How to calculate?

[sparks19]

Ok this might sound silly but I am not sure how to do this.

I am using sparkpeople.com (just started yesterday) so I am using their nutrition tracker.

Tonight for dinner I am making chili. I use two kinds of beans, tomato sauce, hamburger, green pepper, onion, tomato... etc etc

How do I enter this into the nutrition tracker to get an accurate calorie count if I eat say... 1 cup of chili. how do I calculate all the stuff in it since I don't know how many beans I will get etc

 

[ChrisinNJ]

You can either enter your recipe, and then divide it into the amount of servings, or use a chili that is in their system & use their nutritionals.

I switched from sparkpeople to myfitnesspal because I often had a hard time finding certain foods in sp's food log. In mfp, I will look for the item first & if I find multiple listings, I check the nutritionals before choosing one to use in my food log.

 

[lisah0711]

Use this recipe calculator to calculate the calories per serving. http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp You enter all the ingredients and the number of servings and it will do the rest for you. As time goes on you will become more used to how it all works. Good luck!

 

[sparks19]

Ah great thank you for that link. I was really at a loss as to how this would work lol

 

[sparks19]

Another question....

How do I know how much a serving of chili is to enter in the number? I put in all the ingredients and what not and how much of each thing is in a whole batch... but I don't know what a serving size is. isn't that sad? lol no wonder I've gotten myself up to 250. I haven't a clue about serving sizes.

I estimated 6 servings for a thing of chili but I u se a whole pound of ground, a whole pepper a whole onion a whole can of kidney and pinto beans and a big can of tomato sauce so I think it might be more than 6 servings but I'm not sure. I just guessed.

BUT if it is 6 servings and I eat the right amount and have a good lunch I am right on target for hitting my calorie intake goal today and all my protiens and such. It puts me a bit under my daily goal so I should still have a snack to put me right at my target intake

 

[ChrisinNJ]

It is hard. Unless you are going to measure out exactly how many cups your recipe made, you will have to estimate 1/6 of the total amount to make your portion.

It won't be as exact to eyeball 1/6 of a pot of chili, you could take 6 bowls that are the same size & fill them to the same level if you want to be more exact about it.

 

[sparks19]

It is hard. Unless you are going to measure out exactly how many cups your recipe made, you will have to estimate 1/6 of the total amount to make your portion.

It won't be as exact to eyeball 1/6 of a pot of chili, you could take 6 bowls that are the same size & fill them to the same level if you want to be more exact about it.

good idea.

although I'm suspecting that a proper sized portion would probably be about one cup. that seems to be the trend with stuff like that. so I think I'll try to see how many cups it is and then adjust my calculations

Thanks

 

[luv2mickey]

I'm trying to decide which site to use sparkpeople or myfitnesspal, I cook everything from scratch does mfp also have a recipe calorie calculator? Saw the one for sparkpeople its nice and easy to use.

 

[sparks19]

that's another bad habit I need to get out of. I don't measure when I cook lol. I just throw things in.

I ended up measuring it out and if I go by "1 cup=1 serving" then there are 8 servings in my crock pot chili and that worked out really good. I entered all the ingredients and amounts and then entered in that I ate one serving. One cup of chili was plenty. with all those beans and everything it's quite filling.

 

[ChrisinNJ]

I'm trying to decide which site to use sparkpeople or myfitnesspal, I cook everything from scratch does mfp also have a recipe calorie calculator? Saw the one for sparkpeople its nice and easy to use.

Yes, MFP has a recipe calculator as well. I started with SP then switched to MFP. I find it easier to use, and I like that it gives back calories burned exercising.