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Chicken Calories

Tilran
Tilran Posts: 627 Member
edited January 10 in Food and Nutrition
Ok, so have you ever looked close to the packaging on chicken breasts? Lets take Perdue Chicken for example.

They have different values cooked/uncooked. Most likely due to moisture loss I assume. I am confused however because the fat goes up as uncooked its 10 calories out of 120 (8.3%), and cooked it is 10 calories out of 100 (10%).

What gives, anyone know why this happens? I've always logged my chicken before cooked, but you figure at half a pound of chicken, you are actually eating 2oz less then you originally thought? Hmmm

See below:

**UNCOOKED**

Serving Size 4 oz (112g)

Servings Per Container Varied

Amount Per Serving (* % of Daily Value)

Calories 120

Calories from Fat 10

Total Fat 1g (2%)

Saturated Fat 0g (0%)

Trans Fat 0g

Cholesterol 65mg (22%)

Sodium 75mg (3%)

Total Carbohydrate 0g (0%)

Dietary Fiber 0g (0%)

Sugars 0g

Protein 26g

Vitamin A 0%

Vitamin C 2%

Calcium 2%

Iron 4%

******************************************

**COOKED**

Serving Size 3 oz (84g)

Servings Per Container Varied

Amount Per Serving (* % of Daily Value)

Calories 100

Calories from Fat 10

Total Fat 1g (2%)

Saturated Fat 0g (0%)

Trans Fat 0g

Cholesterol 65mg (18%)

Sodium 75mg (3%)

Total Carbohydrate 0g (0%)

Dietary Fiber 0g (0%)

Sugars 0g

Protein 26g

Vitamin A 0%

Vitamin C 2%

Calcium 2%

Iron 4%

Replies

  • tkjuggler
    tkjuggler Posts: 11 Member
    Tilran!
    I am impressed with your detailed reading...

    All I know is that when you heat up some food in order to eat it...it has more kcals than when it is room temperature or cold.
  • CJSCHUYLER
    CJSCHUYLER Posts: 29 Member
    From what i am gathering it is deff due to the water loss causing the meat to be more dense which that would make the counts change. From looking at your posting i see they did make a change in the weight of the food serving to, i think, compinsate for the water. I am not a mathmatics guy or a nutrition expert so that particular case is still a bit hard to understand. I did look it up on a few websites and did some comparisons to other sites and all i can gather is the density of the meat itself after it has been cooked.
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
    All I know is that when you heat up some food in order to eat it...it has more kcals than when it is room temperature or cold.

    sounds legit
  • Tilran
    Tilran Posts: 627 Member
    Do you think that when they put 3oz cooked they are trying to manipulate the numbers or that 4oz cooks down to 3oz?

    I know in red meat such as burgers, you will have a 1/2 pound patty reduce down to 1/4 pound or so, but I believe that is due to fat being cooked off...in chicken, there is very little fat, so what is reducing the serving size in the description of the OP?

    I cant tell if they are trying to say 4oz after cooking turns to 3oz, or if they just give you a 3oz portion serving size when cooked to offset the fact it gained calories from fat.
  • Tw1zzler
    Tw1zzler Posts: 583
    The database has values for raw or various cooking methods.
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
    Do you think that when they put 3oz cooked they are trying to manipulate the numbers or that 4oz cooks down to 3oz?

    I know in red meat such as burgers, you will have a 1/2 pound patty reduce down to 1/4 pound or so, but I believe that is due to fat being cooked off...in chicken, there is very little fat, so what is reducing the serving size in the description of the OP?

    I cant tell if they are trying to say 4oz after cooking turns to 3oz, or if they just give you a 3oz portion serving size when cooked to offset the fact it gained calories from fat.

    4oz cooks down to 3oz, it's water loss
This discussion has been closed.

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