My fitness pal and home cooking

[gluetack]

Ive had a look at MFP and seems great for calorie counting but I'm just wondering how it works for figuring out the calories in home made food such as veggie chilli or a chicken curry etc. Do I need to enter all the ingredients then measure out a portion and do it that way? Seems like it wouldn't be totally accurate because I put about ten different things in my chilli and varying amounts each time.

[Pipandmum]

Yes you do. I weigh the ingredients out and then divide it by the portions. So if something asks for 250gr mince I divide by 4 (say) and so on for all the ingredients. Then you save it as a meal.
You say you use different amounts but if you are consistent with the main calorific ones (the mince, sauce, beans and rice for example) then the amount of spices or veg like onions doesn't really matter. But the whole point of calorie counting, which is the basis of MFP, is being accurate, so if you vary it alot you must remeasure.

[SisterAgatha]

I make a recipe out of what I’ve used, and then it decides the collective calories by how many portions you made. Then just add it as usual

[SisterAgatha]

And I think you can vary recipes now? You couldn’t before

[SisterAgatha]

By vary, I mean amend if you make changes the next time you cook it

[gluetack]

Ok great, so a small bit of necessary effort. Thanks for the advice

[Designerenvy]

Put in all the ingredients you use in a recipe and weight them. You can say how many servings are in the recipe you gave. This then gives you the calorie count per serving.
Its there to retrieve the next time you have it for lunch / dinner.
You can easily amend the content each time .
A bit of work initially but worth the effort

[jadethom]

As the others have said, I weight out and portion meals, it is a lot of effort, but makes life a lot easier! I mentioned in another post, I've recently started making giant stews and curries, and then splitting them into 20-30 portions and freezing! So good for calorie counting and for a quick, healthy meal!