Weighing food

izzyoramah920

Hi! This may sound like a really silly question but for the sake of accuracy, is it better to weigh food before or after I cook it?

Thanks

corinasue1143

Pasta, rice, etc. before if you can, because the amount of water in it differs, but doesn’t affect calories or nutrients.
Meat, etc. just make sure the entry you use is the same. That is, make sure you compare cooked to cooked, raw to raw.

iheartmyyorkie

I believe it's more accurate to weigh a food that you are going to cook in it's raw state. For example, nutrition labels on packages of ground beef are based on uncooked weight. Absolutely weigh rice or pasta before you cooked it, as calories by weight after cooking vary greatly due to water absorption.
edit-
@corinasue1143 ya beat me, I'm such a slow typer.

kshama2001

When I can weigh raw, I do, and when it is not practical to do so, I don't worry about it.

All meat entries from the USDA database will indicate if they are for raw or cooked.

Unfortunately, the "verified" green check marks in the MFP database are used for both user-created entries with sufficient upvotes and admin-created entries that MFP pulled from the USDA database (no upvotes needed). To find admin entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and paste that into MFP.

The USDA just changed the platform for their database and it is unfortunately a little more difficult to use. In order to find the entry I wanted for chicken the other day I had to include a bunch of keywords. "chicken, breast, cooked, roasted" gave me https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/?query=chicken, breast, cooked and from that you can see the syntax for the MFP entry to use is "Chicken, broilers or fryers, breast, meat only, cooked, roasted"

Note: any MFP entry that includes "USDA" was user entered.

For packaged foods, I verify the label against what I find in MFP. (Alas, you cannot just scan with your phone and assume what you get is correct.)

ktekc

the only one i always do after cooking is bacon. others it depends on if its feasable to weigh before cooking. Like if cooking a big meal i'm not going to keep track of which thigh on the grill is mine and i'm not cooking my pasta seperate from the rest of the box. just make sure you are using correct entries for the way you weighed it.

LyndaBSS

I always weigh food before cooking. It’s working great for me so I see no reason to change my method or to weigh this food raw but that food cooked.

lorrpb

Remember to add in calories of any additional ingredients, like butter or oil especially.

Chris144mph

Lorrpb beat me to it. I always weigh before I cook & add for amounts of oil/spray as well. My recipes section on here is full of my family faves that I have calculated calories using each ingredient.

SERmom3

Chris144mph wrote: »

Lorrpb beat me to it. I always weigh before I cook & add for amounts of oil/spray as well. My recipes section on here is full of my family faves that I have calculated calories using each ingredient.

I use a similar method. I weigh each ingredient and create a recipe. Then, when it’s cooked, I weigh the entire batch and calculate a serving size as 1oz. So if I end up with 7oz on my plate then I enter it as 7 servings. (I add “Serving Size 1oz” to the title of my recipes so I know I’ve done the calculation next time I use it. )