Calculate Calories in a Recipe: The Ultimate Guide
The results of numerous scientific studies have proven time and again that cutting calories and maintaining a “calorie deficit” is an essential part of any balanced weight loss program.
A calorie is a unit of energy defined as “the amount of energy it takes to raise the
temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit). Since calories
measure energy, they apply to more than just food. A gallon of gas, for example, contains
31 million calories.
However the calories we find on food packaging usually refers to kilocalories; 1,000 calories
which is often indicated by the word “calories” being capitalized or the symbol “kcal” next to the numerical calorie count. A calorie deficit is achieved by eating less calories than your body burns off in a day.
Counting calories maybe a relatively simple process for individual items of food such as an apple or an egg … but what about a home made recipe with many ingredients? At one time, this could only be done manually and to achieve any degree of accuracy you would need to have a good knowledge of science … and no small amount of skill in mathematics!
Confused?
Well don’t be … thanks to the wonders of modern technology, many apps and websites are now available that simplify the process by providing quick and easy ways to keep a careful track of the calories and nutritional value of the food we eat.
The purpose of this guide is to provide you with a comprehensive
list of the 10 best tools on the internet that simply and easily provide all the information you could possibly need regarding the calories and nutrients contained in the food you eat.
Nutritional and Calorie Calculators for Recipes
The list is not exhaustive, but I think I have all the main ones covered.
Number 1: “The Recipe Nutrition Calculator”
from verywellfit.com
verywellfit.com is a fantastic website for anyone interested in food, good nutrition, weight loss … and health issues in general.
Their “Recipe Nutrition Calculator” is just one example of the high quality free information available on this website… and is incredibly easy to use. The only research needed on your part is the ingredients of the recipe and the number of servings required.
So for example, “American Apple Pie” (12 servings) has the following ingredients:
400 g butter (cold, divided) 520 gall-purpose flour (divided) 1egg yolk ½ tsp salt 170 g sugar 60 ml water 8apples ½ lemon ½ tsp cinnamon ¼ tsp nutmeg 100 g brown sugar 1 egg white.
Within seconds, the calculator gave me this information:
“Nutrition Facts
Servings: 12 … Amount per serving:
Calories 169 Total Fat 0.7g 1% Saturated Fat 0.2g 1% Cholesterol 18mg 6% Sodium 104mg 5% Total Carbohydrate 43.1g 16% Dietary Fiber 3.7g 13% Total Sugars 37.8g Protein 0.9g Vitamin D 2mcg 8% Calcium 11mg 1% Iron 1mg 4% Potassium 177mg 4% *The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calorie a day is used for general nutrition advice.”
Brilliant!
Here is the link to the calculator:
Number 2: “My Fitness Pal: Recipe Nutrition Calculator”
myfitnesspal .com is another great website for all things food, health and nutrition. Make sure you check out their great free newsletter which is crammed with highly useful information on an incredible range of subjects.
Their recipe nutrition calculator is very simple to use, and has the additional feature of a comprehensive “food database by name” … which means you often don’t even need to know the ingredients to work out the calorie content of a type of food. When I entered “Lasagne” … it quickly gave me over 50 different types to choose from!
Here’s the link for the calculator:
Number 3: “Recipe Analyser” from happyforks.com
Another website that you can easily spend a couple of hours on when you only intended to spend 10 minutes! Tons of great information on a wide range of subjects.
The Happy Forks “Recipe Analyser” needs the ingredients for the recipe to get started … it does have a “recipe search” function, but this is not quite as good as the one featured at myfitnesspal.com. However, once you pop in the info it needs … viola … what an incredible job the app does providing every conceivable piece of information regarding your recipe … as well as a bunch of serving suggestions, similar dishes and various product recommendations.
Here’s the link:
Number 4: “Loseit!” from FitNow, Inc
Lose It can be used on a phone, tablet or desktop ,but I find it best suited to my cell phone. This is because my cell phone is with me most of the time.
Entering food into the Lose It app before it goes into your mouth is essential for the effectiveness of the app. Following this one rule alone will almost guarantee you some degree of success!
My opinion : a very useful tool for reaching your weight-loss goals as Lose It! carefully tracks your meals, exercise, and nutrition. Documenting food is effortless as the app features a built-in barcode scanner, searchable list of common grocery items, and a database of popular restaurant meals’ and nutritional facts.
The link you need is below:
Number 5: “Fat Secret”.
This is a cool website and mobile phone app that is not only a free calorie counter but also includes a food diary, nutrition database, healthy recipes, exercise log, weight chart and journal.
