Net weight / serving size on packaging

kayrenloseit

Sorry if this has been posted before but I have a question about serving sizes in microwave food.

Basically I bought a frozen microwavable food, and the serving size said that it was 1 Meal (227g). After I microwaved the food, and placed it on a plate with the plate's weight removed from the scale, it said the food weighed 170 grams.

If 1 serving was 260 calories, does that mean that in reality I was only consuming about 195 calories instead since it only weighed 170 grams?

When companies put the net weight on the packaging and the serving size, it means WITHOUT the plastic tray that it comes in, right? It just threw me off hard because the food was basically 50 grams less than what they claimed was the serving.

Thanks. :flowerforyou:

P.S. It was frozen macaroni and cheese that I ate. I know frozen food is not very good for you, etc, but today was a hard day for me and I didn't feel like cooking nor going out to buy food.

concordancia

You would also have to weigh it before cooking: all that steam is water escaping from the food, which carries weight with it, as well.

michael300891

The 1 serving (meal) option should in theory be equivalent to the weight of the contents.

But yes I can see the confusion!

On another note, ever tried working out pasta nutritional information?

In many supermarkets (some have changed over last few years) the info is like this:

1 serving = 100g (dry)
100g (cooked as per instructions) = kcal macronutrient information.

You can see how that leads to inexperienced people massively underestimating energy intake, and more experienced people having to fiddle around working out the cooked weight of there food before recording the intake values!

notnikkisixx

The calorie count should be for the whole meal, regardless of the weight. If you are eating the whole thing, you are eating all of the calories. I wouldn't worry about the weight of foods like this