possible dumb ?

lisakirt

After you weigh everything to make a recipe for your calories per serving, after you cook the recipe is the calorie count still the same?

Wiseandcurious

That's not dumb, it's an excellent question.

I think some calories are lost when for example fat melts from meat and drips in the pan and you don't serve the drippings on the other hand, some foods are more "digestible" when cooked so your body possibly gets more out of them, and I don't know if raw calorie counts account for that.

In practical terms, I would suggest to weigh raw and not worry about the cooking process. You will still get an accurate picture of how your deficit and weight loss change over time, if you are consistent that is.

ETA: may I just suggest using more informative titles? This way people who are able and willing to answer your question may miss it because of the title

TheGoktor

Interesting articles here:

http://news.sciencemag.org/evolution/2013/02/have-we-been-miscounting-calories

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/19/when-a-calorie-isnt-a-calorie-parsing-the-raw-vs-cooked-food-debate-and-the-curious-case-of-almonds/

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2011/12/08/why-calorie-counts-are-wrong-cooked-food-provides-a-lot-more-energy/#.VM1t8mjF9mw

SergeantSausage

They went off to calorie heaven to be with their loved ones ... <???>

eric_sg61

I typically weigh and measure all the ingredients seperately to put the recipe together. Then I cook it, then weigh the entire finished recipe before dividing into servings. Basically, I am getting the total calorie count before cooking, then after cooking I get the total weight.

ana3067

eric_sg61 wrote: »

I typically weigh and measure all the ingredients seperately to put the recipe together. Then I cook it, then weigh the entire finished recipe before dividing into servings. Basically, I am getting the total calorie count before cooking, then after cooking I get the total weight.

2nd. Although most of the time I don't divide it into servings, I just set the number of servings as the dish weight and grab how many grams of the dish I feel like eating. I only portion out into x servings when it's something like baked oatmeal where I know I'll cut it up into 4 equal pieces.

JPW1990

ana3067 wrote: »

eric_sg61 wrote: »

I typically weigh and measure all the ingredients seperately to put the recipe together. Then I cook it, then weigh the entire finished recipe before dividing into servings. Basically, I am getting the total calorie count before cooking, then after cooking I get the total weight.

2nd. Although most of the time I don't divide it into servings, I just set the number of servings as the dish weight and grab how many grams of the dish I feel like eating. I only portion out into x servings when it's something like baked oatmeal where I know I'll cut it up into 4 equal pieces.

That's worked best for me, too, especially if it's something I've made enough of that it will last a week or some will get frozen for later.

OP, there are some things you really have to watch the labels carefully, though. Some foods list the calories by cooked weight instead of raw/unprepared. Some also list the serving size as a different number than it tells you to use in the directions. Same with the food database here, some things, like eggs, are entered multiple ways - raw, fried, etc. Read carefully to make sure you're choosing the right kind.