Portion size - I see it all now.

Hey all,

I've been using CC for a few moths, and I love it. I've been pretty good with my portions and such, sticking within my limit most of the time.

But, today was the first time in ages I had pasta, and I weighed out what I thought was a normal portion - 155 grams in total. It looked like the right amount. When I checked on the back of the packet later to type the food in [CC never seems to have all the right information - Calories or carbs might be right, but fiber/protein etc would be wrong...] and it came to over 500kcal. I nearly wet myself... That, plus the six meatballs and sauce sent the meal to over 1000kcal.

So, I'm over my limit, but under maintence so I'm looking on the bright side - it was the first time I tried wholewheat pasta, and I liked it. Plus, such a big serving = lots of fibre and protein for [virtually] no fat or sodium! Hurrah.

My question is, has anybody else been shocked by their "normal" serving size calories?

the bag portion sizes are for uncooked pasta!

Very inconvenient unless they add in parenthesis what the cooked size will be.

Ditto the previous reply.  I had the same question/problem/thought a while ago as you're describing (when I was cooking a rice mix).  According to the CC info on spaghetti (unenriched, cooked, no salt), 1 serving = 1 cup = 140 g = ~220 kcal.  Don't know what kind of pasta you were eating, but the size of the portion you describe sounds about right to my admittedly small amount of knowledge.  Just remember that a lot of weight has been gained by the food during the cooking process 'cause the water gets absorbed.  If all else fails and the packaging doesn't say the weight for the cooked pasta, I just weigh the cooked food and divide by the number of servings the package says it contains.  That should give you a pretty good estimate of what the serving size is supposed to weigh once cooked and help you portion it out.