Calories from cooking with olive oil?

sirrdk wrote: »

I use 1tbs of olive oil when I make pancakes.
So for every pancake, I have to use 1, as the oil disappears when I make pancake number 2, and so on.
(If I don't add some oil/fat for every pancake, then they'll burn)

For every pancake meal, I'll end up making 5 pancakes, meaning that 5 tbs had been used.

So, when I'm putting this info in my MFP diary, should I add "5 tbs olive oil?
Because that's about 600 calories, which is insane!!!
Some of the oil gets in the food and some don't, I hope.

So how many percent of that added oil gets wasted and how much gets in my food?
Please advise

Buy some nice ceramic none stick pans. I don't put any oil/butter/etc in my pan when I'm cooking to save calories and my stuff still comes out great.

I use the cooking spray. Zero calories. Works the same. Because, yes. I would count them all.

Well, better late than never for a reply. Someone earlier said they could not be bothered to measure the amount of oil left after sautéing. As per the recipe, I sautéed 1 1/4 lbs. chicken breast in 2 tbsp. Olive oil. After cooking I did take the time to measure what was remaining: 1 1/2 tbsp! So instead of counting 240 calories for the oil, I am only counting 60.

olive oil has essential omega three in it, I do believe, so I use in moderation, use instead of vegetable oil etc.

too bad we don't have a nutritionist in the family.. I need to ask a coach at gym. they maybe able to help me with the last 10lbs i want to get off.

But what if I am using 3 tbsp while baking vegetables for my meal prep. I eat that over four days. Should I count the calories from Olive oil I used for baking the vegetables?

I use it almost every day, and carefully measure it. I don’t usually need too much because I have a great nonstick pan. I’m not sure about the cooking spray I have. The can says 0 calories, but when I scan the barcode, it does show calories. How do you all log for the spray?

absolutely, but put the information in the recipe and make it that way and then divide into portions, this will also divide the oil into each serving. And cooking spray HAS calories. No one uses a 1/2 spray of cooking spray.

I never cook with oo waste of calories for no bulk in my opinion. I use cooking spray and non stick pans and estimate ~40 calories depending on how much spray I use. Not counting oo would mean you think your eating 100-200 calories less than you are.... which can add up if you use daily to wipe out any deficit.

sirrdk wrote: »

I use 1tbs of olive oil when I make pancakes.
So for every pancake, I have to use 1, as the oil disappears when I make pancake number 2, and so on.
(If I don't add some oil/fat for every pancake, then they'll burn)

For every pancake meal, I'll end up making 5 pancakes, meaning that 5 tbs had been used.

So, when I'm putting this info in my MFP diary, should I add "5 tbs olive oil?
Because that's about 600 calories, which is insane!!!
Some of the oil gets in the food and some don't, I hope.

So how many percent of that added oil gets wasted and how much gets in my food?
Please advise

Since you asked, I hate to tell you this but if you put a tablespoon of oil into the pan, cook one pancake, and then all the oil is gone, 100% of the oil was absorbed into the pancake batter.

Your batter probably already contains either oil or melted butter so that extra Tbsp. per hotcake is an awful lot. Is the pan hot enough? If not that would contribute to the problem. Also, I prefer either well-seasoned iron or Teflon for pancakes.

moondrake wrote: »

It depends on what you are cooking and at what temperature, and how absorbant the food is. If the food is absorbant, like pancakes, then you will be eating all that oil. If the food is moist like most vegetables and adds water when sauteed to the oil rather than absorbing it, and if you eat only the vegetables and throw away that delicious juice then you'll be eating very little of the oil. If you are frying on high heat, then the oil will seal the food so only a little is absorbed. That's the secret to good frying, to preheat the oil till it is hot enough to sear the food on contact and seal it. So there are a lot of variables.

This is how I've messed up a lot. Maybe I'm not the only one.

When I heat up some oil in a pan and then add a lot of vegetables with high water content like onions, especially salted onions, they are going to give up water so fast that there is no way it can be boiled off fast enough to continue the frying process. Water accumulates in the oil. Without pressure, it is impossible for liquid water to get hotter than 212ºF at sea level. So the water cools down the oil and the pan. Next, I add meat of some kind because a recipe told me to sauté the chicken pieces with the onions. But sauté means fry in a little oil and that isn't what is going on. I'm really boiling the chicken in oily onion juice and that's rarely never what's supposed to be happening.

Sometimes the solution is a bigger pan or cooking in batches. Maybe it's a matter of waiting until all the onion juice evaporates before adding the meat; the oil you started with is still mostly in the pan after all, just diluted so when the water evaporates frying will resume. Often the solution just depends on me, the cook, understanding this process so I'm in control; not just blindly following a recipe I didn't understand. Like Moondrake says, "There are a lot variables." More in fact, than can be anticipated by even a good recipe, and not all the recipes on the internet are good.

I know that most of you reading this already know all this and I certainly mean no insult. I only take the time to write it down because I made this mistake so often for so long before finally realizing what was going on that maybe somebody can learn from my mistakes.