Cooking Big, Tracking Smart

Ever try to log a home-cooked dinner and realize you have absolutely no idea how much you just ate?

You made a big pot of chili or a tray of baked pasta for the whole family, scooped yourself a serving, and thought, “Okay… how do I track this?”

Cooking in bulk saves time, money, and sanity — but when it comes to tracking macros, it can get confusing fast. Do you weigh the ingredients before or after cooking? Do you divide it by servings? What if I eat different amounts for each serving?

You can cook in bulk and family-style without losing track of your goals. Once you learn a few simple systems for portioning and logging, you’ll never have to choose between family dinners and macro accuracy again.

In this week’s post, we’ll cover:

• How to cook for multiple people when tracking macros

• Simple ways to track bulk recipes and shared meals

• Coach-tested tips for making meal prep work long-term

We'll make this simple so you can spend less time doing macro math and more time enjoying your food.

Why Bulk Prepping Food is Important

Cooking in bulk isn’t just about saving time (though that’s a big one). It’s about making your nutrition goals easier to stick to, especially when life gets busy or you’re feeding more than just yourself.

When you cook in bulk, you:

• Save time and energy. One kitchen mess, multiple meals.

• Reduce decision fatigue. Fewer “What should I eat?” moments throughout the week.

• Stay more consistent. When balanced, macro-friendly meals are already made, you’re less likely to grab random snacks or skip tracking altogether.

• Keep family meals flexible. You can build one base recipe that everyone eats and still adjust your own portion sizes to fit your goals.

Bulk cooking is one of the easiest ways to bridge the gap between real life and staying on track. Once you stop thinking of it as an “all-or-nothing” task and start seeing it as a tool, you’ll wonder why you ever cooked one serving at a time.

How to Cook for Multiple People While Tracking Macros

Cooking for yourself is one thing. Cooking for a partner, kids, or an entire family while trying to stay on track? That’s next-level.

The key is to start thinking in “base + build” meals — one shared base that everyone eats, with simple add-ons to make it work for different needs.

Here’s how:

• Start with a flexible base. Think proteins, starches, and veggies that can be used in different combinations — like grilled chicken, rice, and roasted veggies. Everyone eats the same foundation, but toppings and sauces can change it up.

• Add variety through toppings. You can easily make one meal fit multiple preferences by changing the add-ons. Example:

  • You: grilled chicken + rice + avocado + salsa

  • Kids: grilled chicken + rice + shredded cheese

  • Partner: chicken burrito bowl with tortilla and sour cream

• Batch cook, but store separately. Keep your proteins, carbs, and veggies in separate containers instead of mixing everything together. It makes portioning (and tracking) much easier later.

• Keep a few “family favorites” with known macros. Once you calculate the macros for a bulk recipe (instructions next!), save it in your tracking app. That way, you can reuse it with one tap instead of starting from scratch every time.

Cooking for multiple people doesn’t have to mean sacrificing accuracy or flavor, it just takes a little structure.

How to Track Bulk Meals

Here’s the truth: there’s no one right way to track bulk meals. It depends on your cooking style, your goals, and how precise you want to be.

Below are two simple methods you can use.

Option 1: The Recipe Method (most accurate)

1. Weigh each ingredient before cooking and keep the weights handy — make a note in your phone or use a post-it.

2. After cooking, weigh the entire finished recipe. Pro tip: this might require you to weigh your cooking dish empty beforehand empty, so you can subtract it from the finished product!

3. Create a new recipe in your tracking app and designate the number of servings as the total finished weight in grams.

4. Weigh your portion and now grams = servings for exact accuracy.

Example:

Your entire pot of chili weighs 2,106g after cooking. You log it as a recipe and designate there are 2,106 servings.

Weigh your portion. Say it’s 345 grams, so you log 345 servings.

Or, play with the serving size to fit what your macros need that day, then scoop your portion accordingly.

No math, super accurate.

Option 2: The Serving Method (fastest & easiest)

If your current goals don’t require you to care about exact grams, this one’s for you.

1. Log all meal components or recipe ingredients into your tracker.

2. Decide how many servings you’ll divide it into (e.g., 6 servings).

3. Save it as a recipe with however many servings you’ve determined.

Then, when you dish it up, just log “1 serving” or “1/2 serving.”

Perfect for casseroles, soups, or slow-cooker meals, where the serving size is going to be pretty uniformish.

Real-Life Example: Family-Style Taco Night

Let’s put this all together with a simple example.

Say you’re making ground turkey tacos for your family:

• 2 lbs (907g) lean ground turkey

• 1 packet taco seasoning

• 1 cup salsa

• Optional sides: rice, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, tortillas

Here’s how you could track it:

1. Weigh and take note of all ingredients (raw turkey, taco seasoning, salsa.)

2. After cooking, weigh the full pan of taco meat — let’s say it’s 1,200g cooked.

3. Save the recipe with 1200 servings.

4. Scoop your portion, weigh it (say it’s 250g), and log 250 servings.

5. Separately log your portions of rice, cheese, sour cream, lettuce and tortilla.

Everyone else can eat the same meal with their preferred toppings and individual serving size, while you stay right on track — no separate dinner required.

Coach-Tested Tips for Simplifying Bulk Cooking

Tracking bulk meals doesn’t have to feel like a science experiment. A few small habits can make the whole process smoother:

• Use consistent containers. Having go-to containers (like 3-compartment meal prep boxes or Mason jars) makes it easy to eyeball portions and stay consistent week to week.

• Save recipes in your tracker. Once you’ve logged a bulk recipe, save it under a name you’ll remember (like “Taco Bake”). That way, you can reuse it instead of rebuilding it every time.

• Batch once, remix all week. Cook your proteins, carbs, and veggies separately. Then you can mix and match different meals (bowls, wraps, salads) without starting from scratch.

• Don’t chase perfection. We’re here to guide you, not stress you out. A few missed grams from a home cooked meal is not going to make or break your progress.

Keep It Simple, Keep It Sustainable

Cooking in bulk is one of the best ways to save time, reduce stress, and stay consistent, especially when you’re balancing family, work, and a full life outside the kitchen.

The goal isn’t to measure every gram forever. It’s to build awareness, find your rhythm, and make your nutrition goals fit your real life.

Try one bulk recipe this week — chili, pasta bake, taco meat, or sheet pan chicken — and practice one of the tracking methods we covered. You’ll be surprised how quickly it becomes second nature.

And if it still feels tricky? That’s exactly what our WAG coaches are here for. We’ll help you simplify, problem-solve, and find systems that actually work for you.