Do you weigh food before or after cooking?

meidoj
meidoj Posts: 4 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi friends,
Just wondering if you weigh your food before or after cooking? Tonight I had grilled chicken and out of interest weighed it before and after. It was around 190g before cooking and around 115g after. Till now I have been weighing before but maybe that means I'm not eating enough... or if I start weighing after, will I end up eating too much?
Thanks in advance for your help and thoughts on the matter, and keep going everyone! You've made it this far! ♡

Replies

  • rhauser44
    rhauser44 Posts: 43 Member
    I weigh chicken breasts after cooking. For thing that will absorb water or liquids during cooking (oatmeal) I weigh the dry ingredients before cooking.
  • gothomson
    gothomson Posts: 215 Member
    I only weigh it before. If you look up calories it will usually say what the dry weight is and I've always found that works for me.
  • meidoj
    meidoj Posts: 4 Member
    Thanks so much! I'll keep going the way I am. x
  • ktekc
    ktekc Posts: 879 Member
    either way just make sure you are using the right entry in the database. The usda listing usually have raw and at least one method of cooked. . ie. steamed, fried, boiled. I do raw when i can and log it as raw but when i dont know which im going to be eating ahead of time i just weigh cooked and log with cooked entry.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    It really doesn't matter as long as you use the right entry.
  • DetroitDarin
    DetroitDarin Posts: 955 Member
    I use the weight that shows me the MOST calories - as I wish to over-estimate intake and underestimate what i've burned.
  • WriterGirl30
    WriterGirl30 Posts: 7 Member
    Are the pasta weights cooked or dry? I'm never sure
  • MommyMeggo
    MommyMeggo Posts: 1,222 Member
    weigh what you log.
    weigh raw- log raw.

    I weigh everything raw personally - it is the most accurate.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    Before whenever possible. Just because you can cook the hell out of something and dry out every drop of liquid from it doesn't mean you cooked out the calories.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    ktekc wrote: »
    either way just make sure you are using the right entry in the database. The usda listing usually have raw and at least one method of cooked. . ie. steamed, fried, boiled. I do raw when i can and log it as raw but when i dont know which im going to be eating ahead of time i just weigh cooked and log with cooked entry.

    This.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    Either is fine just choose the entry that matches what state you weighed it in.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    WriterGirl30 wrote: »
    Are the pasta weights cooked or dry? I'm never sure

    For pasta and rice etc, you want to weigh it dry.
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
    Most things I weigh raw but bacon... always weigh cooked.

    And of course be sure to use the correct entry. Preferably the USDA one.
  • MPD6944
    MPD6944 Posts: 75 Member
    Oops I always thought with pasta if it is 2 oz dry then it would be 4 oz cooked for around 200 calories. So it is still only 2 oz cooked for 200?
  • MPD6944
    MPD6944 Posts: 75 Member
    Ok well I just had some angel hair and ate 112 g because 56 g seemed like hardly anything lol. Guess I'll have to measure it dry and cook separate from my hubby next time to see what it is. Thanks.
  • Kelbelb75
    Kelbelb75 Posts: 90 Member
    For cooked servings, after. Otherwise before.
  • Wynterbourne
    Wynterbourne Posts: 2,224 Member
    I'm down 113 pounds and I always weigh everything before cooking. Must be doing something right. For me there's just too much chance of variation regarding the length of cooking and the resulting volume of fats/liquids that are lost or absorbed during the cooking process.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    MPD6944 wrote: »
    Oops I always thought with pasta if it is 2 oz dry then it would be 4 oz cooked for around 200 calories. So it is still only 2 oz cooked for 200?

    You're not too far off with your 4oz cooked, if anything you're overestimating a bit. For most of the pasta I use, 56g dry is about 130g cooked.

    Rice is all over the place though!
  • TheAncientMariner
    TheAncientMariner Posts: 444 Member
    If it has to be cooked and is a solid, I'll weigh it after. If it's something like a salad, then of course I weigh everything before since it doesn't have to be cooked. Things like oatmeal (which I can no longer eat as a result of keto) I typically weigh before. So it just depends on what I'm cooking. I try not to be too scientific about it.
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
    edited October 2016
    I cook for my whole family, so I haven't figured out a sensible way to weigh meat raw and then know which piece of chicken or whatever is mine, so I weigh meat cooked. It's probably not completely spot on, but I'm doing OK so far. For the most part, if I eat it raw, I weigh it raw. If I eat it cooked, I weigh it cooked. I figure if my weight loss ever stalls out, I will take a closer look at it and make tweaks. I have a LOT to lose (SW weight preMFP was 256 and now I'm around 230 with a GW of 150 and I'm 5'6"). Right now my focus is getting the most bang for my 1250 calories every day, making weighing and measuring my food a habit, and walking. I figure at some point I will have to adjust, but for the moment what I am doing is working--it's not too hard and easy enough to manage while seeing results. For me, getting stuck in the minutia becomes paralyzing and then I do NOTHING rather than SOMETHING.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I like bone-in meat, so weigh it cooked a lot. I think it doesn't make that much of a difference. The important thing is to choose the right entry -- cooked (and the right method) vs. raw.

    I much prefer weighing pasta or rice dry, so would do what amyrebeccah mentioned -- make a certain number of servings, weight the whole when finished and portion out the serving I want. (For example, if a serving is 56 g dry I'd cook 124 g and then take .25 of whatever the final weight is. I'd write the cooked weight of my serving down in case there are leftovers, too.) Writing this makes it sound complicated, but it's not.
  • OhMsDiva
    OhMsDiva Posts: 1,073 Member
    rhauser44 wrote: »
    I weigh chicken breasts after cooking. For thing that will absorb water or liquids during cooking (oatmeal) I weigh the dry ingredients before cooking.

    That part
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    meidoj wrote: »
    Hi friends,
    Just wondering if you weigh your food before or after cooking? Tonight I had grilled chicken and out of interest weighed it before and after. It was around 190g before cooking and around 115g after. Till now I have been weighing before but maybe that means I'm not eating enough... or if I start weighing after, will I end up eating too much?
    Thanks in advance for your help and thoughts on the matter, and keep going everyone! You've made it this far! ♡

    It doesn't really matter....just use the correct entry from the database...if you're weighing it cooked, you want to select cooked in the database, etc.
  • MPD6944
    MPD6944 Posts: 75 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    MPD6944 wrote: »
    Oops I always thought with pasta if it is 2 oz dry then it would be 4 oz cooked for around 200 calories. So it is still only 2 oz cooked for 200?

    You're not too far off with your 4oz cooked, if anything you're overestimating a bit. For most of the pasta I use, 56g dry is about 130g cooked.

    Rice is all over the place though!

    Whew! Good to know, thanks!! I was so worried I went way over in my carbs LOL
  • johnnylakis
    johnnylakis Posts: 812 Member
    meidoj wrote: »
    Hi friends,
    Just wondering if you weigh your food before or after cooking? Tonight I had grilled chicken and out of interest weighed it before and after. It was around 190g before cooking and around 115g after. Till now I have been weighing before but maybe that means I'm not eating enough... or if I start weighing after, will I end up eating too much?
    Thanks in advance for your help and thoughts on the matter, and keep going everyone! You've made it this far! ♡

    Always weigh before cooking

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