Using a food scale

SavinnaMarie

I'm gonna get a scale to weigh my food and be more accurate in logging it in and i just want to ask how i should weigh chicken breast? am i supposed to weigh it when it's raw and uncooked or after i bake it?

i'll use this thread in the future when i have more food weighing questions

parisallez

it really depends. weigh all your meats pre-cooked, or post-cooked. but stay consistent. I weigh mine after cooking, mfp will often have entries for foods with a cooked weight that someone has entered into the system. rule of thumb: meat will lose 25% of its weight in cooking. so if you eat 6 oz cooked chicken, and the entry you use in mfp is raw then you would enter 8 oz of chicken.

larrodarro

I weigh my cooked meat before eating. Then weigh the bones, fat and skin and do the math. When I log it, I use the meat only option.

Sinisterly

I weigh everything before cooking it and put it into the system as "raw", then get to cooking my meals.
Edit: And I weigh my chicken breast in grams.

SavinnaMarie

thanks! cooking doesn't change the calories of the food/meat alone right? aside from the additional calories from the stuff you cook it with?

enchantedgardener

Weighing from raw is more accurate because meats lose moisture (weight) while they cook. If you overcook a 4-oz raw piece of chicken, it will weigh less after cooking than the same piece of chicken that was cooked to just-done. This is especially true with steak, for example. Take two identical size steaks, one cooked to rare and the other to well. The rare will weigh more after cooking than the well done.

cwolfman13

most nutritional information provided is for the weight raw or dry in the case of grains, rices, pastas, etc unless otherwise stated.