Question about weighing bone-in meat

davepearson86

Here's the question.

I have chicken drumsticks w/skin and the package has nutritional information per 100g.

Do I weigh the raw chicken with bones to figure out the 100g serving or does the meat/skin need to come off the bones to be weighed? I know I need to weigh raw but the meat comes off better once it's cooked.

Help?

Francl27

Beats me. I cook them, remove the meat, weigh that, and use the 'chicken dark meat cooked' entry.

JUDDDing

I weigh the raw chicken and log that before I eat.

Then if I need extra calories after my meal - I subtract out the weight of the bits I don't eat.

Meat is reasonably low calorie (especially chicken) - I save worrying about high precision for the things that are higher in calories.

Mr_Knight

This is such a pain in the *kitten*. I have the same problem with chicken thighs, which I love. Bone-in database entries are all over the map, so now I strip the meat from the bone and weight it raw before cooking.

oc1timoco

I don't know how the specific mass of bone changes after cooking. If I were that concerned Dave I would do a sample test. Remove the bone raw from one piece and compare to one that is cooked. Then keep that as a reference %

kiramaniac

I'd just use a default "chicken drumstick with skin" in the database, and not worry about the package info. Unless these are special drumsticks that wouldn't be consistent with the standard nutritional data.

chezjuan

I weigh the raw chicken and log that before I eat.

Then if I need extra calories after my meal - I subtract out the weight of the bits I don't eat.

Meat is reasonably low calorie (especially chicken) - I save worrying about high precision for the things that are higher in calories.

I do this for things like drumsticks, T-bone steaks, and other things that I cook with the bones in.

davepearson86

Okay so the chicken manufacturer says that the 100g serving does not include bones so to weigh 100g with bone removed raw will provide the nutritional stuff listed on the package.

ARGH

The chicken is already in the oven and was a total of 2423 grams bone-in. FF FFFF FFFFFFFF

xoemmytee

dude, calm down. Just do it next time.

davepearson86

I don't know how the specific mass of bone changes after cooking. If I were that concerned Dave I would do a sample test. Remove the bone raw from one piece and compare to one that is cooked. Then keep that as a reference %

This makes the most sense bone weight cooked vs bone weight uncooked for a % then weigh the bones post-cooking and do the math. No wonder everyone who tracks macros diligently eats boneless chicken!

JustYandy

I cooked mine and then took the chicken off the bone it was about 1oz of meat per drum stick

davepearson86

dude, calm down. Just do it next time.

I can't I've already consumed 5 cups of coffee this morning and now my macros will be GUESSTIMATED!!!!

I might as well just eat an entire tub of ice cream and a whole apple pie!

Ninkyou

Since it's already cooking, once it's done, take the meat off the bones and then weigh the bones. Subtract that from your initial weight.

Might not be 100% accurate, but might still be worth it to do.

Don't stress out too much about it though

Byemyfatself

Weigh the meat w/bone before eating it, then weigh the bone after eating and there you have it... how much you ate. :bigsmile:

davepearson86

Weigh the meat w/bone before eating it, then weigh the bone after eating and there you have it... how much you ate. :bigsmile:

Okay so here's the chicken math going on now!

Raw Weight / Cooked Weight = Reduction Factor

Cooked Bone Weight x Reduction Factor = Raw Bone Weight

Cooked Weight / Reduction Factor - Raw Bone Weight = SOLUTION

davepearson86

Raw Weight - Raw Weight / Cooked Weight * Cooked Bone Weight = Uncooked Meat Only Weight

davepearson86

Here's the stats in case anyone cares.

This gives a good average over 20 chicken drumsticks

Raw Weight Bone-In 2423g
Cooked Weight Bone-In 1673g
Cooked Weight Bone Removed 1163g
Calculated Raw Weight Bone Removed 1684g

Life can be easy from now on.

Weight With Bone Cooked * 1.44829647 (cooked to uncooked ratio) * 0.6951584 (bone to meat ratio) = Raw Weight.

*facepalm*

example 100g * 1.44829647 * 0.6951584 = 100.68

Cooked bone in weight = Raw Boneless weight

oc1timoco

This was a major hurdle to get past. Now we solve all the rest of the worlds problems.

baldnavywife

*Face palm* I still don't understand

970Mikaela1

The more you know:)

lemurcat12

Francl27 wrote: »

Beats me. I cook them, remove the meat, weigh that, and use the 'chicken dark meat cooked' entry.

This.

Chicken should not be that different. Use the good entry without an asterisk (which comes from USDA information) for cooked chicken. It should read like: "chicken-leg, meat and skin, cooked, roasted." (You can change up all those details and find a good entry for chicken based on the specifics of the cut and how cooked.)

I like chicken cooked on the bone better than otherwise, so I weigh chicken after cooking all the time, and it works fine. I believe the differences between packaged chicken has more to do with how much water they add (which cooks out anyway) so the cooked chicken shouldn't differ too much unless you over or under cook it. There's some variation, but that's always the case.