Need help with starting to weigh food please!
ghouli
Posts: 207 Member
Just jumping into the world of food scales and accurately logging food, aaaaand I'm a bit lost on how to weigh certain things.
Like eggs, would I weigh them before cooking them or afterward? Same question for stuff like chicken and fish. And for liquids and things like olive oil/vegetable oil, is it better to use measuring cups/spoons or weigh those as well?
Also what is the best unit to measure in, grams or ounces?
Just want to make sure I'll be doing this right and as accurately as possible.
Like eggs, would I weigh them before cooking them or afterward? Same question for stuff like chicken and fish. And for liquids and things like olive oil/vegetable oil, is it better to use measuring cups/spoons or weigh those as well?
Also what is the best unit to measure in, grams or ounces?
Just want to make sure I'll be doing this right and as accurately as possible.
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Replies
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Everything is mostly meant to be weighed raw/dry/before cooking. Grams is the most accurate measure. Measuring cups are good for liquids, but for stuff like peanut butter you are best off weighing it.0
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queenliz99 wrote: »
Thank you, didn't see that earlier! I'll read through that thread.0 -
Weighing the food while raw is more accurate for most things.
There are "cooked" and "raw" entries for most foods in the MFP database. If you need or want to weigh something after cooking, then be sure you're choosing an appropriate and accurate entry (ie. don't use a boiled entry if you grilled it).
Grams are more accurate simply because it's a smaller unit of measure. There are approximately 28 grams to the ounce, so you can be a bit more precise with them.
Measuring cups are usually fine for liquids.
I also like these links if you want more information:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1290491/how-and-why-to-use-a-digital-food-scale0 -
diannethegeek wrote: »Weighing the food while raw is more accurate for most things.
There are "cooked" and "raw" entries for most foods in the MFP database. If you need or want to weigh something after cooking, then be sure you're choosing an appropriate and accurate entry (ie. don't use a boiled entry if you grilled it).
Grams are more accurate simply because it's a smaller unit of measure. There are approximately 28 grams to the ounce, so you can be a bit more precise with them.
Measuring cups are usually fine for liquids.
I also like these links if you want more information:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1290491/how-and-why-to-use-a-digital-food-scale
Thank you!! Bookmarked the links so I can read them after work
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I weigh my meats after they're cooked and chopped. Weighing cooked vs. raw helps avoid contamination and food poisoning, so that's good. When making rolls, pita bread, etc., I weight raw dough for consistency. Target has a good digital scale that can switch between oz. and grams for like $20 or something, it's flat, sleek and is about the size of two cell phones next to each other. It also has a tare function (Google tare weight). Recipes vary between oz. and grams depending on the author, so having both makes it easier. Like diannethegeek said, volume is okay for liquids IMO. Once you're familiar with the portion sizes by weighing them, you can eyeball it pretty accurately, so you shouldn't have to weight your food forever. 0
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You've gotten good answers to your questions, so I'll tell you something you didn't ask about but that I think is important to know. Learn to use the "tare" function on your scale. That means you can put things on the scale and set it back to read zero.
So, for instance, let's say you're making a salad in a bowl. Put an empty bowl on the scale and tare it to zero. Add some lettuce. Log the weight of the lettuce, and then tare the scale again. Now you have a bowl of lettuce that shows zero weight. Add some cucumbers, and log them. Tare again..etc. Each item starts off at zero, yet you're only using one bowl to weigh everything. One of the nice advantages of this is that you don't have to attempt getting exact amounts of ingredients. Let's say your goal is to have 20 grams of cucumber. You may wind up with 18 grams, or 23 grams. Just log whatever you actually add. Don't worry to much about what constitutes "a serving" of something. As long as you log what you actually eat, then your log will be accurate.
The point is to stay within your calorie goal, not to become an expert on getting "exactly one serving" of anything.0 -
Rick_Nelson81 wrote: »I weigh my meats after they're cooked and chopped. Weighing cooked vs. raw helps avoid contamination and food poisoning, so that's good. When making rolls, pita bread, etc., I weight raw dough for consistency. Target has a good digital scale that can switch between oz. and grams for like $20 or something, it's flat, sleek and is about the size of two cell phones next to each other. It also has a tare function (Google tare weight). Recipes vary between oz. and grams depending on the author, so having both makes it easier. Like diannethegeek said, volume is okay for liquids IMO. Once you're familiar with the portion sizes by weighing them, you can eyeball it pretty accurately, so you shouldn't have to weight your food forever.
