Calorie counting question

id012 · August 2012

I got married like a week and a half ago, I wanted to get into shape before the wedding and i started at the gym by my eatting wasn't great. Know that the wedding is over, I would like to get the eatting part under control and start to lose weight. I would idealy like to lose like 40 lbs, of a period of time. (im not looking for a quick fix - more of a life style change)

I had notice from looking on this board before that A lot of you recommend calorie counting, which is great and id like to do that. But i really have no idea how. I dont really eat a ton of process stuff, so how do i figure out how many calories are in my dinner if i make dinner from scratch? Like for example, I made chicken marsella last night for dinner, which was chicken, flour, mushrooms, some oil, and some wine. How do i figure out how many calories that was? I suppose the more i do this the better I will be at knowing how many calories are in what. But i need a little help to start!!

Is there a website that you use? A book? Anything you recommend??

Thanks!!

anna.oskar · August 2012

I use SparkPeople.com. It's free and a great calorie counting site. I input all the recipes I use (some are already in the database if from big sites) and then it pounds out the calories. Easy-peasy.

maribeth721 · August 2012

I use myfitnesspal. It's easy for me to use. I love the recipe feature too.

Sarah5200 · August 2012

I use my fitness pal too - the recipe feature is good too but I find if it's a really long list of ingredients that this website is easier. But whichever you choose you can't go wrong

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

GL!

jam+1231 · August 2012

another thing is that you have to measure EVERYTHING. its easy to think something is half a cup only to realize that its way more if you measure it. so when making dinner, make sure you measure how much oil and how much wine goes into it (as well as everything else). and honestly one of the best investments i have made is in a kitchen scale. you can find them for like $20. its so easy to, for example, weigh the total meal and then weigh out what you are eating from that to know exactly how much of the total you ate, since sometimes its tough to divide a meal into 2 or 4.

jpines22 · August 2012

yeah i agree that the MFP app is amazing. i just enter all my ingredients into the app. for the marsala - look up "chicken breasts" and it'll give you the calories i that. look up "flour" and it'll give you the calories in that, etc etc. I enter my dinners piece-meal like that all the time.