Ok, I have recently started counting calories. I posted index cards on my fridge with the caloric and fat content in things that are not labeled, mostly fruit and veggies. I love to cook, and don't always use recipes that have the info I want for counting calories. How would I break it down? Just add up all of the ingredients calories and divide by servings? or is there a simpler way of doing it? I don't like math, and to spend half the time I am cooking adding and dividing, even with a calculator is a pain in the butt. any suggestions would be great!
Hi, I just started (or re-started) calorie counting as well. In order to incorporate the old recipes the whole family likes, I have been doing what you said- adding up all calories that would go in the entire recipe (measuring carefully) and then dividing it up by servings. It is some work, but I don't know of another way to do it. Maybe there's a website that does it for you, but I haven't had time to look. Hopefully if there is one, another poster will let us know
I created standard recipes - put them in a spreadsheet before hand and let it do the math for me, then just wrote down my ingredient quantities and used the same every time. I've seen posts that say www.nutritiondata.com will let you build recipes and will figure it all out for you, but I haven't tried it yet.
I use Mastercook for my recipes (it's $29 from Amazon, I think - I've had my copy for years). You put in all your ingredients and it comes up with the nutritional info for you.
You can probably do it with any online calorie counting service as well. I know DailyPlate, FitDay, and SparkPeople all have "recipe" areas where you can input a recipe and get a nutritional breakdown. I just like to keep my recipes on my computer and then input the overall information into The Daily Plate, where I track.
It's kinda a pain when you first get started calorie counting, but once you've gone through the work of getting your regular recipes into the program, it's a breeze. Now I just have to input the new recipes I use.
I add everything up in fitday and then divide it by servings. I do this before I start cooking. Then I write the nutritional info in my cookbook (with pencil just in case I want to erase later.) This way I have the info in the future.
If I've only eaten something once, I just find a calorie count on-line and use it. I do try to find several calorie counts to ensure I don't use one that's way too high or too low. So, it's an approximation, but I'm not being a perfectionist (despite my inclination to be one!).
But, if it's a recipe I make often or like and want to make more in the future, I'll do the math in my Excel spreadsheet I'm using for this. Sometimes, I've done the "Google guess" first. Then, later, after having it a couple of times, gone back and done the math. Usually, reality comes reasonably close to the "Google guess" anyhow!
Stuff I make often is saved in FitDay per serving (I add up all the calories in the ingredients and divide by number of servings - then save as a custom food). If you are using a paper recipe - once you figure out the nutritional info - write it on the recipe for next time.
When I shop for recipe books (mostly at thrift stores) - the first criteria is does it have nutritional info?
calorie counting question
