Calorie counts for many foods are readily available in calorie counting books or on websites, such as SparkPeople.com. While helpful, those calorie counts may use a different recipe than you do. So if your lasagna uses low-fat cheeses and no eggs, it will quite possibly have a different number of calories per serving than a full-fat version that is calculated in a counter website. Luckily, it's fairly easy to calculate your own number of calories per serving based on your own recipe.
Step 1
Write out your recipe. Include the exact measurements that you'll be using in your recipe and the number of servings you expect to get from the recipe.
Step 2
Calculate the values of each of the items in your recipe according to the calorie-counting book or website of your choice. You may have to do some minor calculations if your recipe calls for 8 oz. of boneless, skinless chicken breast and the book or website gives a value for 1-oz. increments. Write the value of each item in a column next to the recipe.
Step 3
Add all of the caloric values of the ingredients together. This will give you the total number of calories in the entire dish.
Step 4
Divide this number by the number of portions you plan to get out of the recipe. For example, if your entire recipe has 2,400 calories and serves four people, each serving will have 600 calories. If you opt to slim down the portion size so that you'll get six servings from the recipe, each serving will have only 400 calories.
Tips and Warnings
- Some websites, such as SparkPeople.com, allow you to build and calculate calories for your personal recipes. You'll need to register for the site, but the tools are free. Be sure to Include any oil or butter you use to grease the pan into your calculations.
Things You'll Need
- Calculator
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