Do I need to worry about measuring olive oil?

[Anonymous]

I use olive oil a lot in cooking. I toast rice in it, add it to meats when marinating, add it to salads. The thing is, I cook large portions and usually have leftovers. Everyone takes different size servings. I know EVOO is highly dense in calories, but if I’m making, for example, two cups of rice, freezing half for another meal, having leftovers of the half I served, and if DH’s serving is larger than mine but DCs’ servings smaller, how in the world am I determining the calories in the maybe 2-3T of olive oil spread out amongst all of this? Does this make sense? How are we counting calories in things like oil?

[Anonymous]

It is empty calories, I use it for flavor only. It has no nutrition, so if you can use less to one, do it.

[Anonymous]

Yes absolutely - about 120 cal per tablespoon!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes absolutely - about 120 cal per tablespoon!!

+100

Stop using it so much if you're on a diet.

[Anonymous]

You marinate meat in olive oil?? Is that a thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is empty calories, I use it for flavor only. It has no nutrition, so if you can use less to one, do it.

It’s not empty calories! It’s an important component of the Mediterranean Diet. https://www.health.harvard.edu/nutrition/is-extra-virgin-olive-oil-extra-healthy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You marinate meat in olive oil?? Is that a thing?

You'll find varying opinions about whether or not it makes sense, but it's incredibly common.

[Anonymous]

I can’t fathom this making a difference in the real world unless you’re just upending the bottle into the food.

[Anonymous]

If you're closely monitoring calories, I would measure it and then just divide it by servings. It's not completely accurate but it's better than nothing. If it's something like marinating, that's a bit more difficult. I'm sure if you Google how to calorie count in that circumstance, there will be some resources.

If you end to always be in a good deficit or are just generally trying to be healthier/not too worried about actual numbers, I wouldn't be as worried about actual measurements.

[Anonymous]

I count it the same as any other calories in the recipe. So if you used 3 tablespoons of oil that's 360 calories. If you froze half, and split what you didn't freeze into 3 servings, that's 60 extra calories per serving from the oil.

[Anonymous]

No.

[Anonymous]

Like two previous posters mentioned, do the math. You have to count the calories if you are working on a tight caloric budget for whatever reason.

It is no more dense in calories than any other liquid fat. 9 calories per gram.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You marinate meat in olive oil?? Is that a thing?

I sometimes marinate chicken in olive oil, pickle juice, and whatever spices I'm feeling that day. It does make it taste much better. No other meat gets marinated in olive oil.

And yes, you do need to account for any olive oil you use. Olive oil is one of the worst offenders for hidden calories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You marinate meat in olive oil?? Is that a thing?

I sometimes marinate chicken in olive oil, pickle juice, and whatever spices I'm feeling that day. It does make it taste much better. No other meat gets marinated in olive oil.

And yes, you do need to account for any olive oil you use. Olive oil is one of the worst offenders for hidden calories.

I marinate steak in it; it helps the spices stick and helps the sear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t fathom this making a difference in the real world unless you’re just upending the bottle into the food.

If you are watching your weight/cutting calories, beware of this attitude!