Are you supposed to weigh your serving size before or after cooking

unicornpickles

Maybe a dumb question but just curious. Are you supposed to weigh raw chicken before cooking , say 40z, but it weighs 2oz after cooking. What numbers do you use. Same question with frozen veggies etc, Thank you

TheMrWobbly

Always before

kami3006

Weighing raw is most accurate as the weight of meat changes when cooked. If there is an occasion where you need to weigh cooked, then use the appropriate corresponding "cooked" entry.

The weight on a bag of frozen vegetables is usually the frozen weight. So, weigh before cooking.

cwolfman13

unicornpickles wrote: »

Maybe a dumb question but just curious. Are you supposed to weigh raw chicken before cooking , say 40z, but it weighs 2oz after cooking. What numbers do you use. Same question with frozen veggies etc, Thank you

Raw weight...it's lighter after being cooked because it loses water...but it doesn't lose calories.

Lounmoun

It depends on how you log it and if it matches the label information you are working from.
If you are going to log it raw then you should weigh it raw. You can weigh and log cooked chicken just make sure the entry says cooked.
The information on the dry pasta label is for uncooked weight generally.
A label might say "as prepared" in which case you would weigh the item after cooking.

https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/17960/nutrition-facts-what-does-as-packaged-mean
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1426602/logging-in-pasta-confused-about-uncooked-cooked-calories
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10621050/how-to-use-the-usda-food-database-mfp-food-database-for-accurate-logging/p1
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10621050/how-to-use-the-usda-food-database-mfp-food-database-for-accurate-logging/p1

diannethegeek

The information on your nutrition label usually matches the "as packaged" or raw weight, unless it specifies otherwise or the labeling laws are different in your country.

You can weigh before or after cooking, but you have to be sure you choose an accurate and appropriate entry in the database that specifies it's for the cooked weight, preferably also matching the way you cooked it (ie. you wouldn't want to use a "grilled" entry for chicken if you boiled it, etc).

TavistockToad

Weigh raw, log raw... Weigh cooked, log cooked