Calories in homemade food?

EmptyPockets

This is something which has bugged me for a long time: How do you (or can you?) calculate how many calories you're consuming in home-cooked food?

I'm really really trying to lose some weight, so try to eat healthily. Almost everything we eat in our house is cooked from scratch using fresh veg, etc... but all I seem to have achieved is to stop putting weight on. I've been a constant weight for months now and can't seem to shift anything - I'd like to try and monitor/reduce my calorie intake, but how on earth do I do it with HM food??? Can I?

Not putting more weight on for months is of course a good thing, but when you want to shift at least a couple of stone, it's not good enough I also have PCOS, which makes it more difficult to lose weight but more of a reason to do so...

narabanekeater

HI Empty im a fellow PCOS sufferer. The largest thing thats helped me with my weight loss and I know its very hard is to cut down on sugar dramtically (I had 2 in my tea) and also look at the amount of food in part carbs I serve myself.
Ive lot 4 stone pre-pregnancy and 3 now post pregnancy
I always find the problem with home made food is that it tastes so yummy you serve yourself more and even go back for seconds.
I also eat quorn or TVP now rather than mince a lot.
Every time I loose about half a stone I treat myself (get my nails done, hair etc) not very MSE but it really encorages me
I know PCOS can be do fun. It effects the body in so many different ways.

EmptyPockets

Hi, thanks for that. PCOS does make it sooo much more difficult. Same here re the Quorn/veggie mince, we never eat anything but Quorn when it comes to mince, it's virtually fat-free and just as tasty IMO. Cutting the sugar in my tea/coffee will be very difficult, whenever I take a sip of tea with only one sugar in, it makes me want to spit it right back out haha! Can't stand it. But I guess it might work if I gradually cut it down

And you're right: because HM food is so tasty, I don't go back for seconds, but portion sizes can often get waaayyy out of control

Well done on your great weight-loss, I only wish I can do similar

thriftlady_2

Counting calories or points in homemade food is THE sole reason why I can't stick to that kind of diet. It drives me nuts. It can be done though. I have in the past added up the calories in all the ingredients in one loaf of bread and then tried to estimate how many slices in a loaf and divided the total cals by the number of slices. It's such a pain though and I'm sure my maths teachers did not envisage their efforts being put to working out calories lol!

A simpler solution may be to simply eat 20-30% less than what you would normally eat, make up the amount with more veg.

Penelope_Penguin

EmptyPockets wrote: »

Not putting more weight on for months is of course a good thing, but when you want to shift at least a couple of stone, it's not good enough I also have PCOS, which makes it more difficult to lose weight but more of a reason to do so...

We have an existing OS thread on weightloss here (I'll merge this later).

The posters there may be able to assist in your query, and will definitley help with your weightloss :j

Good luck, Penny. x

EmptyPockets

thriftlady wrote: »

I have in the past added up the calories in all the ingredients in one loaf of bread and then tried to estimate how many slices in a loaf and divided the total cals by the number of slices.

Crikey :eek:

Mind you, doing all that, especially as maths is my weakest point, would keep me busy for so long that at least I wouldn't be eating the food haha!

I have no problem filling up on veggies, I love them. Fruit is my problem, though, when it comes to healthy eating. You always get told 'plenty of veg, plenty of fruit' and 'if you're peckish, grab a piece of fruit'. You hear it all the time, but I can't stand fruit :lipsrseal Once or twice a year I can manage a banana lol, but that's about it. So that's where I struggle to be good, when I'm peckish or when the munchies creep in

EmptyPockets

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

We have an existing OS thread on weightloss here (I'll merge this later).

The posters there may be able to assist in your query, and will definitley help with your weightloss :j

Good luck, Penny. x

Thanks Penny!

Penelope_Penguin

EmptyPockets wrote: »

You always get told 'plenty of veg, plenty of fruit' and 'if you're peckish, grab a piece of fruit'. You hear it all the time, but I can't stand fruit :lipsrseal

What - none of the wide variety of fruit available? Strawberries, melon, grapes, apples, kiwi, peaches, etc, etc. They're all so different

What about veg - you could snack on carrot sticks, celery sticks, cucumber, cherry tomatoes

lizbob

i use this

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php?process=resubmit&count=32

takes a bit of faffing around but it really works!

EmptyPockets

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

What - none of the wide variety of fruit available? Strawberries, melon, grapes, apples, kiwi, peaches, etc, etc. They're all so different

What about veg - you could snack on carrot sticks, celery sticks, cucumber, cherry tomatoes

Honestly. Strawberries, don't like all the seeds, can only enjoy them if dunked in sugar like Grandma used to give me Melon, for some reason makes me cringe. Grapes, sometimes if they're in the house I can have a couple, but if I'm thirsty rather than if I'm hungry! Don't like apples, or kiwi, I do sometimes eat peaches but the majority of a punnett will end up in the bin.

Snacking on carrot sticks is something I do, and cherry tomatoes I could eat until the cows come home! lol.

Penelope_Penguin

EmptyPockets wrote: »

Honestly. Strawberries, don't like all the seeds, can only enjoy them if dunked in sugar like Grandma used to give me Melon, for some reason makes me cringe. Grapes, sometimes if they're in the house I can have a couple, but if I'm thirsty rather than if I'm hungry! Don't like apples, or kiwi, I do sometimes eat peaches but the majority of a punnett will end up in the bin.

Snacking on carrot sticks is something I do, and cherry tomatoes I could eat until the cows come home! lol.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Do you mind if I edit your previous post:

EmptyPockets wrote: »

You always get told 'plenty of veg, [STRIKE]plenty of fruit' [/STRIKE]and 'if you're peckish, grab a piece of [STRIKE]fruit[/STRIKE] veg'

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