The Bacon Dilema

kozykondition1 · July 2015

This morning, I cooked-up a fairly-normal breakfast for myself:
3 hard boiled eggs
4 slices of thick cut bacon (146g)

The non-weighed entries for those two items are 210 and 240 calories respectively.

I used a smaller pan then normal to cook the bacon, and it also ended-up crispier than I normally cook it. There seemed to be quite a lot of bacon grease left in the pan. I let the tallow cool slightly and then weighed it. It was 61 grams filling around 2 fluid ounces.

61 grams of lard is 550 calories!

I reworked my math using generic uncooked bacon:
146g = 790 calories with 61g of fat and 54g of protein
61g of bacon grease = 547 calories

Here's the difference:
146g bacon - 61g bacon grease = 247 calories, 54g protein 0g fat (no fat, yeah right)
4 slices of Kroger thick cut bacon = 240 calories, 12g protein 18g fat

So clearly the bacon I cooked is less lean than the generic bacon listing.
The calorie difference is negligible.
The fat difference isn't too damaging (but not good).
The protein difference is enough to break your macros.

Did I get closer to 50g of protein or 10g?

When I cut the fat (or avoid eating it) on a fatty cut of steak, how many calories am I eating?

Is this the reason why it always seemed in the past that I lost weight when my bacon consumption increased?

Cheers!

JoRocka · July 2015

You're over thinking it.

hitting your macros is more of minimums than max- esp with Protein.

eat your breakfast and don't make yourself crazy.

MelodyandBarbells · July 2015

My bacon package says "pan fried slices", and for whatever reason I've also assumed drained. I always drain the bacon on some paper towels and then just log what the package says. I do use some of the grease to fry eggs, though hehe.

As for something like steak I'd just log what the package says by weight. Any buffer you have from not consuming the fat, can be used for cases where you inadvertently go over. So it all balances out and you lose weight at the expected rate, anyway

kozykondition1 · July 2015

So that's two votes for not weighing food. 500 calories at breakfast is a big deal for me. And the problem exists to a lesser extent fir other fatty cuts of meat. How lean is ground beef after you brown and drain it?

Christine_72 · July 2015

Seriously, you're over thinking it. It made my brain ache just reading your post.

unrelentingminx · July 2015

The packs of bacon I get give nutritional information for grilled bacon. Seeing the amount of fat that drains off, I'm guessing the values for pan fried would have been higher but I have no idea by how much. So I grill as suggested :-)

Mr_Knight · July 2015

kozykondition1 wrote: »

Did I get closer to 50g of protein or 10g?

Close to 10g, for four slices. A slice of bacon is typically 3-ish grams of protein.

Alatariel75 · July 2015

Alatariel75 · July 2015

In all seriousness, that's crazy fatty bacon. You're right to want to clarify the issue.

Becca_250 · July 2015

As others have alluded to, I think the calories on the packet are usually for grilled rashers, where the fat would drip down off the meat. Therefore, the calorie measurement would be about the same when you fry in a pan and drain the grease off/leave in the pan once cooked.

_Terrapin_ · July 2015

kozykondition1 wrote: »

This morning, I cooked-up a fairly-normal breakfast for myself:
3 hard boiled eggs
4 slices of thick cut bacon (146g)

The non-weighed entries for those two items are 210 and 240 calories respectively.

I used a smaller pan then normal to cook the bacon, and it also ended-up crispier than I normally cook it. There seemed to be quite a lot of bacon grease left in the pan. I let the tallow cool slightly and then weighed it. It was 61 grams filling around 2 fluid ounces.

61 grams of lard is 550 calories!

I reworked my math using generic uncooked bacon:
146g = 790 calories with 61g of fat and 54g of protein
61g of bacon grease = 547 calories

Here's the difference:
146g bacon - 61g bacon grease = 247 calories, 54g protein 0g fat (no fat, yeah right)
4 slices of Kroger thick cut bacon = 240 calories, 12g protein 18g fat

So clearly the bacon I cooked is less lean than the generic bacon listing.
The calorie difference is negligible.
The fat difference isn't too damaging (but not good).
The protein difference is enough to break your macros.

Did I get closer to 50g of protein or 10g?

When I cut the fat (or avoid eating it) on a fatty cut of steak, how many calories am I eating?

Is this the reason why it always seemed in the past that I lost weight when my bacon consumption increased?

Cheers!

Congrats on your weight loss this far in to your bacon dilemma life.

I did something really crazy. . . . .looked up Kroger's thick cut bacon ( yeah a link: http://www.caloriecount.com/calories-kroger-bacon-i244568) and took your 146 grams of weight and used their nutritional info for a serving(65 grams/2 slices) and had the following numbers: 139 1/2 grams is 315 calories and 18 grams of protein. So. . . . . . .you are closer to 10 grams of protein then 50; you had a fatty cut of bacon relative to the 'generic listing'. The reason you lose weight is obvious. You work as a roofer during weight loss, use the pancakes for roofing material and avoid eating them with your bacon. And, in all seriousness, you may want to learn why Protein and Fat MACROS are minimums to go above so we do not need to have another silly conversation like this 5 years from now when you quit roofing, love the color purple, and think bacon grease ought to be subtracted from an alien's butt. Be well.

yarwell · July 2015

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=272639099

Raw - 100 grams contains 15.5g protein and 19.8g fat. F/P ratio 1.28

Cooked (grill) - two rashers are ~87g containing 21.8g protein and 13.1g fat. F/P ratio 0.6

So relative to protein about half the fat is lost in cooking, according to the nutritional label. Loss of water to be considered too if trying to understand it.

Sued0nim · July 2015

Alatariel75 wrote: »

that's just genius

*steals*

The Bacon Dilema

Replies

Categories