The mobile app includes a barcode scanner that helps you track packaged foods.
The homepage shows total calorie intake, as well as the breakdown of carbs, protein and fat — displayed both for the day and for each meal.
Fat Secret offers a monthly summary view, which gives total calories consumed each day and total averages for each month. This feature may be convenient to track your overall progress.
This calorie counter is very user-friendly. It also includes a chat community where users can swap success stories and get tips, recipes and more.
Fat Secret offers a feature called “challenges,” wherein users can create or participate in dietary challenges in a closed group of people.
Their website is full of information and tips, as well as articles on a variety of topics.
On the main web site page, you have all the links you need to get the iPhone and Android versions of the app … or you can access the info via your desktop device by logging in with your facebook, google or email account.
Here’s the link:
Cool!
Number 6: Cron-o-meter
I love this app as it lets me easily keep track of my diet, exercises and body weight.
It offers exact serving sizes and a strong exercise database. If you are pregnant or lactating, you can select a customized profile based on higher calorie needs.
You can also tell Cron-o-meter if you’re following a specific diet, such as the paleo diet, low-carb diet or a low-fat vegetarian diet. This changes the macronutrient recommendations.
The food diary is very simple and user-friendly. Below it, you’ll find a bar chart showing the breakdown of carbs, fat and protein for that day alongside total calories consumed.
Cron-o-meter is particularly useful for tracking micronutrients like vitamins and minerals.
It offers a Gold upgrade for under $3 per month that eliminates ads, offers advanced analysis and gives some extra features.
Here’s the link you’ll need:
Number 7: Spark People
SparkPeople is a great fully featured calorie counter that tracks nutrition, activities, goals and progress.
The food diary is relatively straightforward. If you tend to eat the same thing often, you can paste that entry into multiple days.
At the bottom of each day’s entry, you can see the total calories, carbs, fats and protein. You may also view the data as a pie chart.
Recipes are very easy to add, and the app is equipped with a barcode scanner so you can register packaged foods.
SparkPeople’s site has a massive community. Its resources include recipes, health news, exercise demos and articles by health and wellness experts.
The free version has one of the largest online food and nutrition databases, but you have to upgrade your account to access many of the other features.
Here’s the link:
Number 8: My Food Data: Recipe Nutrition Calculator
If its simplicity that you want … the Recipe Nutrition calculator provided free as part of suite of tools on the My Food Data website will be right up your street.
This calculator is about as easy to use as it gets!
I tested this app about 20 wide ranging foods and drinks … and the results it instantly comes back with are amazing. Not only do you get an immediate calorie count but a full nutritional breakdown … and if you really want to dig deep: macronutrients, minerals, vitamins, carbs & sugars, fats and much more.
Here is the link for the Recipe Nutritional Calaculator:
… and the rest of the free tools can be found by clicking the “Tools” tab at the top of the page.
Number 9: MyNetDiary
This is another great app for your phone and works great on iPhone and Android.
The interface has a fresh, modern aesthetic and you may find MyNetDiary is a perfect personal virtual assistant for your weight loss and diet strategy. It’s also a bit of a multitasker, with features that include a complete food diary, a calorie counter, and exercise tracker. Plan your meals in advance, dial in those macros, check out nutrition facts, and get insights based on your data.
Great tool and very easy to use.
Here’s the link:
… and last but by no means least:
Number 10: My Plate Calorie Counter
MyPlate is a user-friendly app from our good friends at Livestrong.com … and similar to many of the other phone based apps I’ve listed above, offers easy-to-use nutritional facts, as well as functions to help you with your personalized daily calorie goals, healthy meal plans, a useful barcode scanner, an extensive food database, and very detailed statistics about your nutrition if you need them.
Works fine on iPhone and Android and well worth checking out at the link below:
Final words:
While it isn’t the only thing that matters when you are aiming for optimal health and progressive weight loss … counting calories is important and should be part of your overall strategy.
After many years of study and experiance, I’ve found there are three things that really make a difference:
- Eating healthy none processed food.
2. Intermittent fasting (eg the 15 hour fast … no food after 7pm and leave breakfast until 10am at the earliest).
3. Aim for a consistent and realistic calorie deficit … burning more calories than you take in.
I hope the free tools and apps I’ve listed above will help you with the latter … and most importantly … greatly improve your skills, knowledge and awareness of the nutritional value of the food you eat.
Good Health To You!
Steve Searle
PS:
For more information …. join me and my team over at my web site:
See there you soon!
