How do you acount for things like breading and oil used to cook in?
So, the other night as I was grilling my plain fish for myself and cooking yummy lightly breaded fish in a small amount of butter for my family, it occured to me that I really do like my fish cooked the way I was making it for them. I'm willing to "spend" the calories on a bit of butter and a whole wheat flour with herbs and spices. However, I don't have any idea how to count it. Even if I make mine completely separately, the butter I put in the pan is not the amount of butter I eat, because some of it is still in the pan at the end. And how do I figure out how much flour ends up on the fish? I guess I could weigh before and after dredging, but since I don't use egg or anything to bind the flour to the fish, a bunch is likely to fall off when I set it on the scale (as opposed to in the pan, where the small amount of butter helps it stick to the fish). What do you do? I know I could guesstimate, but I prefer to be as accurate as possible.
Yes some will stay behind on the scale, but once you lift the fish off the scale to put it in the pan - you just subtract the weight of whatever's left behind (because it will still register on the scale). If the scale reads zero after you lift the fish, there's not enough flour to measure (and if there's not enough to measure, the calorie count is negligible - probably 3 or fewer calories).
As an example
Say your fish fillet weighs 3 ounces
after you dredge it, it weighs 3.5 ounces
when you lift the fish filet and put it in the pan - if the scale reads 0 - that means that the amount of flour left in the tray is miniscule and you would count .5 ounces of flour as your breading.
Now if the scale reads 3.5 with the fish and coating, but when you lift off the fish to put it in the pan, it now reads 0.2 - you know that 3.5 minus 0.2 leaves 3.3 (fish and coating that gets into the pan). Now subtract the 3.0 for the weight of the fish and that means .3 ounces of breading made it to the pan, and .2 ounces are left on the scale tray.
Saute in as little butter/oil as possible and there will rarely be enough left to measure, which means you can count it all. If you have a scale that will weight up to several pounds, you can even weigh your pan before and after make your fish, which you can then compare to the weight of the pan before cooking, and after cooking (that weight doesn't tell you a whole lot, because the pan juices may contain water, fat, protein, and carbs so calculating the calories left behind isn't always easy - however if you use very little butter, virtually all of it will be absorbed by the fish and the pan should weigh virtually the same before and after (meaning virtually no calories left behind).
No food has more calories than 9 calories per gram or 260 calories per ounce (only pure fat has that many calories, and butter is not pure fat - there's also milk solids and water, so butter has 7 calories per gram, or 200 calories per ounce). So you can always determine "worst case scenario" for any food by weight If it weighs 2 ounces, it can't contain more than 520 calories (most 2 ounce candy bars have fewer than half that).
Call me a terrible person but I don't really count the breading- it's so rare that I cook anything that way that I really doubt it'll affect my weight loss that much. As for the butter I just write it in as a pat of butter- I figure I use no more than that. You can always do like a teaspoon for your breading or a tablespoon at the most if you feel you need to.
I'm with beerab. Unless you are eating far more than a "serving", I would hardly concern myself with flour left on the scale, or butter left in the pan. If it is left there, that means you are not eating it = good!
If you *really* want to get exact, use a recipe calculator. I use SparkRecipes. That way, you can figure, using the TOTAL amount of fish, butter/oil, and breading. Use total ounces (ie; everything together equals 21 ounces, lets say) as the number of servings, and just multiple the nutrition info for an ounce by the number of ounces you eat (lets say, 3oz). I sometimes find this easier than trying to figure out equal serving sizes, because I am only measuring my portion, and don't have to worry about how much dh takes.
Last edited by Twiddlebug; 06-02-2010 at 06:28 PM.
I just add it all in the recipe and divide by number of servings and count it all in even if stuff is let behind in the pan and whatnot during the cooking process.
I'd rather count it and be pleasantly suprised by being LESS than I think than to NOT count it and later being surprised that I'm MORE than I think.
I just add it all in the recipe and divide by number of servings and count it all in even if stuff is let behind in the pan and whatnot during the cooking process.
These are the kinds of things I guesstimate. Just try to use as little of everything as possible so exactly what you measure goes directly on the fish. For example, measure 1/2 tbsp of butter and 3/4 tbsp flour mixture. Try to use as much of that on the fish as possible and record that you ate that. If some falls off, then at least you know you've overestimated by a tiny bit. It won't shatter your weight loss progress if you're off by 20 cal or so...I promise
I'm also in the guesstimate category for that sort of stuff. So it's not that I don't track it at all, but I don't go crazy trying to get *that* precise because calorie counting just isn't that precise anyway, even with weighing things. For instance, you can measure 3 oz of fish and go by an average number of calories per ounce for that kind of fish, but that doesn't mean the specific 3 oz of fish you eat have exactly that number of calories.
I just add it all in the recipe and divide by number of servings and count it all in even if stuff is let behind in the pan and whatnot during the cooking process.
I do this as well. I have had breadings add 45-60 cals per food item, plus oil. Not worth it to me not to count it. I prefer to overestimate rather than underestimate for the day.
How do you acount for things like breading and oil used to cook in?
