Food Scale Newbie

Ratrap

Hello,

So I recently have bought a food scale and I have many questions.

1. Do I weigh the meat raw or cooked to get the right OZ?
2. When it comes to beans do I use a cup or the scale?
3. Do I weigh stuff like rice dry or cooked?

BigT555

weigh things before cooking, the process of cooking removes (or in rices case adds) water weight which will effect the calorie to weight ratio

i would weigh beans as they are a solid, the size of each individual bean will vary which will effect the volume

caitology

Weigh anything and everything you can. Cups are terribly inaccurate for solids. A cup for some people is a scoop without leveling the top, a scoop with it slightly under, etc where a gram is always a gram.

RodaRose

1 Always before esp meat and pasta, potatoes, winter squashes .. . . . --- with exceptions you point out:
2 I usually see cooked beans measured by the cup -- they will have some liquid in them
3 The tracker here lets you choose rice uncooked or uncooked -- I usually do cooked

bevmcarthur

i never weight my raw meats before . HMMMM

smn76237

The only thing you use cups for are liquids. Beans get measured on a scale (a can or package will typically give a weighted serving size in parenthesis).

Weigh everything raw and uncooked when you can, including meat, rice, and pasta.

Only weigh the part you eat--ie, banana peels and apple cores don't get weighed.

countscalories

Re: the "cooked vs. raw" dilemma, I weigh meats after cooking. When I log my meals into MFP, I use the "cooked" data for those foods. Seems to be working for me. And measure, measure, measure! Except for when I dine out, I imagine that weighing my food will be something I will do for the rest of my life. It's too easy to NOT do it. You'll get the hang of it fast. Good luck!