Weight of food

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juliemoore9440234
juliemoore9440234 Posts: 1 Member
in Getting Started
Do you weigh food raw or cooked ?
I weighed a JP last night and after cooking it was 200g lighter which meant 100calories less ???

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  • BarbaraHelen2013
    BarbaraHelen2013 Posts: 1,940 Member
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    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
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,256 Member
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    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
    weatherwoman94 Posts: 14 Member
    edited September 2019
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    02304
  • BarbaraHelen2013
    BarbaraHelen2013 Posts: 1,940 Member
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    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
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
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    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
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
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    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
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
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    I weigh everything raw.
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
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    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
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
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    The USDA cooked entries typically identify cooking method.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,964 Member
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    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).

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