cooked versus raw measurements?

EmmaGilette
EmmaGilette Posts: 13 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi all,

I have a conundrum: whenever I cook a meal, I weigh all my vegetables, etc. when they are raw, however I obviously eat them when they are cooked, and I'm not sure how to record this. Many ingredients can't be weighed when they're cooked, because they become part of a curry, for example. Obviously, cooking items can either dry them out (in which case they weigh less) or make them weigh more (if cooked in liquid). So I guess my questions are:

a) does the cooking process alter the amount of calories in the same amount of a vegetable?
b) how much does it alter the nutritional content?
c) do I just record the food using a "raw" weight item, or should I be cooking, re-weighing and then recording it as a "cooked" item.
d) with things like lentils, I am particularly confused, as the site only gives measurements for cooked lentils, but I would like to know how many calories worth of lentils I am adding to a recipe, when weighed from a raw/dried state - how do I work this out if the lentils are part of a larger recipe, such as a soup?

Thanks,

Emma

Replies

  • em9371
    em9371 Posts: 1,047 Member
    I use raw weight for everything, that way you get all your amounts right before cooking, and things that soak up water like pasta and rice can vary in cooked weight depending how long you cook them and how much water they soak up!
    Calories don't change during cooking, with the exception of meat where fat may drain off, eg roast chicken, beef burgers.

    There are loads of entries for dried lentils, type in 'lentils - raw', that will get you the generic one with weights in grams or cups.
  • tryclyn
    tryclyn Posts: 2,414 Member
    I use the recipe tab when I make my own dishes and when I dish it out I get the serving count. You can look up foods in the database with descriptive words as well. So if I decide to add frozen baby lima beans in my soup I type that in the search box.
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    It doesn't matter - use whichever suits you best and search in the database for raw, cooked, steamed, baked etc.
    Many people say that measuring things raw is "correct" - but as most of the items in the database are user-added, there is no way to know whether zn item is raw or cooked unless it is in the description.
  • dhakiyya
    dhakiyya Posts: 481 Member
    if you are weighing/measuring raw, so long as you are using the values for raw, then it doesn't matter. If you're weighing/measuring cooked, so long as you're using the values for cooked, it doesn't matter. The number of calories and macronutrients don't usually change with cooking, but the weight of the food does, so it may get lighter or heavier. (though in some cases e.g. meat cooked on a grill where some of the fat drips off, the macronutrients can change so be careful of that)

    Problems arise if you, for example, weigh rice raw, but then log it with the calories/macros for cooked rice, this can put your measurements out by a couple of hundred calories because rice absorbs a lot of water and therefore gets heavier while cooking. Many foods will either lose or gain water while cooking which is why the weight changes. If it's losing or gaining fat while cooking (e.g. fat dripping off when cooking on a grill, or fat being absorbed while frying), you need to get the data for that food, cooked that way, and weigh the food cooked.

    So basically if you're weighing and measuring your veggies raw, and using the data for raw vegetables, unless a significant part of the veggies are being "lost" during cooking (can't imagine how with veggies) then your measurements should be accurate.
  • llsand
    llsand Posts: 87
    The only rule doctors have given me about raw VS cooked ( and you’ll notice that it might come back once in a while in nutrition or dieting books ) is that pasta and rice have to be weighted after they are cooked. Everything else is doesn’t matter.

    As someone mentioned before, pasta and rice will weight differently depending on how much they cook (obviously they are super light before cooking). This is due to the amount of water they absorb but more importantly how much starch they develop. The more you cook them, the starchier they get and that’s what makes you gain weight.

    You’ll also notice that the amount of cooked pasta or rice that you consume is very different when weighted raw or cooked. It’s also part of portion control. Vegetables, meat, poultry etc don’t double in size when cooked.
  • vanessalillian82
    vanessalillian82 Posts: 350 Member
    With recipes I enter the raw ingredients, including oil and stock or wine or whatever else I cook it in, so that accounts for whatever it may absorb (because obviously water doesn't count for calories). When it comes to pasta, rice etc. I look at the packet, use the barcode scanner, weigh out the amount it says a serving is (or calculate it out per 100g) and log it like that. With pasta I will rough it a bit if it says the packet serves, say 4 - I'll just divide it roughly into 4 because I know I'll eventually eat the other 3 serves and it will balance out if one serve is a little too big. I would say a set of electronic scales are probably more helpful in a lot of instances than measuring cups, but weighing it and then putting it in a cup so you can learn what a serving looks like can be useful for when you don't have a set of scales. Hope that helps!
  • EmmaGilette
    EmmaGilette Posts: 13 Member
    Wow! That's amazing! I didn't realize that pasta became more starchy when cooked! Thanks :)
  • EmmaGilette
    EmmaGilette Posts: 13 Member
    Thanks everyone! Very helpful. I will continue to measure and weigh everything from it's raw state as I do now (and try to measure rice and pasta from a cooked state). Thanks!
  • munchlaxx
    munchlaxx Posts: 102 Member
    Commenting so this post will be in my profile for my own future reference :D
  • jenibryan
    jenibryan Posts: 8
    I was wondering this too in regards to spinach. You can cook down 2 cups of raw spinach into nothing with just a couple of minutes of sauteing. I've been using raw measurements but it felt like cheating.
  • arcticfox04
    arcticfox04 Posts: 1,011 Member
    I always use raw measurements. There's always a variable when it comes to cooking. I'd rather be safe then sorry.
  • mickwhitton
    mickwhitton Posts: 3
    I measure everything in Raw for everything and use the Recipe function to split into say 4 servings. I then split evenly into 4 servings by weighing each serving roughly, by adding 100 gms at a time to 4 bowls ect and keep weighing and topping them up. Water loss/absorption doesn't matter, fat loss (eg steak) you will simply be over estimating which is ok depending on your goal.

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