Draining fat from meat?

happymrsmama

We are on a pretty strict budget, so we buy the cheaper ground beef (thus higher fat content). I drain a LOT off (maybe 2 cups from 3 pounds), and I know that would effect the caloric content. Does anyone take this into consideration when counting their calories? (Manually changing the calories, selecting a lower fat content beef when adding it to your food for the day, etc.)

I am keeping my calories pretty low, so I am trying to be as accurate as possible.

marygee1951

I drain off as much fat as possible.

If you look up ground beef in the food tracker, you'll see listings which include the fat content, like 80/20 and 85/15, etc.
Just pick the right one.

I see you mention you keep your calories low. I hope they are not too low or you may not lose as well. You may want to open your diary, then post your stats (age, height, weight, exercise level) and post a thread asking people to review. People here are great and they are more than willing to help you out with any questions. Just keep reading and posting -- you'll learn a lot! :flowerforyou:

texanintokyo

I found this on the taste of home website...

Rinsing Browned Ground Beef
I drain and rinse ground beef after cooking to eliminate some fat and calories, but I'm not sure how much is rinsed away. Is 80% lean beef (drained and rinsed) as lean as 95% lean beef? —L.A., Woodridge, Illinois

In a word, yes. Research from Iowa State University has shown that rinsing pan-fried ground beef with hot water can reduce the fat content by a whopping 50%. The study found that 4 ounces of 80% lean ground beef that was pan-fried, drained, blotted with paper towels and rinsed with hot water contained 121 calories and 5 grams of fat—roughly the equivalent of 95% lean beef, undrained. By comparison, 80% lean ground beef that was drained and blotted (not rinsed) provided 177 calories with 10 grams of fat. Interestingly, researchers found that rinsing 90% lean ground beef did not provide significant calorie or fat savings over the 80% rinsed beef. We recommend that readers who adopt the rinsing method use the more economical 80% lean ground beef except in recipes where blotting and rinsing are not practical, such as in meat loaf or stuffed peppers. In that case, we recommend 90% lean beef.

Seems you could just select the leaner meat for calorie tracking?

Unknown

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meshashesha2012

sorry but your meals must be totally bland if you're rinsing off your seasoning.. or maybe you dont season while your food is cooking which is still pretty bland.

anyway, yeah i think you could change the calorie content, but honestly id rather just be safe than sorry and i consider it's better to overestimate my intake than underestimate it

lithezebra

I would much rather eat a little more fat than rinse my hamburger.

texanintokyo

Actually they are great. When cooking meatballs or stuffed peppers I don't rinse the meat of course. But when I cook tacos I do. I brown the meat and then rinse it before I toss it back into the pan with reduced sodium taco seasoning and water and then cook it down til it's nice and thick. Doesn't lose any taste at all. :-)

aolguin86

When in doubt do without..... buy leaner meat when you can.... if not rinsing the grease sounds like a great idea i might try that myself...

kommodevaran

Why??? :sad:
Especially when on a budget you'd want to keep those calories. And the taste. And the fatty acids.
Sounds like a lot of work too. Hope you have a plumber in your family, those drain pipes will have a hard time... and rats love fat too!

FitOldMomma

I buy my ground beef from Costco, and it is typically 88/12.
I brown 3 pounds of it at a time and then drain it well. I smash that fat right out of it, lol.
Then, I run the hottest water possible from my tap and rinse it and smash it some more.

I'm going to be seasoning it with lots of spices and adding a lot of other ingredients so I don't notice a loss of flavor at all.
I use this for taco meat, spaghetti sauce and a family favorite here- goulash.

I still log the given calories for 88/12 ground beef, but I know it is less.