How to calculate calories when weighing FROZEN chicken...hel

mamato3inca
mamato3inca Posts: 168 Member
edited October 13 in Food and Nutrition
I'm trying to enter a new recipe in the recipe builder. It's a crock pot recipe and I put the chicken in frozen and obviously it weighs a lot more now than it will after it's cooked. I can find "frozen chicken breasts" in the database, but I don't know if they are giving the calories per oz frozen or after it's already cooked!

Anyone know???

Replies

  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
    Frozen meat weighs the same as it will when it's defrosted. Freezing doesn't add mass.
  • mamato3inca
    mamato3inca Posts: 168 Member
    No it doesn't! Its full of water when frozen and it melts when thawed.

    When I did Weight watchers they had 2 separate entries for frozen verses thawed and it was vastly different.
  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
    Frozen meat weighs the same as it will when it's defrosted. Freezing doesn't add mass.
    But after it's cooked it weighs less because it loses some of its juices. I believe what's in the database would be cooked weight... maybe see if there is a listing for raw chicken? I don't know how much of a difference there would be.
  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
    No it doesn't! Its full of water when frozen and it melts when thawed.

    When I did Weight watchers they had 2 separate entries for frozen verses thawed and it was vastly different.
    Um just what method did you use to freeze this chicken? It should not be full of water...
  • mamato3inca
    mamato3inca Posts: 168 Member
    It's costco frozen chicken, you can see the ice on it. Haven't you defrosted something before? You get a lot of water as it thaws.
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
    Unless you are freezing your chicken in cubes of water, this makes no sense.

    I portion and freeze chicken breasts all the time. If it weighs 5.5oz before I freeze it, it weighs 5.5oz when it's frozen and it weighs 5.5oz when I defrost it.

    After it's cooked, it will weigh less, but freezing and defrosting does nothing to the weight.
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
    It's costco frozen chicken, you can see the ice on it. Haven't you defrosted something before? You get a lot of water as it thaws.

    Well, that's a sign that it's been frozen poorly and kept in uneven temperatures. But even then, just run it under water to get the exterior ice chunks off and weigh the actual chicken that remains.
  • amayzingamanda
    amayzingamanda Posts: 254 Member
    It's costco frozen chicken, you can see the ice on it. Haven't you defrosted something before? You get a lot of water as it thaws.

    It has "ice" or frost on it from the liquid/juices that exists in the chicken at the time its frozen. They don't add water to it to freeze it. Raw chicken should have the same weight whether its frozen or thawed. It's density may change from state to steate, but the weight should not.
  • BarbiNay
    BarbiNay Posts: 65 Member
    Read the nutritional info on the back of the package that will give you the info you need
  • catcrazy
    catcrazy Posts: 1,740 Member
    If you buy it pre-frozen there is often an ice glaze on it...on a bag of prawns its usually around 10-15% of the weight, not sure what it is on chicken so can only advise weighing some frozen and then weighing the same chicken once it is defrosted and drained.

    Also, if buying cheaper chicken portions they are pumped full of water prior to freezing to bulk up the weight, most of this wont come out in defrosting as its actually within the tissues....this is where it pays to buy the best you can afford. I saw a TV documentary where some frozen chicken was actually 35% water artificially pumped in....yikes!


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64aigxVg3lo
  • 76tech
    76tech Posts: 1,455 Member
    Some raw foods are sprayed with water before freezing to prevent freezerburn. I would take one piece, weigh, defrost, weight again.

    If it were me, I would just weigh the whole thing frozen and not worry about the difference, but I'm impatient.
  • mamato3inca
    mamato3inca Posts: 168 Member
    Some raw foods are sprayed with water before freezing to prevent freezerburn. I would take one piece, weigh, defrost, weight again.

    If it were me, I would just weigh the whole thing frozen and not worry about the difference, but I'm impatient.

    Exactly! Thank you! I believe this is what they call "flash freezing". It doesn't speak of the quality (it's Foster farms) just the method used to maintain the quality.
  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
    It's costco frozen chicken, you can see the ice on it. Haven't you defrosted something before? You get a lot of water as it thaws.
    I buy fresh chicken. I freeze things myself and no I don't add water to them. But anyway if you are going to worry about that small amount of water, you are beyond my help.
  • prettyfitchick
    prettyfitchick Posts: 502 Member
    i have thought about this too but I use the serving amount it says on the container but weight the food thaw I hope i am doing it right
  • PegasusDeb
    PegasusDeb Posts: 665 Member
    Wow. Kinda snotty.
  • mamato3inca
    mamato3inca Posts: 168 Member
    i have thought about this too but I use the serving amount it says on the container but weight the food thaw I hope i am doing it right

    I'm sure you're doing it fine. I usually weigh the food cooked before I eat it. It's hard when you put it into a casserole or something and it is raw or frozen. It's hard to weigh it after when it's mixed in with a bunch of stuff.

