Weighing Food.

hiyomi
hiyomi Posts: 906 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Okay, so serious questions lol I have never ever weighed food before and just bought a food scale. I was looking up how to weigh food but noticed many people say very different ways. Do I weigh before or after a meat is cooked? Same for pasta. Some people said to weigh it before and some said after. Which is more accurate? And what other things should I know about weighing food? Thanks for any help! :D

Replies

  • k_winder
    k_winder Posts: 65 Member
    Always before
  • links_slayer
    links_slayer Posts: 1,151 Member
    Before cooking.
  • ADixie4You2Know
    ADixie4You2Know Posts: 47 Member
    I weigh mine before cooking
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,839 Member
    You can do either but then you must make sure to use the calorie amount for the cooked versus the raw. Take for instance rice. A quarter cup of rice raw is a lot heavier than a quarter cup of cooked rice. A quarter cup of raw rice becomes 3/4 cup of cooked rice through expansion and addition of water. Thus, a quarter cup of cooked rice has only about 1/3 the calories of a quarter cup of raw rice.

    I tend to use the raw figure most of the time because I measure as I cook. If I weren't "the household cook," I might need to measure by the serving of cooked food.
  • Ashleymeganlove
    Ashleymeganlove Posts: 36
    If you're weighing something and going by the serving size on the box/bag/whatever it is always as it is packaged unless stated otherwise. For example- pasta should be dry unless they stated prepared, etc. :)
  • herblackwings39
    herblackwings39 Posts: 3,930 Member
    With meat I tend to weigh it after it's cooked. It makes more sense to me to weigh it and know how much I'm eating because cooking causes shrinkage. Just make sure you pick the proper entry for cooked or raw.
  • hiyomi
    hiyomi Posts: 906 Member
    One more very important question. When cooking with oil, how do the calories work with that? Lets say I cook chicken using a table spoon of olive oil, which is roughly 100 calories, but there is always a good amount of oil left in the pan, do I just cut the tablespoon is half and log it?
  • hiyomi
    hiyomi Posts: 906 Member
    Bumppp One more very important question. When cooking with oil, how do the calories work with that? Lets say I cook chicken using a table spoon of olive oil, which is roughly 100 calories, but there is always a good amount of oil left in the pan, do I just cut the tablespoon is half and log it?
  • TArnold2012
    TArnold2012 Posts: 929 Member
    I count the full tablespoon b/c its better to over estimate than under I believe.
  • Siegel15
    Siegel15 Posts: 100 Member
    Bumppp One more very important question. When cooking with oil, how do the calories work with that? Lets say I cook chicken using a table spoon of olive oil, which is roughly 100 calories, but there is always a good amount of oil left in the pan, do I just cut the tablespoon is half and log it?
    You can tip it out of the pan afterward, measure what you take back (if it was chicken breast which has no fat of its own). This way you can get a ball park figure what you eating. This is what I do.
  • Love_Music_Iron
    Love_Music_Iron Posts: 1
    I would cook the chicken with Pam Spray or bake it in the oven & then add a tbsp of oil so it's more accurate. Or skip the oil all together & save those calories for some almonds or peanut butter instead ;)
  • SunshineGRL76
    SunshineGRL76 Posts: 108 Member
    I tend to weigh all my food before cooking it, although, ALSO weight it after.

    Here is a great example - I make a box of ziti for the family. On the side of the box, it tells you how many "dry" portions there are, although, I weight it again after to make sure that I can divide the total cooked weight by the serving size on side of box. I want to make sure that I am measuring the cooked portion correctly & not over eating.

    For the virgin olive oil I cook with, I count the full portion size, even if there is a little left in the pan after cooking. I just divide the amount among the portion sizes.

    Hope this helps!

    Also, I tend to use the grams to weigh everything...
  • hiyomi
    hiyomi Posts: 906 Member
    Thanks for all the help guys! :D I hope I can weigh my food more accurately now! ^_^

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