Food Scale Newbie

Ratrap
Ratrap Posts: 153
in Food and Nutrition
Hello,

So I recently have bought a food scale and I have many questions.

1. Do I weigh the meat raw or cooked to get the right OZ?
2. When it comes to beans do I use a cup or the scale?
3. Do I weigh stuff like rice dry or cooked?

Replies

  • BigT555
    BigT555 Posts: 2,067 Member
    weigh things before cooking, the process of cooking removes (or in rices case adds) water weight which will effect the calorie to weight ratio

    i would weigh beans as they are a solid, the size of each individual bean will vary which will effect the volume
  • caitology
    caitology Posts: 50
    Weigh anything and everything you can. Cups are terribly inaccurate for solids. A cup for some people is a scoop without leveling the top, a scoop with it slightly under, etc where a gram is always a gram.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    1 Always before esp meat and pasta, potatoes, winter squashes .. . . . --- with exceptions you point out:
    2 I usually see cooked beans measured by the cup -- they will have some liquid in them
    3 The tracker here lets you choose rice uncooked or uncooked -- I usually do cooked
  • bevmcarthur
    bevmcarthur Posts: 341 Member
    i never weight my raw meats before . HMMMM
  • smn76237
    smn76237 Posts: 318 Member
    The only thing you use cups for are liquids. Beans get measured on a scale (a can or package will typically give a weighted serving size in parenthesis).

    Weigh everything raw and uncooked when you can, including meat, rice, and pasta.

    Only weigh the part you eat--ie, banana peels and apple cores don't get weighed.
  • countscalories
    countscalories Posts: 418 Member
    Re: the "cooked vs. raw" dilemma, I weigh meats after cooking. When I log my meals into MFP, I use the "cooked" data for those foods. Seems to be working for me. And measure, measure, measure! Except for when I dine out, I imagine that weighing my food will be something I will do for the rest of my life. It's too easy to NOT do it. You'll get the hang of it fast. Good luck!

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