Weigh before or after cooking??

GooneyAngel

I am just wondering when I am supposed to weigh my food? For example, when they say that 6 oz. of chicken has X amount of calories, is the 6 oz before or after it is cooked?? I just want to be sure that I am doing this right. Thanks for all the help!

edryer123

Thanks for asking this question because I have the same one.

JenWorthen3

I just looked this up on google and most of the sites say to weight it after you cook it.

ChefJenn

i weigh all meat before cooking it. Most products should be weighed in its raw form.
Pasta is the one that is hard to do. I tend to measure it out after cooking it b/c it swells when cooked bringing it to a state that you can measure it and know you are not eating more than the serving size.

Chef Jenn

edryer123

Thank you much!

kylielouttit

Good question!

I have been weighing AFTER cooking, it will be interesting to see what others say.

denise980

After cooking, because when you cook it changes the size of the food.

For example: when you cook let's say a piece of chicken, you get fat and juices that run out of it, which changes the weight of the food.

wiggleroom

I have found all kinds of different answers out there -- like this one from caloriecount.com:

"Food should be weighed after cooking, and then you should enter only the portion you actually eat. If you weigh a food before cooking it, you must enter the uncooked version in your food log for an accurate calorie count."

But a pasta box says a serving is 2 oz, and there are approximately 8 servings per 16 oz box. But the other day, out of curiosity, I weighed out the 2 oz prior to cooking, and then weighed it again afterwards -- and it was way more than 2 oz (I can't remember exactly now). Obviously, this is because of the absorbed water.

But my point is this: if the serving size for pasta is based on pre-cooked weight, why would other foods be any different?

I feel like I'm missing something obvious.

ChefJenn

maybe cooking in a restaurant is differ than cooking at home. b/c when you order a 10oz ribeye , it is not weighed after we cook it..
All meat is cut and weighed during prep time before opening the doors of a business. This also goes for side dishes as well. Most everything is measured out ahead of time then its quickfired during dinner service.
Just how I have been taught in the culinary world

goingwithgrace

We weight after.

arewethereyet

I always weighed before because everything I eat is low fat. This week I bought my 7% ground beef, made a burger weighing out 4 oz. Just for the heck of it I weighed it after it was cooked and it was 3.25 oz!! :noway: Doesnt sound like much but for me 1 oz of food is a lot at the end of the day.

So now I weigh after cooking!!:flowerforyou:

marlabelle

I actually know the answer to this question! Weigh ingredients before you cook them. During the cooking process all that changes is the amount of water. The ingredients reduce in weight but also concentrate.

If you have any cooking questions I would be happy to help. I have a degree in culinary arts and worked in restaurants for 10 years.

PoleBoy

From the UK perspective, in general before - unless the information specifies how it was cooked. (on packaing nutritional information is "as sold" unless otherwise specified)

Tilda white brown basmati rice

The steamed one comes in at 178 cals /per 100g, compared to the 348/100g

fitzie63

Meat is always weighed BEFORE cooking, i.e. RAW WEIGHT. That includes poultry & fish too.

Pasta is weighed as a DRY WEIGHT (before cooking).

LINK: http://www.everydayhealth.com/weight/food-scale-for-weight-loss.aspx

LINK: http://www.ehow.com/how_6938627_weigh-food-diet.html

GooneyAngel

Thanks everyone! I appreciate all the input....and all of it is valuable information.

SLaw4215

I actually know the answer to this question! Weigh ingredients before you cook them. During the cooking process all that changes is the amount of water. The ingredients reduce in weight but also concentrate.

If you have any cooking questions I would be happy to help. I have a degree in culinary arts and worked in restaurants for 10 years.

Not to mention you've lost the equivelent of 2 4th grade children ...holy smoke!!!! If you lead I will follow

jgp46405

i still am not sure how this would work i had a boneless skinless chicken breast for dinner that before hand was 8oz and after cooking was 2oz so what should i log??

PoleBoy

i still am not sure how this would work i had a boneless skinless chicken breast for dinner that before hand was 8oz and after cooking was 2oz so what should i log??

