How to correctly calculate the calorie content of a dish by ingredients? Meal Calorie Calculator

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Women who use a cookbook do not need to count the calorie content of the dish, because it is written in the recipes. But what if you cook without such an allowance, or you do not have the opportunity to look into it? In this case, you need to know how to correctly calculate the calorie content of the dish. Today we offer to learn this skill. So, what do you need to have in the kitchen to use the calorie calculator?

Preparation

Many women mistakenly assume that only a pen, a blank sheet and a calculator can do. However, we cannot do without these helpers, we will need good kitchen scales, they will help to calculate the exact amount of ingredients. It is necessary that the model is equipped with the function of resetting containers (dishes) and gives the result accurate to the gram, because every calorie is important for us when losing weight and maintaining weight. If you are cooking dishes consisting of several products, for example, soup, then without scales you will not be able to find out the exact numbers.

You need to keep a diary where you will make the calculationcalories in prepared meals. This notebook will help you with further cooking, because the constant return to exhausting mathematics and the same numbers can discourage all desire to cook balanced food.

It is advisable to use one dish for cooking individual dishes that you do most often, adjust the amount of water. Soon your eye will develop perfectly, and already at the stage of preparing the components, the nutritional value of the finished dish will be clear.

Foods change volume, but not calories

When cooking, all products change in volume. For example, a piece of meat and vegetables become smaller when boiled, while cereals and pasta, on the contrary, increase. But one should not, on the basis of this, assume that the caloric content increases with an increase in volume and decreases with boiling. Ready meals, changed in volume, remain with the same energy value.

Vegetables and meat lose moisture during cooking, so they become smaller in size, cereals absorb water and because of this increase. Let's give an example: you decided to boil a bird's breast and took it weighing 200 grams, and a calorie content of 220. As a result, when ready, the breast will weigh 150 grams, the calories in it will still be 220. And the amount of water will not affect its nutritional value. The same thing happens with cereals. Let's say one hundred grams of cereal is boiled with a calorie content of 329 kilocalories in an amount of water of 0.2 liters. Porridge will be increased in volume, but will not add calories. If you took 0.3 liters of water, then the cereal is even morewill increase, but again will not add calories.

Calorie counting example

How to calculate the calorie content of the finished dish if you made boiled buckwheat and chicken? Let's say you cooked one hundred grams of cereal, as we wrote above, and decided to eat a third of what was cooked. It's pretty simple, divide the calories (329) by servings (3), you get 109, 666 …. In this case, we will round up, and we will get 110 kilocalories. That's how it is with chicken. Let's say a carcass weighs 1.0 kg, and its calorie content is 1900 kilocalories. You took it and boiled it, the weight of the finished chicken was 700 grams, but based on the calorie content per kilogram of raw product, in 0.7 kg of boiled it is still 1900, and per hundred grams it is 272. That is, one hundred grams of finished meat will be more caloric than so much raw. But here you can remove the skin and fat, so you get only 170 kilocalories per hundred grams of boiled meat. This is the simplest example of how to calculate the calorie content of a finished dish. Let's move on to more complex ones.

Cooking meatballs

If you are cooking not only for yourself, but for the whole family, it will be a little more difficult to calculate calories. Let's say how to calculate the calorie content of cutlets? This dish is undoubtedly loved by all households, and it is often prepared by all housewives. That is why we decided to give an example of the calculation on it. But pay attention, we wrote our own recipe, with our own number of ingredients. You can find a calorie calculator on the Internet, thereThe number of calories of each raw product is prescribed. Get used to using it when making recipes. Counting the calories of ready-made meals must begin with weighing the raw ingredients. For example, take this recipe:

• half a kilo of beef meat - calories 935, 0;
• 0, 1 liter of milk - 64;
• egg - 86, 35;
• 0, 1 kg of white bread - 242;
• 50 grams of onion - 20.5;
• for frying vegetable oil, measure out 100 ml.