This makes me wonder how you are weighing. If you use the tare feature you don't need to put anything directly on your scale, so I don't see how you would be introducing any extra risk of food poisoning. For example - put cutting board on scale and tare it. Put your raw meat on it. Record the weight, move the board to counter for preparing your meat. Or, if you have presliced meats that you are adding straight from a package, weigh the package, empty it, then weigh the remaining packaging and subtract.
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You've gotten good answers to your questions, so I'll tell you something you didn't ask about but that I think is important to know. Learn to use the "tare" function on your scale. That means you can put things on the scale and set it back to read zero.
So, for instance, let's say you're making a salad in a bowl. Put an empty bowl on the scale and tare it to zero. Add some lettuce. Log the weight of the lettuce, and then tare the scale again. Now you have a bowl of lettuce that shows zero weight. Add some cucumbers, and log them. Tare again..etc. Each item starts off at zero, yet you're only using one bowl to weigh everything. One of the nice advantages of this is that you don't have to attempt getting exact amounts of ingredients. Let's say your goal is to have 20 grams of cucumber. You may wind up with 18 grams, or 23 grams. Just log whatever you actually add. Don't worry to much about what constitutes "a serving" of something. As long as you log what you actually eat, then your log will be accurate.
The point is to stay within your calorie goal, not to become an expert on getting "exactly one serving" of anything.
This is extremely useful, thank you. The scale I'm getting does have the tare function but I hadn't really looked into what that means and it sounds like it's something that will definitely be handy and convenient.0 -
When I first started using my scale I didn't think I'd use it that much, but when I started making salads for the week, I was pretty glad not to have to keep resetting my scale and just kept on adding things to it after tare.You've gotten good answers to your questions, so I'll tell you something you didn't ask about but that I think is important to know. Learn to use the "tare" function on your scale. That means you can put things on the scale and set it back to read zero.
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I tare my container (usually a Tupperware) and weight everything in that container. If you're using raw stuff, you can always just tare different containers for your different things. My point was I don't have raw meat or blood anywhere near my scale.0
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Rick_Nelson81 wrote: »I tare my container (usually a Tupperware) and weight everything in that container. If you're using raw stuff, you can always just tare different containers for your different things. My point was I don't have raw meat or blood anywhere near my scale.
Doesn't sound like a good enough reason to give up the convenience and accuracy of the raw measurement, IMO.
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Grams for dry, millilitres for liquids. Being from the UK I don't understand why people would use cup measures over grams and ml.0
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Rick_Nelson81 wrote: »I tare my container (usually a Tupperware) and weight everything in that container. If you're using raw stuff, you can always just tare different containers for your different things. My point was I don't have raw meat or blood anywhere near my scale.
Doesn't sound like a good enough reason to give up the convenience and accuracy of the raw measurement, IMO.
How is it more convenient to weight raw? And if you're eating the cooked product, is it not more accurate to weigh it cooked? I don't understand.0 -
I weigh most everything (fruits,veggies,meat) cooked except potatoes I weigh those raw. At least that's what my trainer told me to do.0
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What matters is to make sure that the calorie/gram that you're using is for the format of the food. If you're weighing raw food, make sure the calories/gram is for raw. If you're weighing cooked food, the calories/gram needs to be for cooked food. Sometimes there's a huge difference, sometimes not much at all. I've found the biggest differences to be with dry foods that are boiled and become much heavier (also larger, but that only matters if you're using volume measurements) when cooked, such as rice.0
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You've gotten good answers to your questions, so I'll tell you something you didn't ask about but that I think is important to know. Learn to use the "tare" function on your scale. That means you can put things on the scale and set it back to read zero.
