Weighing things

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Jbell0213
Jbell0213 Posts: 189 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Can you guys advise why many say to weigh things before you cook them, ie rice, ground meat. Things like this. Why not weigh after.

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  • Cynsonya
    Cynsonya Posts: 668 Member
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    Because cooked calorie counts can vary too much. The count would change depending on how long something was cooked, etc. So it's much harder to figure out the "true" calories.
  • piheart
    piheart Posts: 122 Member
    edited February 2016
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    Often times food loses water during the cooking process, and most database entries correspond to the raw weights of things. In my experience, raw database entries tend to be more accurate for foods like fruits, veg, meats. However, USDA does list some calories for cooked veggies & other things with the specific method they were cooked in as part of the entry, so you could use those as well.
  • blankiefinder
    blankiefinder Posts: 3,599 Member
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    Jbell0213 wrote: »
    Can you guys advise why many say to weigh things before you cook them, ie rice, ground meat. Things like this. Why not weigh after.

    Because the length of time you cook meat determines the water content after, and you're not going to find listings for beef, well done, 95% of naturally occurring water boiled off... since the water is calorie free, it's important to weigh before cooking.
  • Jbell0213
    Jbell0213 Posts: 189 Member
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    Thank you for confirming
  • Meganthedogmom
    Meganthedogmom Posts: 1,639 Member
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    Also in the case of rice, pasta, etc., it actually absorbs water, so the weight after cooking will be more/much different.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    meganridenour wrote: »
    Also in the case of rice, pasta, etc., it actually absorbs water, so the weight after cooking will be more/much different.

    Yep, if you're weighing rice or pasta after cooking, you're logging WAY too many calories. Eek!
  • amy_kee
    amy_kee Posts: 694 Member
    edited February 2016
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    meganridenour wrote: »
    Also in the case of rice, pasta, etc., it actually absorbs water, so the weight after cooking will be more/much different.

    Orphia wrote: »
    meganridenour wrote: »
    Also in the case of rice, pasta, etc., it actually absorbs water, so the weight after cooking will be more/much different.

    Yep, if you're weighing rice or pasta after cooking, you're logging WAY too many calories. Eek!


    Thanks for explaining this. I don't know why I didn't just realize this. It makes perfect sense.

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