Measuring Meat

quintjm

How do you measure meat? Do you measure on the food scale raw meat vs after you cook it? What way do you enter it into mfp?

Shortgirlrunning

Measure it raw.

wilson10102018

Measure it cooked, unless it goes in a dish where all of the cooking liquids are consumed. At 9 calories per gram, that 4 tbsp of liquid you left in the pan counts for 480 calories you didn't eat.

yirara

Raw. Meat contains quite a bit of water (and especially in some countries). Once you cook the meat some of the water evaporates and you end up with a lower weight, hence less calories. Of course there are database entries for prepared meat, but you don't know how exactly it was cooked, right?

Lietchi

wilson10102018 wrote: »

Measure it cooked, unless it goes in a dish where all of the cooking liquids are consumed. At 9 calories per gram, that 4 tbsp of liquid you left in the pan counts for 480 calories you didn't eat.

That liquid in the pan could be (mostly) fat, but it could also be (mostly) other liquids released from the meat. It'll depend on the type of meat you're preparing (and method of preparation). I tend to judge case by case and might compensate by logging less of the cooking oil for that meal, but never the full volume of the liquids in the pan.

I only use USDA cooked meat entries in the database when it isn't possible/practical to weigh raw (whole chicken in the oven, when I'm not cooking myself etc.).

nanastaci2020

I use raw weight. Moisture cooks out - so 6 oz raw chicken/steak/pork typically would weigh less after you cook. How much water cooks out won't be the same every time. If you are doing anything while cooking that adds calories (using oil for example) then log that in addition to the weight of the meat.

If I am making something like chili, taco meat, etc. where I brown/crumble/drain the meat (and possibly rinse) then I use a raw entry based on a Livestrong article that documents the change in calories per raw ounce for draining, rinsing fat away of 80/20 ground beef.

If I'm making something like meatloaf (not drained/rinsed over course) then I realize some of the fat & calories will pool out, but I don't imagine it to be a significant amount. And for meatloaf I use 85/15 ground turkey: so the fat cals are not major to begin with.