Weighing food?

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AZTeri2016
AZTeri2016 Posts: 77 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Based on a conversation on another part of the board, I decided to weigh my food starting today. I weighed out my oatmeal - the same 1/4 cup I always make, which I've been recording at 115 calories. Cooked the same amount is 450 calories! Which leads to my question. Am I supposed to weigh before cooking or after? I'm sure some of the weight was the water that the oatmeal absorbed. I want to do this right, but I'm confused!

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  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    The weight on the nutrition label is based on the weight before cooking. If you want/need to weigh it after cooking then choose an accurate and appropriate entry from the database that specifies it's for the cooked weight.
  • AZTeri2016
    AZTeri2016 Posts: 77 Member
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    How can it be so far apart? That's insane. the only thing added is water! Oh well. I need to get used to this.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    AZTeri2016 wrote: »
    How can it be so far apart? That's insane. the only thing added is water! Oh well. I need to get used to this.

    Water adds a lot of weight. Especially since it's a food that's designed to absorb a lot of water while cooking.
  • NinjaJinja
    NinjaJinja Posts: 147 Member
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    Clearly the water did not add 4 times the amount of calories to your food.

    I always weigh before cooking. The manufacturer has no way of knowing how you intend to prepare your food, how long you're going to let it soak, etc. Sometimes they offer an additional nutrition box for "prepared" values, like on boxed meals that require you to add your own butter. But it's always specified that it's prepared, which further says to me that "normal" nutrition information is for the food exactly as it comes out of the package.
  • ReaderGirl3
    ReaderGirl3 Posts: 868 Member
    edited April 2016
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    Before :) I eat oats pretty much every day and even though I'm a hard core food scale user, for some reason I never weighed my oats (or rice). Finally I had a 'duh' moment and started weighing them, in dry form/grams, and yep I was underestimating calories before.

    Now I measure out the water and get it going on the stove, dry out the measuring cup and tare it out on my scale. Then I weigh out the correct amount of grams for one serving.

  • AZTeri2016
    AZTeri2016 Posts: 77 Member
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    Another difficulty - especially with the oatmeal - is that I'm not prepping for only one person. I make my husband's breakfast at the same time. I'm really not inclined to making oatmeal two times - once for me, once for him. As it is, it took me 30 minutes this morning to make breakfast, weighing everything, and make my lunch - again, weighing everything. Please tell me it gets easier!
  • eileen0515
    eileen0515 Posts: 408 Member
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    AZTeri2016 wrote: »
    Another difficulty - especially with the oatmeal - is that I'm not prepping for only one person. I make my husband's breakfast at the same time. I'm really not inclined to making oatmeal two times - once for me, once for him. As it is, it took me 30 minutes this morning to make breakfast, weighing everything, and make my lunch - again, weighing everything. Please tell me it gets easier!
    I promise you it gets easier, even second nature. It's totally normal to be sort of confused at first.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    AZTeri2016 wrote: »
    Another difficulty - especially with the oatmeal - is that I'm not prepping for only one person. I make my husband's breakfast at the same time. I'm really not inclined to making oatmeal two times - once for me, once for him. As it is, it took me 30 minutes this morning to make breakfast, weighing everything, and make my lunch - again, weighing everything. Please tell me it gets easier!

    It does get easier. Have you discovered the recipe builder yet?
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,160 Member
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    AZTeri2016 wrote: »
    Another difficulty - especially with the oatmeal - is that I'm not prepping for only one person. I make my husband's breakfast at the same time. I'm really not inclined to making oatmeal two times - once for me, once for him. As it is, it took me 30 minutes this morning to make breakfast, weighing everything, and make my lunch - again, weighing everything. Please tell me it gets easier!

    If you are making two times the serving with your husband eating half and you eating half just divide it in half. The other option if he has two servings and you have one is cook all of it, weigh the cooked result and take away 2/3 for your husband. If you weighted the ingredients before cooking and only added water it is more a matter of splitting the portions correctly as the calories would not change.
  • Madelinec117
    Madelinec117 Posts: 210 Member
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    AZTeri2016 wrote: »
    Another difficulty - especially with the oatmeal - is that I'm not prepping for only one person. I make my husband's breakfast at the same time. I'm really not inclined to making oatmeal two times - once for me, once for him. As it is, it took me 30 minutes this morning to make breakfast, weighing everything, and make my lunch - again, weighing everything. Please tell me it gets easier!

    I cook my oatmeal in the microwave. Dump it all in a bowl and cook for 3 minutes and it's done (may have to adjust the time based on your microwave and the amount you cook at one time). Also, what about measuring the dry ingredients and put them in zip lock bags so in the morning you can pull out a bag with it all pre-measured. Also, think of it as a skill you are learning - you will get better at it in time.
  • Fernando618G
    Fernando618G Posts: 380 Member
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    AZTeri2016 wrote: »
    Based on a conversation on another part of the board, I decided to weigh my food starting today. I weighed out my oatmeal - the same 1/4 cup I always make, which I've been recording at 115 calories. Cooked the same amount is 450 calories! Which leads to my question. Am I supposed to weigh before cooking or after? I'm sure some of the weight was the water that the oatmeal absorbed. I want to do this right, but I'm confused!

    bro get the quaker old fashion oats its 300cal for 1 cup YOU DO NOT WEIGHT IT AFTER YOU COOK. just cook in water not milk bro same thing

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