What do you do about uneaten portions?

birdenerd
birdenerd Posts: 41 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I weighed out my oatmeal and toppings this morning and ended up only wanting a portion of what I made (and I don't plan on finishing the rest later because I added way more cocoa powder than I should have whoops). I feel like I have this problem often because I'm pretty greedy when I'm preparing meals and end up with leftovers that I don't know how to subtract accurately from my log. Is there a logging trick I'm missing for this? What do you all do about uneaten parts of a meal?
thanks in advance!

Replies

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    I try to eat up everything, but you could eyeball it if it happens only occasionally. Do you prelog whole days?
  • Momepro
    Momepro Posts: 1,509 Member
    You can reweigh the leftovers and subtract, or ifvyou don't care about absolute accuracy just guess at how much you ate. So oatmeal "servings" could be .8 cups instead of 1 cup.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    It is possible, in your food diary, to subtract calories. I read a posting that @CyberTone had made a few weeks ago explaining how to do that. As far as my house, and my practice, I don't leave leftovers. When I create a dish for sharing with the family, I weigh the ingredients such that 1 serving is 1 gram. When I take my portion, I just weigh what I got and that's mine.
  • FlyingMolly
    FlyingMolly Posts: 490 Member
    If it’s a small difference, just leave it as logged—if you were hungry enough to need the calories you’d eat them. If it’s a big difference, try 1) stopping halfway and saving the rest for tomorrow, or 2) remembering this experience tomorrow and measuring out smaller portions. It’s easy enough to add a sprinkling of nuts or eat an extra yogurt afterward if you’re hungrier than you thought.
  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,383 Member
    edited February 2018
    If this is a recurring problem, why not prepare smaller portions for yourself?

    But anyway, you could try to eyeball the percentage of the meal you ate, then do some math to make the proper subtractions.
  • birdenerd
    birdenerd Posts: 41 Member
    Thanks for the suggestions! I'm still new at logging, especially by weight, so I guess I need to work on cooking the right amount for me. I'm having the most trouble with leftover grains since it's uncooked weight vs cooked but I will work on my guestimation techniques.
  • goatg
    goatg Posts: 1,399 Member
    I take the total weight in grams inside the container. Then I just weigh the remainder of whatever's left over, and subtract that percentage of the meal. If it involves multiple components (e.g., broccoli, chicken, sweet potatoes), I'll weigh each separately.
  • goatg
    goatg Posts: 1,399 Member
    toxikon wrote: »
    I personally make large batches and use the Recipe Builder function to determine calories.

    I'll give you a quick run-down of one method.

    Let's say you want to make some chicken fried rice, enough for at least a few servings.

    Take a notepad into the kitchen with you, and record your solid ingredients in grams and your liquids with measuring cups and spoons. Something like:
    • 400g uncooked white rice
    • 200g boneless skinless chicken breast (raw)
    • 2 tbsp soy sauce
    • 200g frozen peas
    • 100g frozen corn
    • 2 tbsp canola oil

    Then, when you've completed cooking, put a large bowl on top of your scale and tare it to zero. Dump ALL of your chicken fried rice into the bowl to get the total gram weight. Let's say its 1200g.

    Crack open the MFP recipe builder, and set it to "bulk import" the ingredients. Refer to your notepad and type in the ingredients like in the bulleted list above. It will then auto-find your ingredients and show them to you. Double check any that seem inaccurate - you can replace them with other entries.

    Then set your "Serving size" to 1200 (the total grams of your finished batch).

    Now - whenever you want some of your fried rice, put your empty bowl on your scale, tare it to zero, then add your portion of rice. If it's 400g, find your Recipe in your diary, and set your serving size to 400. Blam! Perfect calorie count.

    Hope that helps.

    I've been doing this all by hand (and feeling like a complete nutcase). Will have to discover MFP Recipe Builder! Thanks! Nice to see other people doing this.


    I've also made an Evernote "cheat sheet" for foods. I'll take the raw weight, cook it, and record the weight difference. Then I just get the total nutrition by multiplying by the inverse. I guess all this is pretty common?

  • colorfulcoquette
    colorfulcoquette Posts: 94 Member
    birdenerd wrote: »
    I'm having the most trouble with leftover grains since it's uncooked weight vs cooked but I will work on my guestimation techniques.

    Can you weigh it again after cooking? Then you can make note of the total amount, and weigh your leftovers to know what percent to deduct from your original portion?

    For exmaple, If I were making oatmeal:
    1. I would weigh my bowl that I was making it in by itself
    2. weigh out my dry amounts
    3. add my water (or whatever you use to cook it)
    4. weigh it again after to get the cooked weight, subtract weight of bowl
    5. weigh it when you are done eating, again subtracting the weight of the bowl, to know the amount you have leftover
    6. use this to create a percentage of the amount of oatmeal eaten

  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    If you are portioning out meals to hit a target goal then you should eat those meals. If you find you can't eat them in a particular seating just save em and eat them later in the day. Not sure why you would plan meals that would exceed your calorie limit so I assume what you have planned fits your goals.....so to reach your goal eat the food.

