figuiring out calories when all you have is calories for the entire recipe

LeeAnn2healthy
LeeAnn2healthy Posts: 15 Member
edited November 16 in Food and Nutrition
So I made a Spaghetti Squash Chow Mein dish but ended up adding a whole bunch of vegetables to the pot so it is like a stir fry as well. I entered the entire receipt into MFP and saved it as a meal now how do I know how much of those calories are in my 1-2 cups that I eat? I know you are going to ask how many servings I made but I have not idea, If you can calculate these calories for each 1 cup serving somehow please let me know. Here is the exact recipe:

Great Value - 30% Less Sodium Soy Sauce, 4 Tbsp (15ml) 20 cal
Chef Cuisine - Minced Garlic, 2 tsp 10
Redpath - Golden Yellow Sugar (Light Brown Sugar), 2 tsp 30
Wu Hsing - Ginger Powder, 20 g 0
Spices, pepper, black, 1 tsp, ground 6
Olive Oil - No Name Pure, 2 tablespoon 240
Bengray - Celery Stalks, 300 g 45
Dole - Colourful Coleslaw(Cdn), 212.5 g (1 1/2 cups) 63
Spaghetti - Spaghetti Squash, 2 cup 62
Compliments Asian Stylr Stir-fry Frozen Vegetables -212.5 g 88

I would love to cook more but as this is a problem I always run into to count calories, I tend to just make easy meals like chicken and veggies and count calories individually. Thanks!!!

Replies

  • scubagram
    scubagram Posts: 27 Member
    I think to be accurate you'd have to weigh the whole thing and weigh your servings.
  • gmallan
    gmallan Posts: 2,099 Member
    You need to know how much you've actually made to be able to portion it in that way. An easy way is to weigh the whole recipe and then portion based on weight. If the whole recipe weight 1kg (1000g) and you've eaten 238g then you've eaten 0.238 of the recipe (238/1000). I've also been known to roughly physically divide the recipe into portions - if I get 6 portions then I log 1/6 of the recipe. That's accurate enough for me as the differences even out
  • ConnieT1030
    ConnieT1030 Posts: 894 Member
    edited February 2017
    I dont know how to calculate yours for you, i never go by cups anyway, only grams.
    What i do when i enter a recipe is pick a likely serving amount, guessing if I have to, I can always adjust it later. Then when it's all done I weigh how much it all is (I have previously recorded the weight of most of my cooking pans, or you can put it into another suitable container that you have zeroed on your scale) and then divide the weight (say its 600 grams), by the number of servings, (say its 4), and then weigh out 150 grams onto my plate/bowl. You could weigh it all, put what you want on your plate, weighing what's left, and work out how many servings there are that way.
    I never knew there would be so much math in this :open_mouth:
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  • annacole94
    annacole94 Posts: 994 Member
    If you can guess how many cups it made, then you could call it that many servings. I'm guessing 6 cups?
    I always just take a stab at how many servings it is. If you want to be precise, then you have to actually measure either weight or volume of the finished recipe to get it.
  • ms_smartypants
    ms_smartypants Posts: 8,278 Member
    What I do is weigh the pot/ dish ..write that down (in grams)...cook so called dish and when its done I weigh it in grams and minus the pot and enter that as servings ...then when I eat it I weigh it in grams and enter it into MFP
  • melaniedscott
    melaniedscott Posts: 1,478 Member
    Enter it as a recipe, not a meal. Then, when you log it, you say 1 serving & it knows, because you told it 1 recipe = X number of servings. Makes it easy for logging leftovers, too.
  • Reaverie
    Reaverie Posts: 405 Member
    edited February 2017
    How is math hard.. Like kriss said, add all the calories, and divide by how many servings you want it to be. I counted 584 calories from what you posted. Half of that would be 292. A third would be 174.66 A quarter of that would be 146. So how much did you eat? Half of it? a fourth?

    Weighing is more accurate but who has time for that.. Next time eyeball the pot or pan, maybe scoop half out and store it first before eating then half whats left and eyeball your bowl to see if its a 3rd gone or half gone by the time you get full.
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  • Chunkahlunkah
    Chunkahlunkah Posts: 373 Member
    edited February 2017
    I enter in all of the ingredients as a recipe, then weigh it all in grams, and enter that # as the number of servings. So if it all weighed 800 g, for example, I'd put in the entry 800 servings.

    Then later when I take a poriton, I weigh it in grams and enter the weight as the number of servings I took.

    I started doing this because I wouldn't always know how many servings I wanted to get out of the recipe. This way, I can log the calories in my actual serving.
  • comptonelizabeth
    comptonelizabeth Posts: 1,701 Member
    Chunkahlunkah wrote: »
    I enter in all of the ingredients as a recipe, then weigh it all in grams, and enter that # as the number of servings. So if it all weighed 800 g, for example, I'd put in the entry 800 servings.

    Then later when I take a poriton, I weigh it in grams and enter the weight as the number of servings I took.

    I started doing this because I wouldn't always know how many servings I wanted to get out of the recipe. This way, I can log the calories in my actual serving.

    Thanks for this - I never thought of doing it that way! I log it as a recipe and,as we're a family of 4,I enter it as 4 servings then just log 1 serving ,but it's hard to tell if my own serving is exactly one quarter!
  • CafeRacer808
    CafeRacer808 Posts: 2,396 Member
    edited February 2017
    Look_Its_Kriss wrote: »
    Reaverie wrote: »
    How is math hard.. Like kriss said, add all the calories, and divide by how many servings you want it to be. I counted 584 calories from what you posted. Half of that would be 292. A third would be 174.66 A quarter of that would be 146. So how much did you eat? Half of it? a fourth?

    Weighing is more accurate but who has time for that.. Next time eyeball the pot or pan, maybe scoop half out and store it first before eating then half whats left and eyeball your bowl to see if its a 3rd gone or half gone by the time you get full.

    LOL im glad someone else just divides by X from the total.. what is all this pan weighing and ridiculousness lol

    Not to split hairs (ok, I'm splitting hairs...lol), but we always emphasize to newcomers how important it is to weigh your food. How is the OP to know she's eaten 1/3 of her chow mein recipe if she doesn't weigh the entire batch first?

    The advice you quoted is akin to telling someone, "Meh, there's no need to weigh your Greek yogurt. If your container has four servings, just pour out 1/4 of the container and log it."

    ETA: FWIW, I do exactly what chunkahlunkah does.
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