Tracking oil & butter

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cangler
cangler Posts: 104 Member
in Food and Nutrition
so ive been tracking cals/macs for quite some time now and for the most part have a good understanding but some things confuse me on how it should be tracked... for example when cooking with oils and butters on the skillet/wok, i may throw in a bit of butter or coconut oil, should i be tracking exactly the amount i put in the pan, not really sure how much im actually consuming... little ocd here ppl so bare with me.
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Replies

  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
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    Yup I weigh it.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    Put container on scale, tare scale, splash oil/butter in pan, put container back on scale, and then you know how much to log.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    trigden1991 wrote: »
    As long as you are consistent then you'll be ok.

    Pretty much this -- if you do this, understand that you might be eating more than you think (a lot more if you use a lot) and be consistent and adjust based on results.

    That said, what I do is log what I put in the pan, assuming that I am probably not getting it all in reality, but I log it and use tsp and tbsp, so I might be undercounting what I put in anyway, so it evens out. Or it doesn't, but I'm consistent and adjust if needed.
  • laurenebargar
    laurenebargar Posts: 3,081 Member
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    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    trigden1991 wrote: »
    As long as you are consistent then you'll be ok.

    Pretty much this -- if you do this, understand that you might be eating more than you think (a lot more if you use a lot) and be consistent and adjust based on results.

    That said, what I do is log what I put in the pan, assuming that I am probably not getting it all in reality, but I log it and use tsp and tbsp, so I might be undercounting what I put in anyway, so it evens out. Or it doesn't, but I'm consistent and adjust if needed.

    I do this too, If I put a tbsp in the dish and it makes four meals, Ill say each meal I had .25 a tbsp or sometimes even .5 tbsp so im probably over estimating, but my logging on other things then has a little room for error. If I forgot to measure how much I put in, or my husband was cooking that night, I guess on the oils and butter.
  • MelissaPhippsFeagins
    MelissaPhippsFeagins Posts: 8,063 Member
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    trigden1991 wrote: »
    I have never and will never track cooking oils. I track my food and drink and adjust as necessary. Life is too short to weigh oils and to worry about how much has gone into the food and how much fat has come out of the food. As long as you are consistent then you'll be ok.

    This is my opinion. If I put a tablespoon of butter on a grilled cheese, I will log that because I ate most of it. Otherwise, life is short and time is precious. I lost from 225 to 160-165 this way and have kept it off for 3 years. Your mileage may vary, but it works for me.
  • susanp57
    susanp57 Posts: 409 Member
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    I think the OPs real point is that if you cook something in 1T fat, a substantial portion never makes it out of the pan. She wants to be accurate, which in this case is pretty much impossible.

    This would also be true with most any food.
  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,384 Member
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    I always have teaspoons and tablespoons handy for liquid cooking oils and my scale handy for solid butter or coconut oil. It's so easy to measure, and I measure everything else - so why not. If you don't have a big deficit those numbers can definitely affect your progress.
  • gamerbabe14
    gamerbabe14 Posts: 876 Member
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    I don't include my oils or butter. I have lost weight pretty consistently so it's not a problem for me right now. Once I get closer to my goal though, I believe this will be important for me to track. But that's not on my radar right now.
  • Sp1tfire
    Sp1tfire Posts: 1,120 Member
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    I just eyeball it. Sometimes not even counting it.
  • kath1mill
    kath1mill Posts: 16 Member
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    I just guesstimate when I log something that had been cooked in butter or oils. I'll put a tsp or something. I try to overshoot if I'm not sure.
  • dutchandkiwi
    dutchandkiwi Posts: 1,389 Member
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    I measure and log the cooking oils. I know not all of them get consumed but I figure that overestimate here is better than underestimate
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,091 Member
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    I don't try and push the decimal point accuracy on these things.

    1. most of my cooking is "recipes," so that the oil/butter/fat is apportioned to the number of servings, with some minor inaccuracy (and presumption that "all added goes to the meals"). I don't waste a lot of time worrying about the deltas.
    2. if I'm directly applying something, such as butter to a slice of toast, or a tsp of EVOO to a bowl of salad, then I record it "as is."
    3. with summer grilling season here, i'm grilling a lot of veggies. typically, I give them a spritz of coconut or EVOO before they go on to the BBQ. I generally don't count this, as the spray doesn't have much to count. OTOH, I'm probably over-counting fats from other sources in the meals, such as the EVOO that might have gone into the batch of salad, (by #1 above) and left behind in the serving bowl.

    As a number of posters have said, similarly, if you're consistent and reasonable, it all evens out, and if the bathroom scale is moving in the right direction, that's a good thing. Sure, you might tune things with more precision for faster weight loss, but at what expense to your brain/time to get better data? And, BTW, the computations underlying the formulas for MFP's macro targets are statistically-based approximations (good statistics/math, but still ...), as are many food labels and values. YMMV in any case. So why twist yourself around so tightly on the pursuit of decimal places? Do what you can to get into a good groove and enjoy the ride from there, LOL.
  • MalkinMagic71
    MalkinMagic71 Posts: 1,433 Member
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    trigden1991 wrote: »
    I have never and will never track cooking oils. I track my food and drink and adjust as necessary. Life is too short to weigh oils and to worry about how much has gone into the food and how much fat has come out of the food. As long as you are consistent then you'll be ok.

    Ditto.
  • ericatoday
    ericatoday Posts: 454 Member
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    I just measure my oils or butter with tbsp or tsp.
  • GemstoneofHeart
    GemstoneofHeart Posts: 865 Member
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    I do track it by tsp or tbsp, I don't weigh it of its just lubrication in a skillet. If I am cooking veggies and I add a tbsp of evoo, and I eat 1/3 of the veggies, I log 1/3 tbsp of evoo. Even though there is a little left coating the pan that doesn't get consumed, I just don't worry about it
  • KateTii
    KateTii Posts: 886 Member
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    For me, it depends on what i'm cooking. If i'm cooking steak where I know i'm going to be cutting off the chunk of fat that I don't eat, I won't log the tiny amount of oil i'm using.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    I'm not convinced that so much of it evaporates off. I use 7 grams of coconut butter to make eggs each morning and log the full amount. There nothing left in the pan.
  • mazdauk
    mazdauk Posts: 1,380 Member
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    I track what I put in. If some of it stays in the pan then I reckon that outweighs any odd overestimate on activity.

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