  • birdenerd
    birdenerd Posts: 41 Member
    edited February 2018
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    If you are portioning out meals to hit a target goal then you should eat those meals. If you find you can't eat them in a particular seating just save em and eat them later in the day. Not sure why you would plan meals that would exceed your calorie limit so I assume what you have planned fits your goals.....so to reach your goal eat the food.

    Yes I'm trying to eat to reach my calorie goals. that's why I want to calculate uneaten food at meals so I can eat the calories later in the day instead. I usually just compost leftovers from meals instead of saving them for later depending on how much is left and if I like it enough (I try not to waste too much food but it's a work in progress.). I'm working on paying attention to my hunger levels and stopping when I'm full so even when I put in the numbers I'm supposed to be eating in mfp it can turn out to be too much for the moment.


    And thanks @goatg & @colorfulcoquette for the suggestion to weigh the cooked version of what I made too so I can calculate % eaten afterwards, that is going to make eating rice and oatmeal so much easier.
    Those recipe builder tips are a life saver, @toxikon! I will definitely be using them.
  • ladyhusker39
    ladyhusker39 Posts: 1,406 Member
    fitoverfortymom wrote: »
    Uneaten portions. Lol. :D

    I know, I'm still trying to figure out what this foreign term means :-)
  • hroderick
    hroderick Posts: 756 Member
    get a dog
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    ladyhusker39 wrote: »
    fitoverfortymom wrote: »
    Uneaten portions. Lol. :D

    I know, I'm still trying to figure out what this foreign term means :-)

    Me too.... I lick the plate. Have to get every macros worth of food off it!
  • AlphaHowls
    AlphaHowls Posts: 2,015 Member

    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »

    Me too.... I lick the plate. Have to get every macros worth of food off it!

    THIS!

  • birdenerd
    birdenerd Posts: 41 Member
    ladyhusker39 wrote: »
    fitoverfortymom wrote: »
    Uneaten portions. Lol. :D

    I know, I'm still trying to figure out what this foreign term means :-)

    lol I gained weight from too many dessert and french fry calories. The stuff I make at home isn't nearly as yummy and fun to eat :D . I never could understand how my roommate could keep the same pint of ben and jerrys in our freezer for multiple months without gobbling it down immediately though.

    hroderick wrote: »
    get a dog

    my roommates cats might not appreciate that haha but I'd love one
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,106 Member
    toxikon wrote: »
    birdenerd wrote: »
    Thanks for the suggestions! I'm still new at logging, especially by weight, so I guess I need to work on cooking the right amount for me. I'm having the most trouble with leftover grains since it's uncooked weight vs cooked but I will work on my guestimation techniques.

    I personally make large batches and use the Recipe Builder function to determine calories.

    I'll give you a quick run-down of one method.

    Let's say you want to make some chicken fried rice, enough for at least a few servings.

    Take a notepad into the kitchen with you, and record your solid ingredients in grams and your liquids with measuring cups and spoons. Something like:
    • 400g uncooked white rice
    • 200g boneless skinless chicken breast (raw)
    • 2 tbsp soy sauce
    • 200g frozen peas
    • 100g frozen corn
    • 2 tbsp canola oil

    Then, when you've completed cooking, put a large bowl on top of your scale and tare it to zero. Dump ALL of your chicken fried rice into the bowl to get the total gram weight. Let's say its 1200g.

    Crack open the MFP recipe builder, and set it to "bulk import" the ingredients. Refer to your notepad and type in the ingredients like in the bulleted list above. It will then auto-find your ingredients and show them to you. Double check any that seem inaccurate - you can replace them with other entries.

    Then set your "Serving size" to 1200 (the total grams of your finished batch).

    Now - whenever you want some of your fried rice, put your empty bowl on your scale, tare it to zero, then add your portion of rice. If it's 400g, find your Recipe in your diary, and set your serving size to 400. Blam! Perfect calorie count.

    Hope that helps.

    Good advice, but I think in the bolded sentence you meant "set 'servings' to 1200" (not the "serving size," which MFP doesn't allow you to set in the recipe builder, anyway).
  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
    birdenerd wrote: »
    I weighed out my oatmeal and toppings this morning and ended up only wanting a portion of what I made (and I don't plan on finishing the rest later because I added way more cocoa powder than I should have whoops). I feel like I have this problem often because I'm pretty greedy when I'm preparing meals and end up with leftovers that I don't know how to subtract accurately from my log. Is there a logging trick I'm missing for this? What do you all do about uneaten parts of a meal?
    thanks in advance!

    Try preparing just the amount you need.

    Uneaten parts of a meal become part of the next meal.
  • IdLikeToLoseItLoseIt
    IdLikeToLoseItLoseIt Posts: 695 Member
    This happens to me occasionally (by which I mean ~twice per month). I log everything I made, then treat the leftovers as a bonus meal I end up eating within 48 hours. For example, I made a large portion of chicken and broccoli the other day for dinner and ended up feeling stuffed halfway through. I kept the leftovers and ate them the next afternoon for lunch. It all balances out! If the leftovers end up being multiple portions, then I'd look at other strategies mentioned above.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories