Those who live with a family. How'd you make your counting as accurate as possible?

mitch239
mitch239 Posts: 77 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hey so I'm 20 and still live my parents. I don't wanna make life difficult and make my own meal every single time, sometimes my family have a healthy option and I decide to have that meal alongside them.
My question is, How do you make your counting as accurate as possible whilst living with a family?
The only idea I've had is to take the full amount of chicken say, and decide it by 4 or 5 (i.e. the amount of people having that meal) is this accurate. I understand that my mum might have more than me meaning I don't get exactly a 5th of the chicken but I dunno how else I can make it as accurate as it can be.
Also sorry if this isn't the best place to ask this.

Replies

  • der_schindler
    der_schindler Posts: 2 Member
    You could help your mom in the kitchen and measure your portions.
  • Lift_Run_Eat
    Lift_Run_Eat Posts: 986 Member
    You could get a scale and weight your food. This would be more accurate than just saying 1/5th of a chicken. I do this a lot at home, work, and when I visit my parents.
  • CharlieCharlie007
    CharlieCharlie007 Posts: 246 Member
    I just leave 800 calories on the table for supper and not worry about it.
  • Jenni1374
    Jenni1374 Posts: 5 Member
    I can second the food scale. You can get a decent one on Amazon for less than $10.00. I have an analog one I've used for years, and I got it at a garage sale for $1.00! They can be an invaluable resource.
  • mitch239
    mitch239 Posts: 77 Member
    Lift_Run_Eat wrote: »
    You could get a scale and weight your food. This would be more accurate than just saying 1/5th of a chicken. I do this a lot at home, work, and when I visit my parents.

    I'm gonna buy a set of food scales at the end of the week when payday gets around. 😂 Fingers crossed it will make my weightloss more sustainable and accurate.
  • puffbrat
    puffbrat Posts: 2,806 Member
    A couple suggestions - do the cooking sometimes and use the recipe builder to weigh everything. Even if you just make it once and someone else makes it every other time, you can still use the recipe you created for your logging. Although on a personal note, helping with the cooking is often appreciated by families. Otherwise ask whoever cooked to show you the written recipe or tell you all of the ingredients and amounts so you can enter them into the recipe builder. Then either weigh the final result and use that for your servings or guesstimate total portions as you mentioned above. This isn't the most accurate method, but as long as the rest of your logging is reasonably accurate and you have more than a few pounds left to lose, it should be good enough. This is what I do when my husband cooks and it hasn't slowed my weight loss.
  • ultra_violets
    ultra_violets Posts: 202 Member
    I have the same problem with my mom's homemade spaghetti sauce. Even knowing the recipe, it's really hard to break that down to one serving. Sometimes you just have to take your best guess. But as others have suggested, a food scale is an excellent idea.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
    mitch239 wrote: »
    Lift_Run_Eat wrote: »
    You could get a scale and weight your food. This would be more accurate than just saying 1/5th of a chicken. I do this a lot at home, work, and when I visit my parents.

    I'm gonna buy a set of food scales at the end of the week when payday gets around. 😂 Fingers crossed it will make my weightloss more sustainable and accurate.

    A set? All you need is one digital kitchen scale. You can get them for pretty cheap $10-20
  • Idontcareyoupick
    Idontcareyoupick Posts: 2,815 Member
    I'd guess and leave it at that
  • Fivepts
    Fivepts Posts: 517 Member
    Put the food scale next to your plate. Weigh your plate as you add food. Keep a pen and pad nearby to write it down. Your family will get used to you doing this and stop noticing. I dare my kids to eat my weighed food. :p
  • mitch239
    mitch239 Posts: 77 Member
    Fivepts wrote: »
    Put the food scale next to your plate. Weigh your plate as you add food. Keep a pen and pad nearby to write it down. Your family will get used to you doing this and stop noticing. I dare my kids to eat my weighed food. :p

    Think thats what made is a little strange and why I haven't done it before. I.e. the idea of having to weigh out my own food but leaving theirs, means that I sort of get in the way when they are dishing it out in the kitchen. Looks like they are just gonna have to get used to it I think. However I can just write it down or take a picture and then log it in MFP whilst I'm eating or afterwards etc. Might mean that its a little more sustainable and I wont be getting in their way all the time. :smiley:
  • JennJ323
    JennJ323 Posts: 646 Member
    Fivepts wrote: »
    Put the food scale next to your plate. Weigh your plate as you add food. Keep a pen and pad nearby to write it down. Your family will get used to you doing this and stop noticing. I dare my kids to eat my weighed food. :p

    That made me smile, I'm the same way.. if I have 28g of chips weighed out don't you dare take one out of my bowl! :D
  • garystrickland357
    garystrickland357 Posts: 598 Member
    It's not as big a deal as it seems. You have to serve your food onto your plate anyway, right? Just set your plate on the scale and zero it - and I get my phone out with MFP open. Then I put a piece of chicken on the plate as usual, read the scale, and log on MFP (or you could write it down). Then add the next food item and the next. It's very quick and easy once you get used to it. If your family supports your efforts it will be no big deal.
  • TanyaHooton
    TanyaHooton Posts: 249 Member
    You'll have to do a few things.

