Working out fat from meat

hazcad

I'm a macro counter but I'm having trouble working out some fat contents in some meats.

For example the boneless port leg I have in the slow cooker today states 16g fat per 100g on the packet however I have cut the skin and fat off so I googled the nutritional facts for pork leg. I found varied answers from 3g - 8g per 100g of meat.

I cut the fat off normal bacon (as pre cut bacon like this costs a fortune) but again how do I calculate what fat percentage. I use turkey bacon a lot because of this but you can't beat the taste of real bacon now and then!

Can anyone share how they work it out or give me some ideas....

mweckler

Hello, I am not sure about the answer to your question, but I can give a little insight on the fat removal from meats. When you trim down a piece of meat you are removing surface fat, but there is still fat woven into the protein itself. When you cook the meat the juices that run out are rendered fat, along with some other things. If you look at a nice cut of beef they have what is known as marbling, that is the white lines running through the meat, those white lines are fat and add moisture and flavor when cooked. With bacon it comes from the belly of the pig which is mostly fat, and if you are trimming away fat from bacon you won't have much edible product left when it is done cooking, as the fat renders down it shrinks and makes the bacon fry and become crispy.

I would say to weigh your food pre and post trimming of fat, then use the new weight and adjust down from there. I am sorry if this was not as helpful as you hoped for.