How to count calories in home made food

outoftown
outoftown Posts: 4 Member
edited November 21 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,
I tend to eat mostly home made food, stews, curries, stir-fries etc. The ingredients are variable and, as a result, calculating the calories in each meal is extremely difficult. Does anyone have any ideas of an easy way to calculate calories? Or should I be less concerned about actual figures and just do a rough calculation?

Regards.

Replies

  • robm1brown
    robm1brown Posts: 71 Member
    I weight the ingredients just before I add them to the pot and input it there and then on my phone. It helps I only cook for 1 so I eat all of it.
  • outoftown
    outoftown Posts: 4 Member
    Thanks people. I'll try harder to keep track. It's encouraging to know that others are doing the same thing.
  • Heather4448
    Heather4448 Posts: 908 Member
    Recipe builder.
  • ncfitbit
    ncfitbit Posts: 1,058 Member
    edited August 2017
    +1 to using recipe builder for recipes you make often, even if you vary them because it's not that big a deal to edit a few items. I also weigh the whole finished product and enter my portion based on whatever the weight of my serving is relative to the whole. I recently discovered it's much easier to search for and edit recipes on my phone than it was on my desktop app so maybe that will help you, too.
  • gg2007
    gg2007 Posts: 71 Member
    Weighing everything out and using a food scale, then logging the recipient on mfp like a few others have said that way you know exactly is in each portion/serving.
  • amandacalories
    amandacalories Posts: 107 Member
    I'm curious about this too. I mean even if you log everything and split it into evenly sized portions it might not be the same calories right? Like if you make a soup with multiple ingredients the same serving size might have less or more calories based on how much of each item you include in your serving.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited August 2017
    amandacalories wrote: »
    I'm curious about this too. I mean even if you log everything and split it into evenly sized portions it might not be the same calories right? Like if you make a soup with multiple ingredients the same serving size might have less or more calories based on how much of each item you include in your serving.

    That's within acceptable margin of error if you're cooking for a family. If you're only cooking for yourself it can be reasonably accurate regardless of what ends up on your plate, because if the entire recipe has, say, 1000 calories, you are going to eat them all eventually. When I'm keeping a weekly log I'm sometimes lazy enough to log an entire multi-portion recipe in one day and just not log it when I eat it again next day, but I have a messily organized mind so I don't recommend that for everyone because that makes some days look like I'm grossly overeating and others like I'm grossly undereating.
  • VeronicaA76
    VeronicaA76 Posts: 1,116 Member
    In the recipe builder. Add all the ingredients in bulk, then enter how many servings it has. While it won't be exact, it will be close to accurate having that particular dish repeatedly throughout your fat loss journey.
  • VeronicaA76
    VeronicaA76 Posts: 1,116 Member
    amandacalories wrote: »
    I'm curious about this too. I mean even if you log everything and split it into evenly sized portions it might not be the same calories right? Like if you make a soup with multiple ingredients the same serving size might have less or more calories based on how much of each item you include in your serving.

    Very true. I do true meal prepping. So while serving A might have 100 calories more than average, serving B might have 100 less. At the end of the week they all average out to what the whole dish was. I make my recipes and use the entire amount for the dish, not just one serving, then divide it into it's number of servings. Example: Sheppard's pie, I use 2lbs of ground beef to make 8 servings. So while each piece I have may have slightly more or less than another. The whole dish is 8 servings and I am accurate for the week.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    VeronicaA76 wrote: »
    amandacalories wrote: »
    I'm curious about this too. I mean even if you log everything and split it into evenly sized portions it might not be the same calories right? Like if you make a soup with multiple ingredients the same serving size might have less or more calories based on how much of each item you include in your serving.

    Very true. I do true meal prepping. So while serving A might have 100 calories more than average, serving B might have 100 less. At the end of the week they all average out to what the whole dish was. I make my recipes and use the entire amount for the dish, not just one serving, then divide it into it's number of servings. Example: Sheppard's pie, I use 2lbs of ground beef to make 8 servings. So while each piece I have may have slightly more or less than another. The whole dish is 8 servings and I am accurate for the week.

    I have no idea what true or false meal prepping is, but if I'm making a dish to be portioned out, I also try and divide it as equally as possible - if you're eating all the portions yourself it really doesn't matter if one portion is a bit over as one will be under. If many people are eating it, you may have slightly more or less than expected, but it would likely be minimal.
  • maryjaquiss
    maryjaquiss Posts: 307 Member
    To add, recipe builder is great but if I'm cooking a recipe just for myself and using 'one onion' etc., I'll save it as a meal instead. It just makes it a bit quicker to change the calories rather than going into the recipe builder and editing the recipe. If you're cooking for multiple people or multiple portions, recipe builder is the best option though.
  • cs2thecox
    cs2thecox Posts: 533 Member
    If you're the only one eating what you're cooking, then it will average out as long as you measure what goes in.
    If you split something into 4 portions, but you eat all 4 of them, it doesn't really matter if one was a bit bigger or smaller than the other. When I lived on my own, I just used to log it as equal portions. (Sounds like what @VeronicaA76 mentions above)

    If you share with other people, and aren't doing an even split, then I guess it's more important to weigh your portion accurately...
  • scarlett_k
    scarlett_k Posts: 812 Member
    It depends on the meal but for anything that involves cooking most or all of the ingredients I use the recipe builder. It's a bit annoying but I find it's super helpful to be able to fiddle around with a recipe and the number of servings so that it fits into my calories for the day. This way I don't feel the need to eat "diet" food and can more easily see how calorie dense my planned meals are and tweak them if needed.
  • robm1brown
    robm1brown Posts: 71 Member
    You do have to avoid digging through your stew to find all the meat (or other high calorie ingredient) for example. If you are cutting a recipe in 1/2 to share with someone then you can only take half the meat if you take more then you might be eating more than half the calories. Sounds obvious but it is one of those little cheats that can sabotage weight loss.
  • narspips
    narspips Posts: 48 Member
    Really interesting to read people's responses to this, as this is something I've been struggling with as well. I've found I've come to rely a bit more on 'component' meals (say, a piece of chicken with some plain carbs like rice etc. and vegetables on the side) as it's easier to count those. But I love stir-fries, casseroles and things like spaghetti with home-made bolognese ragu so I can't escape it entirely! Also, when I cook, I usually cook for myself and my boyfriend so I need to try to count my own portion separately after it's been cooked.