So, in raw form, we got only 925 grams of food, and their total calorie content was 2275, 45. Now you can proceed to the stage of cooking cutlets. After you fried them well, the weight changed from 925 grams to 700, but the calorie content remained the same - 2275.45! If you have ten cutlets, then the energy value of each will be 228, provided that they are all the same. If the sizes are different, then this method of calculating one will not work.

What to do?

If the cutlets are of different sizes, it is easier to calculate the energy value of each, based on data per hundred grams. In order to calculate the calorie content of the dish, the whole family will have to be patient with dinner, we need every cutlet!

If there is oil left in the pan, drain it into a measuring container and subtract the calorie content from the total figure, an example is given above. The calculation applies to absolutely all products. If there is no oil, and the weight of all cutlets is 0.7 kg, then we will find out the number of calories per hundred grams. To do this, we need to divide all the calories by the weight of the cutlets in finished form. Calculate caloriesdishes will help us a simple formula.

So, write in your diary: the calorie content of one gram is equal to the total calorie content of all raw ingredients divided by the weight of the finished dish. Next, we multiply the resulting figure by one hundred and get the energy value per 100 grams. Now you need to calculate the calorie content of the dish that you have prepared. Today we have cutlets.

Dividing 2275.45 (calories) by 700 (weight of finished cutlets), we get 3.25 (number of calories per 1 gram). Now we multiply 3, 25 by 100, we get 325 - this is the calorie content of one hundred grams of cooked cutlets. To find out the nutritional value of one piece, you will need to weigh the cutlet. Multiply the number of grams by 3, 25.

As you have seen, it is not at all difficult to calculate the calorie content of a dish by the ingredients. Now we will learn to calculate the nutritional value of the broth, because the soup is the first course, and without it there will be no good nutrition.

How to calculate the calorie content of the broth?

Bouillon must be eaten at least once a day to be he althy, beautiful and cheerful. You can eat only the broth, without additives, it is tasty, nutritious and very he althy food. Calculating the calorie content of a dish is very simple, you just need to multiply the energy value of your chosen product for preparing the broth (per 100 grams) by 0.9. This way you will get the nutritional value of one hundred milliliters of broth. This calculation of calories for ready meals is suitable if you cook the broth in a ratio of meat and water 1/1. If there is more water, then the energy value of the brothwill decrease, if less - will increase.

To prepare a dietary broth, you must proceed as follows: after boiling, the meat is removed from the pan, the water is poured into the sink. Fresh water is poured, and the meat is cooked in it until cooked. This is called the second broth. Thus, you get rid of the presence of excess fat in the dish, most of the calories from meat go into water at the first stage of cooking, when the juice is still flowing from the pieces. Now let's figure out how to calculate the calorie content of soup.

How many calories are in borscht?

This dish is the favorite food of most people. Foreigners visit Russian cuisine restaurants to taste borscht. Each housewife has her own recipe and cooking technique. Borsch is famous not only for its taste, but also for its benefits, because it is rich in vitamins and microelements, which are present in large quantities in the vegetables used: beets, carrots, cabbage, onions, garlic, tomatoes, fresh herbs. This is a real treasure trove! The calorie content of borscht depends on its density, someone likes it thicker, while others like it more liquid, on the meat used and other products. That is why we will not post an example of a recipe for calculation, but will tell you how to calculate the calorie content of borscht, based on the formulas presented above in the content of the article.

Calculate calories

In order to find out the energy value of meat and vegetables, use the calorie calculator, it contains the number of calories per hundred grams of raw foods. howwe have already found out, the volume decreases, but calories are not lost. The same thing happens when making soups. Water is a non-calorie product, but the broth will be saturated with them. The energy value will not increase or decrease, it will be distributed over the total volume. So, in order to calculate the calorie content of a dish, you need to know the total energy value of all the components of borscht. Their weight is needed only to calculate the number of calories, for example, white cabbage contains 27 kilocalories in one hundred grams, and you use 250 grams, then you get 67, 5.

