Calories in bacon

FitnessFreak1821

I usually weigh my meat raw like chicken to get calorie count but I noticed some packs of bacon give cooked and uncooked calories and other packs of bacon don't give both values. Example : president choice bacon is 190 cals per piece uncooked so how many cals cooked? Or should I just always go with uncooked cals for bacon too?

penguinmama87

I think it depends on what you do with it after you weigh - and, that whatever method you choose, you do it consistently so you're always measuring like against like.

My general strategy is to weigh meat raw if I am adding it to a recipe, because typically it's going to be cooked with a bunch of other ingredients and after they're mixed together I won't be able to separate it out again. My number of servings for the recipe will reflect the total cooked weight so I can more accurately determine calories per whatever portion I eat.

If I am eating the meat by itself, I weigh it cooked. Because so many entries in the MFP database can be inaccurate, I use this one to find the specific entries I want, under the SR Legacy tab. I then copy the exact wording to search the MFP database so I know what exactly I'm weighing.
For bacon, there's:

• "Pork, cured, bacon, unprepared"
• "Pork, cured, bacon, cooked, baked"
• "Pork, cured, bacon, cooked, microwaved"
• "Bacon, pre-sliced, reduced/low sodium, unprepared"
• "Pork, cured, bacon, pre-sliced, cooked, pan-fried"
• "Pork, cured, bacon, cooked, broiled, pan-fried or roasted, reduced sodium"

Pick your cooking method and there you go.

If your packaging offers more specific information, you can always search that specific brand and verify the information in any entries that pop up.

Lietchi

For bacon specifically, logging raw our cooked can give a big difference.
It depends on what you do with your bacon:
- if you use it fully, in a dish, logging the raw weight is better
- but if you're frying/grilling your bacon and not consuming the fat rendered from it, weighing cooked and using a cooked bacon entry will be better

FitnessFreak1821

Thanks everyone that makes sense

soulo_ridah

I did have a thread about this in the past where I took the entire package of bacon, cooked it and then measured out the fat that was left to get the total calories. It was not so bad, as long as you dont use the bacon fat that renders out. I think it was like 30-40cal per slice of cooked bacon.
Maybe search for the thread.