Home cooked food

rosieratbag · April 2012

Does anyone else have difficulty calculating calories?

I rarely eat shop bought 'meals', a pizza perhaps sometimes. Most of my meals are made from scratch - I know its possible to have these in the recipes section, and I have done for popular choices, but it's too time consuming. I tend to either look at a similar listing on mfp or guess using quick added calories.

Seen as I've just lost 0.8kg this week and according to my diary I'm over calories most days I'm thinking that I'm over estimating and this may be the cause.

Any thoughts or ideas?

SouthernSkylark · April 2012

I have to say I do the same, just look for a very similar food already listed... For me I like the diary as it shows me what I eat with out fooling myself, so I try not to worry overmuch if I guesstimate the calories of home cooked food ( did that actually make any sense? Lol)

Hmmm that probably wasn't a great deal of help.....

MrsSWW · April 2012

I make most everything from scratch too, I just weigh everything as I'm cooking and have a little notebook I write it down on and key it in as individual items - take a look at my diary if that made no sense!!

Yes, it's a bit of a ball ache to begin with, but you'll find that you tend to use mostly the same ingredients which then show up on your recent diary entries.

I obviously don't know if you have digital scales but they have been a godsend to me - for example if I'm grating cheese onto an omelette I just set the pan onto the scales, reset to zero and then add the cheese.

Hope this helps and keep on cooking!!! :flowerforyou:

Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter

samtrois · April 2012

I make most everything from scratch too, I just weigh everything as I'm cooking and have a little notebook I write it down on and key it in as individual items - take a look at my diary if that made no sense!!

Yes, it's a bit of a ball ache to begin with, but you'll find that you tend to use mostly the same ingredients which then show up on your recent diary entries.

I obviously don't know if you have digital scales but they have been a godsend to me - for example if I'm grating cheese onto an omelette I just set the pan onto the scales, reset to zero and then add the cheese.

Hope this helps and keep on cooking!!! :flowerforyou:

^^^ This...

scales are great,

make a recipe one time, say a stirfry, then next time, just edit the ingredients slightly based on what you have on hand ie. change from chicken to pork.

Leiki · April 2012

I prefer cooking at home. Restaurant nutrition facts are inaccurate. In fact, Fast Food tends to be more accurate than sit down, because the way they make food is regulated. Prepackaged stuff is unhealthy, in general, with unnecessary preservatives, sugar, and salt.

I know it can be a pain to measure out everything when you cook-- but I usually make enough to have left overs, or I make the recipe again, in the future.

BronnersHarris · April 2012

(was meant to quote MrsSWW about the note taking while cooking)

I do this - mostly as I've never looked at my portions/cals before so it's great for learning how much of things I actually put into my recipes and know ways I can change them to make them healthier/etc for the next time.

I normally batch cook though so when I put a meal in my meals section and say it has say 6 portions, then I only have to add them meal for the next time I eat it. Stir fry's I do each time I eat them as they are always very different depending on what I put in them.

em9371 · April 2012

I cook most things from scratch too. It's a pain at first but I made recipes on mfp for everything I cook, then I can just use that the next time I make it, and I can see how to alter the recipe to make it healthier when all the macros are listed.

Using other peoples recipes is dangerous, you have no idea what goes in it! Over / under counting by only 250 cals a day would caise you to gain or lose 26lbs a year, sp its important to make sure your diary entries are accurate.

Take something like lasagna for example.
Using regular beef over extra lean beef will more than double the calories and fat from the meat, also you don't know if beef or turkey was used.
Adding olive oil into the tomato sauce will add cals and fat
The number of pasta layers will affect carb content
Cheese sauce will vary hugely depending what type of milk/ cheese is used, if butter is added etc.
Lastly a 'serving', if there is no portion size in grams, your idea of a serving could be very different to whoever made the recipe!

If its something that will be the same every time, enter as a recipe.
If things will change, like the stirfry mentioned above, add in diary then save meal. That will let you alter ingredients next time you use it.

