weighing meat

kellymac518

this might sound like a stupid question to some... but i just need a quick answer

we just got a scale to weigh foods, and aren't sure if we should weigh meat before or after it is cooked. i thought before, my mom thought after... for example we cooked fresh meat hamburgers last night and before it was cooked it was 4 oz but after it was cooked (i don't like all the juices so i squeeze them out before i eat it) it was down to like 2.5 oz... i logged it under 4 oz but figured i'd come on here and ask what is the correct thing to do to get an accurate calorie count?

WBB55

if you search, there should be different entries for raw vs. cooked meat. I use this website to confirm what the entries in MFP say. http://nutritiondata.self.com/

trogalicious

depends on when you weigh it as to how you log it. If it's raw, log it raw. If it's cooked, log the cooked entry.

p4ulmiller

this might sound like a stupid question to some... but i just need a quick answer

we just got a scale to weigh foods, and aren't sure if we should weigh meat before or after it is cooked. i thought before, my mom thought after... for example we cooked fresh meat hamburgers last night and before it was cooked it was 4 oz but after it was cooked (i don't like all the juices so i squeeze them out before i eat it) it was down to like 2.5 oz... i logged it under 4 oz but figured i'd come on here and ask what is the correct thing to do to get an accurate calorie count?

Interesting question.

I suppose you are weighing juices as meat if you weigh before, so my instinct tells me you should weigh after you've cooked.

That said, the calories you log might account for the juices, so......

On the other hand, try buying better quality meat if the juices account for almost half the weight of what you are buying!

Supertact

Personally I log it cooked.

Just look for the meat in the database as cooked.

chezjuan

depends on when you weigh it as to how you log it. If it's raw, log it raw. If it's cooked, log the cooked entry.

+1

I try to weigh it raw myself, but if I forget or can't, I find the entry that matches the cooking style and use that.

brandi712

I log it cooked.

_Resolve_

I log it all as cooked

bwogilvie

I log meat raw (using the appropriate database entry) because cooked weight varies depending on how it's cooked--particularly for ground meat, which loses more moisture depending on how thoroughly it's cooked. If you take two raw hamburger patties that weigh the same and cook them until one is medium rare and the other is well done, the second will weigh less than the first.

3laine75

depends on when you weigh it as to how you log it. If it's raw, log it raw. If it's cooked, log the cooked entry.

This

Dewymorning

I always weigh raw.

The reason is simple. I buy a whole lot of meat at once, weigh it out into one meal portions, write the type and weight of the meat onto a freezer bag, and then put it into a freezer.

Then when I am planning a day, I just need to look at what it says on the freezer bag and I can log it.

Francl27

I log meat raw (using the appropriate database entry) because cooked weight varies depending on how it's cooked--particularly for ground meat, which loses more moisture depending on how thoroughly it's cooked. If you take two raw hamburger patties that weigh the same and cook them until one is medium rare and the other is well done, the second will weigh less than the first.

Yes, but the well done one will have lost more fat too... so yeah. I see both sides. Typically I log everything cooked anyway because we make big batches.

ashleyisgreat

Sometimes the package will have nutritional info on it, and that always refers to the raw meat, so I weigh it raw. So if it says that 4 oz is 130 calories, I need to weigh out 4 oz raw. And then I log it as raw, of course.

diannethegeek

Sometimes the package will have nutritional info on it, and that always refers to the raw meat, so I weigh it raw. So if it says that 4 oz is 130 calories, I need to weigh out 4 oz raw. And then I log it as raw, of course.

This is what I do.

It really doesn't matter a great deal which way you go as long as you're choosing the appropriate (and accurate) entries to log it.

cwolfman13

Having worked in the restaurant industry for a number of years, to be compliant with stated calories per a given entree, the meat was required to be weighed raw...this is the official way to do it unless otherwise stated on package...example, it is common for bacon to have it's servings and calories as per "X cooked slices".

There are entries for cooked, but I have no idea how they could be accurate unless they come from a package that has the cooked calories on a label...I don't know how anyone could know X calories in 3 oz of cooked steak for example...it's just not an official measurement; that said, it's not really that big of a difference most likely and there's so much variation in meat anyway that it's probably pretty much irrelevant.

OkamiLavande

You weigh food raw, because that is the portion size. Even if it's smaller once cooked, the raw weight is the calorie weight.

husseycd

This confused me for a while. Anymore though, I just log raw, that way it matches the packaging.

dudpa

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/printpages/MyPlateFoodGroups/ProteinFoods/food-groups.protein-foods-counts.pdf
this shows you how to measure protein

trogalicious

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/printpages/MyPlateFoodGroups/ProteinFoods/food-groups.protein-foods-counts.pdf
this shows you how to measure protein

so does this

Commander_Keen

this might sound like a stupid question to some... but i just need a quick answer

we just got a scale to weigh foods, and aren't sure if we should weigh meat before or after it is cooked. i thought before, my mom thought after... for example we cooked fresh meat hamburgers last night and before it was cooked it was 4 oz but after it was cooked (i don't like all the juices so i squeeze them out before i eat it) it was down to like 2.5 oz... i logged it under 4 oz but figured i'd come on here and ask what is the correct thing to do to get an accurate calorie count?

Weigh it after... cook away all the extra water & fat.

Macstraw

A good resource for accurate calorie counts for meats, fruit & vegetables is the USDA. If you search the database here for an item, say boneless chicken breast, enter "boneless chicken breast usda" in the search bar. If I'm not mistaken, for certain meats there are entries for raw & for cooked - & I think for some it might also break it down by how it's cooked.....

kellymac518

thanks for your help everybody!

kathystrauss1

It's more accurate to weigh it raw but for me it's just not practical. I don't cook meat just for me in nice little single portions. If you're cooking for a family or even just for yourself but in multiple servings it just doesn't work. I use info from the database for cooked meat and weigh it after I take my portion.