how to calculate macros of homemade kombucha

Around the time I met my husband (over 15 years ago), I met an older woman who had this mysterious jar with a gel-like layer and asked her what it was. She told me it was homemade kombucha. And at that time I had never heard of anything like it. I must have sampled it and liked it because I brought one home to my parents house and tried brewing it in a long, narrow plastic water container with a spout on the bottom. The kombucha did not successfully brew, nor was doing it in this manner safe. I abandoned ship like I did with so many other pursuits during this busy and distracted season of my life. I’m sure my mom loved this about me. haha.

the saga continues

A few years later my now husband and I were dating and we went to an “underground” show with a friend. Walking down the streets of Boston, we couldn’t find the venue we were looking for until someone opened the front door of a triple decker and asked if we were looking for the <illegal venue name>. And alas, we walked in, paid a menial cover fee, and then went down the steep stairs into the (completely safe) basement fully equipped with fire exits. not.

After concluding that, yes, indeed, I would die in that basement if there was an emergency, I heard some of the best live music I’ve heard to date and had a great time. After the show, we were hanging out on the first floor of the apartment house and in the kitchen on top of the fridge was another one of those mysterious jars. I inquired and indeed, Kombucha! I can’t remember if at this point I either took some SCOBY with me or declined because it didn’t seem right to walk the streets of Boston with a SCOBY in a jar. Either way I never kept up with the brewing while living in my parent’s house.

gotta have that homemade kombucha

After we got married and I became a Mom less than a year later (our daughter was 3 weeks old at our 1st anniversary), the what to eat came to the forefront of my mind. I wanted the best possible for her. I focused on feeding myself and my daughter the healthiest most nutritious foods for our health that I could afford. Full fat (later raw) dairy, fermented foods, and homemade sourdough bread met the bill. My warehouse of ferments kept growing, and first included water kefir, and then kombucha.

Unfortunately, despite this increased consumption of ultra nutritious foods, I kept GAINING, and GAINING, and GAINING weight. I could not figure out why and this question kept burning in the back of my mind.

Insert counting macros

I lurked on a macro counting facebook page for a while. Years later, my husband got inspired to count macros and I finally broke down and tracked what I was eating. I was 1) shocked how undernourished I was in the area of protein 2) how I was actually able to track so many whole foods if I just ate them in different ways. My casserole and one pot meal days were over and my husband was PUMPED. I had a long standing phobia of cooking separate meat, vegetables, and starch and the Lord knows this is all he wanted for 8 years. I was easily able to count the macros of homemade sourdough and even raw dairy but what about my precious ferments?

If you’ve tracked macros or looked into it you will notice the importance of being precise and accurate. Tracking every ingredient, even every oil you dump into your pan before cooking your meat. Tracking your meat weight RAW. Surely this was overwhelming for me. Eventually I found my stride and was able to steadily lose weight

In my technical weighing everything mindset I thought I was going to have to write off my homemade kombucha. I could buy store bought so I would “actually know” the macros of it. But I am way too cheap and zero waste for that. I kept seeing people suggest “just use the label of the item at the store” for certain things. It didn’t compute in my brain how this could work. Wasn’t my kombucha different? How can I calculate the macros of my homemade kombucha?

Overthinking it

After doing some research and quieting my type A side, I finally got comfortable with using store bought kombucha as a reference for my homemade kombucha. When comparing the nutritional facts of a few popular kombuchas we can determine the difference between different products is negligible. Therefore we can “cut our losses” and just use this general information to calculate the macros of our homemade kombucha when we weigh it. This is not also an issue of a high calorie product or a product we would be consuming at every meal. Kombucha can be consumed daily but it should be in moderation. Realistically it’s not like the limited calories in this fermented beverage are going to add up in an extreme fashion.

calculate the macros of homemade kombucha

300g of kombucha provides:

36 calories

0g of protein

10g of carbohydrates

0g of fat

homemade kombucha consumed.

My fear that if I counted macros I would become an uptight rule follower has been disproved. Maybe it has this affect on some people. And it’s your choice if you prefer or feel it’s easier to buy storebought kombucha and do that for the sake of being “exact”. I feel set free that I can apply as much of the rules that I can apply at that time and for my lifestyle and STILL work towards my weight loss goals. I have an awareness and feeling of control over my weight which I have never had before. Accountability is accountability and thats all it comes down to. The scale can hold us accountable with every bite of food. And regardless of the weight loss, I’m finding greater health from a proper balance of nutrition in my life. Praise the Lord.