CHICKEN

JAYDENJONES78
JAYDENJONES78 Posts: 16 Member
in Food and Nutrition
DO YOU WEIGH YOUR CHICKEN RAW OR COOKED?

Replies

  • Terytha
    Terytha Posts: 2,097 Member
    Raw. It's easier that way.
  • Safari_Gal
    Safari_Gal Posts: 888 Member
    Raw
  • echmain3
    echmain3 Posts: 231 Member
    Cooked. That way you’re measuring exactly what you’re eating.

    (Please turn off your caps lock)
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited April 2019
    I mostly eat bone-in chicken, so cooked (because you shouldn't include the weight of the bones, and I certainly don't eat the whole breast when roasting chicken breasts, and often roast a whole chicken). Both are fine so long as you find an entry (the USDA ones are best) that specify raw or cooked (and cooking method). I don't really think there's that much variety in how long one cooks chicken using dry heat if it's properly cooked.

    If boneless I'd probably use the raw entry and weigh raw.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    edited April 2019
    Unless you choose USDA boneless, skinless, in their database, if you eat all of the bones, tendons and the skin you should weigh it raw because that stuff is counted.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    Nutritional data is usually based on raw unless otherwise stated.

  • WholeFoods4Lyfe
    WholeFoods4Lyfe Posts: 1,518 Member
    edited April 2019
    echmain3 wrote: »
    Cooked. That way you’re measuring exactly what you’re eating.

    (Please turn off your caps lock)

    Cooked measurements are highly inaccurate. Depending on how "done" you cook your meat, the amount of water in the final product can vary greatly.

    For example, when I cook steak my husband likes his well done and I prefer mine rare. If I start out with two steaks of equal weight, his will be significantly smaller once fully cooked due to the amount of water and fat that is cooked off. My steak is fairly close to the original size, maybe only loses 1-2 ounces in the cooking process where his can lose 4+ ounces (yes, they are big steaks to begin with).
  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
    Raw if you can. When you cook chicken, it doesn't always lose the same amount of water each time you cook it. It depends on how long and the method that you cook it. But the number of calories that cooked chicken has is based off of the raw chicken it started with, so it is the best way to measure.

    That being said, I know that it's not always possible to weigh it raw, so cooked is certainly better than not weighing.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    edited April 2019
    Mostly what beef loses in cooking is fat. And, the reason to weigh it cooked is that if the fat is not rendered out, it has about 115 calories per tablespoon. So, if you like your beef rare very little is rendered out and if you like it well done, most is rendered out. A rib eye goes from 800 calories to 500 as the temperature moves from 130F to 150F. Unless, of course, you lick the fat out of the pan.

    Its just physics.
  • WholeFoods4Lyfe
    WholeFoods4Lyfe Posts: 1,518 Member
    wilson10102018 wrote: »
    Mostly what beef loses in cooking is fat. And, the reason to weigh it cooked is that if the fat is not rendered out, it has about 115 calories per tablespoon. So, if you like your beef rare very little is rendered out and if you like it well done, most is rendered out. A rib eye goes from 800 calories to 500 as the temperature moves from 130F to 150F. Unless, of course, you lick the fat out of the pan.

    Its just physics.

    I don't think that is correct.

    https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/80400525/data/beef/retail_beef_cuts02.pdf
  • puffbrat
    puffbrat Posts: 2,806 Member
    I use the recipe builder. Make a recipe of the raw weight chicken, olive oil, and anything else I add. Cook it. Weigh the cooked chicken in grams and make that the number of servings for the recipe. Cut my portion, weigh in grams, enter that weight as number of servings for my meal in my diary.
  • gaelicstorm
    gaelicstorm Posts: 94 Member
    I weigh chicken cooked for convenience. Make sure you choose correct entries. This works for me *now* because I have a lot to lose and my deficit is set pretty large so raw vs. cooked isn't going to erase my deficit at this point (for chicken, at least). If you have much less weight to lose (like under 25 lbs) your deficit will be smaller and inaccurate weighing/entry choices will have a larger impact.

    I do weigh individual portions of beef raw, when possible. I do this for burgers or steaks. For chicken we use the smaller breast tenderloins and I'm not always sure how much I'll eat so it gets weighed cooked. Like I said, the impact of doing this will depend upon how much of a deficit you have to "play" with. I'm set for 1.5 lbs of loss a week so I have a lot of wiggle room until I would hit maintenance territory.
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    puffbrat wrote: »
    I use the recipe builder. Make a recipe of the raw weight chicken, olive oil, and anything else I add. Cook it. Weigh the cooked chicken in grams and make that the number of servings for the recipe. Cut my portion, weigh in grams, enter that weight as number of servings for my meal in my diary.

    i do this.

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