Cooked vs. uncooked - confused

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hmg90
hmg90 Posts: 314 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Are the meats in the database usually cooked or uncooked in regards of calories? A lot of the time it does not say.

I have a package of Sainsbury's cooking bacon here. In the database it is listed as 308 calories per 100 g.
When I look at the package it says Calories per 100 g (grilled as per instructions); 308 kcal. Does that mean it is actually the value after cooking? I have been measuring it before cooking it, now I am not sure if it's wrong. Or where I can find the uncooked values.

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  • knra_grl
    knra_grl Posts: 1,568 Member
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    Personally I would go with the package and the cooked amount for bacon, when I cook it I cook it crisp and put it on paper towel to absorb the extra fat which I am guessing is how the cals for most bacon is determined - I just think that bacon calories would be way higher on the package if they used the raw amount since a lot of the fat is cooked off and most people wouldn't exactly have a shot of bacon fat.

    Just my guess anyway.
  • hmg90
    hmg90 Posts: 314 Member
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    Personally I would go with the package and the cooked amount for bacon, when I cook it I cook it crisp and put it on paper towel to absorb the extra fat which I am guessing is how the cals for most bacon is determined - I just think that bacon calories would be way higher on the package if they used the raw amount since a lot of the fat is cooked off and most people wouldn't exactly have a shot of bacon fat.

    Just my guess anyway.

    That makes sense. I've never weighed it after cooking so I will try now. I cook it in the oven and there is quite a bit of fat left in there.
    I'm just not sure if "grilled as per instructions" mean they have measured the calories before or after cooking when they measured it for the package.
  • weird_me2
    weird_me2 Posts: 716 Member
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    Are the meats in the database usually cooked or uncooked in regards of calories? A lot of the time it does not say.

    I have a package of Sainsbury's cooking bacon here. In the database it is listed as 308 calories per 100 g.
    When I look at the package it says Calories per 100 g (grilled as per instructions); 308 kcal. Does that mean it is actually the value after cooking? I have been measuring it before cooking it, now I am not sure if it's wrong. Or where I can find the uncooked values.

    If you're really not sure, you could take the weight of the package and divide by the number of servings. That will give you the raw weight. Then, compare the raw weight per serving to the weight per serving on the nutrition label. Most nutrition labels say cooked or raw or as prepared, etc. If your bacon has 450 grams per package and 4.5 servings at 100 grams each, then it would be the raw weight. Now, if it has 450 grams per package and 2 servings at 100 grams each, then that would have to be the cooked weight because 450 grams / 2 would be 225 grams per serving as packaged.
  • hmg90
    hmg90 Posts: 314 Member
    Options
    Are the meats in the database usually cooked or uncooked in regards of calories? A lot of the time it does not say.

    I have a package of Sainsbury's cooking bacon here. In the database it is listed as 308 calories per 100 g.
    When I look at the package it says Calories per 100 g (grilled as per instructions); 308 kcal. Does that mean it is actually the value after cooking? I have been measuring it before cooking it, now I am not sure if it's wrong. Or where I can find the uncooked values.

    If you're really not sure, you could take the weight of the package and divide by the number of servings. That will give you the raw weight. Then, compare the raw weight per serving to the weight per serving on the nutrition label. Most nutrition labels say cooked or raw or as prepared, etc. If your bacon has 450 grams per package and 4.5 servings at 100 grams each, then it would be the raw weight. Now, if it has 450 grams per package and 2 servings at 100 grams each, then that would have to be the cooked weight because 450 grams / 2 would be 225 grams per serving as packaged.

    Maybe I'm slow, I really don't get it...what do you mean by "servings"? It's a block of 400 grams, I don't know what "1 serving" is, surely that depends on how much you want to eat...
  • hmg90
    hmg90 Posts: 314 Member
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    I decided to do a test run now. I measured up 100g of uncooked bacon on the scale. I fried it in the oven, let it drip of a little and measured it. It is 45 g.

