Question!

amandaann2017

Hi. I am trying to log my intake accurately and am finding so much conflicting and confusing nutritional breakdown information.
Personally, I like to see items in the database with a 1gram breakdown (or even 100g - I can do the math!) so that then I can input how many grams I actually consumed. However even when this is the case, there are still a couple of issues for me... I hope someone can advise me on the correct approach to take.
So, my question is this. How do you all calculate raw ingredients?
Take for example an Avocado - I eat a mini avo almost every day. Is the nutritional breakdown for the whole Avocado or is it for the flesh only? ... Similarly with for example a Banana - do I weigh the complete banana and follow that nutrient breakdown or only the weight of the peeled banana?..
And another that affects me daily... Potatoes... now generally speaking (for speed if only cooking for myself) I take a potato, microwave it and then peel it and eat the flesh only.. the weight of the raw potato is much more than the microwaved potato and that is more than the peeled microwaved potato.. so am I looking to record the raw weight, the cooked weight, or the cooked and peeled weight??????
I 99.9% cook from scratch but most nutritional databases consist of mostly pre prepared and packaged foods.. and where there are fresh foods listed, the calculation methods are very perplexing. .. I just want to know the per gram breakdown of eg cabbage or tomato or egg (thats another one.. in shell or weight out of shell?) or rice or porridge etc.. I do not want to see the calculation based on eg, 1g of roast / boiled / poached / grilled / ... prepared with .... etc etc etc... do you see what I mean?.. and can anyone advise me - do you base calculation on complete unprepared raw weights or cooked and ready to go onto plate weights?
Thanks for reading! x

HoldTheDoor13

Personally I always go with raw weight, I find it easiest to search for "food item- raw". You will get the most accurate results that way.
As for peels/seeds etc- I do not include those in the weight. peel the item/remove seeds etc before weighing. Or weigh the item whole, then weight the refuse and subtract that from the total.

livingleanlivingclean

I do everything raw/dry as I think it's more accurate.

for bananas, oranges, avocado etc, you weigh the portion you eat. Skin/pips don't count.

Potatoes - I would weigh raw and eat the skin. Or cook without the skin (the skin has plenty of nutrients and fibre, is there a reason you don't eat it?).

Eggs I just average (eg a carton of large eggs has eggs of an average weight with the shell included, I just use that)

Pasta/rice/grains are dry weight. Meat is raw weight. That's what I do! I rarely use pre-packaged ingredients and have had no issues finding suitable entries.

callsitlikeiseeit

i use very few prepackaged things and have no problem finding raw ingredients.

item - raw - gram

you weigh what you eat before its cooked

lemonychild

Why would u not weigh the peeled banana are you going to eat the core? Are you going to eat the pit?

Rincewind_1965

For all food I use the raw net-weight.

amandaann2017

ok.. thanks.. just checking - because the database (any of them) are not always clear about if the item has values for the weight it is (eg whole avocado or whole egg) or the weight after shelling etc... in the case of potatoes, yes, I do often eat the skin - it depends on what I am making with the potato!.. but that one for example is a case where the nutritional content will differ if skin is included or not!.. I would be so much more confident if the databases were clear eg. Egg, raw, weight with shell, ... or Avocado, raw, flesh only ... or Potato, raw, weight with peel ... etc.... instead I have to plough through listings like, Egg, medium, fried ....... or Avocado ..... or Potato, microwaved ..... etc.. and those are just so vague!!
If the database entries were properly, consistently, and clearly inputted, then it would mean stressfree, easy and accurate food logging.

livingleanlivingclean

aaexanimo wrote: »

ok.. thanks.. just checking - because the database (any of them) are not always clear about if the item has values for the weight it is (eg whole avocado or whole egg) or the weight after shelling etc... in the case of potatoes, yes, I do often eat the skin - it depends on what I am making with the potato!.. but that one for example is a case where the nutritional content will differ if skin is included or not!.. I would be so much more confident if the databases were clear eg. Egg, raw, weight with shell, ... or Avocado, raw, flesh only ... or Potato, raw, weight with peel ... etc.... instead I have to plough through listings like, Egg, medium, fried ....... or Avocado ..... or Potato, microwaved ..... etc.. and those are just so vague!!
If the database entries were properly, consistently, and clearly inputted, then it would mean stressfree, easy and accurate food logging.

You sound like you're over complicating the process. Weigh what you eat (with the exception of the whole egg, that's referencing the egg including the shell. Better yet, just find the size of egg - small, medium, large, xl, jumbo etc)