Food Weight- Cooked or Raw

brittany_812
brittany_812 Posts: 140 Member
edited November 17 in Getting Started
I've recently started actually weighing my food, but I'm wondering should I weigh and enter the raw weight with things like chicken and fish, or would I enter the cooked weight? For example, I made a piece of individually packaged fish tonight. The box said each piece weighs 170g, but when I weighed it after cooking it was 131g. So I entered 0.77x1 piece (170g) in the tracker. Was that right? Or should I have just said one piece? Or should I have weighed it before cooking? I know the number on the box isn't always accurate to the actual weight of the pieces inside. Sometimes they're big and sometimes they're small.

Replies

  • tiptoethruthetulips
    tiptoethruthetulips Posts: 3,372 Member
    edited April 2015
    I log raw weight, just make sure the item chosen in the database is for raw weight and not cooked weight.

    Proteins typically lose fluid when cooked, but how much fluid depends on the cooking method as well to what degree cooked eg rare, medium or well done.

    131gms of cooked fish would have more calories than 131gms of raw fish.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    Raw - cooking time and method will determine weight, and it's not always going to be the same. Just cooked salmon is going to be more moist (therefore, heavier) than overcooked salmon.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    The nutrition information on the package is usually for the raw weight. If you want or need to weigh it after cooking, that's fine but be sure you're choosing an accurate entry in the database that matches how you cooked it (ie don't use a grilled entry if you boiled it, etc )
  • brittany_812
    brittany_812 Posts: 140 Member
    So if the database doesn't specify raw or cooked, I should assume it's raw? Can food lose calories after cooking? Like is oils come out when you bake or fry fish? And if that's the case how accurate is the entry if you enter raw weight :s
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    brittany_812 wrote: »
    So if the database doesn't specify raw or cooked, I should assume it's raw? Can food lose calories after cooking? Like is oils come out when you bake or fry fish? And if that's the case how accurate is the entry if you enter raw weight :s

    It loses size not calories. Like the water cooks out so it weighs less. Weigh it raw.

  • Ericdanielkwong
    Ericdanielkwong Posts: 18 Member
    raw is definitely the most accurate, but as long as you're consistent, you should be gucci! i used to worry about this too... which is why i use Pam calorie free non stick spray to minimize additives.
  • brittany_812
    brittany_812 Posts: 140 Member
    Ok good to know :) i guess im just confused because of things like bacon and ground meats where you can see the fats left in the pan after cooking. Ive only been weighing my food for a couple weeks and had been wondering
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