Wildly Differing Calorie Counts

tetraneutron
tetraneutron Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
What do you do when a listed food shows wildly different calorie counts. I'm talking about base foods, not complex meals.

For example, I decided to indulge and have 100g of homemade gnocchi. It was a relative's recipe and they couldn't tell me exactly what was in it although all recipes online are basically the same. But 100g of gnocchi on MFP and reputable has caloric ranges from less than 100 calories to 500. I tried using online recipe calculators but they give the calorie count in servings (percentage of the total recipe) and not g or oz or volume so it was completely unhelpful. I thought about trying to calculate the g weight in servings by taking an online recipe, inputting it as one serving and then dividing the total calories by the grams of the ingredients (adjusted for protein, fat and carbs) - would that give me an accurate measurement? I tried it and got over 400calories for 100g. This seems high, or I'm in denial about how calorically dense the foods I like are.

What would you guys do?

Replies

  • LennyLenardo
    LennyLenardo Posts: 6 Member
    If I want a quick fix I just pick the middle of the road one or the one that says homemade. Gnocchi is high though, my recipe is egg, potato and parm, lots of parm.
  • sparklyglitterbomb
    sparklyglitterbomb Posts: 458 Member
    with something like gnocchi or other homemade thing I may not have direct involvement in preparing - I weigh out my serving and pick the highest calorie listing for it.. that way I (hopefully) have padding in there for any variations.

    If you know what goes into it (the recipe) and enter it into the recipe calculator, then you can estimate it will make 4 servings (or whatever) then I weigh the entire finished dish, divide by 4 and get my serving size that way.

    Depending on how its made, gnocchi could clock in pretty high - even without sauce.
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,244 Member
    If we're talking cooked gnocchi then 150-200cal per 100g cooked should be about right.
    For uncooked around double that.
  • nachak2
    nachak2 Posts: 3 Member
    I have a similar question. I ate the insalata Mista at Vapiano. Their website lists ingredients and calories.

    Mix of salads, cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, bell pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, radish, red onion, spring onion and Grana Padano. 82

    I enter into MFP and get 485! That is close to their pizza. I can assume that there is extra calories for a tablespoon of dressing, but not 400 of them. It in my calories budget but Im wondering how many other things might be off. I usually cook so list ingredients and add them up. I cant imagine that anything in this salad would be that caloric. There were a few cheese flakes on top. Not even 25% of an ounce. Any ideas?
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    nachak2 wrote: »
    I have a similar question. I ate the insalata Mista at Vapiano. Their website lists ingredients and calories.

    Mix of salads, cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, bell pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, radish, red onion, spring onion and Grana Padano. 82

    I enter into MFP and get 485! That is close to their pizza. I can assume that there is extra calories for a tablespoon of dressing, but not 400 of them. It in my calories budget but Im wondering how many other things might be off. I usually cook so list ingredients and add them up. I cant imagine that anything in this salad would be that caloric. There were a few cheese flakes on top. Not even 25% of an ounce. Any ideas?

    I would go with their website value. The database entry is just something entered by other users -- some are accurate, some are not.

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