Pasta

laineylou74
laineylou74 Posts: 17 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Help!! When using dried pasta in a meal, do I use the dried weight or the cooked weight, as there is a massive difference in calories? Xx

Replies

  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
    The package will normally indicate that the calorie serving is for dry pasta, rather than cooked.
  • Cahgetsfit
    Cahgetsfit Posts: 1,912 Member
    dry weight. when I cook a whole bunch though - like for other people in the family as well as me, I then weigh it cooked but I choose the "cooked" option from the database.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited April 2019
    Weigh dry, use a dry entry.

    Weigh cooked, use a cooked entry.

    Entries that have neither designation are poor user-created entries.

    Dry will be more accurate, but if you are cooking for more than just you it's more practical to use a cooked entry.
  • laineylou74
    laineylou74 Posts: 17 Member
    Thank you all so much, you've been great. X
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
    100g of dry pasta will always be 100g of dry pasta and therefore the calories per gram will always be consistent.

    That same 100g of dry past can weigh vastly different amounts once cooked depending on how much water it has absorbed. Therefore the calories per gram cannot be accurately determined.

    Same goes with pretty much all food to one extent or another so raw/uncooked/dry is always the way to go.
  • RobD520
    RobD520 Posts: 420 Member
    edited April 2019
    When I make a pasta dish, I use the recipe builder and carefully weigh and input all ingredients. This gives me the calories for the whole dish. From here, I select the number of portions based upon my calorie goals for that meal.

    When I finish cooking, I weigh the finished product. After I calculate (total weight)/(number of portions), I get my final portion.

    This has the benefit of working for Lasagna and baked pastas as well. I find it to be very easy to do.
  • AmyC2288
    AmyC2288 Posts: 386 Member
    edited April 2019
    Danp wrote: »
    100g of dry pasta will always be 100g of dry pasta and therefore the calories per gram will always be consistent.

    That same 100g of dry past can weigh vastly different amounts once cooked depending on how much water it has absorbed. Therefore the calories per gram cannot be accurately determined.

    Same goes with pretty much all food to one extent or another so raw/uncooked/dry is always the way to go.

    Don't want to derail the post, however the OP seems satisfied with her answers. What about Frozen Cooked Shrimp? Weigh while frozen or once thawed? In this instance it is to be used for shrimp cocktail.

    ETA: The type I buy does not specify frozen/thawed.
  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
    AmyC2288 wrote: »
    Danp wrote: »
    100g of dry pasta will always be 100g of dry pasta and therefore the calories per gram will always be consistent.

    That same 100g of dry past can weigh vastly different amounts once cooked depending on how much water it has absorbed. Therefore the calories per gram cannot be accurately determined.

    Same goes with pretty much all food to one extent or another so raw/uncooked/dry is always the way to go.

    Don't want to derail the post, however the OP seems satisfied with her answers. What about Frozen Cooked Shrimp? Weigh while frozen or once thawed? In this instance it is to be used for shrimp cocktail.

    ETA: The type I buy does not specify frozen/thawed.

    I would think frozen but one thing you could do is weigh the bag while frozen and see if it matches the weight listed on the bag. If so, the nutritional measurements are probably in frozen. If it weighs more than what is listed on the bag, then maybe its in thawed.
  • AmyC2288
    AmyC2288 Posts: 386 Member
    MikePTY wrote: »
    AmyC2288 wrote: »
    Danp wrote: »
    100g of dry pasta will always be 100g of dry pasta and therefore the calories per gram will always be consistent.

    That same 100g of dry past can weigh vastly different amounts once cooked depending on how much water it has absorbed. Therefore the calories per gram cannot be accurately determined.

    Same goes with pretty much all food to one extent or another so raw/uncooked/dry is always the way to go.

    Don't want to derail the post, however the OP seems satisfied with her answers. What about Frozen Cooked Shrimp? Weigh while frozen or once thawed? In this instance it is to be used for shrimp cocktail.

    ETA: The type I buy does not specify frozen/thawed.

    I would think frozen but one thing you could do is weigh the bag while frozen and see if it matches the weight listed on the bag. If so, the nutritional measurements are probably in frozen. If it weighs more than what is listed on the bag, then maybe its in thawed.

    Great idea, thanks!! I eat this weekly so will be interesting to see!
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    edited April 2019
    AmyC2288 wrote: »
    Danp wrote: »
    100g of dry pasta will always be 100g of dry pasta and therefore the calories per gram will always be consistent.

    That same 100g of dry past can weigh vastly different amounts once cooked depending on how much water it has absorbed. Therefore the calories per gram cannot be accurately determined.

    Same goes with pretty much all food to one extent or another so raw/uncooked/dry is always the way to go.

    Don't want to derail the post, however the OP seems satisfied with her answers. What about Frozen Cooked Shrimp? Weigh while frozen or once thawed? In this instance it is to be used for shrimp cocktail.

    ETA: The type I buy does not specify frozen/thawed.

    In my limited experimenting, frozen vs thawed doesn't make a big difference to the weight of something unless it's been in the freezer long enough to have a lot of ice buildup on it. I weigh frozen because I find it easier and most labels are for the "as packaged" weight, but you can do your own experimenting and the important thing is to be consistent and adjust based on your real world results.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,260 Member
    edited April 2019
    I had a similar experience with frozen fish fillets which contain a large amount of "'solution' purely for the purposes of improving freezing performance and improving texture and taste"

    450g frozen and 315g thawed.

    Ended up ignoring the label and using the USDA standard reference entry for raw fish of the same kind on the basis of the thawed and patted dry weight.

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