How in the heck did you reduce an 8oz breast to 2oz?

but the principle is the same, you log the raw weight. (if the 8oz was with the skin and the bone then you've logged the wrong thing)

slynn28

i always weigh before cooking it.

cmayfield3

There should be multiple entries in the database for any particular food. Some entries for the raw food and some for the cooked food. If you weigh your food before cooking, you use the entry for the raw food. If you weigh it after it's cooked, you use the entry for the cooked food.

slynn28

i still am not sure how this would work i had a boneless skinless chicken breast for dinner that before hand was 8oz and after cooking was 2oz so what should i log??

How in the heck did you reduce an 8oz breast to 2oz?

but the principle is the same, you log the raw weight. (if the 8oz was with the skin and the bone then you've logged the wrong thing)

lol! thats weird from 8 to 2....

Luckee_me

I actually know the answer to this question! Weigh ingredients before you cook them. During the cooking process all that changes is the amount of water. The ingredients reduce in weight but also concentrate.

If you have any cooking questions I would be happy to help. I have a degree in culinary arts and worked in restaurants for 10 years.

Not to mention you've lost the equivelent of 2 4th grade children ...holy smoke!!!! If you lead I will follow

This

myfitnessval

i weigh before for meats. pastas usually tell you on the packaging if its a dry or cooked measurement so that helps a ton.

terrie53

I have allways wanted to no the same thing

BaconMD

Wow, old post back from the dead.

AsellusReborn

It depends how you input, and this is something I only recently - and unhappily - realized. If you pop in the specific brand to match the nutrition label - like I buy market pantry frozen chicken breasts - the nutrtition facts are for UNCOOKED meat. So I have to weigh it before cooking...which I wasn't doing. Nutrition labels are for products in the package as is.


There are however entries in the DB for -cooked- versions. If you're using those you use the cooked weight. Make sense? Don't enter raw weights if you pick a cooked entry in the database - and vice versa, don't enter a cooked weight for a raw value.

EricNCSU

I always weighed before because everything I eat is low fat. This week I bought my 7% ground beef, made a burger weighing out 4 oz. Just for the heck of it I weighed it after it was cooked and it was 3.25 oz!! :noway: Doesnt sound like much but for me 1 oz of food is a lot at the end of the day.

So now I weigh after cooking!!:flowerforyou:

This is wrong though because the nutritional information is based on the raw weight so you are underestimating what you eat. You are eating 4 oz but only logging 3, so you ate 100 cal (example) but only logged 75.

ALL meats are weighed raw. All you lose when you cook (in theory, yes I know fat drips out) is water, so the nutrition is unchanged, but the weight is less, so you have to go with the higher/raw weight.

MetilHed

I always weighed before because everything I eat is low fat. This week I bought my 7% ground beef, made a burger weighing out 4 oz. Just for the heck of it I weighed it after it was cooked and it was 3.25 oz!! :noway: Doesnt sound like much but for me 1 oz of food is a lot at the end of the day.

So now I weigh after cooking!!:flowerforyou:

This is wrong though because the nutritional information is based on the raw weight so you are underestimating what you eat. You are eating 4 oz but only logging 3, so you ate 100 cal (example) but only logged 75.

ALL meats are weighed raw. All you lose when you cook (in theory, yes I know fat drips out) is water, so the nutrition is unchanged, but the weight is less, so you have to go with the higher/raw weight.

AND It's hard to get accurate info because how much water is lost can be dependent on how/how long you cook it. 4 oz burger cooked rare will weigh more than well done, but still has the nutrition of 4 oz of ground beef.

Unless otherwise specified on the packaging, weigh foods raw.

TrinaJ11

I always weigh before cooking. I only weigh after if the serving size on the package says (x amount of oz's) prepared or cooked.

delilah47

It depends on what you select from the database. I usually start with fresh or raw and enter it into my recipe. Calories will be correct and your servings will be accurate that way. Products which are raw, say raw chicken sausage has the calories on the package for raw, not cooked. So if the package has a serving size of 2.5 oz, if you wait and weigh it after you cook it, you will be eating much more than the 2.5 oz of uncooked sausage.

atomiclauren

I have had an issue with this - for example, we eat a lot of salmon and I use the USDA nutrient database.

There are entries for raw and cooked and per ounce or gram the difference is negligible (5 oz cooked Atlantic salmon = 292 calories vs. 5 oz raw Atlantic salmon = 295 calories).

Obviously I'd love to use the after-cooking-weight!