Which chicken do I choose!?

EzRemake

I eat a ton of white boneless skinless chicken, but one problem I've been having is choosing a proper chicken "meal" on MFP that is accurate.

There are many different white boneless skinless chicken choices on this site, and some are drastically different than others. I've seen up to a 200 calorie disparity between some of them, regardless of them being the same weight in portion size, type of cook etc.

For instance, tonight I'm eating some Blue Goose Chicken breast, if I specifically add

"Blue Goose - Chicken Breast, Boneless, Skinless, 1 breast, baked" it comes out to 300 CAL / 34g Protein

but if i were to choose "Chicken - Breast - White Meat, 7.75 ounce no bone or skin" (exact weight) it comes out to 194 CAL / 43g Protein.

Which one would be of better use?

nicsflyingcircus

One is probably raw weight, the higher cal one may be cooked weight. That being said, if all else fails, use the entries that aren't starred, like: chicken, cooked, meat only

ETA: The 300cal one looks really wrong. Chicken breast meat has a raw ratio of about 5.6grams per gram of protein. (or something like that)

cassique

Not sure what blue goose is. But that entry specifies "baked" do you buy it already prepared or do you have a raw breast that you will bake yourself? If you are making it yourself I would build it in the recipe builder with the raw chicken breast option using the pre-cooked weight. If you purchased it already prepared than I would do the Blue Goose option since that will be closer to their preparation.

EzRemake

The breasts are raw, I'm simply just baking them myself. Should I be using pre cook weight or should I scale my meat after cooking it?

nicsflyingcircus

If the package has info (it should), it will be for the raw weight. Weigh raw, it's easiest and most accurate.

chrisdavey

search for chicken breast usda and use that one

bluuu123

id say scale once cooked....... if ur off by +/- 50 calories to the truth, the world wont end lol

lemurcat12

People put all sorts of weird stuff in the database, including their own prepared meals, not properly labeled. You learn to recognize it, but it's super annoying IMO.

For boneless, skinless chicken breast, I'd use either:

Chicken, breast, meat only, raw (with no asterisk)

or

Chicken, breast, meat only, cooked, [specific way of cooking] (with no asterisk).

In fact, for boneless, skinless breast I'd use the first one, because there's no reason not to weight it when it's raw. Use the cooked entry if you weigh it when it's cooked, though.

The only reason to worry about a specific brand is if you think it might have lots of water injected or some such that would mess up the weight and if so use the package information and compare with what you see in the database.

I really don't trust any asterisk'd entries unless I compare them to the source myself. Even packaged products with lots of confirmations can be off, as there may be slightly different variants of the product or it could have changed.

Francl27

People put all sorts of weird stuff in the database, including their own prepared meals, not properly labeled. You learn to recognize it, but it's super annoying IMO.

For boneless, skinless chicken breast, I'd use either:

Chicken, breast, meat only, raw (with no asterisk)

or

Chicken, breast, meat only, cooked, [specific way of cooking] (with no asterisk).

In fact, for boneless, skinless breast I'd use the first one, because there's no reason not to weight it when it's raw. Use the cooked entry if you weigh it when it's cooked, though.

The only reason to worry about a specific brand is if you think it might have lots of water injected or some such that would mess up the weight and if so use the package information and compare with what you see in the database.

I really don't trust any asterisk'd entries unless I compare them to the source myself. Even packaged products with lots of confirmations can be off, as there may be slightly different variants of the product or it could have changed.

This. And weigh it. 'one breast' doesn't mean anything.

AmyRhubarb

People put all sorts of weird stuff in the database, including their own prepared meals, not properly labeled. You learn to recognize it, but it's super annoying IMO.

For boneless, skinless chicken breast, I'd use either:

Chicken, breast, meat only, raw (with no asterisk)

or

Chicken, breast, meat only, cooked, [specific way of cooking] (with no asterisk).

In fact, for boneless, skinless breast I'd use the first one, because there's no reason not to weight it when it's raw. Use the cooked entry if you weigh it when it's cooked, though.

The only reason to worry about a specific brand is if you think it might have lots of water injected or some such that would mess up the weight and if so use the package information and compare with what you see in the database.

I really don't trust any asterisk'd entries unless I compare them to the source myself. Even packaged products with lots of confirmations can be off, as there may be slightly different variants of the product or it could have changed.

This. And weigh it. 'one breast' doesn't mean anything.

Couldn't have said it better.

It definitely takes some hunting around to find the best entries in the database, or the tricks to finding the most accurate, no asterisk entries, but it's worth it. And once you've logged it, it should show in your most recent or frequent foods if you enter it often. Logging is pretty quick for me now as I've been at this for awhile, and most of what I eat is there - I just weigh the food, click click and it's logged.

Renosu

This is a GREAT question I've been having too! There's so many options (for for everything!) how to know which one to choose is dizzying. Thanks for bringing this up.