weighing food

Everything before. Meat is meant to be weighed in the raw state, 4oz of boneless skinless, chicken breast means 4 oz raw meat. You do this because when it cooks you lose water in the cooking process and it will be a different amount each time.

For example, if you start with 4oz of meat and cook it to a point where it's still moist and juicy inside, it will weigh about 3.25-3.5 oz.
Or if you cook that same 4oz of meat to where it's drier and a bit over cooked, it will weigh about 2.75-3oz.
Both amounts will be 120 calories.

Even if you use an entry for cooked meat, you can't be certain of the guideline that the entry is based off of as far as temp and length of cooking.

That's why whenever you see things involving meat advertised, there is the fine print at the bottom that says that weight is based off of pre-cooked weight.

I worked in a professional kitchen before, and everything is based off of pre-cooked weight. The only time we weigh stuff after it's cooked for any reason is portioning. e.g. you cooked 8oz of meat and want two servings out of it, but now it weighs 6.5oz, so each portion gets 3.25oz of meat.

So, are you even more confused now? :huh:

really, it depends on which food item you choose in the database. You just have to match them. I usually weigh my food cooked, so I make sure the database item I choose says "cooked"

This would be my answer too!

One thing I learned is that what the package says (for instance chicken breasts 4oz/112grams = x amount of calories) means raw weight...because you bought it in its raw form. - unless it says cooked!

I weigh them after cooking, helps with my portion control...

So, are you even more confused now? :huh:

I am and I might be sorry I read this post..lol..:grumble:

I always weigh mine before, and for vegetables will pick entries saying raw. Most food labels will be based on raw/uncooked weight (so a 400g pack with 4 servings will be 100g/serve), unless the labels says 'as prepared' or something similar.

Just do whats works for you, I don't really want to be weighing once its cooked, I want to eat it!

When you look up chicken (or any meat) in MFP, it will have options that say either "baked" "grilled" "cooked" or "raw." Choose baked of grilled if you're weighing it after you cooked it. And choose raw if you wanna weigh it before you cook it

really, it depends on which food item you choose in the database. You just have to match them. I usually weigh my food cooked, so I make sure the database item I choose says "cooked"

But what if you cooked your meat medium and the entry in the database is for rare meat? Then your cooked meat will weigh less because you've cooked away more of the water and juices so you'll be entering fewer calories than you're actually consuming.

For one, I think you have you use your best judgement while estimating. If you eat your food bleu or rare, choose raw no matter what. I enter in raw tuna when I eat seared tuna, for example. If you eat your food medium to well done, then you are cooking some of the water and fat out of it and the calories per unit mass changes. However, this only applies to relatively fatty meats that you would eat less than well done, in which case the calories will be somewhere in between. For things like most fish and chicken and even lean cuts of beef (filet, maybe a good quality sirloin), the difference is pretty negligible as long as you are choosing the correct database item.

When you go to a restaurant and order a 6oz filet, a 12oz rib-eye, a 1/4lb burger, or a 4oz chicken breast, those aren't weights based on what is on your plate and brought to the table, it's the weight based on what went on the heat in the kitchen. And that's the same way it should be in your kitchen at home.

I agree... but I don't know about you, but I don't carry my food scale into a restaurant. So again, you have to use your estimating judgement again to estimate how much food is there. The thing is... even if the menu says that steak is 8 oz, the kitchen didn't weigh it and it is probably somewhere between 6-10 oz. Again, you have to use our brain some.

I'm one of those odd people who weigh before and after... Of course I am normally adding spices and things to it when I am cooking it thus I weigh everything going into the 'recipe' then I cook it and then I weigh it after again and base my portions (calories) off of that. I figure all the calories that went into it didn't just evaporate..they are still all there somewhere.

When I cook pasta I weigh dry, then I cook it and weigh it again so I know how much I got from the dry stuff and since I don't eat plain pasta I have to account for the other things that are added too. Complicated yes but I have slight OCD about this stuff LOL

why not weigh it cooked thats how your eating it, and like others say, make sure it says cooked in the database.:happy:

Since I am weighing what I am eating, I weigh is the state I am going to eat it.

Just be sure when you log it specifies, as others have mentioned.