    If I were to eat this amount, should I register it as 45g?
  • weird_me2
    weird_me2 Posts: 716 Member
    Options
    Are the meats in the database usually cooked or uncooked in regards of calories? A lot of the time it does not say.

    I have a package of Sainsbury's cooking bacon here. In the database it is listed as 308 calories per 100 g.
    When I look at the package it says Calories per 100 g (grilled as per instructions); 308 kcal. Does that mean it is actually the value after cooking? I have been measuring it before cooking it, now I am not sure if it's wrong. Or where I can find the uncooked values.

    If you're really not sure, you could take the weight of the package and divide by the number of servings. That will give you the raw weight. Then, compare the raw weight per serving to the weight per serving on the nutrition label. Most nutrition labels say cooked or raw or as prepared, etc. If your bacon has 450 grams per package and 4.5 servings at 100 grams each, then it would be the raw weight. Now, if it has 450 grams per package and 2 servings at 100 grams each, then that would have to be the cooked weight because 450 grams / 2 would be 225 grams per serving as packaged.

    Maybe I'm slow, I really don't get it...what do you mean by "servings"? It's a block of 400 grams, I don't know what "1 serving" is, surely that depends on how much you want to eat...

    Okay, I'm going based on what the nutrition labels in the US are like. This sounds like not a standard US label, but on the nutrition label, does it say how many servings are in the package? If so, then you can use this number to determine if it's giving you the information for cooked or raw weight. Since your package is 400 grams, if there are 4 servings in the package, that will tell you that the nutrition information is for the bacon as packaged (400/4=100 grams). If your package says it only has 2 servings, then that tells you that, as packaged, each serving weighs 200 grams and should weigh 100 grams after cooked. Is that more clear? I'm not sure I'm doing a great job explaining this, lol.
  • weird_me2
    weird_me2 Posts: 716 Member
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    I decided to do a test run now. I measured up 100g of uncooked bacon on the scale. I fried it in the oven, let it drip of a little and measured it. It is 45 g.

    If I were to eat this amount, should I register it as 45g?

    No, if you find an entry in the database that matches the nutrition information from the label of your product, then you should log it to match. I find it easiest to take the number of servings from the label and divide my cooked weight by # of servings to find the actual cooked weight. This works for raw meats. If I cook 4-100 gram raw chicken servings and end up with only 200 grams cooked, then I know each serving cooked is 50 grams but I log it as 100 grams raw, because that's what it started as.

    Bacon is a bit harder, though, because you do lose a lot of fat during cooking, so I usually just choose a cooked bacon option that lists grams and enter the number of cooked grams I ate. If you find an entry for bacon cooked, you will probably find that 45 grams cooked is pretty close in calories to 100 grams raw.
  • hmg90
    hmg90 Posts: 314 Member
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    It's British - Sainsbury's. I was wrong, the entire package is 670g. It doesn't say how many servings it is, it's cooking bacon, not rashers.

    What it says i:
    Nutrition: Typical values (grilled as per intructions) per 100g: Energy 308 kcal.

    I now see it says at the top:
    50g serving: 154 cals

    So I suppose that means cooked?
  • onefortyone
    onefortyone Posts: 531 Member
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    Oh God I do NOT miss UK nutrition labels. No serving size, most everything is based on 100gs. I never had any freaking clue how to figure them out lol. I would assume that it's 100g cooked weight for the bacon as it does say 'as grilled per instructions', and make sure you ALWAYS have a scale to weigh everything. It's important for most people, but for Brits it's pretty much essential!
  • hmg90
    hmg90 Posts: 314 Member
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    Oh God I do NOT miss UK nutrition labels. No serving size, most everything is based on 100gs. I never had any freaking clue how to figure them out lol. I would assume that it's 100g cooked weight for the bacon as it does say 'as grilled per instructions', and make sure you ALWAYS have a scale to weigh everything. It's important for most people, but for Brits it's pretty much essential!

