Tracking Burgers, Bacon, and other uncooked food

SweetestLibby

Thanks for the feedback!
Ya, I've decided to start tracking burgers as ground beef, cooked (yield from x raw). Might do the same with bacon and add a bit of bacon grease to the diary to compensate for the fact that I eat mine a little less cooked.


I'll disagree with those that say there is little difference though.
Bacon actually does make a huge difference (maybe it's because I eat a lot of it too). But 1 tbsp of bacon grease is ~120 calories. When I cook up 3-4 strips of bacon, there's easily more than 1 tbsp in there (I'd bet there's more than 2 a lot of the time).

Ya it's good to track it this way and I totally agree with you: it's important to remember that there is a difference. I recently had the same issue with cooked white rice - turns out uncooked rice has far more calories than cooked rice.

for example:

130 calories in 3½ or 100g when steamed or boiled
356 calories in 3½ or 100g when raw.

For people like me - who use this counter as a tool to maintain a healthy weight - 226 cals is a massive difference! Ultimately, it could lead to a large weekly undereat - which is unhealthy.

...I'm pretty sure that if you take dry rice and boil/steam it in water (assuming no added oil, butter, etc) the calories at the beginning and at the end are the same.

Are you sure that thae 226 cal difference isn't added oil, butter, etc.?

Oh dear god I'm an idiot.

It's all good fun :laugh:

No, you're not! I assumed that you were measuring dry and cooking. If you measure dry, cook, and then measure again the same amount of rice will weigh more - have a larger volume (as others have said) due to water absorption!

marvybells

i agree that the fat can vary for the bacon depending on how it is prepared. but i use those ready to eat bacon packs so this is not an issue for me

twelfty

what you lose in the pan when cooking is all a bonus, if you're worried about how ever many calories are left... theres not a great deal you can do tbh, weighing it before and after isn't that accurate as you're heating it so you'll be removing water first and foremost, which means you'd have to factor in water and fat loss, best bet is to not lose sleep over it, if you're saying there's 200 calories worth there, make a custom food called cooked bacon with x amount of calories less per slice

MelsAuntie

Weigh it after cooking in that case.

FATJAKE5

Why would anyone, who lives in Canada, eat store bought meat? You have the best hunting and fishing in the world.

dbmata

Well maybe you should think about buying bacon with less fat in it because I don't get nearly as much as that from mine and quite frankly, the thought of that much being in the pan while it's cooking would put me right off!

Maybe ya'll should just not buy bacon and make your own. Home cured bacon doesn't leak off fat like those store bought atrocities do.

To the op, so here's a thought. Weigh your bacon pre-cooking. Post cooking, weigh your bacon fat. Do this over a large number of slices and you'll get an average "shrink", and can adjust accordingly.

EG: Over 70 slices, 3 slices of bacon cooked in X manner releases Y grams of bacon fat, resulting in a variance from raw values of Z.

Zomoniac

Interesting. I've wondered this myself. I often buy minced beef that's 20% fat, but when I cook it in a pan I find myself routinely having to stop and spoon out huge volumes of fat to stop the meat drowning. Presumably the fat content listed is as given raw, but a huge amount of that fat gets drained down the sink before the meat has even left the pan.

MrsGriffin67

I'll disagree with those that say there is little difference though.
Bacon actually does make a huge difference (maybe it's because I eat a lot of it too). But 1 tbsp of bacon grease is ~120 calories. When I cook up 3-4 strips of bacon, there's easily more than 1 tbsp in there (I'd bet there's more than 2 a lot of the time).

try buying a better quality bacon or going with canadian bacon. same with ground beef try buying 96% lean and not frozen burgers. it will help with the fat.

I only buy 96/4 ground beef if I am choosing to use red meat. As far as bacon goes, try opting for center cut bacon. It eliminates most of the fat that is in bacon. That is truly the only bacon that I really enjoy, otherwise I start feeling guilty for eating it.

dbmata

I'll disagree with those that say there is little difference though.
Bacon actually does make a huge difference (maybe it's because I eat a lot of it too). But 1 tbsp of bacon grease is ~120 calories. When I cook up 3-4 strips of bacon, there's easily more than 1 tbsp in there (I'd bet there's more than 2 a lot of the time).

try buying a better quality bacon or going with canadian bacon. same with ground beef try buying 96% lean and not frozen burgers. it will help with the fat.

I only buy 96/4 ground beef if I am choosing to use red meat. As far as bacon goes, try opting for center cut bacon. It eliminates most of the fat that is in bacon. That is truly the only bacon that I really enjoy, otherwise I start feeling guilty for eating it.

Center cut doesn't really mean anything though. If you want to reduce the fat in your bacon, breed is what matters. You want a Duroc, good muscle, little fat in the belly in comparison. I personally prefer Hampshire/Duroc cross, you still get great quantities of meat, but also a decent middle of the road layer of clean fat.

Similarly, you want to avoid Woolies, Kurobota, and Berkshires. Those are all grown to maximize fat content.