Do you weigh cooked or uncooked?
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SazzySuze
Posts: 119 Member
For those of you that weigh your food, do you generally use the pre-cooked weight or weigh after cooking? Some things don't change much by cooking but other things, say bacon, there's a huge difference in the weight. Unless you plan on drinking all the leftover bacon grease, you're not actually consuming all the calories that's in the pre-cooked weight. Is that correct or am I just totally off base here? How do you weigh your food?
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And am I correct in thinking that the calories on the package are the calories pre-cooked?0
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It depends.
For recipes I use the raw options in the database.
for bacon, there is a USDA "pork bacon pan fried option", so I use that. If I'm eating roasted chicken I use the "chicken, breast, meat only, roasted" option.
veggies, I use raw measures.0 -
Good question, I can never figure it out0
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Anything I can weigh raw that makes sense, I do so: steaks, chops, burgers, individual pieces of boneless chicken (ie thighs), kielbasa.
Other things I use cooked weight: bacon (in grams), bits of any large roasted meat (beef, pork, whole chickens), bone in chicken legs/thighs.
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Thanks for the responses. I'm a numbers fanatic and long for accuracy. I think maybe I will weigh things with fat after cooking and things without fat before cooking. That seems to make the most sense based on your responses.0
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IF I find a RELIABLE value for the coking process I am using, I will use that, otherwise, I weight before and use the raw value... So I weight fish and meat raw, unless of course I buy it cooked. Veg, I have a tendency to use the cooked values.0
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In the database, the USDA entries are the ones without the * in front. While not perfect, I try to use those as much as possible, for cooked and raw entries.
I do end up using the bacon fat for other things. That has a USDA entry of "animal fat - bacon"0 -
Well, i don't know, i made burgers and weighted raw patties to be at 4oz exact. I grilled them and they turned into 2.8 oz patties. So what does one enter??
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well there is the "Beef ground patties raw" choice
or
"beef - ground patties cooked"
In this instance, since I am not eating the fat drippings, I would go with cooked. They even have different choices for the different lean/fat%0 -
I always do meats cooked, veggies, dairy, and fruits raw0
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Yep, always weight/measure raw and/or dry to account for water loss/gain during cooking.0
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I've done everything raw apart from chicken drumsticks and some roast lamb my grandma made for me once.
I ripped all the burning hot meat off my drumsticks once until I realised I could just weigh them before eating and then minus the weight of the bones when done to get theweight of the cooked meat. Duh.0 -
I've done everything raw apart from chicken drumsticks and some roast lamb my grandma made for me once.
I ripped all the burning hot meat off my drumsticks once until I realised I could just weigh them before eating and then minus the weight of the bones when done to get theweight of the cooked meat. Duh.
LOL, i have not done that, but if there is a bone, it must be weighed before and after
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That's exactly my problem. I don't know which to do. Beginning to make sense to me, though, to weigh those after cooked since we're not eating the grease.Well, i don't know, i made burgers and weighted raw patties to be at 4oz exact. I grilled them and they turned into 2.8 oz patties. So what does one enter??
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I've done everything raw apart from chicken drumsticks and some roast lamb my grandma made for me once.
I ripped all the burning hot meat off my drumsticks once until I realised I could just weigh them before eating and then minus the weight of the bones when done to get theweight of the cooked meat. Duh.
LOL, i have not done that, but if there is a bone, it must be weighed before and after
Haha...I always thought that the weight was including the bone. Silly me.0 -
That somewhat makes sense. However, with many weights I'm not just losing water. Go back to the bacon example. There's an extreme amount of grease left in the pan. How do I account for that if I weigh the bacon raw?Yep, always weight/measure raw and/or dry to account for water loss/gain during cooking.
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My theory is, enter what goes in your mouth, and i don't eat raw food0
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Rather than trying to get it spot on, the best thing is to make sure you do it the same way each time. Consistently measuring the same way will give you repeatable results that you can use to adjust your calorie goals. So, with bacon, yes, some grease stays in the pan, some stays on your plate, some water loss occurs during cooking ... so pick a calculation for bacon that makes sense to you, let's say it's 45 calories cooked. You should then always log your bacon as 45 calories per slice and don't bother with weighing each piece, or weighing the leftover fat in the pan, or worrying about the bacon at a restaurant and whether it's crispier than the bacon you make at home.
Some stuff should always be weighed, like dry rice or whatever. Some stuff you might have two standards for, like bone-in skin-on chicken thighs vs. boneless skinless chicken thighs.
Success in the long run will come from your consistent standards. Then, whether you want to gain or lose weight, you can change your calorie goal, and know how much of your food choices can be fit in, like little modules.0
