How to Calculate Your Own Nutrition Facts on a Recipe (and why I don’t provide these)

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A common comment here on Tasty Yummies “I don’t see the carb count” or “where are the calories” or the ever-popular and very profoundly simple in it’s aggressive request – “nutrition facts?”. First of all, my favorite thing about these comments is the ALWAYS demanding nature of them. No ‘please’. No ‘thank you for this amazing FREE recipe and the 1000’s of articles you have written and shared with us’ nope just “can you give me more, for FREE?”.

Yes, you are sensing a slight snarky undertone. Today this question finally got to me. No, I don’t provide nutrition facts here on Tasty Yummies – that is correct! Will I ever? I don’t know. But for right now, there are no nutrition facts listed with my recipes. One of the main reasons being that there are far too many variables involved, from various brands of ingredients offering wildly varying nutrition facts, to slight mis-measurements on your end, portion size discrepancies and so much more. At this point, this isn’t a focus with my clients in my nutrition practice and I am not interested in providing this information with my free recipes.

If you haven’t noticed, MANY of the recipes here on Tasty Yummies offer loads and loads of options for you to customize, that is by design. I do this because you are all very different people, one of the many things I love about you all. Some of you use noncaloric sweeteners, some of you prefer coconut sugar or maple syrup, I like to leave it open to you and your choices with most of my recipes. Even just these subtle differences alone can cause the nutrition facts to vary WILDY. There is no way I could ever account for the dozens of different combinations in one recipe, things being left out, things getting added, garnishes, a extra generous dollop of that cashew cream garnish. Finally, I do also want to say that I know many of my readers have previously struggled (and maybe some still struggle) with disordered eating, I know for many of them, letting go of counting calories and macros has been a HUGE part of their journey, I want to be respectful of ALL eaters and not have that information knocking everyone over the head. If you want it, you can easily get it. For many of us food is so much more than a set of numbers, it goes beyond calories and grams of carbohydrates and fat.

For some of you, I totally understand that tracking is something you do, you enjoy it and it’s important to your path. There is ZERO judgement from me. So, I figured I would share with you here the many VERY simple ways you can calculate this for yourself. Remember, when you plug recipe ingredients into ANY calculator online, this doesn’t AT ALL guarantee that their database is using the same foods you are, cuts of meat can varying WILDLY with the amount of fat (and therefore calories) they contain and I have even seen almond flours, and other such ingredients, vary extremely drastically from brand to brand, for the exact same amount of measurable almond flour. So, please remember to always take the data with a grain of salt. It will never be an exact science. 

FREE Resources

First of all, I want you all to know that there are LOADS of free resources on the internet that will allow you to calculate the nutrition facts of any recipe you want EVER  – on demand, all it takes is simply about 5 minutes of YOUR time. What is great is that you can plug in your EXACT ingredients.  On a quick google search, this free recipe analyzer seems super straight forward. You plug in the ingredients and it will provide the facts. I cannot vouch for it’s accuracy, however.

Of course, Myfitnesspal is a trusty legend many people swear by. I use Cronometer with my clients for food journaling and accountability and you can easily add any recipe using your specific brand of ingredients and get the nutrition facts of any recipe. Very Well Fit also seems to have an easy to navigate FREE nutrition calculator where you can just copy and paste the ingredients in (remember you may want to specifically choose the brand you are using, where applicable). There are hundreds and hundreds more of these calculators, apps and resources. ALL FREE! Do a little searching, experimenting and playing to find one you like.

 

Empower Yourself with the Knowledge. But YOU Have Got Do the Work!!

What I love about having YOU do the work, is you are taking accountability for your own health – this is all I have ever wanted for ALL of you. You can plug in the exact brand of coconut flour you used. If you ended up with 10 muffins instead of 12, you can adjust for that. Skinless chicken thighs or chicken breasts instead of skin-on thighs? Maybe you swapped in reduced fat coconut milk for the full fat, great, with just 5 minutes of your time – you’ve got the answers that are specific for you.

I do a lot for you all and ya’ll, I absolutely love doing it – I am so passionate about my work, but I’m gonna need you to go ahead and step up with this one. I believe in you – YOU’VE GOT THIS!!!

 

 

One Response

  1. Penny says:

    Yes to all of this! Thank you for all your FREE AMAZING recipes! The rest is up to us!

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