How to Count Calories in Pasta Dishes

The food pyramid, established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, recommends whole grains as one of the bases for your daily calorie intake. Whole-grain pasta provides an excellent source of complex carbohydrates and whole grain. In addition to the pasta, pasta dishes include proteins, vegetables, herbs, sauces and oils. If you are wondering how many calories are in your pasta dish and in each serving, reading the nutrition labels and writing down each ingredient's calorie totals can help you calculate the total calorie count.

Things You'll Need

• Nutrition labels
• Online calorie calculator

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Instructions

• 1

  Read over the nutrition labels of all the ingredients you will use in your pasta dishes, such as noodles, cheese, sauces, oils and seasoning. Be sure to calculate the calories according to the serving sizes. For example, if a package serves three and each serving size calorie amount is 250, the total calorie count becomes 750 if you ate the whole package in your serving plate.

• 2

  Create a list of all the ingredients used, including spices, herbs and seasoning, and write the total amount of calories beside each ingredient. For spices, herbs and seasonings, you may have to use an online calorie calculator, as NutritionData.com, to find the calorie values of unlabeled spices and herbs.

• 3

  Add up all the calorie values you have written in Step 2. If you are splitting the pasta dish into individual serving plates, make sure to disperse the dish evenly to receive a more accurate calorie count. Once you have added up the total calorie count for the entire pasta dish, divide that number by the number of people who ate, to get the calorie count per serving.