Counting calories may seem like a difficult task, especially when you are cooking at home with multiple ingredients. Besides reading calorie counts on labels, you may need additional tools to calculate the calories in items like fruits, vegetables and other items that may not have a label. Calorie King is a great resource for this; with a few clicks and calculations, you'll be well on your way to figuring out the total and individual serving size calorie counts of your favorite foods and dishes.
Visit CalorieKing.com. Enter the name of the food you are eating or ingredient you are using to cook with.
Choose the food from the list provided. CalorieKing offers several options; for example, if you type in "Banana" your search will yield results of many different foods that have bananas (popular store brands in addition to fast food items), in addition to the fruit itself.
Choose the serving size of your chosen food item or ingredient at the top of the food calorie count page. So for example, if you are making banana bread with 2 cups of bananas, choose the "Cup, mashed (7.9 oz)" from the serving size option and then enter "2" for the number of servings to get the accurate calorie count. For items that are packaged, look on the label and calculate calories accordingly. If the serving size listed on a loaf of bread, for example, is two slices, and you are using eight slices in your recipe, simply multiply the calorie count on the package by four.
Repeat Steps 1 through 3 if you are cooking, baking or preparing a food item with more than one ingredient.
Use a calculator, if needed, to add together the total calorie count of the dish. If the food you are cooking serves more than one person, divide the total calorie count by the number of people that the dish will feed to get the calorie count for individual servings.
If you are looking for the calorie count of a food item from a restaurant (fast food or other), Calorie King also lists several dishes from major chain restaurants.