Adjusting cals raw/cooked in multi ingredient dishes?

FoTime
FoTime Posts: 21
in Food and Nutrition
Sooo, I made a stir fry the other night. Weighed raw ingredients, and weighed again after cooking to determine portions like a good boy. I've been logging it the last few days and thought nothing of it until now.

I'm sure there are more cals per serving than I've been logging, but how far off am I? Is it worth fussing over?

Most of my meals are portions of individual ingredients so there's no question there, I just don't want to unknowingly go over cals when I make random hodgepodge type meals.

Replies

  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    You should weigh all the ingredients going in so you can know the total calories of the entire concoction.

    Then weigh the complete dish after it's done. Portion out from that weight.
  • kr3851
    kr3851 Posts: 994 Member
    I weigh all my ingredients raw (for a stirfry, for example), then create a recipe in the recipe builder. Once the meal is cooked, I seperate into however many portions I wish and include that in the recipe. Then I eat 1 (or 2!) portions and log from the recipe.

    It's not going to be 100% accurate, but nothing ever is, so I go with it.
  • paintlisapurple
    paintlisapurple Posts: 982 Member
    I weigh all my ingredients raw (for a stirfry, for example), then create a recipe in the recipe builder. Once the meal is cooked, I seperate into however many portions I wish and include that in the recipe. Then I eat 1 (or 2!) portions and log from the recipe.

    It's not going to be 100% accurate, but nothing ever is, so I go with it.

    I do the same thing.
  • FoTime
    FoTime Posts: 21
    You should weigh all the ingredients going in so you can know the total calories of the entire concoction.

    Then weigh the complete dish after it's done. Portion out from that weight.

    That's exactly what I did, but I assume it's going to be more calorie dense after losing a good bit of moisture from cooking?
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    You should weigh all the ingredients going in so you can know the total calories of the entire concoction.

    Then weigh the complete dish after it's done. Portion out from that weight.

    That's exactly what I did, but I assume it's going to be more calorie dense after losing a good bit of moisture from cooking?

    I don't understand your thinking.

    You weigh the ingredients as you add them. Add up all those calories. That's the total calories in the entire dish.

    Weigh the final product. The whole thing still has the same number of calories.

    Let's give an example. Let's say I add 1000 calories of chicken and rice to a pan. Doesn't matter what it weighed to start. I cook it. I weigh out the entire final product and it's 20 ounces. Those 20 ounces have the original 1000 calories. Make 4 portions out of it. Each portion is 5 ounces, 200 calories.

    Done.
  • SarahAbbey
    SarahAbbey Posts: 11 Member
    I weigh everything going in and then at the end I weigh the whole batch and get the total ounces. I then use the total ounces as the number of servings. Then, I have the calories per ounce, so my husband can later weigh in ounces the serving size he wants and I can weigh the ounces I want, and we still get the right calorie mix. I have to say that weighing everything for a recipe is a pain, but it's helpful knowing exactly what you are eating for calories.
  • MeadowSong
    MeadowSong Posts: 171 Member
    I put my recipes in MFP and the number of servings and divide it up--works real well for say a casserole in a dish but is harder for, say, a stir fry. But mounds and mounds of cabbage just won't hurt anybody! On things that are mostly veggies I look at how many of us divide it up and what our plates look like and decide how many servings there were--not real accurate, I admit, but on a pile of veggies more is better so it works. On things like spaghetti, it's harder (but I put bunches of veggies in there too--the noodles are the big thing there--I try to be real careful and not get too many of those). It works unless I'm trying to fudge the numbers--but then nothing works then anyway. Looks like you're losing weight, so I'd say you're doing great--no worries.

    You know, nothing you count is going to be COMPLETELY accurate (how many calories did you burn today when you ran errands as opposed to yesterday when you cleaned house? how about the day when you had a bunch of desk work versus the day you had a lot of yard work? Yeah, the big thing is to get it close enough and adjust something if it's not working.
  • Uselessly_Irrelevant
    Uselessly_Irrelevant Posts: 58 Member
    I'm sure there are more cals per serving than I've been logging

    I don't think that is necessarily true, but it's a complex issue. Long story short, I would log everything as "raw". I'm not an authority by any means, so take this with a grain of salt but this is my reasoning:

    To determine the amount of calories something has you put it in a bomb calorimeter - this is a container where you heat something up until it is complete ash and measure the energy output. So, you are finding the maximum amount of energy (calories) that something contains.

    If I cook something, I am heating it up and it is losing some energy... it is going to have less calories than something that is raw. The raw version of something has the maximum calories allowable. I'm not sure how big of a difference there is between the two though.

    I want to point out one BIG "however" though - when we cook things, our bodies are better able to digest and make USE of those calories. So, while a cup of raw brocolli probably has slightly more, but virtually the same amount of calories after you cook it, your body will be able to actually use the calories after it's cooked.

    And then you also have to consider nutritional value... but that's a whole different issue that I am not capable of answering very well!

    ** Edit: Yes, when you cook something you do lose moisture and it becomes more calorically dense = but that doesn't mean it's more calories! When you cook things, it's all an "energy out" process and you lose calories. Density is a ratio comparison. so if your food was say 10 calories and it weighed 10g, but then you cooked it and it weighed 8g, it still has 10 calories but it weighs less. it's more "dense" but it's the same amount of calories pretty much for our purposes here.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    If I cook something, I am heating it up and it is losing some energy...

    No.

    Calories come from proteins, carbohydrates, and fat. Heat used for cooking does not destroy any of these. The only case where this really happens is fat in meats that can sometimes melt and drip away, as a burger on a grill.
  • Uselessly_Irrelevant
    Uselessly_Irrelevant Posts: 58 Member
    If I cook something, I am heating it up and it is losing some energy...

    No.

    Calories come from proteins, carbohydrates, and fat. Heat used for cooking does not destroy any of these. The only case where this really happens is fat in meats that can sometimes melt and drip away, as a burger on a grill.

    I know what you mean, and you are essentially correct but calories = energy, and when you cook something, you are exciting the particles and losing energy in the system. The amount of calories is really trivial, and I didn't mean to imply that it was a big deal but it's just not possible to cook food and for it not to lose SOME energy. Again, I'd log it as raw - I was just trying to explain the chemical process to the best of my understanding (and for the sake of curiosity, not for calorie counting)
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    calories = energy, and when you cook something, you are exciting the particles and losing energy in the system.

    This is completely incorrect and is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of energy and macronutrients. Seriously. It's in no way remotely correct. I don't know where you heard this but it's not right.
  • FoTime
    FoTime Posts: 21
    You should weigh all the ingredients going in so you can know the total calories of the entire concoction.

    Then weigh the complete dish after it's done. Portion out from that weight.

    That's exactly what I did, but I assume it's going to be more calorie dense after losing a good bit of moisture from cooking?

    I don't understand your thinking.

    You weigh the ingredients as you add them. Add up all those calories. That's the total calories in the entire dish.

    Weigh the final product. The whole thing still has the same number of calories.

    Let's give an example. Let's say I add 1000 calories of chicken and rice to a pan. Doesn't matter what it weighed to start. I cook it. I weigh out the entire final product and it's 20 ounces. Those 20 ounces have the original 1000 calories. Make 4 portions out of it. Each portion is 5 ounces, 200 calories.

    Done.

    Wow. I should try not to think when tired, my last brain cell doesn't function too well. :embarassed: I'm going to wear a dunce cap when cooking from now on.

    Thanks.

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