Meals measures, before or after cooked?

AnaMarian

Hi!

Just a quick question, when do you measure your meals on the scale, before or after they are cooked?

Thanks

Pandorian

depends on the entry you're using in MFP but I do tend to use the ones that specify raw.

I do so because your idea of cooked and mine may differ
take a 6 oz piece of meat... cook it to blue rare and weigh it... it'll weigh SOMETHING less than it did.. put it back on and cook it until well done, it'll weigh something less than it did at blue-rare... both are considered "cooked" to different people but which one did the user who entered it use?

same with pasta
take 3 ounces of pasta, cook it until al dente (or whatever the still crunchy just barely done is called) weigh it... more than you started with... cook it further until it's virtually falling apart with all the moisture it absorbed.... weigh it... more than at al dente and when you started... both considered cooked

So I consider "raw" the only way to be sure I and others can get the "same" calorie count from a given food.

Restaurants will also point out their 1/4lb burger or 1/3 lb burger refers to RAW weight so getting your burger delivered and then weighing the patty you won't "win" by saying it's not 1/4 lb.. that's cooked weight so of course it's less than the 1/4 lb raw