How to calculate the calories in a recipe you cooked
A worked example from a real pot of dal: count the raw ingredients, add the fat, divide by real servings, save the number. Fifteen minutes once per recipe.
5 min read
Blog
Notes on building Forkbell: food data, logging speed, protein, training, and what early testers teach us.
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- Calorie tracking
How to count calories in a way you can keep up past the second week: what to log, what to skip, and where the numbers come from.
17 articles
- Home-cooked food
Counting calories in food that has no barcode: curries, dals, rotis, stews and everything else cooked in a family kitchen.
20 articles
- Protein and macros
How much protein, carbohydrate and fat you actually need, how to reach those numbers, and which of them are worth tracking at all.
16 articles
- Workout logging
Keeping a training log that tells you whether you are getting stronger, in less time than the rest between sets.
16 articles
- Fat loss
Deficits, plateaus, maintenance and the parts of fat loss that a number on a scale will not tell you.
18 articles
- Choosing an app
What separates calorie apps from each other, which one suits which person, and how to move your data when you switch.
13 articles
Latest
IFCT or USDA: which numbers should you trust?
Two national food composition tables, built for two food supplies. When each one is right, why they disagree about the same food, and what to do about it.
5 min read
Should you weigh food raw or cooked?
Raw weight is reproducible and matches most database entries. Cooked weight is what you can actually measure. The conversion factors and when each one is right.
5 min read
Roti or rice: which one actually costs you more?
Per calorie they are almost identical. The real differences are portion control, protein, fibre and what gets served alongside each one.
5 min read
Daily weight lies. The trend does not.
Weigh every morning and read only the seven-day average. Why the daily number is mostly noise, and how to build a trend that tells you what to do next.
5 min read
Why two apps give the same roti different calories
Different databases, source types, raw versus cooked states and user-submitted entries. Why calorie apps disagree, and which number you should actually use.
5 min read
Why the scale went up overnight when you did nothing
Sodium, carbohydrate, gut contents, training and the menstrual cycle all move body water by a kilogram or more. What each one does and how long it lasts.
4 min read
Calories in dosa, idli, vada and sambar
Idli is the lightest common breakfast in India at about 60 kcal each. Dosa, masala dosa, vada and sambar, with the oil and the chutney counted.
5 min read
Calorie tracking
- Why two apps give the same roti different calories
- Tracking calories while travelling, without guesswork
- Tracking calories when one pot feeds four people
- How to track calories without a food scale
- How to track alcohol without ruining the week
- How to read a nutrition label in ten seconds
- How to log a restaurant meal you didn't cook
- How to log leftovers and second helpings honestly
- How long should you track calories before stopping?
- How accurate are calorie counts, really?
- Hand portion sizes: the method that needs no tools
- Does cooking change the calories in your food?
- Do you have to track calories every single day?
- Nine calorie tracking mistakes that quietly add up
- Calorie tracking for beginners: your first seven days
- When calorie tracking stops helping you
- How to track calories without giving up in week two
Home-cooked food
- How to calculate the calories in a recipe you cooked
- IFCT or USDA: which numbers should you trust?
- Should you weigh food raw or cooked?
- Roti or rice: which one actually costs you more?
- Calories in dosa, idli, vada and sambar
- How much oil is actually in your curry?
- Calories in one roti, and why the range is so wide
- Calories in a cup of rice, cooked and uncooked
- Calories in poha, upma and other quick breakfasts
- Calories in paneer, raw and in five common dishes
- Calories in gulab jamun, jalebi and five more sweets
- Calories in samosa, pakora, vada pav and kachori
- Calories in ghee, butter and the tadka on top
- Calories in a katori of dal: nine dals compared
- Calories in curd, milk, buttermilk and lassi
- Calories in chicken curry: what the oil really costs
- Calories in chai, coffee and everything you add
- Calories in a plate of biryani, veg and chicken
- Calories in a thali, plate by plate
- How to count calories in home-cooked food
Protein and macros
- Vegetarian protein worth the calories it costs
- What macros are, and which ones are worth counting
- Protein timing: what matters and what doesn't
- Protein per kilo: where the number comes from
- Paneer or tofu: the protein comparison in full
- Protein in eggs, whole and whites only
- Protein in dal, chana, rajma and the rest
- Protein in chicken breast, raw and cooked
- What macro split actually helps fat loss?
- Is whey protein necessary, or just convenient?
- Hitting your protein without a single scoop
- Fibre, fullness, and the macro nobody counts
- Do you need to track macros, or just calories?
- Dietary fat: the minimum, and why it has one
- Carbs: how many you need and when it matters
- How much protein do you actually need per day?
Workout logging
- What to record in a training log, and what to skip
- Training volume or intensity: what to track
- How many sets per muscle per week is enough?
- Strength plateaus: what a log shows first
- RPE and RIR: how to rate a set you just did
- How long to rest between sets, by goal
- How to read real progress out of a training log
- Progressive overload, in numbers you can check
- Notebook or app: what a workout log is really for
- Logging home workouts when nothing has a weight
- How to log cardio without lying to yourself
- Why food and training belong in the same log
- Deload weeks: when you need one and how to tell
- Are the calories-burned numbers worth anything?
- The first twelve weeks of a strength log
- How to log your workouts in under a minute
Fat loss
- Daily weight lies. The trend does not.
- Why the scale went up overnight when you did nothing
- What a weight loss plateau usually turns out to be
- Losing fat on a vegetarian diet, without powder
- Water weight: how much it hides and for how long
- Steps, NEAT, and the calories you burn standing up
- Sleep and fat loss: the part nobody logs
- Maintenance calories, and how to find yours
- Losing weight without giving up Indian food
- Losing fat while keeping the muscle you built
- How to stop dieting without gaining it all back
- How to calculate your TDEE, and what it can't say
- How to calculate your calorie deficit properly
- How fast should you lose weight? The honest range
- What changes about fat loss after 40
- Cheat meals, refeeds, and what a big day costs
- Breaking the restrict-and-binge cycle
- How to lose fat without quitting in three weeks
Choosing an app
- Logging food by voice: what it actually fixes
- How accurate is calorie counting from a photo?
- One app for food and workouts, or two good ones?
- MyFitnessPal alternatives, compared on what matters
- What your calorie app knows about you
- Free or paid: what you actually lose for nothing
- How to judge a calorie app's food database
- How to get your food log out of any app
- The best calorie app for Indian food, assessed
- What barcode scanning can and cannot do
- Paper food diary or app: which one you'll keep
- How to choose a calorie tracking app that sticks
- Why I'm building Forkbell