Begining to think recipe books just make up calorie figures!

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kym117
kym117 Posts: 315 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I got a new recipe book and I was reading it in the car on the road to the supermarket (my husband was driving :laugh: ) I found a recipe called creamy butternut & spinach curry I don't eat a lot of meat and really fancied this recipe it stated in the book that it served 4 and contained 180 cals per serving, I expected the fat content to be a little high because of the Low Fat Coconut Milk but I figured that was okay if I worked it into my daily nutrients.
So I bought all my ingredients got up this morning and entered it into my recipe section of MFP as only I eat it I cut the ingredients exactly in half and entered it was to serve two, the only ingredient I changed was Sesame oil with Sunflower oil I checked all my nutritional info on each item and it said 450 cals per serving?? Anyone else had this? I have now all the ingredients and had to cut back on all the heavy cal/fat ingredients eg not as much curry paste or coconut milk and have cut the oil out for one cal spray but I doubt it will taste the same now! :mad:

Replies

  • snugglesworthjr
    snugglesworthjr Posts: 176 Member
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    Maybe the author of the recipe had used different brands of the same ingredients? The nutritional content does vary slightly from brand to brand.
  • SaSSyhasCurls
    SaSSyhasCurls Posts: 93
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    I don't basic calorie recommendations from cookbooks, and restaurants because each time you make it, or the restaurant makes, they don't measure accurately. In "healthy" cookbooks they use lower calorie foods that have a lot of sugar or salt so in the end it metabolizes into fat in the body or salt retention. Foods that "healthy" cookbooks love to use for flavor that are really "fatten" are peanut oil, coconut anything, avocado, and basically highly starchy foods.
  • 123Linz
    123Linz Posts: 80
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    I'm right with you on this one, I thought it was just me being anal about stuff. I've got to the point when I like the look of a recipe, I work out the cals myself.
    Even all the variations on MFP bug me. It's hard enough sticking to this without extra aggravation.
  • kym117
    kym117 Posts: 315 Member
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    I'm right with you on this one, I thought it was just me being anal about stuff. I've got to the point when I like the look of a recipe, I work out the cals myself.
    Even all the variations on MFP bug me. It's hard enough sticking to this without extra aggravation.

    I'm totally with you on this one! Normally I enter it all in and then see if I still want to make it but duh recipe book reading in the car is a no go from now on. My hubby was laughing at me as well as it wasn't even nice but it had caused me so much hassle and dissapointment and trying to squeeze it into my diary I forced myself to eat it :laugh:

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