weighing chicken... before cooked or after?

savvybrook

I've been weighing my food but sometimes I feel like the amount is different depending on if it's cooked or not. Anybody know anything about that?

smn76237

Measure meats raw and thawed because the cooking time and method will affect how much moisture you cook out. We could each take a 4oz raw breast, and I cook mine for 6 minutes and you for 8, and our resulting chicken breasts will weigh different amounts because mine will have retained more moisture and therefore be heavier.

crandos

I measure after i cook it.

herblackwings39

I've done both at various times. If I'm tossing meat into the slow cooker I don't always remember to weigh it so I go with cooked weight.

athenasurrenders

Raw is likely to be more accurate, but if it's something pre-packaged you need to check the nutritional info carefully.

If it says 'per 100g raw' or 'per 100g as sold' and you cook it first then weigh out 100g, you've taken in more calories. It's likely that same amount would have weighed more than 100g raw and water has cooked out of it, so you're having more than you accounted for.

On the other hand if it says '100g prepared as directed' then it's telling you to weigh it cooked and it includes anything the instructions have you add (like oil or milk). This is likely less precise because as someone else pointed out, you might cook more water out than I do, but in this case weighing it raw will probably be way off.

3laine75

depends what you're logging - if you're logging raw chicken, weigh it raw and vice versa

shunggie

I don't know if it matters that much. If the package says its 4oz and after cooking it's 3.5 oz I don't think it's going to make a huge difference. Do I feel full? Yes, will that extra 30-40 calories I put in the food diary make a big difference in my overall health and weight loss? No, don't stress the little stuff.