Does anyone else have trouble counting calories when cooking from scratch?

[JodieM92]

I'm following slimming world mainly (not attending group) so I shouldn't need to worry about calories. But I'd like to use my fitness pal as well.

I cook a lot of meals from scratch and find it quite laborious figuring out exactly what calories go into my meals especially when I'm adding lots of different ingredients. Anyone else have this problem?

[OlsBean]

I do all cooking in our home as my wife works long hours and log all my food on MFP. 90% of what I cook is from scratch also but personally I've found it relevantly easy, I create recipes and meals and save them so I can reuse them when needed. One thing I did note was that it's a lot easier to do via the website than it is via the mobile app. Which are using?

[JodieM92 in reply to OlsBean]

Well I have access to both, I suppose if I sat down and really plan the meals I cook I should be able to do it, I just hate the thought of constantly worrying how many calories I'm eating, but I know if I was able to track them I could see where I was going wrong.

[OlsBean]

I remember online grocery shopping at Tesco's for the first time which must have been around 9 years ago now and feeling so stressed after to the point where I was thinking this will never catch on, I think the ordering process took me and my wife working together a good 3 hours :D, now I shop for my groceries every week online and as you probably know yourself it takes no time at all, I aliken MFP to this, once you start using it for awhile it gets much easier and becomes almost second nature. There are also quite a few short cuts that might not be apparent at first, like the ability to remember meals, copy meals from a previous date, create recipes etc.

Good Luck with it.

[bunblebeaz]

It should be pretty easy, just weigh the ingredients and work out the calories in each.

Once you've done it a couple of times you'll know how much is in each and automatically be able to know the calorific value of a meal.

For me a pen and paper was better than MFP, the pen and paper can come with me anywhere and doesn't matter if it gets something spilled on it in the kitchen!

[Subes]

I found checking the Internet was ok. Although have to filter out the American sites as measurements are in cups

[matey]

Its a pain in the bum, Encouraging calorie counting for dieting this way probably encourages people to buy ready meals full of low quality carbs and fillers. Personally I find that Ive never stuck to a calorie counting diet for the vey reason that its totally impracticle for anyone that actually cooks a meal from scratch.

[Hidden]

I use nutracheck you can create receipes (and search other peoples). I find it easier to use than MFP.

[JodieM92 in reply to Hidden]

MFP has a great database though does nutracheck, and is it free?