Question about serving sizes.

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mllr1328
mllr1328 Posts: 55 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I cook dinner every night but usually without any sort of recipe. I have started measuring everything but I have no idea how to determine how many servings or what a serving size should be. Help?

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  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
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    How ever much you want. How ever much fits your calorie goal.

  • ktekc
    ktekc Posts: 879 Member
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    my servings sizes are one gram and the number of servings in recipe is however many grams the whole thing weighs. my serving is however many grams what i eat weighs. Easy no having to figure out how many cups might be in a soup or something.
  • mllr1328
    mllr1328 Posts: 55 Member
    edited January 2018
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    ktekc wrote: »
    my servings sizes are one gram and the number of servings in recipe is however many grams the whole thing weighs. my serving is however many grams what i eat weighs. Easy no having to figure out how many cups might be in a soup or something.

    Ahhh okay. I get it now. That crossed my mind but I was wondering how I’d weigh a whole meal. Just weigh everything individually then add it up yeah? I think I’m making it harder than it needs to be.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
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    mllr1328 wrote: »
    ktekc wrote: »
    my servings sizes are one gram and the number of servings in recipe is however many grams the whole thing weighs. my serving is however many grams what i eat weighs. Easy no having to figure out how many cups might be in a soup or something.

    Ahhh okay. I get it now. That crossed my mind but I was wondering how I’d weigh a whole meal. Just weigh everything individually then add it up yeah? I think I’m making it harder than it needs to be.

    Is your meal mixed up, or individual components? My husband and I eat similar things but normally easily divided.

    For mixed meals, you could enter all your ingredients in the recipe builder. Use raw weights. For servings, weigh the dish when cooked as weights will change during cooking. The number of grams is the number of servings, and the weight you actually eat is the number of 1g serves you enter in your diary.
  • mllr1328
    mllr1328 Posts: 55 Member
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    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    mllr1328 wrote: »
    ktekc wrote: »
    my servings sizes are one gram and the number of servings in recipe is however many grams the whole thing weighs. my serving is however many grams what i eat weighs. Easy no having to figure out how many cups might be in a soup or something.

    Ahhh okay. I get it now. That crossed my mind but I was wondering how I’d weigh a whole meal. Just weigh everything individually then add it up yeah? I think I’m making it harder than it needs to be.

    Is your meal mixed up, or individual components? My husband and I eat similar things but normally easily divided.

    For mixed meals, you could enter all your ingredients in the recipe builder. Use raw weights. For servings, weigh the dish when cooked as weights will change during cooking. The number of grams is the number of servings, and the weight you actually eat is the number of 1g serves you enter in your diary.

    Almost always mixed up. I typically stick to one pot meals. That makes sense though. I think I’ll have to invest in a bigger food scale. Thanks for helping me figure this out!
  • Idontcareyoupick
    Idontcareyoupick Posts: 2,836 Member
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    You can also create it as a recipe, portion it out so it looks even and readjust the serving when you find out how many it is
  • koslowkj
    koslowkj Posts: 188 Member
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    mllr1328 wrote: »
    ktekc wrote: »
    my servings sizes are one gram and the number of servings in recipe is however many grams the whole thing weighs. my serving is however many grams what i eat weighs. Easy no having to figure out how many cups might be in a soup or something.

    Ahhh okay. I get it now. That crossed my mind but I was wondering how I’d weigh a whole meal. Just weigh everything individually then add it up yeah? I think I’m making it harder than it needs to be.

    I keep a list on my fridge of the weights of all the pots and pans and casserole dishes I use. When I'm done cooking, just before I scoop out the first serving, I weigh the whole thing. Then I subtract the number from the list for the appropriate pot/pan/dish and I have the weight of the entire meal.

    The only thing this doesn't work for is my crock pot, which is too heavy for my scale once there's food in it. In that case, I weigh every serving and add it all together after the meal has been divided onto plates and into bowls for leftovers.

    I also label leftovers with their weights if I'm saving it in single serving containers for simplicity later on.
  • jennybearlv
    jennybearlv Posts: 1,519 Member
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    Yep, weigh the whole dish after it's cooked. I usually have leftovers, so I tare my leftovers container, pour in the whole dish, weigh it, tare my eating dish and weigh my serving. If I'm storing in the pan I cooked in I weigh the pan first, then subtract. I use the recipe builder and usually do the servings as one gram or oz. If its something like rolls I'll use the number of pieces as a serving.
  • Rickster1967
    Rickster1967 Posts: 485 Member
    edited January 2018
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    Yeah

    One pot recipes are great, Use the recipe builder.

    Enter all the ingredients by raw weight so you know the total calories that went in

    When it's cooked, weigh the complete cooked ingredients

    Now you can divide the pot up to get the portion (by calories) that you want

    Worked example:

    3200 cals of raw food went in

    Cooked weight 2000 grams total

    Target calories per portion = 400 cals

    Therefore you have 8 portions

    So each portion must weight 2000/8 = 250g


    There you go, you can now design your portion size. When you get into batch cooking using the recipe builder
    you can look at things like your macros and adjust the recipe to suit. For example, I make curry and chilli using chicken breast or venison. It often comes out very low in fat so I will often add a measured amount of fat to the cooked dish to bring the macros in.

    You can cook large batches using this method, serve a couple of portions for dinner then freeze the rest. I use a Slow Cooker for this.

  • mllr1328
    mllr1328 Posts: 55 Member
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    I made a crock pot meal tonight and followed everyone’s advice. I think I got it down. Also realized what I considered a serving before was wildly off. Thanks everyone!! Not sure what I would do without the MFP community!

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