Confused about calories in meat

dietingdanni
dietingdanni Posts: 65
in Food and Nutrition
Hey, I have been trying to plan my meals in advance to ensure I am eatting healthy and keep to my calorie intake. I was planning on making my own healthy turkey burgers and stir fries but I was really confused when I looked up the calories in Tesco Turkey Breast and was really confused when it says 100grams raw contains 100kcal, but 100kcal cooked is 165kcal. How can food can extra nutrition/calories through cooking? This is confusing me on how to fill this in in my log so would really appreciate some explaination and advice why this is and how I should log meat like this?

Replies

  • CometMeebru
    CometMeebru Posts: 122
    just weigh your meat raw, before you add any oil or whatever to it
    when you cook meat it absorbs water, so the mass will change
  • WaterBunnie
    WaterBunnie Posts: 1,371 Member
    Water content is released as steam when it's cooking which means that a 100g piece may only weigh 70g for example once cooked, so your 100g cooked portion may have been 130g when raw. Make sense?
  • dietingdanni
    dietingdanni Posts: 65
    just weigh your meat raw, before you add any oil or whatever to it
    when you cook meat it absorbs water, so the mass will change

    But how does it absorb water if it's in a pan with no water to absorb? And does that mean the extra 65kcal are what they think the meat will gain from the oil you add? So if u don't add oil (I.e. I use frylight) I just need to add the extra calories from fry light on to the raw meat calories?
  • GlitterrMagpie
    GlitterrMagpie Posts: 302 Member
    It's the weight that changes during cooking, not the calorie count.

    I usually weigh raw and log accordingly, I don't want my food going cold after I've cooked it while I'm faffing about with scales lol.
  • CometMeebru
    CometMeebru Posts: 122
    just weigh your meat raw, before you add any oil or whatever to it
    when you cook meat it absorbs water, so the mass will change

    But how does it absorb water if it's in a pan with no water to absorb? And does that mean the extra 65kcal are what they think the meat will gain from the oil you add? So if u don't add oil (I.e. I use frylight) I just need to add the extra calories from fry light on to the raw meat calories?

    because i usually add water when i cook chicken or whatever, so it doesn't stick to the pan
  • dietingdanni
    dietingdanni Posts: 65
    Water content is released as steam when it's cooking which means that a 100g piece may only weigh 70g for example once cooked, so your 100g cooked portion may have been 130g when raw. Make sense?

    Ohhhhh so it's due to the shrinkage not from the absorption of oil? Or is it a bit of both? So would you recommend I log the raw weight?
  • Faery_Dust
    Faery_Dust Posts: 246 Member
    Water content is released as steam when it's cooking which means that a 100g piece may only weigh 70g for example once cooked, so your 100g cooked portion may have been 130g when raw. Make sense?

    Ohhhhh so it's due to the shrinkage not from the absorption of oil? Or is it a bit of both? So would you recommend I log the raw weight?

    If just cooking for myself and needing one portion, I weigh out raw exactly what I need and log it as raw. If cooking a pan full for me and family, I wait until it's cooked and put my plate on the scales, zero it and weigh it cooked and log it's cooked values in my diary. (and remember to add any calories from oil you cook in).
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,839 Member
    Doing the raw weight is often easier. The change in weight is due to how much actual chicken is in any one 100g amount. So, let's say you dry roast the chicken up on a rack. A lot of juice drops down into the bottom of the pan. More of the water in the chicken is released as steam. When you put the piece of chicken in the pan, it weighed 100g but when you took it out, leaving the juice and steam behind, it has shrunk to, let's say, 75g.

    Pasta works just the opposite. Let's say you dry weigh a 56g serving of pasta and put it on to boil. When you take it out and drain it, it may weigh 100g or more. Same amount of actual pasta but with more "water weight."
  • WaterBunnie
    WaterBunnie Posts: 1,371 Member
    Water content is released as steam when it's cooking which means that a 100g piece may only weigh 70g for example once cooked, so your 100g cooked portion may have been 130g when raw. Make sense?

    Ohhhhh so it's due to the shrinkage not from the absorption of oil? Or is it a bit of both? So would you recommend I log the raw weight?

    You should be logging the oil separately anyway so yes just the shrinkage. I would log raw weight if cooking it myself or in cases of steak out where it's sold by weight but if you've bought meat cooked it's handy having that listing in the database too.
  • dietingdanni
    dietingdanni Posts: 65
    Brilliant, thanks so much. Roundgal your referral to pasta was really good. I think I will stick to raw weight as I only cook for myself. I now consider myself educated :)

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