Weight of food

juliemoore9440234

Do you weigh food raw or cooked ?
I weighed a JP last night and after cooking it was 200g lighter which meant 100calories less ???

BarbaraHelen2013

I weigh most foods raw, because there are so many variables involved in the cooking process - loss of water weight, as in your potato, absorption of water, oil or other cooking liquors depending on cooking method.

For everyday accuracy though, do what suits you best situationally and as long as you choose a database entry that reflects the raw or cooked state of your food, correctly, you should be fine.

ceiswyn

Always weigh raw, and use an entry for raw.

Your JP (what's a JP?) weighed less after cooking because it lost water. It had the same amount of calories.

weatherwoman94

02304

BarbaraHelen2013

ceiswyn wrote: »

Always weigh raw, and use an entry for raw.

Your JP (what's a JP?) weighed less after cooking because it lost water. It had the same amount of calories.

Took me a while, but in the end I figured Jacket Potato?

Could be Juicy Pear, Justice of the Peace or something else entirely, I guess!

lemurcat2

As others have said, choose an entry that specifies cooked or raw (and the cooking method, if cooked). Or use the package information, if it comes in a package, which will be for uncooked unless it says otherwise.

I usually weigh raw because I think it's easier, but with a few things like bone-in meats I weigh cooked.

cwolfman13

juliemoore9440234 wrote: »

Do you weigh food raw or cooked ?
I weighed a JP last night and after cooking it was 200g lighter which meant 100calories less ???

Foods are typically weighed raw or dry (natural state) unless otherwise stated on the package. I'm not sure what a JP is, but most foods when cooked will decrease in weight because water is cooked off...it doesn't mean less calories...water doesn't have any calories. You don't cook calories away.

LyndaBSS

I weigh everything raw.

Danp

juliemoore9440234 wrote: »

Do you weigh food raw or cooked ?
I weighed a JP last night and after cooking it was 200g lighter which meant 100calories less ???

This is the trap of logging cooked food. That JP had the same number of calorie before and after it was cooked (or so close that the change would be negligible) but because it lost 200g in weight (moisture) it shows up as 100 calories less which it wasn't. Do that a few times per day and you're eating hundreds more calories than you think.

Some will say to use a 'cooked' entry which is only slightly better. What if the cooked entry of that JP was based on a cooking method that only reduced the weight by 50g? or the cooked entry used a method that reduced the cooked JP by 400g?

I get that sometimes it's unavoidable but if it's at all possible always log raw.

lemurcat2

The USDA cooked entries typically identify cooking method.

lynn_glenmont

lemurcat2 wrote: »

The USDA cooked entries typically identify cooking method.

This ^^. Which is helpful when it's impractical or impossible to weigh your food raw (e.g., you bought it already cooked, like a rotisserie chicken).