weighing food

MrsEGreen

Hubby (my biggest support) recently bought me a digital food scale for my bday. I'm so grateful for it because I was certainly wrong by guessing.

My question is when weighing food, do you weigh before or after its cooked?
Last night I had a piece of steak, before it was cooked it was 200g and after was 115g
I logged 115 but someone said they think your supposed to log what it weighs before its cooked??

Thanks

CurlyCockney

I don't think it really matters, as long as you use the correct data. I weigh after cooking, and use the "cooked" data from the label.

MrsEGreen

What do you mean by data?

CurlyCockney

Sorry, I mean the nutrition data on the label - calories/fat/protein etc., or the MFP database.

Liftng4Lis

Raw, whenever possible.

MrsEGreen

When i scanned the barcode of the package my steak came in the entry wasnt found so I was confused.
Just dont want to log it wrong and be eating too much

CurlyCockney

Did the package have nutrition info on the label? You can add it if MFP doesn't have it (or doesn't have it right).

kshama2001

MrsEGreen wrote: »

Hubby (my biggest support) recently bought me a digital food scale for my bday. I'm so grateful for it because I was certainly wrong by guessing.

My question is when weighing food, do you weigh before or after its cooked?
Last night I had a piece of steak, before it was cooked it was 200g and after was 115g
I logged 115 but someone said they think your supposed to log what it weighs before its cooked??

Thanks

If your entry for meat doesn't say cooked, raw, smoked, etc., you are not using a system-generated entry, but a user entry, which could be wildly inaccurate.

The system entries tend to be rather long and always include ounces and grams.

Used cooked or raw, but use a system entry, or one that you can verify as accurate.

loulamb7

MrsEGreen wrote: »

When i scanned the barcode of the package my steak came in the entry wasnt found so I was confused.
Just dont want to log it wrong and be eating too much

If the data isn't in the database, you can either enter it in yourself or use another entry from the database. If you are using the database you can search on "sirloin steak cooked" or "sirloin steak raw". Just to be prudent review the data for accuracy, some entry are horribly incorrect.

suziecue20

I always weigh my meat, fish and veggies raw. A 200g raw jacket potato will only weigh about 120g when cooked so if you weigh it then you could be way out.

Kalikel

It's a matter of preference. Many people here have said their dietitian suggested weighing things cooked, when possible. Mine did, too, so when I can, I go with the cooked entry. I like that for accuracy, too.

But it isn't always possible because stuff gets mixed together and cannot be weighed independently after being cooked. So, some items are weighed raw.

Whichever one you choose, make sure that you choose the correct entry. If you weigh raw, log it raw. If you weigh cooked, log it cooked.

sandsofarabia

I don't know what difference it makes but I always weigh before. And I've never had problems doing so... still losing weight!

Francl27

Raw when possible. Cooked when not.. but make sure you use the correct entry (raw or cooked).

Steak will never be accurate anyway, as every piece doesn't have the same amount of fat.

betuel75

If you weight before wouldnt you get a weight that includes water in that item which is no calories so weighing after you cook it would be more accurate as now your weighing minus the water in that item? Curious myself...

DeguelloTex

betuel75 wrote: »

If you weight before wouldnt you get a weight that includes water in that item which is no calories so weighing after you cook it would be more accurate as now your weighing minus the water in that item? Curious myself...

The nutritional info for raw and cooked takes that into account. That's why you need to use the correct entry. Most stuff is going to become more calorie dense as it is cooked, with the exceptions being pasta and the like in which liquid is absorbed during cooking.

PinkPixiexox

I weighed my sweet potato raw - I hope I got it right

Liftng4Lis

PinkPixiexox wrote: »

I weighed my sweet potato raw - I hope I got it right

You lost major pounds- you're doing it right!

MrsEGreen

I just assume you weigh it cooked because thats how its being eaten at that weight
Thanks everyone ill make sure the entry is correct and fingers crossed im accurate or not off by much

BurnWithBarn2015

It makes a different indeed
Chosing the right data is important

A raw steak of 112 gram = 256 calories
But cooked the same piece ( so you started with the 112 gram raw) the steak is still 256 but loss of water etc made this 112 gram steak now only 96 grams

So chose the right option when you weigh something

For me i weigh everything raw were i can
And like rice i made 2 entry's for my dairy cooked and dry
So dry i took the label say 46 gram of rice dry is 100 calories ( as example) i cooked it and made what it weigh cooked too
So cooked rice 150 gram now is same amount of calories 100

So some food loses water when cooking others gain water

That is why it is important to chose the right option and now 112 gram cooked steak is 256 calories because it is more. The raw one was 256 calories and when you cook it there is only 96 grams left...but the same amount of calories ( aboutish)

BurnWithBarn2015

This is one of the reasons why i make all my own entry's in the data base so i know that what i log is correct and not chose an entry of somebody who just made an entry and didn't bother looking it up if it was the right amount of calories.