Weigh before or after cooking??

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Replies

  • blihota
    blihota Posts: 2
    if all that is cooking off is water, then why befrore?? water is zero calories, so why weigh it, as if it were something else, like chicken, or steak?? seems like its a markiting thing, so custemers cant say anything if there food doesnt weigh excatly right?? can you elaborate??
  • blihota
    blihota Posts: 2
    ....
  • ValerieMartini2Olives
    ValerieMartini2Olives Posts: 3,024 Member
    Almost always weigh before. Nutrition content gets altered after cooking. But, if you cook a piece of chicken or steak or something, you can find the cooked content on MFP.
  • NinjaJinja
    NinjaJinja Posts: 147 Member
    I weigh before. There's simply no way to weigh it after if you're making something like, oh, a chili or casserole. It's all cooked together. How do you know exactly how much cheese vs how much chicken you have without totally destroying it? It's a totally futile endeavor in a chili.

    So glad to know that I've been doing it right this whole time. Thank you culinary people!
  • Cyriatan
    Cyriatan Posts: 23 Member
    Depends. Most of the time, before. But, it depends whether the meal is for one or more regarding certain foods. If for myself only, I weigh anything before because I'll be eating all of it myself. This is very useful when eating something like rice or pasta. If shared, is more difficult, I'm not eating a whole cup of uncooked rice even if I make that for my whole family, and you can't put jut 1/4 of uncooked rice on your diary because you simply just don't know how much water may have it soaked in or anything. In this cases I weigh the food after being cooked and I try to search for cooked versions on the database (cooked rice, cooked pasta, etc.) But I try as much as possible to weigh before cooking and then I add the oil used, I think is far more accurate.
  • KenosFeoh
    KenosFeoh Posts: 1,837 Member
    I always look for the "cooked" value (as in "roasted chicken breast"). I usually find it. I'm not always the one doing the cooking here, and when I am, I'm cooking for the family, not just for myself, so I don't know exactly which piece of meat I'm going to end up with.
  • corneredbycorn
    corneredbycorn Posts: 267 Member
    Weight is before being cooked unless otherwise specified.

    I weigh all food prior to cooking because I have found that to be quite a bit more accurate than after, especially since things tend to switch from 150g to 1 cup, which is too vague and not specific enough. I tend to favor grams over any measurement.
  • corneredbycorn
    corneredbycorn Posts: 267 Member
    if all that is cooking off is water, then why befrore?? water is zero calories, so why weigh it, as if it were something else, like chicken, or steak?? seems like its a markiting thing, so custemers cant say anything if there food doesnt weigh excatly right?? can you elaborate??

    It's not some marketing scheme. It's just how food has always been measured because it is way more accurate.

    4oz raw meat = 400 calories
    4oz raw meat, that has been cooked down to 3oz, but weighed raw = 400 calories
    4oz raw meat, that has been cooked down to 3oz, but weighed cooked= 300 calories

    Meat, especially, is always weighed raw unless otherwise specified. The reason for this is that a 4oz hunk of meat is still going to have 400 calories even if it cooks down to 3oz. The problem is that if you enter it in as 3oz because that's what it weighed after you cooked it, you're under calculating the calories by 100. That adds up. Furthermore, not everyone cooks meat to the same level. A 4oz steak cooked rare is going to weigh a lot more after cooking than a 4oz steak cooked well, but both steaks still have the same nutritional content.

    This holds true to any food item in which liquid is either removed or added through the cooking process.
  • milliesmith220
    milliesmith220 Posts: 1
    weigh before cooking
  • Brandon74
    Brandon74 Posts: 453 Member
    I always weigh my food before cooking it. All the research I have read regarding this says to weigh it before.
  • LearnFromTheRed
    LearnFromTheRed Posts: 294 Member
    I wonder whether someone could help me with a ramen noodles dilemma?

    Calories by packet weight: apparently 143
    Calories after cooking: apparently nearly 500!

    I am missing something very, very obvious here, and if someone could explain what that is, I'd be really grateful xD
  • 81Katz
    81Katz Posts: 7,074 Member
    I mostly weight things like chicken, steak or pork chops after it's cooked. I often cook up an entire bag/package of chicken breast so why (or how more importantly) do I weigh each piece and somehow mark which weighs what and lay them out just right on the grill so I know which piece is what weight. No thanks! I'm a pretty nit-picky tracker but this has worked and I don't think it's hindered me any. But I'm careful about what entries I use or use USDA values.

    The only time I weighed meat raw was when it was going into a recipe, say ground beef or turkey.
  • drojen
    drojen Posts: 203 Member
    Unless it specifies on the package or recipe, I weigh everything before cooking/eating. When you are making a recipe and it calls for 1 lb of hamburger, you don't cook the hamburger first and then weigh out 1 lb, you weigh the lb before cooking. I'm assuming it should work the same way for all things....
  • ksuh999
    ksuh999 Posts: 543 Member
    If you type, say, "chicken calories" into Google, they now provide detailed nutrition information, including calories for cooked items.
  • ken_hogan
    ken_hogan Posts: 854 Member
    i weigh all meat before cooking it. Most products should be weighed in its raw form.
    Pasta is the one that is hard to do. I tend to measure it out after cooking it b/c it swells when cooked bringing it to a state that you can measure it and know you are not eating more than the serving size.

    Chef Jenn


    All the pasta I have bought says the NI is for the dry weight.....
  • mohamadsawsan
    mohamadsawsan Posts: 1
    intresting question
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