New Scale! Want to make sure I'm doing this right...

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Cytherea
Cytherea Posts: 515 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I finally got a scale. It was time. I was so sick of guessing and being unsure if I was eating too much or not enough. But now I have a few questions to make sure that I'm doing it right!

I hear that you are supposed to measure meat before it is cooked. So I measure our my ounces of chicken before cooking it, while it is totally raw, right?

Does this go for other things too? Like pasta, for example? The way I was doing 2 oz. of pasta before was measuring it in a half cup before cooking, which equals a cup cooked. When I measured the 2 oz of dry pasta the other day, there was much more than a half a cup, probably 3/4 of a cup full (which would be a cup and a half's worth once cooked). Is it right to measure this before, meaning I can eat more than I have been?

Same question with things like veggies. If I am going to cook broccoli or zucchini or whatever, they are bigger before cooked. So do I measure that out raw and then cook it?

I just want to make sure so that I'm not still messing with myself here. Accuracy is key!

Thanks, all! =)

Replies

  • Becka77
    Becka77 Posts: 284 Member
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    Good questions. I was wondering the same things. I measure the pasta before cooking it, since it doesn't state on the package that it is a "cooked" weight.
  • MissyMorganFit
    MissyMorganFit Posts: 37
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    Yes....measure meat raw as well as fresh fruit & vegies. Vegies shouldn't change too much after cooked or this usually means 1)you are cooking them too long which robs the nutrients or 2)using too much oil, butter, etc. Measure pasta after cooking. Hope this helps!
  • leix
    leix Posts: 176
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    i weigh everything before it gets cooked.
  • deagn5
    deagn5 Posts: 19 Member
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    i weigh my meat after it is cooked, (i am not just cooking 1 piece i am cooking for 7 so i never know what piece i am going to get.)
    pasta i believe they list on some boxes cooked and not cooked. and veggies, it depends on what kind, and what you do with it, some veggies after you steam them shrink a little bit.
  • Cytherea
    Cytherea Posts: 515 Member
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    Well, some veggies do change when cooking, especially when sauteing but even when steaming, and obviously I'd be adding the oil/butter/etc. separately.

    It seems unfair that you measure everything so you are eating the least amount possible... meat before, and then it shrinks, and pasta after, when it is at its largest? What is the reasoning behind doing it this way? It doesn't make sense to me that there wouldn't be a more uniform way- everything before or everything after. The water and fat that leaves the cooked meat still counts even though you aren't actually eating it? The water that expands the pasta counts to make the amount of pasta you can eat less? I mean, when you weigh pasta after cooking, the difference is that it weighs more than it did when dry and that is only because of the water content added...

    I'm still confused. =(

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