Yukon Gold Potatoes

CM9178

I don't eat potatoes every day, maybe once a week, and when I do, I eat Yukon Gold Potatoes. I usually microwave one and eat the skin as well.
I cannot find an accurate entry for this anywhere in the MFP database. I've been using "Yukon Gold - Yellow Flesh Potatoes" but it is something someone entered. it says 1 medium potato has 110 calories. If I Google the calorie information, i get all different kinds of numbers. One site says 161 cals for a medium potato (173g).
- My question is what is the accurate number of calories per gram of this type of potato?!

jgnatca

I found it on wikipedia. I suspect it's difference over a regular potato, would be small, and in the micronutrients. It looks like you may need to enter it yourself.

CM9178

interesting, that's actually the exact nutrients that the entry I'm using has listed. The only other issue is the entry doesn't give an option to enter how many grams or ounces your potato is.. I guess I'll have to create my own entry. Just find it odd, its not exactly a rare food. You'd think it would be in the database.

Francl27

There are plenty of entries. It's 110 calories for 148g or something. Or just search 'potatoes raw' and use the entry without asterix.

CM9178

There are no entries in the database for a Yukon Gold potato that weren't entered by someone. Yea there are entries for just a regular old potato, but different potatoes have different numbers and I want to be as accurate as possible with my food entries. I'm also not eating raw potatoes.

DataSeven

I eat baked potatoes quite a lot, and usually a good rule of thumb is for whole thing, with skin and all, is pretty much 1 calorie per gram (cooked). So if you have a 200g potato, it's 200 calories. Remember to weigh it cooked, as a raw potato will weigh more due to more water content.

If you're looking for specifics, I found this entry on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukon_Gold_potato

acheben

CM9178 wrote: »

There are no entries in the database for a Yukon Gold potato that weren't entered by someone. Yea there are entries for just a regular old potato, but different potatoes have different numbers and I want to be as accurate as possible with my food entries. I'm also not eating raw potatoes.

It doesn't matter if you aren't eating the potato raw. The weight of your potato will change when it is cooked, but it will still have the same nutrition information.

Unknown

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DataSeven

acheben wrote: »

It doesn't matter if you aren't eating the potato raw. The weight of your potato will change when it is cooked, but it will still have the same nutrition information.

Cooking the potato doesn't change nutritional composition of the actual potato, but for logging purposes it's important to differentiate between a raw and a cooked potato because 300g of cooked potato will have more calories than 300g of raw potato (when you cook a potato some of the water evaporates).

acheben

DataSeven wrote: »

acheben wrote: »

It doesn't matter if you aren't eating the potato raw. The weight of your potato will change when it is cooked, but it will still have the same nutrition information.

Cooking the potato doesn't change nutritional composition of the actual potato, but for logging purposes it's important to differentiate between a raw and a cooked potato because 300g of cooked potato will have more calories than 300g of raw potato (when you cook a potato some of the water evaporates).

I completely agree. The amount of water that evaporates will vary though, so logging the raw potato will be the most accurate.

CM9178

sorry, that confused me even more now. Maybe I"ll just stop eating potatoes, seems easier than all of this.
I weigh my potato after it is cooked, because it weighs less and therefore the weight I am getting is the actual Potato I will be eating minus the water. So how where do I get a calculation from for the cooked potato, if all that is available is RAW information?

callsitlikeiseeit

DataSeven wrote: »

acheben wrote: »

It doesn't matter if you aren't eating the potato raw. The weight of your potato will change when it is cooked, but it will still have the same nutrition information.

Cooking the potato doesn't change nutritional composition of the actual potato, but for logging purposes it's important to differentiate between a raw and a cooked potato because 300g of cooked potato will have more calories than 300g of raw potato (when you cook a potato some of the water evaporates).

explain? if you boil or bake a potato, I don't see how calories can be added because water was removed? that makes no sense? weight changes because water was removed. the nutritional information remains the same (or so negligibly different that it MAKES no difference )+/- a FEW calories) Now... cook it in butter, fry it, cover it in cheese.... yeah. calories galore. but the process of adding heat to cook an item in and of itself i dont think has any effect on calories.

by all means, someone educate me if im wrong.

jgnatca

Baking a potato would remove some of the water.

Francl27

Your raw potato will have the same amount of calories than your cooked potato. The difference is that raw weight will always give the same amount of calories per gram, while cooked weight will vary depending on how cooked your potato is.

So, considering that, again, the potato will have the same nutrition value raw or cooked, as it's the same potato, it's more accurate to weigh it raw, even if obviously nobody eats raw potato.

But if you're going to weigh it cooked anyway, just search for 'potato cooked usda'...

callsitlikeiseeit

Francl27 wrote: »

Your raw potato will have the same amount of calories than your cooked potato. The difference is that raw weight will always give the same amount of calories per gram, while cooked weight will vary depending on how cooked your potato is.

So, considering that, again, the potato will have the same nutrition value raw or cooked, as it's the same potato, it's more accurate to weigh it raw, even if obviously nobody eats raw potato.

But if you're going to weigh it cooked anyway, just search for 'potato cooked usda'...

thats what i thought..... same reason meat is weighed raw and not cooked.

happysquidmuffin

I'm not sure if some of you are understanding her dilemma; If she chooses to weigh her potato after cooking, the problem is finding an accurate entry for a cooked potato. 200g of cooked potato might have been 230g of raw potato (I'm just making up numbers here) - but how are you supposed to guess on what it was?? So duh a raw potato will have the same amount of calories when cooked; the problem is the accuracy of entries and determining whether they are for cooked potato or raw potato.

I guess the solution is to choose an entry that might be the most correct, and change to weighing your potato before cooking it IF it is based on raw weight. Or, somehow find the correct information elsewhere for cooked weight and then input the entry yourself.

lemurcat12

DataSeven wrote: »

acheben wrote: »

It doesn't matter if you aren't eating the potato raw. The weight of your potato will change when it is cooked, but it will still have the same nutrition information.

Cooking the potato doesn't change nutritional composition of the actual potato, but for logging purposes it's important to differentiate between a raw and a cooked potato because 300g of cooked potato will have more calories than 300g of raw potato (when you cook a potato some of the water evaporates).

Yes, and just to make it really clear what matters is the state when you weigh it, not how you eat it.

I just use the USDA entries for potatoes, raw, since that's how I weigh mine. I don't worry about Yukon gold vs. some other type.

Francl27

happysquidmuffin wrote: »

I'm not sure if some of you are understanding her dilemma; If she chooses to weigh her potato after cooking, the problem is finding an accurate entry for a cooked potato. 200g of cooked potato might have been 230g of raw potato (I'm just making up numbers here) - but how are you supposed to guess on what it was?? So duh a raw potato will have the same amount of calories when cooked; the problem is the accuracy of entries and determining whether they are for cooked potato or raw potato.

I guess the solution is to choose an entry that might be the most correct, and change to weighing your potato before cooking it IF it is based on raw weight. Or, somehow find the correct information elsewhere for cooked weight and then input the entry yourself.

So you look for a USDA entry for cooked potato. The difference of calories between each type of potato is so small that it's really not a big deal if it's not exactly the same kind of white potato.