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Logging frozen chicken accurately

DirtyTrickster
DirtyTrickster Posts: 202 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I usually buy a large bag of Perdue - Frozen Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts and cook a bunch of it for the week. I then cut it up and put it in a container and pull from it for my daily lunch.

I've just realized that I need to weigh the chicken before cooking it to get the most accurate calorie content.

Problem is that all of the pieces are different sizes. Some are huge and some are tiny.

So I'm trying to figure out how to do this while weighing the chicken before cooking it.


Here is the only thing I can think of:

Weigh frozen chicken
ex. 30oz frozen - 825 calories (27.5c per ounce frozen)

Cook chicken and reweigh
ex. 23 oz cooked - 825 calories (35.9 per ounce cooked)

Separate into groups for lunch and try to calculate calories
ex: 8oz cooked - 287c cooked


Does this look correct?
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Replies

  • amperry328
    amperry328 Posts: 21
    I would just weigh it frozen and then after it is cooked divide it by however many servings you choose. You will have less ounces of chicken after it is cooked, but the calorie content will remain the same for the total amount. Either way, you would just divide the 825 calories (or whatever it actually is) by the number of servings.
  • JTick
    JTick Posts: 2,131 Member
    Weigh total frozen: 500 g

    Cook.

    Weigh total cooked: 250 g

    Portion: 50 g

    50g/250g = 20%

    500 g * .2 = 100 g frozen.

    Did that make sense? You want to deal with the frozen weight to calculate calories since there's not way to account for water being burned off during cooking. Numbers picked for easy math.
  • MissFit0101
    MissFit0101 Posts: 2,382
    Weigh the chicken before you cook it. Then just divide it up between your lunches. If you have a pound of chicken cooked, and take it for lunch for 4 days, then that gives you about 4oz of chicken a day. If one day has a little more and one day has a little less, it really won't matter in your weekly totals.
  • MBrothers22
    MBrothers22 Posts: 323 Member
    Why would weighing it frozen before cooking give you the best calorie count? That extra weight is all water which is lost during cooking. Your cooked chicken will always weigh less than frozen or raw chicken.
    When I want 8 oz of cooked chicken I usually grab about 9.5 oz of frozen and 1.5 oz of water gets lost.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
    log it cooked just make sure you choose the correct cooking method.

    Besides frozen chicken will weigh more than raw non frozen chicken...
  • dmenchac
    dmenchac Posts: 447 Member
    I would just weigh it frozen and then after it is cooked divide it by however many servings you choose. You will have less ounces of chicken after it is cooked, but the calorie content will remain the same for the total amount. Either way, you would just divide the 825 calories (or whatever it actually is) by the number of servings.

    The calorie count will not remain the same. For instance for Perdue frozen chicken burgers, they list both the frozen and cooked nutritional values and the cooked one has significantly less calories due to the fact that you are losing some of the fat in the patty when you cook it.
  • JTick
    JTick Posts: 2,131 Member
    Why would weighing it frozen before cooking give you the best calorie count? That extra weight is all water which is lost during cooking. Your cooked chicken will always weigh less than frozen or raw chicken.
    When I want 8 oz of cooked chicken I usually grab about 9.5 oz of frozen and 1.5 oz of water gets lost.

    Because the calories are for the raw chicken. So if there are 100 calories in 100 grams of chicken, but you put down 75 because it weighs less after cooking, you just overate by 25 calories.
  • dmenchac
    dmenchac Posts: 447 Member
    Why would weighing it frozen before cooking give you the best calorie count? That extra weight is all water which is lost during cooking. Your cooked chicken will always weigh less than frozen or raw chicken.
    When I want 8 oz of cooked chicken I usually grab about 9.5 oz of frozen and 1.5 oz of water gets lost.

    Because the calories are for the raw chicken. So if there are 100 calories in 100 grams of chicken, but you put down 75 because it weighs less after cooking, you just overate by 25 calories.

    It will lose calories in the cooking process.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    a couple of things:

    1) just use the cooked entry from the USDA database. Search for "Chicken - Breast, meat only, cooked, roasted"

    2) You usually lose about 75% of the weight when you cook meat, so you could do it that way.

    Unless you eat your chicken rare or extremely overcooked, I wouldn't worry too much about not getting it exact. It will be close enough if you use the correct "cooked" entry.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    It will lose calories in the cooking process.

    Wha???

    Cooking meat reduces 2 things. Water and fat. Since chicken has very little fat, all you are losing is the water which is zero calories.
  • amperry328
    amperry328 Posts: 21
    [/quote]

    It will lose calories in the cooking process.
    [/quote]

    Foods do not just lose calories in the cooking process. When cooking raw chicken, the number of calories per ounce is diluted by the water content. After you cook and and you loose the water, the calories did not disappear with the water. The chicken now has more calories per ounce due to the lack of water.
  • serindipte
    serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
    Frozen chicken =/= raw chicken per weight.

