Marinades and tracking calories

ColemanM

Need thoughts on how to track calories for meat that has been marinated. For example, chicken breast that sat in 1 cup of marinade for the night and then was taken out and cooked, how much of the marinade should I account for in my calorie count? Clearly I shouldn't account for the whole cup as there is plenty left in the bowl, but I would have to imagine that the meat absorbed some of it...

kioga86

I count the whole thing, just to be on the safe side. That's just me though, I tend to like to overestimate.

Gogo76

Hmmm....good question. Maybe take the remaining marinade and put it back into the measuring cup to see exactly how much was absorbed and then log the difference into your diary? I personally wouldn't log it if it was not a significant difference.

HTH!! :flowerforyou:

kac7700

I wouldn't count it. It has to be so small, unless your marinade includes a lot of oil.

leslielove

I've been mulling the same question for a long time. Maybe measure the remaining marinade and subtract that from your original 1 cup to get the amount that the meat absorbed?

jamie1888

I just take a guess at it... count a tablespoon or 2.

HW2Hottie

I thought it was measured in tablespoons? That is what I read somewhere but don't quote me. It is normally a couple and that is what I add.

jamie1888

It's probably not a HUGE deal unless the marinade is something like BBQ sauce, where there's alot of calories and sugar involved. Don't stress too much over it!

wolfchild59

Enter your marinade as a recipe with the total amount you get from the mix, before you put the meat into it, as your serving size.

Then after you take the meat out of the marinade, measure what's left from the original amount.

Now you can enter that difference as a fraction of the serving size originally created.

i.e. you make a marinade that has a cup total liquid. Then after you marinate the meat you have 3/4 of a cup remaining. You'd enter 1/4 of a cup of your recipe to that meal for that day.

jessemerson86

I'd tend to lean toward counting all of the marinade myself. Just because even if you measure what's left after you're all done marinading, you have no way of knowing which substances were absorbed by the meat.

ColemanM

Thanks for the input everyone!