How to track homemade food??

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tootsierollak
tootsierollak Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have a hard time tracking homemade food and meals, but processed and restaurant food are easiest to track..For example if I have a sandwich I gotta log every calorie of each item on my sandwich! How do you track homemade food (it's hard because sunryines there's no calorie info on some items). Thanks!

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  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
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    Once you've logged something once it will appear in your recent foods list. It's not hard to just tick the relevant items and alter the amounts if they differ from the previous use.

    What items are you not finding calorie information for? The database is pretty comprehensive.
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
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    And for recipes, use the recipe builder.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    For a sandwich I just log each item - how many items are your sandwich that you find this too daunting? Or for a recipe I use the recipe builder.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    tootsierollak wrote: »
    I have a hard time tracking homemade food and meals, but processed and restaurant food are easiest to track..For example if I have a sandwich I gotta log every calorie of each item on my sandwich! How do you track homemade food (it's hard because sunryines there's no calorie info on some items). Thanks!

    1. You can choose something close to your homemade food in the database. The calories won't be as accurate.
    2. You can enter each item individually for the sandwich. If you use cooked chicken breast then search for cooked chicken breast and log the amount. The database is huge and has more than factory produced ready meals or restaurant food.
    3. Use the recipe builder. If you make your own bread or condiments enter it as a recipe using the recipe builder. Then just log the amount of that recipe that you used on the sandwich.
    If you always make your sandwich the same save it as a meal and you can log it all at once.
  • scarlett_k
    scarlett_k Posts: 812 Member
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    I use the recipe builder if I'm cooking something I will make very similarly again. I just adjust it depending on the quantity of ingredients I use, and try to keep things like rice separate so I can fit stuff into my day better.
  • DoNotSpamMe73
    DoNotSpamMe73 Posts: 286 Member
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    tootsierollak wrote: »
    I have a hard time tracking homemade food and meals, but processed and restaurant food are easiest to track..For example if I have a sandwich I gotta log every calorie of each item on my sandwich! How do you track homemade food (it's hard because sunryines there's no calorie info on some items). Thanks!

    Just use recipe and put the ingredients there. If you can't find specific brand you can go generic.
  • x_stephisaur_x
    x_stephisaur_x Posts: 149 Member
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    I just create a recipe using the ingredients I plan on using.
    I usually log my whole day in the morning so I don't have to worry about it later :)
    If you always have a ham and cheese sandwich on sourdough, you can create it as a meal which you can just import with a couple of taps :)
  • mariemcnamee1
    mariemcnamee1 Posts: 2 Member
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    If you are like most of us, you will tend to eat the same things over and over, so if you track it once - save it as a meal and then you can then just copy that meal each time.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    1) Recipe builder for homemade meals/recipes
    2) My sandwiches are added to the diary once, then copied as a 'meal' and I can use this over and over and edit as needed
    3) Unless you have a very new food, usually there is an entry in the database, learning search methods get easier the longer you do it
    4) Any food item that is not in the database, you can create your own food database entry under 'my foods' and choose to make it usable by others if you want.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
    edited September 2017
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    Well I make my sandwiches the same everytime so I just logged my sandwich one time and then hit "save meal" so anytime I ate that sandwich again I could just select it.

    There's also a recipe function where I create some of my meals. I just create the recipe once and weigh it so I know calories per g or oz, and then anytime I make that dish again I use that recipe that I've already created to log it.

    I have a hard time believing foods you're eating aren't in the database. Like what is an example?
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Anna_137 wrote: »
    I find homemade food the easiest to log because I know exactly what is in it. When I first started I would keep my phone on the counter and scan each item as I added to the recipe. Now that I have the most common meals I make in the recipe builder so it's much faster.

    Me too, and it's mostly what I eat. I don't scan (nothing to scan) or use the recipe builder much. I do have the most common ingredients in my meals in my frequent or recent folders, and it gets easy to find foods (the good entries) after you do it for a few weeks. I will note down amounts when chopping or assembling or otherwise during the cooking process and then log them and so long as the ingredients were recently used, it's fast. I am kind of sloppy in ways in that I will divide everything by 3 if it's a meal I plan to eat a third of -- if I'm eating the rest later, no harm, but even if I'm sharing it I can eyeball portions well enough for that.

    Restaurant stuff is tough, because the restaurants I go to have no calorie information.
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
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    I do cook a lot and I try to input recipes before I make them. What I've been doing lately is pre-entering recipes and then going back and modifying with proper measures. So, my initial logging might be "1 medium onion, 1 large carrot" and then when I actually make the recipe, it becomes "62 grams onion USDA, 87 grams carrot, USDA".

    I've run into the same issue with restaurants. (Kosher restaurants in Toronto aren't chains and have no obligation to list calories. The sole exception is a bakery that provides wrapped pastries and sandwiches to a coffee shop in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, where those products are labeled.) Generally speaking, I stick to dishes where I have a hope of estimating the calories properly. So, a cheese or veggie pizza slice. Grilled veggie wrap. Shakshuka. But a stir-fry where I couldn't begin to guess the calories of the sauce, nor approximate the amount of the bed of rice beneath the vegetables is no longer my choice. Ditto the restaurant that serves its pasta in a salad bowl in pesto or a cheesy tomato sauce. I love them and one day, if it's a special occasion, and I'm on maintenance calories, I may well indulge. But not now.
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
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    tootsierollak wrote: »
    I have a hard time tracking homemade food and meals, but processed and restaurant food are easiest to track..For example if I have a sandwich I gotta log every calorie of each item on my sandwich! How do you track homemade food (it's hard because sunryines there's no calorie info on some items). Thanks!

    Can you give us an example of something you've had trouble calculating? Homemade foods are generally the easiest thing to count/track because you know every single ingredient. Restaurant foods are by far harder unless you always eat at places that post calorie counts.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
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    mariemcnamee1 wrote: »
    If you are like most of us, you will tend to eat the same things over and over, so if you track it once - save it as a meal and then you can then just copy that meal each time.

    This is SO not me. Probably why I stopped logging. :/

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