    I'll try to pull the chicken out of the crock pot when it is cooked, if I can separate it from all the other ingredients. It was 27 ozs frozen, so we'll see! It will be an interesting experiment!
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
    The cooked weight won't be accurate to the package labeling. The nutrition info given on raw meats is for the raw weights. So if your weighing it cooked you'll elbe underestimating your actual caloric intake.

    4oz of raw, extra lean, boneless, skinless, chicken breast is 120 calories.
    That same 4oz will weigh around 3oz or so when cooked, but it's still 120 calories.
    So if you were to have only weighed it cooked and entered that you had 3oz of meat, then you'd be logging 90 calories instead of 120.

    So if your options are to weigh frozen or weigh cooked, I'd opt to weigh frozen. :)
  • mamato3inca
    mamato3inca Posts: 168 Member
    Okay, so I pulled it out and weighed it. It went from 25 ozs to 13 3/4 ozs...wow! I looked up the NI for the chicken COOKED, not raw. It dropped the calories 300 for the whole pot.
  • mamato3inca
    mamato3inca Posts: 168 Member
    .
  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
    i usually search "costco frozen chicken breast" and use the one for individually wrapped (thats what i normally buy). i usually weigh it thawed though, because i always forget to do it frozen. next time ill do frozen and see if theres a difference.
  • mekikya
    mekikya Posts: 19 Member
    Anyone who's cooked chicken before knows it weighs LESS after you cook it...4 oz portion of frozen or raw chicken weighs between 2.2 and 2.8 oz cooked, depending on the chicken and how it was processed...unlike grains and rices that gains more weight after cooking...because the juices come out of the chicken vs being soaked up by the rice...

    I also have a hard time judging the calories in chicken..I usually go by the cooked weight. When I weighed 4 peices of Tyson frozen chicken breasts on my scale it came to 8 oz(they are small pieces), after it was cooked on my george foreman, nothing added, but a tiny dash of spice, it weight just a bit over 4 oz....so i counted a serving and a half for that much just to be on the safe side of calories...
  • jbags5
    jbags5 Posts: 4
    I was having the exact same issue. Couldn't figure out the serving size for my frozen chicken breasts from walmart.

    I bought a 5 lbs bag of boneless, skinless chicken breasts similar to these: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Chicken-Breast-Fillets-Boneless-Skinless-W-Rib-Meat-Poultry-3-lb/10414680

    I imagine all of these frozen chicken breast varieties have similar size breast pieces (assuming you didn't buy butterfly breasts or some other variety) - in mine, a single piece when frozen is about the same length and thickness of my hand from wrist to forefinger (a 5'6" man's hand ;)

    On my label, it said serving size of 4 oz, and 20 servings per container (80 oz. total). I counted out the breasts in the bag - 14. 80/14 = 5.7 oz. (approx) per breast. I just round up to 6 oz, and count it as 1.5 servings per piece in the MFP app.

    Hope this helps!!
  • whatup_imtopher
    whatup_imtopher Posts: 14
    /
  • jaygreen55
    jaygreen55 Posts: 315 Member
    No it doesn't! Its full of water when frozen and it melts when thawed.

    When I did Weight watchers they had 2 separate entries for frozen verses thawed and it was vastly different.

    If you buy fresh chicken breasts and freeze them no weight is added
  • WilliamNeal2
    WilliamNeal2 Posts: 3
    Is there a nutritionist in the community that can give a correct answer to the weight issue or someone from myfitnesspal.com with the correct dietician answer. Best regards.
  • BombshellPhoenix
    BombshellPhoenix Posts: 1,693 Member
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/qanda-are-meat-nutrition-labels-based-on-raw-or-cooked-weight/2014/02/04/b6f5e2b4-89c0-11e3-916e-e01534b1e132_story.html

    "On packaged raw meat and poultry products, the nutrition facts are listed based on the product’s raw weight"
  • martyqueen52
    martyqueen52 Posts: 1,120 Member
    Christ..... just weight the chicken cooked. The difference it will make is MINIMAL calories, if any at all.

    I weigh cooked always.... less messy.
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