I have a question. I have made the fish stew tonight and it says it’s 390 calories for 1 serving and it serves 2. I have been through all the ingredients and I can only get the calories to add up to more or less 390 for the whole pan of stew. There’s no way there’s nearly 800 calls in the pan?? I’m using Spanish stock cube which is only 20 cals, tomatoes are only 65 cals, seafood was 200 cals, 80 cals for the olive oil and I’m overestimating, fennel was 12 cals, spinach was 10 cals, the rest of the few cals are for the garlic and little bit of onion. Am I making a mistake coz I’m about to eat the whole pan?

The calorie count for any recipe that does not specify quantities should be taken with a grain of salt, especially when the missing quantities are for high calorie items like oil and vermouth! Even the lowly fennel bulb can add up. The last fennel bulb I used was 99 calories (not 12) – so you might want to weigh and check every ingredient – if calories are important to you!

When the quantities are missing (actually even when they’re not – since I’m obsessive ), I play with a recipe in myfitnesspal.com before I make it, in order to reach approximately the number of calories the recipe says. (Or, in some instances, to adjust the carbs downward.)

I counted and weighed everything. Even if I’d used all 300g of the fennel bulb it was only 36 cals according to nutracheck app. But I only used a 3rd as I was unsure if I would like the flavour. Even mfp said 1 cup of fennel was 27 cals. I certainly used less than that. I counted the amount of oil rather than drizzle which is extremely open to miscalculation. I was just curious because I am fastidious when it comes to counting the calories on this 8 week plan and I checked this numerous times. It was delicious anyway!

The USDA database says 31 calories per 100 grams (so 93 grams for your 300 gram bulb, per the USDA database; the last bulb I used must have been a hair above 300 grams). The USDA determines the calories scientifically – eons ago my brother worked in that division. I’ve lost the details of the process, but it pretty reliable. 27 calories is accurate for a cup (per the USDA database), but a cup is only 87 grams. I always put USDA in front of my mfp search term if it is a raw ingredient. Or you can just go here: https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods?qlookup=&new=1

Glad it was delicious! I’m being fastidious about calories as well (which is how I know how many calories fennel has – I’d just used it in the equally yummy spicy chicken with lentils recipe).