So, for instance, let's say you're making a salad in a bowl. Put an empty bowl on the scale and tare it to zero. Add some lettuce. Log the weight of the lettuce, and then tare the scale again. Now you have a bowl of lettuce that shows zero weight. Add some cucumbers, and log them. Tare again..etc. Each item starts off at zero, yet you're only using one bowl to weigh everything. One of the nice advantages of this is that you don't have to attempt getting exact amounts of ingredients. Let's say your goal is to have 20 grams of cucumber. You may wind up with 18 grams, or 23 grams. Just log whatever you actually add. Don't worry to much about what constitutes "a serving" of something. As long as you log what you actually eat, then your log will be accurate.
The point is to stay within your calorie goal, not to become an expert on getting "exactly one serving" of anything.
This is a great peice of advice, tips of the trade. I haven't started weighing my foods yet because I seem to be reaching my goals so far without but I have been thinking I would start weighing some meals here and there to see how far off the mark I am with estimating. I was thinking how in the world would I weigh how much butter or Vegemite or jam I put on a sandwich and now that I've read this it seems so obvious.
Thanks @64crayons
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Rick_Nelson81 wrote: »Rick_Nelson81 wrote: »I tare my container (usually a Tupperware) and weight everything in that container. If you're using raw stuff, you can always just tare different containers for your different things. My point was I don't have raw meat or blood anywhere near my scale.
Doesn't sound like a good enough reason to give up the convenience and accuracy of the raw measurement, IMO.
How is it more convenient to weight raw? And if you're eating the cooked product, is it not more accurate to weigh it cooked? I don't understand.
It's not more accurate to weigh it cooked, because you can cook it a different amount and lose a lot of water weight. Overcooked, dry chicken breast will weigh less than if you cooked the same breast for less time and retained more water.
Also, if you are adding meat to a recipe you definitely should weigh it raw before you added it, since there's no way to separate the weight of the ingredients otherwise.0 -
Okay so you lose water weight, so raw food will weight more than cooked food because of the excess water that will be cooked off. So 10g of raw chicken will weigh, whatever, 9 g after it's cooked. You're going to record that you ate an extra gram of chicken? Also, if you're using the weight of raw meat to find the calories of cooked meat your numbers will be off. If you record that you're eating raw meat your numbers will be off because cooking creates...changes... the sugar content of the food, which is why toast is better than bread. So...0
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Rick_Nelson81 wrote: »Okay so you lose water weight, so raw food will weight more than cooked food because of the excess water that will be cooked off. So 10g of raw chicken will weigh, whatever, 9 g after it's cooked. You're going to record that you ate an extra gram of chicken? Also, if you're using the weight of raw meat to find the calories of cooked meat your numbers will be off. If you record that you're eating raw meat your numbers will be off because cooking creates...changes... the sugar content of the food, which is why toast is better than bread. So...
I do not believe cooking will significantly change the nutritional analysis, with some obvious exceptions like if you log bacon raw, it includes all the fat that will cook off (logging it as raw will be accurate if you eat all the bacon grease, so you have to consider that when you are logging). You are more likely to slightly overestimate by logging raw, which is better than underestimating if you are trying to lose weight.0 -
I would look closely at some of the differences between raw and cooked foods, I use NutritionalData.com. Some foods may be too close to really matter, but others may be quite different. Here's an example:
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Yes. The difference is because when you cook it, what started as 100g of raw meat became fewer grams of cooked meat. 100g of roasted chicken is more chicken than 100g of raw chicken. Just try weighing a raw chicken breast and then weighing it again after you've roasted it and comparing the two counts - log it first by the raw weight (using a raw entry) and then a cooked weight for the appropriate cooking method entry (e.g. breast, roasted). They will be very close in calories and macros. Nothing is totally exact in this - all calorie counting is just a best estimate.0
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You may prefer your meat rare, for example, but the person who created the cooked meat entry on MFP likes their meat dry and rubbery. Their meat will weigh less even if you both started off with the same size raw meat.0
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Well for one I don't think cooking will result in the loss of only one gram! Pretty much everything @mathandcats said. Wait, Math and cats? Haha
Anyway, another convenience factor is that most foods will have nutritional info "as packaged". If I buy raw and log cooked, then I'm going to another source to get the nutritional info, I imagine. But I suppose your habits actually drive you to validate every entry up front, which is probably a good thing!0 -
I weigh my chicken and meats cooked and use cooked nutritional value for that. If I'm making some kind,of casserole, or chili, or whatever, then I use the raw numbers and the recipe builder and divide it after its cooked. As a general rule, raw meat loses about 20% of its weight after its cooked. I find the same with potatoes, 5 oz comes out to about 4 oz cooked. . Dry pasta is double in weight once its cooked, so 2 oz of dry usually weighs 4 oz after its cooked. I use one either depending if I'm only cooking one portion of pasta or more.
