A couple quick questions......

RetiredinGeorgia

I just saw a VERIFIED entry on MFP for 1 cup of chicken broth: 50 cals, 0 carbs, 0 fat, 5 grams of protein.
If each gram of carbs and protein equal 4 calories, how does one get 50 cals?
Somethin’ ain’t right........
Also is the calorie/nutritional info for meat/fish/poultry before or after cooking?
Thank you Community!

tinkerbellang83

RetiredinGeorgia wrote: »

I just saw a VERIFIED entry on MFP for 1 cup of chicken broth: 50 cals, 0 carbs, 0 fat, 5 grams of protein.
If each gram of carbs and protein equal 4 calories, how does one get 50 cals?
Somethin’ ain’t right........
Also is the calorie/nutritional info for meat/fish/poultry before or after cooking?
Thank you Community!

Verified entries mean nothing here really.

Nutritional info will depend on the entry for meat/etc. It's best to go with a raw entry and the weight of a cooked piece of meat can depend on how much water it's let out during the cooking process, and as water has no calories, it makes no difference to the calorie content but may change the weight.

RetiredinGeorgia

So how would one know how many calories are in 1 cup of chicken broth (for example)? ........50 or 20?
Also, by changing the weight (by cooking) you change the calories per ounce, no?
If a 4 ounce piece of raw chicken is 200 calories, that’s 50 cals per ounce but if the same piece cooks down to 3 ounces, that’s about 65 cals per ounce......am I missing something?

LivingtheLeanDream

That's why its best to enter your own recipe in the recipe builder function

tinkerbellang83

RetiredinGeorgia wrote: »

So how would one know how many calories are in 1 cup of chicken broth (for example)? ........50 or 20?
Also, by changing the weight (by cooking) you change the calories per ounce, no?
If a 4 ounce piece of raw chicken is 200 calories, that’s 50 cals per ounce but if the same piece cooks down to 3 ounces, that’s about 65 cals per ounce......am I missing something?

Look it up on the USDA website or on the product packaging.

If a 4oz piece of raw chicken is 200 cals you just log it as 4oz raw chicken, why over-complicate it?

AnnPT77

RetiredinGeorgia wrote: »

So how would one know how many calories are in 1 cup of chicken broth (for example)? ........50 or 20?
Also, by changing the weight (by cooking) you change the calories per ounce, no?
If a 4 ounce piece of raw chicken is 200 calories, that’s 50 cals per ounce but if the same piece cooks down to 3 ounces, that’s about 65 cals per ounce......am I missing something?

If it were me, I'd either look at the label on the chicken broth (if I bought it pre-made), or look at USDA and/or varied entries in the database to figure out what looks rational/valid (if someone else made it), choose that, and not worry about it. (Even when I was losing weight, that difference of 30 calories would have been about 2% of my daily allowance. If things were so uncertain on a particular day that I thought those 30 calories were a Big Deal, I'd use the 50 calorie entry, frankly - i.e., guess the higher of the plausible values.)

For the meat, if it's raw, weigh it raw, use a valid database entry for raw chicken of that type (breast, or whatever). If it's cooked, find the closest valid cooked version (baked, skin on - whatever) and use that. If you have a choice, weigh raw, because cooking loses varying amounts of moisture depending on cooking method and whatnot, so weighing raw is probably a little more accurate.

As a generality, I think a person can look at this either of two ways:

1. One can do one's practical (not obsessive) best to understand how to find and log entries that are as accurate as manageable, decide it's probably close enough, log it, and go on with life (and weight loss, if one sticks to the calorie goal), or

2. One can become so wound up in how VeryVery hard this is, and how it's impossible to be accurate, and use that as an excuse to quit.

Really, it's doable. Doesn't have to be exactly exact: Just close enough; over some, under others.

Signed,

Retired in Michigan :flowerforyou:

nicsflyingcircus

I can answer only the meat question:

I cook for a family of 5/6 (college aged daughter home on holidays and summer). If I am cooking individual larger pieces (or just for me) like steak, pork chops, fish filets, individual chicken pieces which I can pick out mine in advance, I weigh it raw and keep track of it during the cooking process. Log the raw weight.

If, like tonight, I am cooking 4+lbs of Taco seasoned boneless chicken thighs and drums (so about 20 smallish pieces of meat), I will log cooked weight, using the appropriate Usda entry to my cut of meat and cooking method (braising VS roasting etc).

If not 100% accurate, it's at least consistent.

OldHobo

RetiredinGeorgia wrote: »

So how would one know how many calories are in 1 cup of chicken broth (for example)? ........50 or 20?
Also, by changing the weight (by cooking) you change the calories per ounce, no?
If a 4 ounce piece of raw chicken is 200 calories, that’s 50 cals per ounce but if the same piece cooks down to 3 ounces, that’s about 65 cals per ounce......am I missing something?

Assuming store-bought broth, I'd rely on the nutrition label information. Homemade broth is literally impossible to determine with any precision. If I make my own stock or broth I have to use my own judgment based on ingredients and amount of reduction.

Regarding the 4-ounce piece of raw chicken: Assuming I'm eating the whole thing myself, I use a database entry for four-ounces raw chicken and assume that weight loss was moisture, not protein or fat. But your own knowledge and judgment are required. If I am pan-frying a chicken breast obviously fat from the skin will be rendered. Only I know if it was sopped up with a biscuit or not.

My advice to ReiredinGeorgia is do the best you can with what you know today. You'll know more and be able to do even better as time goes on.