false. If you eat clean meats and veggies and you're in an energy balance, you will not lose. If you eat them in a surplus, you will gain. Period.

    If I understand what you are saying correctly, you are telling me that if I eat clean protein and veggies and the caloric intake is exactly what I burn per day, I won't lose any weight. But if I go out and stuff myself with an average of 100 more calories (then what I burn off) of the same foods per day at the end of the month I will be roughly a pound heavier?
    If you eat a calorie surplus above your TDEE, you will gain weight, regardless of what type of foods you are eating ("clean" or not). Do you believe otherwise?

    I think if you trade crap foods for clean eats you will lose weight even if your net calories stay the same every day.

    False. I've been eating low and no processed "clean foods" for years. I cook almost all of my food from scratch. The only thing that helped me lose weight was eating fewer calories. I changed nothing about my diet except the calorie load. Pounds dropped. If you "trade crap foods for clean eats", your health will surely benefit, but you have to reduce calorie intake or increase calorie burn in order to lose weight. Keeping calories the same will result in maintenance. It's physics... :)
  • Queenmunchy
    Queenmunchy Posts: 3,380 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    Weigh ingredients raw, add to recipe builder.
    Add other ingredients to recipe builder.
    Roast veggies.
    Weigh roasted veggies in grams.
    Edit recipe to show number of servings equal to weight in grams (e.g., if entire tray of veggies weighs 1000 grams, set recipe to show it makes 1000 servings.)
    Weigh out however much you want to eat, in grams.
    Log what you eat using your portion's gram weight as number of servings (e.g., 257 grams would be 257 servings.)

    @keharty I hope you didn't miss this post. This is exactly how you would log any recipe you make.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    Log them raw and enjoy. I did this today with an acorn squash - peeled it, chopped it, weighed it (exactly 1lb), logged 1lb raw acorn squash then roasted it on a pan with some seasoning. With a little bbq sauce, lunch. If I was sharing it as a side with someone, just log the percentage you do eat.
  • powered85
    powered85 Posts: 297 Member
    edited January 2017
    I roast a lot of veggies also. I think it's worth it to measure the calories in the roasted version. Example cauliflower loses a lot of moisture and you then end up having a significant amount more of calories (and potassium) per gram of roasted product. Think you'd be surprised on the amt of moisture lost especially if you cut up the veggies into smaller pieces.

    I need to do this with beets next as I think my raw data is way off compared to sliced then roasted.

    Roasting things whole would likely result it a lot less moisture loss but obviously longer cook times and then have to do meal prep after by slicing etc.

    At least try it once as you'll then have a general idea if it really ups the caloric/nutrient density per gram of roasted.

    Also: I looked up my roasted cauliflower recipe with 1tbsp of avacado oil. Started with 1701g of raw contents and after roasting it was only 950g.
  • FLBeachluvr
    FLBeachluvr Posts: 110 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    Weigh ingredients raw, add to recipe builder.
    Add other ingredients to recipe builder.
    Roast veggies.
    Weigh roasted veggies in grams.
    Edit recipe to show number of servings equal to weight in grams (e.g., if entire tray of veggies weighs 1000 grams, set recipe to show it makes 1000 servings.)
    Weigh out however much you want to eat, in grams.
    Log what you eat using your portion's gram weight as number of servings (e.g., 257 grams would be 257 servings.)

    @keharty I hope you didn't miss this post. This is exactly how you would log any recipe you make.

    I did almost all of that except for weighing again AFTER the veggies were cooked. That may be why my amounts seemed off.