Calorie and portions sizes

[Squirrel84]

Hi I'm new here so not sure how it works yet... my question is: how do we count the calories on a home made meal ??? and also how much in grams to 1 portion so the calorie to be counted between 400-450 calories??? Thank you.

[lucigret]

Hi Squirrel84 I'm also new here. The way I work out calories for home made meals is to weigh every ingredient individually and check the calories by using the calorie counter on the NHS free weight loss plan, (I find it very quick), once cooked as I serve it on to my plate. But if I was making a shepherds pie for example for the family I would weigh the raw ingredients individually and work out the calories of the whole meal and divide by however many people were going to eat it. Write everything down and you will soon have a collection of meals already calorie counted for future use.

I hope that is not too complicated.l Good luck with your weight loss journey.

[IndigoBlue61 in reply to lucigret]

Perfect explanation ☺ exactly what I do ☺

[Diana in reply to lucigret]

I reckon I'd roughly follow a recipe and adapt it, which I quite often do, it saves the hassle of putting your own ingredients in

[Caz28]

Have you tried my fitness pal? You can create home made recipes in that from the ingredients used and save it for future use. You just feed in your details, height, weight, how much you want to lose and then enter everything you eat and it keeps track of your calories and nutrients.

[elliebath Maintainer]

A lot of us also use the myfitnesspal app . Its free to use and easy. Their database already has thousands of food items listed , so you can check their calorie value ( and carb, protein, vitamin content if you need it) but most helpful is the facility to calculate a whole recipe or meal , to save as your own. Myfitnesspal was my saviour during my weight loss in 2014 / 15 , and now two years later I am still using it and am maintaining my same BMI.

[YellowRose55]

Hi Squirrel84

Welcome to the weigh loss forum.

Take a look at the "Welcome Newbies" post in the pinned post section on the right hand side or at the bottom if using a mobile. In the post there are links to the nhs 12 week plan and a BMI checker.

Feel free to join in with any challenges also in the pinned post section. They are fun to do and a great motivator to keep us all moving.

Our weigh-ins are run Monday to Saturday. Mondays are FULL at the moment, but please feel free to join us any day from Tuesday to Saturday.

When I'm cooking a meal form scratch I weigh all the ingredients and check on the packages to see what there calories are and once the meal is cook divide the calories into set amount of portions.

Have a great first week.

Rose

[HubbysMissMouse]

I was told that to work out calories for example with a slice of cheese first of all weigh it when you have weighed it,

1. Divide the weight of cheese in grams by 100

2. Multiply this result by the number of calories (kcal) per 100g given on the cheeses nutritional info that is on the packet.

So for example if your cheese weighs 21 grams, and the cheese has 365kcal on the pack per 100g:

21 divided by 100 =0.21 grams

0.21 times 365 = 76.65 calories.

Hope this helps you, it has helped great with me!

[HubbysMissMouse]

By the way I forgot to add that If you go into the topics post to the right of the screen (or bottom if using a mobile) and look in the useful resources, you will see a thread for handy guide to portion sizes. This should help you too.

Good luck!

[IndigoBlue61]

Here is the link to the NHS portions guide HubbysMissMouse mentioned ☺

healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

Welcome to the forum Squirrel84 ☺ We are a very friendly group so please ask if you have any questions ☺