Counting Calories is Hard

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fjsutton
fjsutton Posts: 60 Member
in Introduce Yourself
:noway:

i'm having a hard time counting the calories of homemade meals and snacks. Prepackaged foods are usually expensive or not filling. What can I do?

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  • controlandlove
    controlandlove Posts: 7
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    It might be time consuming measuring every little thing you cook with, but most raw meats will say how many calories they have. If not, look it up online. It's good to measure and see how calories are in everything you cook with such as oil (olive oil is good), seasoning (watch the salts), or add-ins (milk, butter...etc). It might be time consuming, but it's definitely worth it in the end. :)
  • jvkh127
    jvkh127 Posts: 261 Member
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    I measure everything als and put everything I make into my recipes or my meals at least so I can come back to it and use them again. Match what your food labels are to what is on MFP though. some things are wrong so be careful.
  • fjsutton
    fjsutton Posts: 60 Member
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    Thanks everyone for your thoughts.
  • kyrstensmom
    kyrstensmom Posts: 297 Member
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    Use the recipes feature...put in the ingredients and how many servings and you get a cals/serving number. Then when you prepare the same recipe again, you just have to add it to your diary from the recipe tab. I use it A LOT.
  • TourThePast
    TourThePast Posts: 1,753 Member
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    Invest in a set of digital scales, the sort you can put any container onto and zero it, again and again as you add more things to the container. That way it's easy to see how much of each item goes into a recipe / fruit salad / whatever.

    Don't forget that once you have entered a recipe (or set of items for a meal) you can save those on here, so you don't have to input them from scratch all over again.
  • fjsutton
    fjsutton Posts: 60 Member
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    Thanks so much everyone!
    Honestly i wanted to use counting the calories is hard as an excuse not to do it. But since i originally posted topic i have gotten very disciplened. I took the advice from everyone. I use measuring cups to portin foods out of pot instead of serving spoons. I did start using the recipes tab.. I use it all the time. Now that i upgraded my mobil app, i have the recipes tab on my phone too and it's easier to add ingredients for the dish i can just scan them. (the only thing is sometimes i'm not sure i count the number of servings right.) AND I bought a scale TODAY! i'm so ecxcited. Now i can know exactly how much everything is, even the stuff not measured in cups or tbs.
    Thanks again everyone.
    Sincerly, Counting calories a little easier!
  • myopus
    myopus Posts: 321 Member
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    Nice update! That is terrific!
  • hjdykes
    hjdykes Posts: 2 Member
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    Use the "my recipe" feature to input whole recipes. It will give you a calorie per serving amount. It is a handy tool for favourite recipes that you use a lot.
  • TNoire
    TNoire Posts: 642 Member
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    Under the food tab is another tab that says recipes, I use it often just type in what you use and how much and how many servings the recipe makes, it takes time but once you get the hang of it, pretty easy :)
  • gimpyfriend
    gimpyfriend Posts: 7
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    Its time consuming but once you enter your recipes in the my recipes tab you will always have it in there instead of having to redo it and look up everything again. My son has had diabetes since he was 6 months old and he is now 22 yrs. I have had to read lables for everything for him all this time and I WISH I WOULD HAVE HAD THE myfitnesspal that long ago, I find it soooo helpful.

    You can do it, it just takes time to learn to live reading lables! I know, because Im doing it for myself now, but I chalk it up to just plain old takeing time out for me!!! We need to remember that we have neglected our selves long enough and we can become healthy.
  • pauljsolie
    pauljsolie Posts: 1,024 Member
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    Having a scale is so important, or at least for me. Now I know how much a gram is. Good luck to you.
  • TNoire
    TNoire Posts: 642 Member
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    scales - LOVE THEM

    I asked for one for Christmas 2 years ago, now I have 3 =)
  • fjsutton
    fjsutton Posts: 60 Member
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    :noway:

    i'm having a hard time counting the calories of homemade meals and snacks. Prepackaged foods are usually expensive or not filling. What can I do?

    Well when i make a big batch of something, lets say spaghetti. 1 packet of sphagetti, onion, diced tomtos in can 2 cans. Once it's cooked I weigh it.

    I enter all the ingredients under a mfp recipe, lets say it weighs 80oz. In the MFP setting i say it serves 80 . So 1 serving is 1 oz. I weigh out what i am going to eat, lets say 5oz i enter it in mfp as 5servings. and i am set.
    thanks so much that makes so much sense as far as the serving sizes is concerned. I've been trying to figure out how many cups each dish makes or how many times it can be divided evenly, etc. I really didn't think I was guessing correctly unless it was enough just for two. And then when there was leftovers I was like what do I do now. Thanks thanks thanks again!
  • finbaaa
    finbaaa Posts: 3
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    As many others wrote, Im using Kitchen Scales to cook! Having one will make calories counting more fun and much easier :)
    Good luck with it! :smile:

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