    I tried searching for cooked bacon in the database, but seriously, the answer vary so much it seems nobody has a clue at all (sure the type of bacon varies in fat but not THIS much).
    I think cooked makes more sense, so I've changed all my posts to hald the values now. I don't want to trick myself, but honestly it seems my bacon has been too calorie rich when I weighed it before.
    For example, I took out 100g of bacon and fried it, I let the fat drain off and it was quite a small piece and I thought 300 cals seemed way too much.

    Still I'm nervous I'm doing it wrong. I might just change my diet and buy other things that are easier to figure out.
  • knra_grl
    knra_grl Posts: 1,568 Member
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    It's British - Sainsbury's. I was wrong, the entire package is 670g. It doesn't say how many servings it is, it's cooking bacon, not rashers.

    What it says i:
    Nutrition: Typical values (grilled as per intructions) per 100g: Energy 308 kcal.

    I now see it says at the top:
    50g serving: 154 cals

    So I suppose that means cooked?

    Makes more sense to me now, I would say the 154 is the cooked amount if you were to cook it and eliminate whatever fat you wanted and the 308 cals is the amount raw if you were to use it in a recipe and brown it then add your other stuff without draining the fat? So I would enter the label values under "my foods" so next time when you are entering it you can find it easily, then it will also give you a 1 gram weight so you could enter the 45 grams as your serving and it will adjust the calories for you.
  • hmg90
    hmg90 Posts: 314 Member
    Options
    It's British - Sainsbury's. I was wrong, the entire package is 670g. It doesn't say how many servings it is, it's cooking bacon, not rashers.

    What it says i:
    Nutrition: Typical values (grilled as per intructions) per 100g: Energy 308 kcal.

    I now see it says at the top:
    50g serving: 154 cals

    So I suppose that means cooked?

    Makes more sense to me now, I would say the 154 is the cooked amount if you were to cook it and eliminate whatever fat you wanted and the 308 cals is the amount raw if you were to use it in a recipe and brown it then add your other stuff without draining the fat? So I would enter the label values under "my foods" so next time when you are entering it you can find it easily, then it will also give you a 1 gram weight so you could enter the 45 grams as your serving and it will adjust the calories for you.

    That's what I'm thinking. 100g raw bacon isn't much when it's cooked and I have a hard time believing it's over 300 cals.
  • jonnywright1
    jonnywright1 Posts: 3
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    I've just posted this in another thread, which raises the same issue;

    "If you weigh it cooked then how do you determine the nutritional content? Eg. two people could each start off with 200g chicken breast and cook it for two different times, say one ends up being 150g and the other 120g. Theoretically, they should have the same protein content if all they lose is water, so surely you need to go by the raw weight otherwise you'd attribute two different protein amounts to each chicken breast?

    However, my issue is how to determine the values in the raw weight when nutritional data is given "as cooked per instructions". Eg. I make an omelette bake for my breakfasts using 500g raw lean turkey breast mince. The nutritional values are given "as cooked per instructions", which is something like shallow fry for 5 mins on a medium heat. So how do I make sure I'm recording values correctly if I don't cook as per the instructions?

    I've scanned the barcode on the turkey mince into myfitnesspal and it brings up the values as cooked per instructions but for 500g, which seems to suggest I'm overstating the protein content etc of my meal?

    Do we need to cook as per instructions, weigh it and attribute this back to the 500g raw? In which case, the data on myfitnesspal when you scan the barcode for meat will be inaccurate!"

    I think the way forward may be to cook as per instructions, weigh it and convert back to the raw weight, or find something similar which gives raw values. Otherwise I'm overstating in my diary and not eating as much as I want (I'm trying to bulk btw so trying to create a calorie surplus!). Unfortunately, this means the majority of foods listed on myfitnesspal will give inaccurate values hen you scan barcodes...

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