weighing meat

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kellymac518
kellymac518 Posts: 132 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
this might sound like a stupid question to some... but i just need a quick answer

we just got a scale to weigh foods, and aren't sure if we should weigh meat before or after it is cooked. i thought before, my mom thought after... for example we cooked fresh meat hamburgers last night and before it was cooked it was 4 oz but after it was cooked (i don't like all the juices so i squeeze them out before i eat it) it was down to like 2.5 oz... i logged it under 4 oz but figured i'd come on here and ask what is the correct thing to do to get an accurate calorie count?
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Replies

  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
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    if you search, there should be different entries for raw vs. cooked meat. I use this website to confirm what the entries in MFP say. http://nutritiondata.self.com/
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,583 Member
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    depends on when you weigh it as to how you log it. If it's raw, log it raw. If it's cooked, log the cooked entry.
  • p4ulmiller
    p4ulmiller Posts: 588 Member
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    this might sound like a stupid question to some... but i just need a quick answer

    we just got a scale to weigh foods, and aren't sure if we should weigh meat before or after it is cooked. i thought before, my mom thought after... for example we cooked fresh meat hamburgers last night and before it was cooked it was 4 oz but after it was cooked (i don't like all the juices so i squeeze them out before i eat it) it was down to like 2.5 oz... i logged it under 4 oz but figured i'd come on here and ask what is the correct thing to do to get an accurate calorie count?

    Interesting question.

    I suppose you are weighing juices as meat if you weigh before, so my instinct tells me you should weigh after you've cooked.

    That said, the calories you log might account for the juices, so......

    On the other hand, try buying better quality meat if the juices account for almost half the weight of what you are buying!
  • Supertact
    Supertact Posts: 466 Member
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    Personally I log it cooked.

    Just look for the meat in the database as cooked.
  • chezjuan
    chezjuan Posts: 747 Member
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    depends on when you weigh it as to how you log it. If it's raw, log it raw. If it's cooked, log the cooked entry.

    +1

    I try to weigh it raw myself, but if I forget or can't, I find the entry that matches the cooking style and use that.
  • brandi712
    brandi712 Posts: 407 Member
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    I log it cooked.
  • _Resolve_
    _Resolve_ Posts: 735 Member
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    I log it all as cooked
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
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    I log meat raw (using the appropriate database entry) because cooked weight varies depending on how it's cooked--particularly for ground meat, which loses more moisture depending on how thoroughly it's cooked. If you take two raw hamburger patties that weigh the same and cook them until one is medium rare and the other is well done, the second will weigh less than the first.
  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,070 Member
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    depends on when you weigh it as to how you log it. If it's raw, log it raw. If it's cooked, log the cooked entry.

    This :)
  • Dewymorning
    Dewymorning Posts: 762 Member
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    I always weigh raw.

    The reason is simple. I buy a whole lot of meat at once, weigh it out into one meal portions, write the type and weight of the meat onto a freezer bag, and then put it into a freezer.

    Then when I am planning a day, I just need to look at what it says on the freezer bag and I can log it.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    I log meat raw (using the appropriate database entry) because cooked weight varies depending on how it's cooked--particularly for ground meat, which loses more moisture depending on how thoroughly it's cooked. If you take two raw hamburger patties that weigh the same and cook them until one is medium rare and the other is well done, the second will weigh less than the first.

    Yes, but the well done one will have lost more fat too... so yeah. I see both sides. Typically I log everything cooked anyway because we make big batches.
  • ashleyisgreat
    ashleyisgreat Posts: 586 Member
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    Sometimes the package will have nutritional info on it, and that always refers to the raw meat, so I weigh it raw. So if it says that 4 oz is 130 calories, I need to weigh out 4 oz raw. And then I log it as raw, of course.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    Sometimes the package will have nutritional info on it, and that always refers to the raw meat, so I weigh it raw. So if it says that 4 oz is 130 calories, I need to weigh out 4 oz raw. And then I log it as raw, of course.

    This is what I do.

    It really doesn't matter a great deal which way you go as long as you're choosing the appropriate (and accurate) entries to log it.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,871 Member
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    Having worked in the restaurant industry for a number of years, to be compliant with stated calories per a given entree, the meat was required to be weighed raw...this is the official way to do it unless otherwise stated on package...example, it is common for bacon to have it's servings and calories as per "X cooked slices".

    There are entries for cooked, but I have no idea how they could be accurate unless they come from a package that has the cooked calories on a label...I don't know how anyone could know X calories in 3 oz of cooked steak for example...it's just not an official measurement; that said, it's not really that big of a difference most likely and there's so much variation in meat anyway that it's probably pretty much irrelevant.
  • OkamiLavande
    OkamiLavande Posts: 336 Member
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    You weigh food raw, because that is the portion size. Even if it's smaller once cooked, the raw weight is the calorie weight.
  • husseycd
    husseycd Posts: 814 Member
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    This confused me for a while. Anymore though, I just log raw, that way it matches the packaging.
  • dudpa
    dudpa Posts: 1
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    http://www.choosemyplate.gov/printpages/MyPlateFoodGroups/ProteinFoods/food-groups.protein-foods-counts.pdf
    this shows you how to measure protein
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,583 Member
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    http://www.choosemyplate.gov/printpages/MyPlateFoodGroups/ProteinFoods/food-groups.protein-foods-counts.pdf
    this shows you how to measure protein
    so does this
    sk-wp-with-meat.jpg
  • Commander_Keen
    Commander_Keen Posts: 1,179 Member
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    this might sound like a stupid question to some... but i just need a quick answer

    we just got a scale to weigh foods, and aren't sure if we should weigh meat before or after it is cooked. i thought before, my mom thought after... for example we cooked fresh meat hamburgers last night and before it was cooked it was 4 oz but after it was cooked (i don't like all the juices so i squeeze them out before i eat it) it was down to like 2.5 oz... i logged it under 4 oz but figured i'd come on here and ask what is the correct thing to do to get an accurate calorie count?
    Weigh it after... cook away all the extra water & fat.
  • Macstraw
    Macstraw Posts: 896 Member
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    A good resource for accurate calorie counts for meats, fruit & vegetables is the USDA. If you search the database here for an item, say boneless chicken breast, enter "boneless chicken breast usda" in the search bar. If I'm not mistaken, for certain meats there are entries for raw & for cooked - & I think for some it might also break it down by how it's cooked.....

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