Cook borscht according to the usual technique. But again, do not rush to taste it, you need to measure the volume of the resulting dish, we need it for calculation. So, the calorie content of all the ingredients taken for cooking, say, 2500 kilocalories, must be divided by volume (suppose it turned out 4 liters - 4000 ml of borscht). We got the sum 0, 625 - this is the calorie content of one ml of soup. Now multiply by one hundred and get 62, 2 - the calorie content of one hundred ml of ready-made borscht!

Be sure to measure your portion when serving so you know exactly how many calories you are consuming. In your diary of calculating calories in dishes prepared according to your personal recipe, write down the result. It will come in handy the next time you cook, and you won’t need to re-calculate already known numbers. But for this, constantly cook from the same ingredients, from the same amount of them.

Calorie side dishes

You can again calculate the calorie content of a dish cooked for a side dish usingfamiliar patterns. For example, you boiled one hundred grams of pasta and put half on your plate. Divide the calories by two and get the energy value of your serving. If the pasta was seasoned with oil, then find out the calorie content contained in the used piece (one hundred grams is written on the package). For example, you used 20 grams of oil, and find out exactly this indicator. It's easy to do by dividing the calories of a hundred grams by a hundred, get the energy value of one gram, multiply it by 20, this will be the value of your piece.

Mashed potatoes subjected to the same "torture". We weigh raw potatoes to know exactly the energy value. Boil, weigh. Let's say it's half a kilo. You have added one hundred milliliters of milk and 20 grams of butter. The total weight is now 620 grams. We look at the calorie content table, calculate the nutritional value of the milk and butter used (you can again look at the packages). Add up all the calories, divide the total number by the weight of the dish. As a result, we get the energy value of one gram, multiply the result by one hundred, the result is the number of calories per hundred grams! Everything is very easy and simple. When you get used to it, such calculations will not cause inconvenience.

Porridge

Many people love cereals, they start their working day with them. Porridges help to recharge your batteries, to feel full before the lunch break. So, for an example of calculating calories, let's take rice porridge. For cooking, we take two hundred grams of rice and half a liter of milk. So, one hundred grams of rice contains344 units, which means we have 688. We have skimmed milk, it contains 30.8 units per hundred milliliters, we have five hundred, so we get 154 calories. We display the total number, we get 842, and this will be the calorie content of the finished dish. According to the usual formula, we calculate our portion: we divide calories by weight, we get the value of one gram, we multiply by one hundred - the calorie content of one hundred grams of porridge. If you are eating more or less, then weigh your portion and multiply the energy value of one gram by the weight of the porridge.

In the same way, you can calculate the calorie content of dishes prepared with oil. How to find out the number of units in the piece used, we wrote above. Dried fruits, berries and fruits are also included in the calculation of the calorie content of ready meals. Don't forget to use the scales. Now let's talk about common mistakes in calculations.

Two errors in calculating calories

Calorizer databases contain a huge number of recipes, and often women rely on them, on the weight of ready meals, when calculating. The thing is that "porridge with milk" can be cooked on any amount of milk, and you will not know exactly the number of calories. It also remains a mystery what fat content the product was used. The same goes for "vegetable salad" - you don't know which vegetables and how much are used. That is why you should not focus on such bases when having a snack in a cafe or restaurant. Moreover, you can not enter the received data in your diary. Enter only your own calculations there whencooking.

The second and most common mistake is taking samples from the finished dish. You weighed raw foods before cooking, found out their total energy value. Now it is important for you to accurately know the calorie content of the finished dish. As we already wrote, every gram is important. That is why have willpower and do not try an unweighted dish, even if you need to check for s alt. If it is not enough, you can always s alt your portion, but if there is a lot, the matter is unlikely to be corrected.

Finally, I would like to say that the formulas are remembered quite quickly, and you do not need to constantly use your diary. Counting calories is very convenient, because this way you have complete control over your diet, and this helps to lose weight and improve your he alth.