Simplicity is one reason prepackaged diet foods are so successful. When your food comes in a packaged meal with detailed labeling, it's easy to know what size portion fits within your weight-loss calorie budget. When working with recipes, particularly older ones, there may be no convenient nutrition label. In this case, calculate the calories by hand using whatever resources are available.
Step 1
List all ingredients called for by your recipe.
Step 2
Find the ingredients that come in packages, such as canned tomatoes or pasta noodles. Use the nutrition labels on those packages to determine how many calories that ingredient represents. This may require some basic arithmetic. For example, if your recipe calls for 8 oz. of stewed tomatoes, your 16-oz., 300-calorie can tells you that the recipe includes 150 calories worth of tomatoes.
Step 3
Look up the remaining ingredients online using free online calorie content calculators. See Resources for some sample databases you can use.
Step 4
Total the calories from each ingredient to find the total calories for your recipe.
Step 5
Compare that total to your calorie budget for the meal. Divide portions accordingly. If you allow yourself 600 calories per meal with your entree representing half of those calories, your entree can be 300 calories of food. If your recipe contained a total of 1,200 calories, your portion of that dish would be one-fourth of the total yield.
Tips and Warnings
- It's common practice for cookbooks and online recipes to include caloric information. If you check new cookbooks for this information and stick to websites that include it, you can skip these steps.
Things You'll Need
- Internet access
- Recipe
- Calculator or spreadsheet program
References
- "The Food Revolution"; Jamie Oliver; 2011
- "Eat, Drink and Be Healthy"; Walter Willett; 2004
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