    The exact way - When your mom makes something in the slow cooker, weigh the slow cooker (maybe at a time other than when she is about to use it) and keep track of the weight. Then see if you can weigh all the ingredients separately. Try to weigh the meat, veggies, etc. raw. Then plug all those into the recipe builder in MFP. When the meal is done and made, put the pan with the finished food on the scale - then subtract the weight of the pan that you took in the first step. The result is the number of servings available. For example, if the pan weighs 997 grams, and the weight of the finished meal with the pan is 2234, subtract 997 from 2234 and get 1237. The 1237 is the number of servings available, and what you should plug into the Recipe Builder for "servings". (You will get something like 2 calories per serving.) Then, when you put food on your plate, weigh that portion. If it was 1.87 calories per serving and you dished up 100 calories, then you have ~187 calories on your plate.

    The above method takes some time and is easiest if you are in charge of everything, but maybe your mom is patient and accommodating. If not, then I suggest eyeballing the original portions (6 chicken breasts) and putting the recipe in MFP. This will be less exact as you might get a larger or smaller portion than you think, or you might eat more or less than you intended. But you'll be in the ballpark. Half the battle of losing weight is being mindful of what you're eating.

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,895 Member
    mitch239 wrote: »
    Fivepts wrote: »
    Put the food scale next to your plate. Weigh your plate as you add food. Keep a pen and pad nearby to write it down. Your family will get used to you doing this and stop noticing. I dare my kids to eat my weighed food. :p

    Think thats what made is a little strange and why I haven't done it before. I.e. the idea of having to weigh out my own food but leaving theirs, means that I sort of get in the way when they are dishing it out in the kitchen. Looks like they are just gonna have to get used to it I think. However I can just write it down or take a picture and then log it in MFP whilst I'm eating or afterwards etc. Might mean that its a little more sustainable and I wont be getting in their way all the time. :smiley:

    It will be fine - you'll get used to it soon :)

    I visit my mom and brother every weekend and was bringing my scale, but got tired of schlepping it so left my old one there and bought a new one for home.
  • deputy_randolph
    deputy_randolph Posts: 940 Member
    I built my recipes in the MFP recipe builder; I just take my portion 1st so it's close to a 4th (or whatever the setting is; I do all the cooking for a family of 4). You'll have to start cooking for the family or just meal prep for yourself and ask family members nicely not to eat your preportioned meals.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,939 Member
    I think you can do it without a food scale. There are pictures online of serving sizes. Most meat servings, figure the size of a deck of playing cards is 3 ounces. Potatoes, rice, pasta, about a half cup (the size of a tennis ball.) Vegetables, figure a cup ( the size of a softball.)

    If you guess and you're wrong, over time you won't lose weight and you'll adjust your serving sizes. You can also get a half-cup ladle. I use my half-cup ladle all the time to guess servings of things like stew, soup, spaghetti sauce, etc. Usually two ladles. :)
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
    A food scale is useful for learning what a portion size looks like for you when you don't have a scale too.
    I would concentrate on weighing the more calorie dense foods and worry less about being exact about everything unless your weight loss has stalled. Not logging a meal here and there perfectly will be okay.
    If you are not cooking at least try to plate your own food.
    Put more vegetables on your plate or have a salad with your meal.
    You might use a smaller plate or bowl.
  • Susieq_1994
    Susieq_1994 Posts: 5,361 Member
    My sister, who was still living at home with my mom after I left, would go into the kitchen when she cooked and help her with prep... And also weigh everything before it went into the pot. :D When I lived at home, I bought and cooked my own food and ate different meals from the others.

    Either way works, as long as you put in the work yourself instead of asking the other family members who do most of the cooking to make an extra effort for you. My mom rolled her eyes at my sister a lot, but otherwise didn't care.

    All the best!
  • mitch239
    mitch239 Posts: 77 Member
    Susieq_1994 wrote: »
    My sister, who was still living at home with my mom after I left, would go into the kitchen when she cooked and help her with prep... And also weigh everything before it went into the pot. :D When I lived at home, I bought and cooked my own food and ate different meals from the others.

    Either way works, as long as you put in the work yourself instead of asking the other family members who do most of the cooking to make an extra effort for you. My mom rolled her eyes at my sister a lot, but otherwise didn't care.

    All the best!

    Thank you ever so much, Im loving all the feed back from the community. Think im gonna do a mixture of all the techniques depending on the meal, time of day, how many is eating etc. Deffo gonna try and weigh everything out for some meals and then take my portion. Thanks for the advice.

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