Chicken Calories

ayamourada92

May I ask about chicken calories if it is raw or grilled for breast and thigh parts?

thanks a lot.

wilson10102018

Chicken is hard to log. The reason is that chicken has a lot of fat. And, if grilled, a lot of that fat ends up in the pan or in the fire. At 9 calories per gram, 120 calories per tablespoon, it affects the calorie count almost as much as the chicken does. Further complicating matters is that one usually does not eat the bone, cartilage and even the skin (although i like crispy skin).

So the only good way to log chicken is to find a reference for COOKED chicken of the type you are eating (thighs, breast, etc) weigh the chicken COOKED when it goes on your plate, weigh what bones and whatnot is left and log the difference.

kshama2001

Unfortunately, the green check marks in the MFP database are used for both USER-created entries and ADMIN-created entries that MFP pulled from the USDA database. A green check mark for USER-created entries just means enough people have upvoted the entry - it is not necessarily correct.

To find ADMIN entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and paste that into MFP.

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Use the “SR Legacy” tab - that seems to be what MFP used to pull in entries.

For cooked chicken breast: "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"

To get the syntax for raw chicken start by searching this on the USDA site and check the "Require All Words" box:

• chicken, breast, raw
• chicken, thigh, raw

To get the syntax for grilled chicken thighs start by searching this on the USDA site and check the "Require All Words" box:

• roasted chicken thighs

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

Lietchi

Depends on the entry you choose, some will be for raw, others for cooked /grilled /...
If you use entries based on the USDA, it's specified in the name. For example: "chicken thigh, boneless, roasted, broiled or baked" or "chicken breast, raw, boneless, skinless"

Lietchi

wilson10102018 wrote: »

Chicken is hard to log. The reason is that chicken has a lot of fat. And, if grilled, a lot of that fat ends up in the pan or in the fire. At 9 calories per gram, 120 calories per tablespoon, it affects the calorie count almost as much as the chicken does. Further complicating matters is that one usually does not eat the bone, cartilage and even the skin (although i like crispy skin).

So the only good way to log chicken is to find a reference for COOKED chicken of the type you are eating (thighs, breast, etc) weigh the chicken COOKED when it goes on your plate, weigh what bones and whatnot is left and log the difference.

You say this often, but I don't agree with you for all cases. Skinless chicken breast off the bone is not fatty and accurately logged raw. A cooked chicken breast will lose more or less moisture depending on how long it's cooked, impacting the calorie density. (not to mention that not all chicken is equal, using the nutritional value on the package seems more accurate to me than logging 'generic' chicken.) In that way I'd consider it less accurate to log cooked, not more accurate.

For, for example, whole roast chicken or drumsticks for example, it's a different matter considering all the skin, fat, etc. I do log that cooked.