How Do You Log Calories in A Meal Like This?

Options
AldiAttorney
AldiAttorney Posts: 14 Member
edited August 2021 in Food and Nutrition
Hi and warm greetings from South East region of Asia :)

Not being overthinking, but I am looking to educate myself on how to log calories accurately (or close to accurate) in meals like in the attached picture.

Let's say there was known amount of cooking oil and coconut milk involved in the sauce. I don't 'drink' the sauce, but obviously after the cooking is done, they become part of what I eat and I don't know the amount of cooking oil and coconut milk I should log.

It's easy to just over-guesstimate when I'm cutting on a deficit, using what other users have put in the database for similar food. But (hopefully) in a few months, I will be on maintaining and bulking phase and want to improve my knowledge in nutrients.

It's also easy not to eat this kind of food, but I think it will be better if I just live with it and learn how to manage it into my macros.

For example, in the cooking per 1 Kg of beef:
+/- 5 tbsp of cooking oil (Assumed. Sometimes less sometimes more.)
+/- 200 ml of coconut milk
plus any other ingredients and seasonings were used.

What I actually eat per meal: 100 grams of the beef (only with the sauce virtually inseparable from the meat).

Do I just log them as 1/10 of each ingredients used in the cooking per 100 grams of the meal I eat (over-guesstimate as usual, despite the fact that I don't eat 1/10 of the sauce)? Or is there any other tips to correctly log them?

Thank you in advance for sharing the knowledge :)

8y5v2y07117x.jpg

Replies

  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    Options
    You use the recipe function. But, if you are saying that you do not consume the "sauce" in which the meat has been cooked, you have an unsolvable problem. Because, the fat is rendered out of the meat in cooking at 9 calories per gram. And you will never know how much is rendered and how much retained.

    If you consume the sauce, just use the recipe function.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,961 Member
    Options
    Have you ever weighed all the meat (without sauce) when you are done? Because you seem to be assuming that your measured 100 g of cooked meat is 1/10 of the raw beef that went. And it might not be. If were cooked in dry heat (roasted, grilled) I would say it definitely is more than 1/10 of what you started with, due to moisture and fat loss. But cooking it in sauce (stewing or braising) means some of the moisture from the sauce gets in, so I don't know if there's a hard and fast rule as to whether the cooked meat weighs more, less, or the same as what you started with.

    All that said, see above. Use the recipe function.
  • AldiAttorney
    AldiAttorney Posts: 14 Member
    Options
    wilson10102018 wrote: »
    You use the recipe function. But, if you are saying that you do not consume the "sauce" in which the meat has been cooked, you have an unsolvable problem. Because, the fat is rendered out of the meat in cooking at 9 calories per gram. And you will never know how much is rendered and how much retained.

    If you consume the sauce, just use the recipe function.
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    Have you ever weighed all the meat (without sauce) when you are done? Because you seem to be assuming that your measured 100 g of cooked meat is 1/10 of the raw beef that went. And it might not be. If were cooked in dry heat (roasted, grilled) I would say it definitely is more than 1/10 of what you started with, due to moisture and fat loss. But cooking it in sauce (stewing or braising) means some of the moisture from the sauce gets in, so I don't know if there's a hard and fast rule as to whether the cooked meat weighs more, less, or the same as what you started with.

    All that said, see above. Use the recipe function.

    Wow, thank you for your insights! I guess I will not be able to log them close to accurate the way I wanted, considering there are several variables mentioned, such as the fat rendered out in the cooking, the sauce that gets in, or the way it was cooked, and perhaps many other variables currently unknown to me.

    The recipe function will be a big help to make things easier for me to log some meals I frequently cook. I'll surely utilize it. I've always been logging my meals manually before.

    I love this community :) Thank you very much!
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,603 Member
    Options
    Is that beef rendang?
  • AldiAttorney
    AldiAttorney Posts: 14 Member
    Options
    acpgee wrote: »
    Is that beef rendang?

    Yes, it's a variation of beef rendang with some touch of personal preferences :D
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    Options
    Wouldn't the sauce be eaten with the dish? That would make it simple since you can just weigh the raw ingredients as they go in. The 9 calorie/gram fat is rendered into the sauce and you eat the sauce anyway so it doesn't matter. As always, with meat its all about the fat.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,109 Member
    edited August 2021
    Options
    That's really going to depend on the meat, we have no idea if the beef used is fatty or not.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
    Options
    recipe builder.

    i use it all the time (more so in the winter when i make more soups/stews/casseroles/etc).in the summer we do far more simple 'recipes'.

    weigh each ingredient in grams. total weight in grams, then your portion size in grams. mfp will do the math.
  • mrsrebeccaplude1
    mrsrebeccaplude1 Posts: 29 Member
    Options
    I have a question that kind of goes along with this. How do I calculate a marinade? The marinade has oil and acid, salt, and herbs and the venison sits in it for about an hour. Then a small amount of basted onto it while grilling, but most of the marinade is tossed. How do I calculate those calories?
  • JBanx256
    JBanx256 Posts: 1,471 Member
    Options
    I have nothing to contribute that hasn't already been suggested, but I am just here to say that looks delicious.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
    edited August 2021
    Options
    mrsrebeccaplude1 wrote: »
    I have a question that kind of goes along with this. How do I calculate a marinade? The marinade has oil and acid, salt, and herbs and the venison sits in it for about an hour. Then a small amount of basted onto it while grilling, but most of the marinade is tossed. How do I calculate those calories?

    the long, convoluted, and mostly correct way of doing it would be to calculate it as a recipe, weigh it all out in grams, then weigh it after the meat has been marinating. this would give you how much was actually used/absorbed. add the amount used into your diary (if you made 2 steaks, divide the amount used by 2, assuming you ate 1 of those steaks). does that make sense?

    as for how i do it? ill usually quick add some oil and call it a day. lemon, salt, herbs dont add enough calories for me to concern myself over. lol
  • BarbaraHelen2013
    BarbaraHelen2013 Posts: 1,940 Member
    Options
    mrsrebeccaplude1 wrote: »
    I have a question that kind of goes along with this. How do I calculate a marinade? The marinade has oil and acid, salt, and herbs and the venison sits in it for about an hour. Then a small amount of basted onto it while grilling, but most of the marinade is tossed. How do I calculate those calories?

    There’s no way to be 100% accurate with a marinade but if you look at the marinade the main calorie laden ingredient would be the oil, the acid, herbs and spices are just background noise in comparison.

    Here’s one way to deal with it:

    Make up your marinade, weigh it. Then once you’re finished basting your meat, weigh the remainder. Figure out what percent of the marinade you used and calculate the oil calories from there. As said, it’s not going to be 100% accurate but it’s close enough.

    Personally I just count it all because as a vegetarian I’m marinating Tempeh or Tofu or something like that - which don’t have the same food safety issues as raw meat so I often stir the remaining marinade through some Skyr and use as a drizzle over the cooked food. I also don’t use oil in a marinade so the calories would be less hefty anyway.

Categories