    If you weigh frozen, your count is off. Better to weigh cooked and log per method of cooking: Chicken - Breast, skinless, boneless, baked.
  • MBrothers22
    MBrothers22 Posts: 323 Member
    Why would weighing it frozen before cooking give you the best calorie count? That extra weight is all water which is lost during cooking. Your cooked chicken will always weigh less than frozen or raw chicken.
    When I want 8 oz of cooked chicken I usually grab about 9.5 oz of frozen and 1.5 oz of water gets lost.

    Because the calories are for the raw chicken. So if there are 100 calories in 100 grams of chicken, but you put down 75 because it weighs less after cooking, you just overate by 25 calories.

    If it weighs 75 grams cooked and you eat 75 grams cooked then you log 75 grams cooked. I would try to find a cooked calorie amount because raw or frozen amounts are pointless
  • dmenchac
    dmenchac Posts: 447 Member
    It will lose calories in the cooking process.

    Wha???

    Cooking meat reduces 2 things. Water and fat. Since chicken has very little fat, all you are losing is the water which is zero calories.

    My perdue chicken patties have 9g of fat in each patty, which equates to 81 calories. By cooking it, you lost some of this fat. Which is why it says on the package:

    1 Patty frozen (180 calories)
    1 Patty cooked (130 calories)
  • JTick
    JTick Posts: 2,131 Member
    a couple of things:

    1) just use the cooked entry from the USDA database. Search for "Chicken - Breast, meat only, cooked, roasted"

    2) You usually lose about 75% of the weight when you cook meat, so you could do it that way.

    Unless you eat your chicken rare or extremely overcooked, I wouldn't worry too much about not getting it exact. It will be close enough if you use the correct "cooked" entry.

    Your point #2 isn't very accurate, unfortunately. I wrap my chicken in aluminum foil when I cook it to keep the juices in. If I cook it uncovered then it gets very dry, but it retains a ton of water when cooked wrapped. So if I went off of your estimation, then I would be way off. This is why we weigh raw...raw is raw. Different cooking methods cook off different amounts of water.
  • dmenchac
    dmenchac Posts: 447 Member

    It will lose calories in the cooking process.
    [/quote]

    Foods do not just lose calories in the cooking process. When cooking raw chicken, the number of calories per ounce is diluted by the water content. After you cook and and you loose the water, the calories did not disappear with the water. The chicken now has more calories per ounce due to the lack of water.
    [/quote]

    Incorrect. You will lose fat in the cooking process. Read my above post.
  • MBrothers22
    MBrothers22 Posts: 323 Member
    It will lose calories in the cooking process.

    Wha???

    Cooking meat reduces 2 things. Water and fat. Since chicken has very little fat, all you are losing is the water which is zero calories.

    I'm assuming they are talking about weight. My frozen or raw 5 oz piece of chicken isn't really 5 oz. It's more like 4 or less.
  • dmenchac
    dmenchac Posts: 447 Member
    It will lose calories in the cooking process.

    Wha???

    Cooking meat reduces 2 things. Water and fat. Since chicken has very little fat, all you are losing is the water which is zero calories.

    I'm assuming they are talking about weight. My frozen or raw 5 oz piece of chicken isn't really 5 oz. It's more like 4 or less.

    But if the extra weight is just water because it is frozen, why would it be more calories since water is zero calories.....
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    It will lose calories in the cooking process.

    Wha???

    Cooking meat reduces 2 things. Water and fat. Since chicken has very little fat, all you are losing is the water which is zero calories.

    My perdue chicken patties have 9g of fat in each patty, which equates to 81 calories. By cooking it, you lost some of this fat. Which is why it says on the package:

    1 Patty frozen (180 calories)
    1 Patty cooked (130 calories)

    ok... but no one is talking about chicken PATTIES but you. The OP is talking about chicken breasts, which is totally different. Patties have all kinds of grossness in them. That is where they put the parts they can't sell otherwise, which is why they are so high in fat.

    Like I said, cooking meat, you lose water and fat, and in chicken BREASTS it is mostly water.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    It will lose calories in the cooking process.

    Wha???

    Cooking meat reduces 2 things. Water and fat. Since chicken has very little fat, all you are losing is the water which is zero calories.

    I'm assuming they are talking about weight. My frozen or raw 5 oz piece of chicken isn't really 5 oz. It's more like 4 or less.

    But if the extra weight is just water because it is frozen, why would it be more calories since water is zero calories.....

    because the food becomes more calorie dense. Same calories, but weighs less cooked.

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