Counting calories while eating with family

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NovemberSkye
NovemberSkye Posts: 26 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Any advice for how you can count calories when eating a portion of a meal that is cooked for the whole family? I can track accurately all day long, then at dinner time get thrown off because I'm just taking a portion of the meal prepared for the whole family. I would get weird looks if I cooked a portion separately for me, but find I am a terrible estimator.

Thanks!

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,958 Member
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    Well, it helps if you teach yourself about portion sizes. For instance, 3 ounces of meat is about the size of a deck of playing cards.

    An ounce of cheese is 1 inch square. Etc. You can Google for visuals.

    If you can buy a food scale and use it for meals you prepare yourself, you'll learn about how much rice and how much noodles, etc. The fats are going to be harder...but the rest of us have made it work. Just keep working at the parts you can control.
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
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    I usually weigh my portion and used the entry for cooked ________ (insert food name).
  • johicks
    johicks Posts: 1,991 Member
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    If this is something you made, have you ever entered the recipe or meal into MFP? When I made a pot of chili the first time, I entered all the ingredients into MFP. Then measured how many cups it made. Then I knew I could eat two cups and add it to my MFP diary.
  • Rodney_Mckay
    Rodney_Mckay Posts: 32 Member
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    I feel you. I have the same problem. What I do is try and guestimate the calories for the meal. I do WEIGH it so its not completely a blind guess — that should not be that weird (although I did feel a bit awkward when I started out).

    If you see your weight loss stalling just reduce your calorie intake, in the long run it really doesn't matter if your estimates are off because you can always just compensate by aiming for less calories.
  • pierinifitness
    pierinifitness Posts: 2,231 Member
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    Eat less, estimate high and enjoy the blessings of a family meal together. Over the long haul of discipline and behaviors focused on achieving your fitness, health and wellness goals, you’ll do fine.
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 980 Member
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    Where possible, I log the main elements of the meal as a recipe whilst preparing it. I know how many portions there will be so then I let MFP figure out how many calories are in a portion.
  • csplatt
    csplatt Posts: 1,013 Member
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    For a while I had to stop eating things like casseroles. That’s just what worked for me. My kids like separates anyways - protein, veggie, starch. So I can weigh each one.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,992 Member
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    If you are preparing the meal, use the recipe builder - and then weigh your portion.

    If someone else is, either ask for recipe, then do as above.

    Or weigh your portion and look in data base for an average calorie count - eg tuna mornay, 400g.

    This journey is going to include some estimates. That's ok. Just go by your real life progress - if you are losing weight at aprox pace expected, then your estimates are close enough.
  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
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    As the only meals I share with family are those I make myself I have found the recipe builder to be of great assistance. I weigh the pot I will finish with empty, add the ingredients while weighing them (taring is brilliant) and cook. Once cooked I will weigh the pot with the cooked food in it, subtract the weight of the pot and presto, that is how many serves are in the meal. If the meal weighed 2350 grams then it would have 2350 serves. From there weighing out individual serves accurately is easy as one serve is 1 gram.

    Next time I make that recipe I will simply make the small adjustments as I go along which saves a lot of time AND means I have a cookbook of all my favourite recipes on my phone.

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