measuring macros..

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Fonarios
Fonarios Posts: 31 Member
in Food and Nutrition
hey fitfam! i'm still pretty new to the macros thing and had a question. so 4 oz of baked sweet potato has 23 carbs. am i supposed to weight the 4 oz after its baked or afterwards?

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  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
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    Unless otherwise stated, the weight you should measure is always raw, before cooking, where the weight can be affect by the addition, or loss of water
  • Fonarios
    Fonarios Posts: 31 Member
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    Unless otherwise stated, the weight you should measure is always raw, before cooking, where the weight can be affect by the addition, or loss of water

    but 4 oz of raw has different macros??
  • bretironfitlife
    bretironfitlife Posts: 10
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    Always weigh you food AFTER cooking. For example: Water is not calories, carbs, proteins or fats. When weighing your macros, the gram weight is based on caloric value per gram. If you weigh you food before the water that is naturally or frozen in them is cooked out, you are loosing vital macro calculations. Try it. Weigh your sweet potato raw, in grams. Bake it or Microwave it until it is your preference of eating consistency. Now weigh it again. - cheers
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
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    Always weigh you food AFTER cooking. For example: Water is not calories, carbs, proteins or fats. When weighing your macros, the gram weight is based on caloric value per gram. If you weigh you food before the water that is naturally or frozen in them is cooked out, you are loosing vital macro calculations. Try it. Weigh your sweet potato raw, in grams. Bake it or Microwave it until it is your preference of eating consistency. Now weigh it again.

    Completely wrong. Nutrition facts are calculated based on raw weights. The reason for this is because cooking foods for different lengths of time can cause more or less water to be absorbed by them (pasta, rice, boiled food, etc), or cooked out of them (meats), but it is most consistent in its raw form. Unless a label specifically says "Cooked Weight", then you absolutely measure the raw weight.
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
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    Unless otherwise stated, the weight you should measure is always raw, before cooking, where the weight can be affect by the addition, or loss of water

    but 4 oz of raw has different macros??

    The macros on the nutrition label are calculated from the raw weight, unless it specifically says cooked weight. Very few things are actually measured in cooked weight because there are too many variables that change the weight of a food during the cooking process.
  • Fonarios
    Fonarios Posts: 31 Member
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    Always weigh you food AFTER cooking. For example: Water is not calories, carbs, proteins or fats. When weighing your macros, the gram weight is based on caloric value per gram. If you weigh you food before the water that is naturally or frozen in them is cooked out, you are loosing vital macro calculations. Try it. Weigh your sweet potato raw, in grams. Bake it or Microwave it until it is your preference of eating consistency. Now weigh it again. *Also, be sure you are including your activity level to determine what your macro's should be for your goal (gaining or loosing). - cheers

    so i just cook extra so that its 4 oz of baked potato??
  • bretironfitlife
    bretironfitlife Posts: 10
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    After A J's response, I should mention, I go by what www.calorieking.com tells me the foods I eat values AFTER cooking/baking. They make is so much easier to adjust to gram weight.

    IE: http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-fresh-or-dried-vegetables-sweet-potato-baked-in-skin_f-ZmlkPTcxMTMz.html

    Don't trust what the MFP community sets as the nutritional values of what you are eating unless its a scanned brand name item.

    I apologize for not being clearer.
  • bretironfitlife
    bretironfitlife Posts: 10
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    More examples:

    TILAPIA

    RAW: http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-fish-tilapia-raw_f-ZmlkPTgzMTc1.html
    DRY HEAT COOKED: http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-fish-tilapia-cooked-with-dry-heat_f-ZmlkPTE2NzM5MQ.html

    SWEET POTATO

    RAW: http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-fresh-or-dried-vegetables-sweet-potato-raw_f-ZmlkPTEzNjA0MQ.html
    BAKED: http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-fresh-or-dried-vegetables-sweet-potato-baked-in-skin_f-ZmlkPTcxMTMz.html
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
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    After A J's response, I should mention, I go by what www.calorieking.com tells me the foods I eat values AFTER cooking/baking. They make is so much easier to adjust to gram weight.

    IE: http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-fresh-or-dried-vegetables-sweet-potato-baked-in-skin_f-ZmlkPTcxMTMz.html

    Don't trust what the MFP community sets as the nutritional values of what you are eating unless its a scanned brand name item.

    I apologize for not being clearer.

    Ok, this makes much more sense because the calorieking info is giving you cooked weight. Like I said, it's all about what the nutritional info is based on. If it doesn't say anything, weigh it raw, if it says cooked/baked weight, then weight it after cooking.

    I second what Bret said about not trusting MFP food values. Always double check the label to get the real info.
  • Fonarios
    Fonarios Posts: 31 Member
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    More examples:

    TILAPIA

    RAW: http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-fish-tilapia-raw_f-ZmlkPTgzMTc1.html
    DRY HEAT COOKED: http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-fish-tilapia-cooked-with-dry-heat_f-ZmlkPTE2NzM5MQ.html

    SWEET POTATO

    RAW: http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-fresh-or-dried-vegetables-sweet-potato-raw_f-ZmlkPTEzNjA0MQ.html
    BAKED: http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-fresh-or-dried-vegetables-sweet-potato-baked-in-skin_f-ZmlkPTcxMTMz.html

    i checked that out. for the sweet potato its 5.7g of carbs per ounce raw and 5.9g of carbs baked. so i guess its around the same..
  • VeinsAndBones
    VeinsAndBones Posts: 550 Member
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    Raw weight is always going to be more accurate... Why weigh afterwards :noway:
  • bretironfitlife
    bretironfitlife Posts: 10
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    Also, weigh your food in grams not oz for easier macro calculations. Hope this helps...
  • bretironfitlife
    bretironfitlife Posts: 10
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    read below... still trying to figure out how to use the message board.
  • bretironfitlife
    bretironfitlife Posts: 10
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    Raw weight is always going to be more accurate... Why weigh afterwards :noway:

    I bake 18 pieces of fish at a time. I bake 10 lbs of sweet potatoes at a time. 4 Cups of rice at a time. 4 cups of quinoa at a time.
    Weighing raw, then baking/cooking/steaming, then weighing it again for 2.5 days of meal prep is a complete waste of time. :bigsmile:
  • Dorothy4208
    Dorothy4208 Posts: 53 Member
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    I bumped this because I have questions.
    I'm scared to sound like an idiot but I want to make sure I'm doing it right.
    What about frozen food... ie frozen french fries or fish? How/when do you weigh that? Also, since I'm new to food measurement, is it safe to assume that you put the plate on the scale and add the weight of the food to the weight of the plate? Also, I have two tablespoons. One is much bigger than the other, same as a dry cup. How do I go about measuring things like mayonnaise or olive oil when I really want to make sure I'm staying within a serving size but it's so small? \

    Thanks in advance for all your responses, please go easy on me.

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