Nengi1980 · April 2012

I make most everything from scratch too, I just weigh everything as I'm cooking and have a little notebook I write it down on and key it in as individual items - take a look at my diary if that made no sense!!

Yes, it's a bit of a ball ache to begin with, but you'll find that you tend to use mostly the same ingredients which then show up on your recent diary entries.

I obviously don't know if you have digital scales but they have been a godsend to me - for example if I'm grating cheese onto an omelette I just set the pan onto the scales, reset to zero and then add the cheese.

Hope this helps and keep on cooking!!! :flowerforyou:

Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter
[/quote

I do exactly the same thing, it gets quicker as you get used to it. Good luck x

deadgirl81 · April 2012

I try and cook from scratch, following a recipe, so I tend to add that onto the system, so that helps a bit with calculating calories - but if not, I always try and look for a similar item and use that

MarincicS · April 2012

Seems like many of us do the same thing. As i'm cooking i'll build the recipe in MFP, then if i make something similar, i adjust the recipe next time. Also i live alone and it is very easy to cook something and eat it 4 days in a row. Actually, some of the things i have made have been so tasty, i am really happy to have it ready when i come home and i just have to heat it up. I never knew how much i might like leftovers!

Hev_uk · April 2012

I cook from scratch. I tend to add the ingredients to the recipe section. I like knowing how many cals are the meals I cook. I've been surprised in good ways and bad! It is time consuming but I tend to do it in advance and plan my meals out quite carefully. It's annoying, but I think it's just something you have to do if you want to use the MFP tool accurately.

stephenatl09 · April 2012

I make most everything from scratch too, I just weigh everything as I'm cooking and have a little notebook I write it down on and key it in as individual items - take a look at my diary if that made no sense!!

Yes, it's a bit of a ball ache to begin with, but you'll find that you tend to use mostly the same ingredients which then show up on your recent diary entries.

I obviously don't know if you have digital scales but they have been a godsend to me - for example if I'm grating cheese onto an omelette I just set the pan onto the scales, reset to zero and then add the cheese.

Hope this helps and keep on cooking!!! :flowerforyou:

Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter

^^^ this as well...also I use the "SCAN" feature of the phone app. I cut out the UPC labels of things I use all the time and just have to weigh the item and scan the bar code. SCALES ROCK !!!

stephenatl09 · April 2012

I cook from scratch. I tend to add the ingredients to the recipe section. I like knowing how many cals are the meals I cook. I've been surprised in good ways and bad! It is time consuming but I tend to do it in advance and plan my meals out quite carefully. It's annoying, but I think it's just something you have to do if you want to use the MFP tool accurately.

I tend to cook in bulk. so when I make something I weigh and put the items into a recipe. Then I just have to go to recipes and add a serving to my diary. This saves a lot of time especially when doing lunches for work. I think the scan feature of the smartphone app is the best time saver going. So much so, I would suggest looking into getting a smartphone if possible

kitinboots · April 2012

I actually find it easier to calculate with home-cooked food, in particular if I follow a recipe.
It's harder if I'm not the one cooking, as noone wants me hovering over their shoulder watching what they put in. If I've not cooked I tend to calculate more oil.

GoMizzou99 · April 2012

It is easier with home cooked food for me too. If you get stumped on something, try Calorie King web site (http://www.calorieking.com/). It usually fills any "holes" that are on the MFP website.

If you eat out, another good website for restaurants is Dotties Weight Loss Zone (http://www.dwlz.com/restaurants.html). It also usually fills any "holes" that are on the MFP website.

MeletteB · April 2012

My husband and I are both on MFP and we eat out one meal a week. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is usually made at home. My problem is we eat a lot of wild game and can from our garden, this means most of our food does not have any type of calorie count. The home canned items can vary greatly on their calorie count.

Also, I do not typically use recipes, so even if I do put the ingredients in the recipe counter my ingredients vary widely depending on what I have on hand. I still have not figured out how to share my recipes either.

Home cooked food

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