Meat

MFPfriend

Does meat weigh less once it's cooked?

I'm tring to figure out how many ounces of filet mignon I'm going to be having for dinner. I'm splitting one with my mom. The whole thing right now (uncooked) is 12 oz. Half of that would be 6 oz, but the amount of meat I see looks nothing like 6 oz.
Does it weigh less after you cook it?
I certainly hope so, lol.

Melanie1967

I just cooked Laura's Lean ground bee 8% for my hubby and me for dinner to add to our spaghetti. I weighed out 7oz raw meat, thinking I should get 6oz cooked out of it. Welllllll, after it cooked, I had 5oz left. I didn't think that much would cook away, and I use a food scale. Needless to say, I was doing 2oz of it, and him 4oz, and he only got 3oz! LOL

smuehlbauer

I take the weight of meat before it's cooked.
If you're that close to your calories for the day that an ounce is going to make or break you, go for a walk to make up the difference!
It's not that much of a difference!
Most important is enjoy it!
:flowerforyou:

LainMac

I weigh my meat after it has been cooked. But then again, I like protein and get cranky if I don't get enough. (It doesn't have to be meat. Eggs, beans, fish, or cheese all work for me.)

tipusnr

To answer the original question, yes most meats weigh less after cooking. That is because the fat is rendered and drains away. Even baked meats will loose some fat. The only way the weight will be the same is if a sauce or other liquid is absorbed by the meat.

Many nutrition sites will tell you whether the statistics are before or after cooking.

knittygirl52

Yes, it does weigh less after cooking. "Back in the day" Weight Watchers used to give you the rule of thumb that you cook 6 oz to get 4 oz, 8 oz to get 6. Obviously you need to weigh again after it's cooked to see what you have left.

Cytherea

It does weight less but everything I've heard says that you should weigh the meat before cooking it and record THAT as how many ounces of meat you ate, not the smaller amount once it is cooked.

MFPfriend

Thanks guys! I Googled the problem too, and I got an overall idea to take away 1/4 of the weight.
For 6 oz uncooked, I should get 4.5 cooked. Well, after cooking, I weighed it, and got 4.45! Whaddya know!

Thanks for everybody's help. I really appreciate it.

abricklin

It does weight less but everything I've heard says that you should weigh the meat before cooking it and record THAT as how many ounces of meat you ate, not the smaller amount once it is cooked.

this is not exactly right. You have to record one or the other but make sure you are using nutrition information for the right meat. IE use the "raw" for precooked weight and COOKED (and if possible, even METHOD of cooking) for cooked weight.

For OP, as PPs have said, meat usually loses 1/4 -1/3 of its weight when cooked, depending on the cut of mean (leaner will lose less weight when cooked, obviously). I say roughly 5.5 raw - 4 cooked. 4 raw = 3 cooked

Cytherea

It does weight less but everything I've heard says that you should weigh the meat before cooking it and record THAT as how many ounces of meat you ate, not the smaller amount once it is cooked.

this is not exactly right. You have to record one or the other but make sure you are using nutrition information for the right meat. IE use the "raw" for precooked weight and COOKED (and if possible, even METHOD of cooking) for cooked weight.

Ok, so I CAN record it cooked and eat more? I posted a topic on this when i first got my scale and didn't really get too many answers. What I had read in the past seemed to say that you weigh before cooking and record the pre-cooked weight... meaning that you end up eating less meat, because once cooked, the 4 ounces are not 4 ounces anymore.

Or are you saying that all that matters is consistency? Because I think, to be honest, I've been recording the ounces of raw meat as cooked. So for example, I'll weight out 100 grams of raw chicken. Then record it as 100 grams of chicken breast, meat only, cooked. Last night I recorded it as roasted, even though I didn't roast it, but I recorded all of the oil and flour and I used to cook it in separately.

Now I'm all confused.

MFPfriend

It does weight less but everything I've heard says that you should weigh the meat before cooking it and record THAT as how many ounces of meat you ate, not the smaller amount once it is cooked.

this is not exactly right. You have to record one or the other but make sure you are using nutrition information for the right meat. IE use the "raw" for precooked weight and COOKED (and if possible, even METHOD of cooking) for cooked weight.

Ok, so I CAN record it cooked and eat more? I posted a topic on this when i first got my scale and didn't really get too many answers. What I had read in the past seemed to say that you weigh before cooking and record the pre-cooked weight... meaning that you end up eating less meat, because once cooked, the 4 ounces are not 4 ounces anymore.

Or are you saying that all that matters is consistency? Because I think, to be honest, I've been recording the ounces of raw meat as cooked. So for example, I'll weight out 100 grams of raw chicken. Then record it as 100 grams of chicken breast, meat only, cooked. Last night I recorded it as roasted, even though I didn't roast it, but I recorded all of the oil and flour and I used to cook it in separately.

Now I'm all confused.

No no no... that's not good. I learned that food loses weight when it is cooked. If you measured out the food raw, then you need to record the weight of when it was raw.
If you recorded the weight when it was cooked, enter it in the database as the weight cooked.

abricklin

[/quote]

No no no... that's not good. I learned that food loses weight when it is cooked. If you measured out the food raw, then you need to record the weight of when it was raw.
If you recorded the weight when it was cooked, enter it in the database as the weight cooked.
[/quote]

Exactly.
If you want to weigh your piece of chicken when its raw, then weigh it raw, record it as RAW but make sure you are using nutrition information for RAW

or you can weigh once cooked and use nutrition information for food that is cooked.
MFP lists COOKED nutrition information and RAW nutrition information so enter the appropriate one into your diary, not sure where the confusion is here?

raybrag

It depends on how you cook the meat! A raw 6 oz. sirloin cooked RARE will weigh more than a comparable one cooked WELL DONE. Moisture loss.