my fitness pal question-measurements

mengele

I am on a meal plan at the moment and have two retarded questions for ye.

do I measure veg before I cook it or after I cook it and then enter into my fitness pal.

similarly how would one go about entering mashed potato into the app. is the ideal have the potato, butter and milk all separate into the app?

Hanley

MFP has pre and post cook options.

I'd choose pre cook for consistency.

re: mash - you've two options...

1) Add them in seperately each time

2) Create a recipe on MFP, ensure you use the same quantities in future, just add the entire recipe each time you have mash

Mellor

mengele wrote: »

I am on a meal plan at the moment and have two retarded questions for ye.

do I measure veg before I cook it or after I cook it and then enter into my fitness pal.

similarly how would one go about entering mashed potato into the app. is the ideal have the potato, butter and milk all separate into the app?

Use the raw food values in MFP, and weigh your food raw. It's much more consistent and accurate.
The cooked values are there too, but the way it's cooked affects the end weight, but not the calories. ie A medium-rare steak will be heavier than a well done steak, but the calories are the same. The calories for "Cooked steak" are only accurate if you've cooked your steak to the same degree.

For mash potato, you'd add them in separately. If its a more complex recipe, like homemade chilli or curry. You can save it as a set meal, or recipe in MFP.

GalwayGrrrrrl

I weigh my food after it is cooked. Just be sure to chose a k"cooked" option from the food list that you add it from. Eg 100g carrots boiled.

mengele

and one other question - lets say you have 500g worth of potatoes cut up and then deep fat fry them. how do I go about entering that into the app?

Mellor

Should be something in there for "fried potatoes, fresh" or similar.
If all else fails, use the values for chips weighed after