For the OP, I don't ever weigh eggs. I just count the number of eggs and that's it. No need to do that.
For most things I use ounces, for small things like peanut butter or butter, I use grams, usually grams for anything that goes by tablespoons. I also tend to weigh shredded cheese in grams.0 -
Rick_Nelson81 wrote: »Rick_Nelson81 wrote: »I tare my container (usually a Tupperware) and weight everything in that container. If you're using raw stuff, you can always just tare different containers for your different things. My point was I don't have raw meat or blood anywhere near my scale.
Doesn't sound like a good enough reason to give up the convenience and accuracy of the raw measurement, IMO.
How is it more convenient to weight raw? And if you're eating the cooked product, is it not more accurate to weigh it cooked? I don't understand.
The important thing is that you use the correct database entry. If you weigh it raw, use a raw entry. if you weigh it cooked, use a cooked entry. Most USDA entries are for raw, and I trust them the most, so I always try to weigh as much a I can raw.0 -
freakymistkd wrote: »You've gotten good answers to your questions, so I'll tell you something you didn't ask about but that I think is important to know. Learn to use the "tare" function on your scale. That means you can put things on the scale and set it back to read zero.
So, for instance, let's say you're making a salad in a bowl. Put an empty bowl on the scale and tare it to zero. Add some lettuce. Log the weight of the lettuce, and then tare the scale again. Now you have a bowl of lettuce that shows zero weight. Add some cucumbers, and log them. Tare again..etc. Each item starts off at zero, yet you're only using one bowl to weigh everything. One of the nice advantages of this is that you don't have to attempt getting exact amounts of ingredients. Let's say your goal is to have 20 grams of cucumber. You may wind up with 18 grams, or 23 grams. Just log whatever you actually add. Don't worry to much about what constitutes "a serving" of something. As long as you log what you actually eat, then your log will be accurate.
The point is to stay within your calorie goal, not to become an expert on getting "exactly one serving" of anything.
This is a great peice of advice, tips of the trade. I haven't started weighing my foods yet because I seem to be reaching my goals so far without but I have been thinking I would start weighing some meals here and there to see how far off the mark I am with estimating. I was thinking how in the world would I weigh how much butter or Vegemite or jam I put on a sandwich and now that I've read this it seems so obvious.
Thanks @64crayons
I'm glad this helped you. Yep, put bread/toast on the scale, tare it, put your butter/vegemite/jam on and take a reading. Easy! Just be careful that your scale doesn't turn itself off while you're spreading the toppings, because you'll lose the tare info.0 -
Rick_Nelson81 wrote: »Okay so you lose water weight, so raw food will weight more than cooked food because of the excess water that will be cooked off. So 10g of raw chicken will weigh, whatever, 9 g after it's cooked. You're going to record that you ate an extra gram of chicken? Also, if you're using the weight of raw meat to find the calories of cooked meat your numbers will be off. If you record that you're eating raw meat your numbers will be off because cooking creates...changes... the sugar content of the food, which is why toast is better than bread. So...
It doesn't change the caloric content when you toast bread. It may change chemically but calories don't get magically created out of thin air.
The picture you posted from the database is not a useful comparison - water weight is lost during the cooking process. 100g cooked is more chicken than 100g raw.0 -
It may change chemically, ya complex carbs are converted to simple carbs, ie sugars. So the sugar content is increased. It may not change the overall calories, but it does increase the sugar. That's why toast tastes better than bread (IMO). So maybe calories aren't magically created out of thin air but there is more sugar.0
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Source?Rick_Nelson81 wrote: »It may change chemically, ya complex carbs are converted to simple carbs, ie sugars. So the sugar content is increased. It may not change the overall calories, but it does increase the sugar. That's why toast tastes better than bread (IMO). So maybe calories aren't magically created out of thin air but there is more sugar.
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