Weighing before or after cooking....

WhatAlexDidNext

So, i was wondering...when you eat chicken breast or any other form of meat, do you weigh it before or after cooking?

I get frozen chicken breasts sometimes because its cheap but packed full of protein and it does have the nutritional values (oven cooked) but in terms of fresh chicken, what do you do?

_runnerbean_

I weigh after cooking but make sure I chose a "cooked" option from MFP food list/ eg chicken breast roasted.

Phoenix_Down

Unless otherwise noted on packaging, meats are meant to be weighed prior to cooking as obviously when they weighed it, they don't account for water loss after it's cooked. It makes a significant calorie difference as well. I always weigh thawed, raw.

Ready2Rock206

Before whenever possible.

CooCooPuff

Raw, most of the stuff I weight goes into a recipe.

If something has bones or a hard shell, I'll weight the plate once after cooking and once after I've eaten the meat.

diannethegeek

I weigh most of mine uncooked since that will give the most accurate count. If I need to weight it after cooking that's fine, I just make sure I use an appropriate cooked entry from the database (ie. don't choose a grilled entry if you boiled it, etc.)

VeryKatie

Raw whenever possible! Different cooking methods result in different amounts of water lost. Significantly. Imagine even this - a steak done rare will weight completely different than one that is well done. But both will be the same when raw. If you try looking up "Steak - cooked" who knows what you'll get or if your definition of doneness is the same as MFPs? Same with rice and pasta. They absorb more water the longer they cook.

In my experience, frozen raw or thawed raw is about the same. Technically, thawing can cause water loss as well though, as some of the cells will burst. Not as big a deal I don't think though.

Francl27

Raw when I can, but typically I make big batches, so cooked.