Correct calorie recording procedure?

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kal900
kal900 Posts: 69 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi,
I'm fairly new to counting calories, as I've always found that carbs are my nemesis and done my utmost to minimize them rather than worry about calorie levels.
However, after chatting to a trainer, she suggested trying a meal plan for a week, and it worked, so I'm currently trying counting calories.

The question-
When I cook I weigh and record all foods as raw, as I cut them up to use. This gives me my total and what I use to gauge daily intake.
BUT.... I've been reading that calorie use/absorbtion can change with cooking so I might not be recording accurate numbers?
Which is best to record? How do you record 60g of raw leek once it has been cooked? Logistics of weighing cooked food seems ridiculous, especially in something like a soup or casserole.
There is alot of talk of the mfp database not being particularly accurate... is it best to use data from packets, presuming they work out calories given for cooked product, or is there a database somewhere with accurate conversion from raw to cooked calorie value?
Would much appreciate some info on this, as it's only just occurred to me and has put me in a spin, which, with over 100lbs to lose, I really can't afford to get wrong.

thanks muchly
Kalona

Replies

  • demonelle
    demonelle Posts: 12 Member
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    I dunno what other people do but I always weigh my vegetables/meat/fruit etc all raw and if I use oil, or cooking spray etc, I will log that seperately. I feel it's more accurate this way.
  • kal900
    kal900 Posts: 69 Member
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    That's how I'm doing it, but my understanding is that eg 60g of leeks, raw, can have a different calorie value once cooked, thereby throwing all our calculations and precise measuring/recording out the window.
    All very confusing, doing low carb is so much easier
  • Carol_
    Carol_ Posts: 469 Member
    edited May 2015
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    I might be wrong. But I weight veggies after cooking in a little bowl on a food scale
    after 'zero ing' it out. ( zero-ing? ha ha. Is that a word?)
  • demonelle
    demonelle Posts: 12 Member
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    How much is the calorie difference? I wouldn't worry too much personally. Whatever the highest count is for cooked vs raw then just go with that to be safe. :)
  • 311snowwhite
    311snowwhite Posts: 30 Member
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    I would not weigh after cooked. When you weigh cooked foods, they weigh less than the raw weight. That way you would be eating MORE of your desired serving amount.
  • Hollywood_Porky
    Hollywood_Porky Posts: 491 Member
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    311snowwhite wrote: »
    I would not weigh after cooked. When you weigh cooked foods, they weigh less than the raw weight. That way you would be eating MORE of your desired serving amount.

    Agreed. Always consider raw as the weight used for diary entries. That's the most conservative method to apply - then you could always be lower, but never higher.
  • allyphoe
    allyphoe Posts: 618 Member
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    kal900 wrote: »
    my understanding is that eg 60g of leeks, raw, can have a different calorie value once cooked, thereby throwing all our calculations and precise measuring/recording out the window.

    There's not really any precision in CICO. Any given piece of meat is going to have a unique protein/fat split. Veggies harvested from one field will have different micronutrients than veggies from a different field. BMR and additional calories expended are individual to each person, and from day to day for the same person. Down your path lies madness. :)

    Log it and move on. Track your progress and adjust from there.



  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,163 Member
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    It is leeks, other than if you are adding oils or sauces during cooking, the difference will be minimal, probably less than the variation between leeks grown in different places or at different times of the year. With meat, the calories cooked (assuming no oil/sauce used to cook) will be less than raw, but again, not enough to be concerned about. You are getting far too concerned with something that really does not make a significant difference.
  • kal900
    kal900 Posts: 69 Member
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    Thanks guys/gals, help very much appreciated!

    This is the problem with changing systems and hammering the research- so much to read, and not all useful/ accurate!
    I only used leeks as an example, meat, fruit etc could easily apply. From what I was reading, because of the way each company etc measure each calorie value, it can be quite varied anyway.

    My main concern was that I'm recording up to my daily allowance, but if the general values are inaccurate I could actually be over my limit, so not lose weight. I've also read that not having enough calories will also hinder weight loss, so trying to overcompensate calorie inaccuracy will cause just as many problems...

    I'll give it a month, see what happens, I'll have 4 weeks of similar foodstuffs so should get consistent results to compare

    thanks muchly
    Kalona




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