Help with weighing meat raw vs. cooked with an example

mmut22
mmut22 Posts: 5 Member
edited November 12 in Food and Nutrition
I am trying to figure out how to most accurately log my macros - and the raw/cooked meat measurements have me stumped.

As an example, I just cooked a package of organic beef. 451 grams raw After I cooked it 322 grams.

The package says (raw), 4 servings of 112g each.

Cooked, there are 4 servings of 80.5 grams.

Are those two equal? Should I still be trying to get 112 g of the cooked - but then wouldn't I be over-shooting the actual measurement?

Noob city, I'm sure. Thanks for the help.



Replies

  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    When you cook beef a lot of calories are lost through fat cooking off. If you're measuring the beef raw you're going to be counting the fat calories that you aren't actually eating.

    If you do a search on "beef" you'll see a bunch of entries in MFP for raw as well as different methods for cooking beef. I only use the raw entries if I'm making something like meat loaf where I don't drain the fat off the ground beef, otherwise I always use the cooked entry that fits (crumbled, patty, etc.)
  • spoonyspork
    spoonyspork Posts: 238 Member
    edited February 2015
    It really does depend on how you cook it, and what you do with it after. I use 93% lean and don't drain so log 100% raw. I know some people who use 80% lean not only drain off but also rinse the meat at the end. No idea how one would log that. I'd just log it at 100% as 'a lot' is probably only 20 calories different or so and it's better to be over-estimating than under, unless you're eating at a HUGE deficit.
  • mmut22
    mmut22 Posts: 5 Member
    Thanks for the answers - for this I'm just trying to cook in bulk early in the week and eat with meals - veggies, eggs, etc.

    Normally I'd just cook it, weigh it out off the nutritional guide on the back and move on.

    But I feel like that might be inaccurate now and like Spoonyspork said - over-estimating. 4 equal portions is not 80g, not 112.

    I'm, just trying to figure out of the cooked 80 = raw 112 as far as macros go.

    Too much science for a dummy like me.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    edited February 2015
    mmut22 wrote: »
    Thanks for the answers - for this I'm just trying to cook in bulk early in the week and eat with meals - veggies, eggs, etc.

    Normally I'd just cook it, weigh it out off the nutritional guide on the back and move on.

    But I feel like that might be inaccurate now and like Spoonyspork said - over-estimating. 4 equal portions is not 80g, not 112.

    I'm, just trying to figure out of the cooked 80 = raw 112 as far as macros go.

    Too much science for a dummy like me.
    Yes weigh raw, so if 448 raw becomes 322 cooked, use the nutrition info from raw. so now a serving will be 80.5 which is 1/4 of the original 448.
  • acheben
    acheben Posts: 476 Member
    To answer your original question, yes, 112g of raw beef is the same nutritionally as the 80.5g of cooked beef.

    Basically, you cooked 4 servings of the raw beef and the resulting weight is less, but the nutritional information is the same as long as you didn't drain it.
  • spoonyspork
    spoonyspork Posts: 238 Member
    Here, try this:

    http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/beef/show

    It's specifically a ground beef calculator from the usda. It'll let you put in the fat % and preparation method. But again -- not sure if they're assuming you're draining off the fat or not!

    That's kind of why I switched to the extra lean. It actually has a little more flavor since I'm not draining off any fat, and will be more accurate as far as macros. The weight after cooking will still be smaller than raw, but so long as you weigh raw and log it that way you should be pretty close!

    So for example: you have 1lb of beef that you want to divide into 4 meals. That's 4 4oz raw portions (which btw is pretty close to 112 g!). So long as you divide the cooked meat equally, it's still 4 4oz raw portions with macros closely matching raw portions, even though each portion may only weigh 2.5-3oz after cooked.
  • mmut22
    mmut22 Posts: 5 Member
    This makes a lot more sense now. And hopefully will help me be more accurate when trying to cook out bulk portions at the beginning of the week. Thanks to all above who helped - I really appreciate it.
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