Nutrition Labels: cooked vs uncooked & serving per container vs what you actually get.

SarahBethS
SarahBethS Posts: 29 Member
edited November 20 in Food and Nutrition
Yesterday, I bought this frozen casserole stuff and the nutrition label says Serving Size: 1 Cup, Servings Per Container: 5. 270 cals per serving.

I used a 1 cup measuring cup and measured out 2 cups (not heaping cups). I looked at what was left in the container and knew there was no way there was 3 cups left over. So I measured the rest a cup at a time and it was only 2 cups. Where did the other cup go? Could I have possibly measured 3 cups in my bowl?

For lunch today, I had some of these frozen chicken nugget things. 3oz serving is 160 cals. I weighed them on my scale while frozen and I couldn't get exactly 6 oz so I think it ended up being like 6.6oz or something. I cooked them in the oven and weighed them again on my scale and now the scale said they were only 4.5 oz. WTH??

So how many calories do I track on that? Track the original 6.6 oz or track the cooked 4.5?

Replies

  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    SarahBethS wrote: »
    For lunch today, I had some of these frozen chicken nugget things. 3oz serving is 160 cals. I weighed them on my scale while frozen and I couldn't get exactly 6 oz so I think it ended up being like 6.6oz or something. I cooked them in the oven and weighed them again on my scale and now the scale said they were only 4.5 oz. WTH??

    So how many calories do I track on that? Track the original 6.6 oz or track the cooked 4.5?

    I'd go with the 6.6 oz. The difference is mostly likely water lost during cooking, but unless it stated otherwise, the calories on the package will be for the product as packaged.
  • queenbea77
    queenbea77 Posts: 404 Member
    Did the package have "grams" per serving? You need to "weigh" out the serving instead of "measuring" it out in a cup. I'll use milk as an example because I just measured some out this morning. The carton said 1 serving = 1 cup (240ml). So rather than measure out "1 cup" I weighed out 240 ml.

    The chicken nuggets - I'd track the original 6.6 oz.
  • queenbea77
    queenbea77 Posts: 404 Member
    I struggle with pasta - dry is usually 56gr. but I cook for a family and I'm not crazy about cooking a single serving just to get the accurate weight.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    unless otherwise specified, weights are dried weights and uncooked weights.
  • farfromthetree
    farfromthetree Posts: 982 Member
    queenbea77 wrote: »
    I struggle with pasta - dry is usually 56gr. but I cook for a family and I'm not crazy about cooking a single serving just to get the accurate weight.

    yes, same here. In these situations I just use 1 cup or 1/2 cup cooked. I cant make myself too crazy and it hasn't seemed to affect my weight loss. It is still way less than I used to eat.

  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    6.6 oz for the nuggets is what I'd go by.
    The casserole proves why cups are not accurate for measuring solids.
  • SarahBethS
    SarahBethS Posts: 29 Member
    Nope, gave no grams per serving on the casserole and OK, i'll go with the 6.6 on the nugs.
  • SimoneBee12
    SimoneBee12 Posts: 268 Member
    SarahBethS wrote: »
    Nope, gave no grams per serving on the casserole and OK, i'll go with the 6.6 on the nugs.

    Even if it gave no grams on the serving information it would still have said 1kg or whatever on the front of the box, divide that by 5 and you have the weight the servings should be.

  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    SimoneBee12 wrote: »
    SarahBethS wrote: »
    Nope, gave no grams per serving on the casserole and OK, i'll go with the 6.6 on the nugs.

    Even if it gave no grams on the serving information it would still have said 1kg or whatever on the front of the box, divide that by 5 and you have the weight the servings should be.

    Nope because the number of servings stated on packages is never accurate.

  • starglows
    starglows Posts: 6 Member
    I had the same issue with frozen chicken wings the other day (Tyson Buffalo style hot wings BTW). I concluded that the label was actually using the cooked weight.

    Here was my reasoning:
    * Front of the bag says Net Wt 5 lb
    * Nutrition label says Serving Size 3 oz
    * Nutrition label says Servings Per Container About 18
    * 18 * 3 oz = 54 oz = only 3.375 lb
    * The wings weigh less after cooking
    * So the nutrition must be referring to the wings in their less weight-ful state

    Thoughts?
  • EmmaFitzwilliam
    EmmaFitzwilliam Posts: 482 Member
    I have a ?20 oz? jar of Indian simmer sauce, which alleged 5 servings of "1 cup". I don't recall the grams listed. Simple math, however, requires 40 oz for 5 cups of sauce. By weight, their serving was actually closer to 1/3 cup than 1 cup.

    Either way, I split the contents of the jar between two people, and logged it as 2.5 servings per person.

    Checking by weight is often a good double-check. I have found that a serving may be listed as "two pieces" rather than 1.5 pieces. If I ate two pieces of pastry, rather than the (for example) 32 grams, I would end up with 40+ grams, and 1/3 to 1/2 again as many calories.

    Knowledge is power.

  • roselemonade
    roselemonade Posts: 53 Member
    queenbea77 wrote: »
    I struggle with pasta - dry is usually 56gr. but I cook for a family and I'm not crazy about cooking a single serving just to get the accurate weight.

    I figured out pasta weight by weighing pasta dry, cooking and draining, and then weighing it again after it stopped steaming. Then I created a "recipe" with just the dry pasta as an ingredient, and set the number of servings so that each one is 100g of the cooked pasta. For example: I take 600g pasta, cook and drain, and weigh it again and see that it is 1200g. I created a recipe, put 600g dry pasta as an ingredient, set the servings to 12, and name it "Cooked pasta - 100g." That way, the next time I make the same kind of pasta (different sizes/types will take up more or less water) I can weigh just my cooked portion, see that it weighs, say, 210g, and input that as 2.1 servings.
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