Ask for Calorie Counters [counting calories] [how to count calories]
I use the method of counting calories and I Fitday used to help me with that. But I would like to know how calories of something that is a mixture of things to count, such as chili or spaghetti. If you add the calories of each of the ingredients you put in the bowl? If so, how do you decide how much a serving is to estimate how much you actually eat?
This questions sounds a little confusing, but I have to stay away from eating anything with the many ingredients. I plan on cooking with chicken chili this weekend which is why I am asking.
Thanks!
The 100 Calorie Diet – Wow!
Reply:Thank you all very much! I've been wanting to ask this for a while and all the input really helps. I'm only cooking for me, so I will be putting a little away for lunches next week.
Thanks again
WeightLoss EBook(R) :Negative Calorie Foods.
Reply:guy,
I prefer the USDA site too…Fitday gives me FITS! I tally everything in a thick notepad with asterisks on frequently occurring complex items (like pancakes or bagel/lox/cream cheese) and a special sheet for really frequent stuff like breads and rolls at 70/ounce.
I feel you CANNOT get portions right without a precise scale capable of weighing in grams.
For spaghetti for 2:
Total pasta: 8 ounces…4 ounces or 400 calories each (from the box.)
All ingredients that matter in the sauce…olive oil, ground beef, tomatoes and a little nod for peppers and spices and Romano tabulated from the USDA. Sometimes I make several gallons. I then put it into plastic containers which each get their share of the total calories and each container serves a dinner…so we divide by two. Any meatballs tossed in at the finale are 80 extra (small ones from Mia Famiglia)
As guy says once you write the total once and then you KNOW what you get every time you have it. It's only the FIRST time you work up something complicated that it's tedious. Thank God for the Nutrition Lists on the back of all prepared foods.
It is IMPORTANT though to weigh that pasta every time, a little slip can yield a LOT of calories there. Take extra care with oils, butter, mayonnaise…fat calories are SO concentrated that you can too easily kid youself.
If I take a slice of cheese, I throw it on the digital scale and get the weight in ounces and multiply by 110…easy as pie (a teeny piece!!)
It all becomes second hand pretty easily.
I was spending FAR too much time trying to get over the Fitday learning curve and I often came up with numbers that were preposterous, something about PORTION sizes was always at the root of my problems. The site would hang on me too often and MANY foods were just absent! Maybe it's better now but I am at the point where my calorie count takes about 10 minutes a day with a notepad, a pencil and a scale…and the USDA!
The Negative Calorie Diet plus Bonuses
Reply:Yeah… I just total it all up. If I'm feeling high-tech I put the info for all the ingredients into excel so then I can just add the column together. Otherwise I just write it down on a piece of paper and do the calculator thing. I live alone, so I'm the only one eating the food usually. So when I make a large dish, I add up all the ingredients, then I divide it into equal portions and put them into tupperware containers to freeze. Then I divide the total calories, fat, and protein from all the ingredients by the number of servings to get the amounts per serving. The good news is that I cook in huge quantities and only have to cook once every two weeks, which means less math.
Increase Sperm Count Naturally With Male Fertility Success
Reply:Fitday does allow you to enter custom foods, which can be helpful for dishes with lots of ingredients (especially if you eat that dish semi-frequently). What I used to do with tricky combination foods is the following:
Go to a date in the calender far in the future (like 5 years). Pick something easy to remember like 1/1/2010 so you can go back later.
Enter all of the ingredients in the dish, estimating as best as you can.
Now look at the "Calories Eaten Today" table. It will give you the combined nutritional totals (calories, fat, protein, carbs, etc.) of all the ingredients. Write these down or print a copy.
Create a new custom food with the name of the dish. For the nutritional values, enter the totals you just calculated.
Voila … the next time you have that same dish you simply select it from the custom foods menu and you never have to re-enter the ingredients again.
The reason to use a date in the future is so you can go tweak the totals if you later determine that your estimates were off, or if you change the recipe. Use 1/2/2010, 1/3/2010, etc. for other custom foods. (Using future dates insures that it doesn't mess up your stats or graphs.)
You can also use this same method to easily enter entire meals if you repeatedly eat the same combinations of foods. For instance, you could create a custom food called "Standard Breakfast" and using the method above enter the combined nutritional data for, e.g., 2 eggs, a pat of butter, 2 pieces of toast and coffee (or whatever). Next time you have that same meal, you can log the entire breakfast by simply selecting "Standard Breakfast" instead of re-entering all the separate foods.
Update: 1000 Calorie Challenge Now With Video Sales Copy
Reply:Thank you all very much. I do use the USDA website as well as Fitday to make sure they are giving me pretty much the same nutritional values which they usually do. I'll give your way a try S1mc7.
Thanks again for the feedback
Deni
A Life that Counts … a handbook & toolbox for living your best life
Reply:when i make a big meal for the family i add up all the calories that i put into the dish…
so for example if you put 1lb of chicken in and 1 whole can of tomatoes, i would find out how many calories are in a pound of chicken & the entire can of tomatoes and add them together..along with everything else.
Then when you have the total amount I'd divide it by how many people it served (figuring everyone got equal servings)..and if there were leftovers i'd estimate how many servings were left and add it to how many it already served..
woah that's confusing..sounds like a math class :/ sorry about that LOL
to sum it up– total calories divided by total servings equals how many calories in 1 serving
haha..i sound crazy..but that's what i do
Negative Calorie Weight Loss Solution.
Reply:Inaddition to the web site mentioned, there are a number of programs you can use to calculate the calories in any recipe that are available on the web; any good search engine would probably lead you to a bunch. Some are free and some are shareware. I have used several over the years and they are really helpful in figuring out serving sizes, portions, etc.
Line Count and Invoice Program
Reply:I use the USDA's website for figuring calories — actually, figuring everything! I find it much easier to navigate through than the Fitday. I found this link on these boards, and it's a government site, so I suppose it's okay to post again…if not, I'm sure someone will let me know
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/
You mentioned chili. I just did a quick computation on this site. One cup of raw chopped green pepper is 30 calories. You can do this with all your ingredients.
HTH
Lysne
