Pasta and couscous etc

gillmacdonald142

Hi, when I scan pasta is that telling me the calories for the dry or cooked weight? If it’s cooked, any tips on how to work out how much dry pasta would be that much cooked?
Thanks

laceduplady

I've found it really depends on the brand as to how it's labelled! Here in the UK I've found it's most often done by cooked weight, which is stupid because cooked weight varies so much (the same dry piece of pasta will weigh more if it's been cooked longer because it absorbs more water).

Look for a generic dry weight entry and use that, and weigh before cooking. Dry weight should typically be around 350 calories per 100g.

gillmacdonald142

Thanks so much!!!

lemurcat2

In the US it's usually dry weight unless it says otherwise (a serving of dry would typically be 56 g or 2 oz in the US and somewhere around 200 cal or just under for pasta). Bigger point is never just scan, but always check against the package the first time you log something, as the scanning is not always correct, it depends on whoever entered the information. Plus, if you check against the package it will say whether it's prepared weight rather than the more typical (in the US) dry weight.

NovusDies

With scanning and the db the lower the calorie the more often I find it is correct. The higher the calorie the more likely the person tried to figure out a loophole to eat more.

The exception is items with zero calories on the label that actually have calories. Those are really annoying when you are trying to enter recipes or if you use enough to need it to be accurate.

ktekc

if i cant weigh dry. Like when i cook a pot of pasta for everyone i weigh my cooked and use the usda entry for what i had and call it close enough. ex. 20121, Pasta, cooked, enriched, without added salt