Smoothies and MFP?

[jgenie]

If smoothies are a diet staple for you and you use MFP or something else to track calories, how do you figure calories and such for tracking? Do you measure everything and tally before you make your smoothie and then portion out the final product? TIA

[pastrygirl]

Yes, that's how I do it. I create the smoothie as a recipe and put in all quantities, then decide how many servings it will be, and drink that much. I don't so much worry about exact measurements, but do something like, I'll serve roughly three glasses with this, so it makes 3 servings.


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[bostonsmama]

I have such a hard time with smoothie recipes. Either they use ingredients I can't or won't use (sugar, peanut butter, already-made juice), or I'm subbing with what I have on hand. Plus, I like to add chia seeds to my smoothies, and that ups the fat and calories, so most recipes don't include those even though they're so good for you. Also, when you use chia gel, it seems impossible to figure out what that equated to dry in tablespoons or weight.

When we do smoothies (2-3x/week), it's a snack after a light lunch so we don't have to worry too much about calories. We just use whole fruits and vegetables (cored apple, banana, mango, cherries, berries, and kale, spinach or carrots), include a healthy fat + protein like almond butter, avocado or chia seeds, and add ice or almond milk to dilute it. Sometimes we use 2% greek yogurt if it's a single-fruit smoothie. I try to eyeball what I think DD would eat whole, then double it so I can have some, too. My Ninja pitcher also has ounce measurements on the side, and I try to make sure we both have less than 10-12oz each. Most of our smoothie batches come out between 16 and 22 oz. DD often eats a lighter dinner afterwards, too.