    The process I've settled into is pretty similar to what others have described: weigh each ingredient separately (I use tablespoons for oil, and don’t bother measuring spices or herbs), write down the values on a scrap of paper, and input them into MFP later after I’ve weighed my portion and worked out a reasonable estimate of how many g. I’ve eaten of each ingredient. I occasionally use the recipe builder, but find it a bit fiddly, and it doesn’t save me much time as I’ll never make the exact same recipe twice, as I always put in different amounts of things. Where the recipe builder does come in handy is when I know there’s going to be leftovers so I can easily calorie-count multiple meals.

    If it’s something I cook frequently with minor adjustments, like bolognese, I might add it as a meal, and then later I can select that meal and just tweak the quantities of ingredients depending on how much of everything I put in.
  • VeronicaA76
    VeronicaA76 Posts: 1,116 Member
    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    VeronicaA76 wrote: »
    amandacalories wrote: »
    I'm curious about this too. I mean even if you log everything and split it into evenly sized portions it might not be the same calories right? Like if you make a soup with multiple ingredients the same serving size might have less or more calories based on how much of each item you include in your serving.

    Very true. I do true meal prepping. So while serving A might have 100 calories more than average, serving B might have 100 less. At the end of the week they all average out to what the whole dish was. I make my recipes and use the entire amount for the dish, not just one serving, then divide it into it's number of servings. Example: Sheppard's pie, I use 2lbs of ground beef to make 8 servings. So while each piece I have may have slightly more or less than another. The whole dish is 8 servings and I am accurate for the week.

    I have no idea what true or false meal prepping is, but if I'm making a dish to be portioned out, I also try and divide it as equally as possible - if you're eating all the portions yourself it really doesn't matter if one portion is a bit over as one will be under. If many people are eating it, you may have slightly more or less than expected, but it would likely be minimal.

    I should have said extensive meal prepping. Where I preplan and premake 90% of my meals for the week, including snacks. Involves a lot of Tupperware type containers.
  • ncfitbit
    ncfitbit Posts: 1,058 Member
    Hmm, I see no one else mentioned this, so I will add that recipe builder is really helpful when you're importing a recipe from the web. I'm surprised at how easily it will grab a recipe from just about any website even when it seems like the recipe is embedded in a fair amount of other text. I don't know how they do that!

    There's a bit of a learning curve because you will have to tweak the ingredient list a bit before it will accept all the ingredients (like take out any directions "rough chopped" ) but after you figure that out, it's pretty helpful.

  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    Today's lunch was a bunch of stuff thrown together in a pot. The trick was to identify the serving size. For that I added up all the grams of all the stuff I threw in the pot, and since I added 2 cups of water I used www.convertunits.com to convert cups to grams. Then I could add up all my grams and see how many total grams I had thrown into the pot. That total was the number of servings and a serving is equal to 1 gram, which had zero calories, BTW. When it came time to eat, I put my empty plate on my scale, zeroed the scale by pressing the "tare" switch, then piled a mess of food onto my plate. That was 350 grams, and I logged 350 servings.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,254 Member
    JeromeBarry1 wrote: »
    Today's lunch was a bunch of stuff thrown together in a pot. The trick was to identify the serving size. For that I added up all the grams of all the stuff I threw in the pot, and since I added 2 cups of water I used www.convertunits.com to convert cups to grams. Then I could add up all my grams and see how many total grams I had thrown into the pot. That total was the number of servings and a serving is equal to 1 gram, which had zero calories, BTW. When it came time to eat, I put my empty plate on my scale, zeroed the scale by pressing the "tare" switch, then piled a mess of food onto my plate. That was 350 grams, and I logged 350 servings.

    how do you account for evaporation?
  • n1tp1cky
    n1tp1cky Posts: 3 Member
    I too mostly eat homemade food. Where is this Recipe Builder? The thought of all that weighing and counting and entering makes me want to just give up on it and make up the calorie counts. I barely have time to shop & make the food, not do all this metawork! Help!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Recipe builder...
  • Calliope610
    Calliope610 Posts: 3,783 Member
    edited October 2017
    AnnPT77 wrote: »

    If it's a dish I make often, even with slight variations or different proportions, I'd put it in MFP as a saved meal. When you copy the saved meal into your diary, it copies in the ingredients/quantities individually, then you can edit them for different amounts of things, or delete/add some, right on your diary page.

    This. I eat salads for lunch or dinner several times a week. I have a saved meal named "basic salad" with all the variations of salad ingredients I routinely use - lettuce, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, carrots, also cheese, chickpeas, black beans. The only thing I don't include in that saved meal is my protein source (grilled chicken, tuna, etc) and the dressing.

    So as I put my salad together, I weigh out the ingredients as I dump them into my salad bowl and jot down the weights on a little pad of paper I keep near my prep area. Then log my meal, deleting the items I didn't add and adjusting the weight quantities as needed. And because I keep that note pad and pen handy at food prep time, I don't have to have my phone at hand. I have all the info necessary to accurately log my meal later.
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