Knowing your daily calorie intake can help you successfully manage your weight. Packaged foods conveniently list calories and fat grams per serving on the nutrition label. When you prepare food at home, determining exact calorie counts of meals is not as easy. Instead of limiting yourself to processed foods for ease of calorie and fat computation, translate recipes into calories and fat grams with a few simple steps.
Step 1
Look up the calorie count and fat grams for all ingredients in the recipe. Check the nutrition labels on packaged ingredients like milk, pasta or canned goods. Look at online databases, like the one offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for foods without a nutrition label, like meats, fresh vegetables and fruits.
Step 2
Take into account the portion sizes used in the recipe, which may not match those on nutrition labels or databases. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 cup of milk and the label provides information for 1/2 cup, be sure to multiply the calories and fat gram information for the milk by .5.
Step 3
Add up the total number of calories and fat grams for the recipes ingredients. This represents the number of calories and fat for the entire recipe, whether it is a whole loaf of bread, three dozen cookies or a pot of soup.
Step 4
Divide the number from Step 3 by the number of servings the recipe indicates it makes. This is the number of fat grams and calories per serving.
Tips and Warnings
- Several websites will do the computations for you. Surf the internet for the option to make your own nutrition labels.
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