Weighing food

As noted above, I will record my veggies as either raw (look for the USDA entries in grams) or with a specific cooking style: roasted, sauteed, steamed, etc. It's easier if you cook your own veggies, as you have the control over the amount of olive oil used or whatnot, and can get more accurate measures. For meats, you can also go with the USDA listing (or if you order in a restaurant, you should record the steak as 4 z, 8 oz, or whatever, even though it will be lighter when it gets to you.

That raises an interesting question though--I just follow the package for bacon, but is that inclusive of fat, or does that assume the fat has been drained off and not consumed?

Second, do your own research, and check packages and restaurant sites. Veggies cooked in restaurants are extremely deceptive, and they like to slather them in all kinds of butter and such, so if you look at their posted nutrition, rather than being 35 calories for a serving of broccoli, it will be 200 or 300 calories. Whaaat?!

In addition to being thorough in your research, it is best to build your own recipes in the recipe builder. That way you can start with definitively known USDA amounts for many items, rather than trying to guess with all the crazy entries in the database, including generic and homemade. I sometimes have to take a stab and rely on the craziness, in which case I will pick something that has a specific weight, and is at the higher end of the "middle of the road" calculations. There's still a ton of room for mischief there, and it is definitely an art form.

sasaar wrote: »

Hi! Just got a food scale and have some questions. Hope someone can help:

Do you weigh food raw or cooked? Hot or cold? Does this make a difference?

With salmon or chicken, is the 5 oz rec for the cooked weight?

As far as veggies so, I assume a cup of raw cauliflower would weigh more than baked. Would cool baked cauliflower weigh differently than baked cauliflower warned up?

Lastly...what's the best way to log food when there are SO many different options with such a variety of nutritional info for the same exact foods/servings?

Thank you in advance for your help...

I had this question a while back and it was answered here on the forums. BUT, what I've learned is this (just like quickeysilver was saying):
I have frozen chickens in the freezer, I'm not going to thaw them out, weigh them raw and then cook them. I will throw them in the oven or on the stove, cook them, and then weight the cooked weight. I recommend weighing in grams over anything else because it's the most accurate. But, say I weigh my chicken and it is 160 grams. You must search for (for instance), boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked. 160 grams of cooked chicken will be more calories than 160 calories of raw chicken so you want to make sure you're accurate. If I'm concerned with something not being right on MFP, I will google it and hope that the usda has the right information. If you are cooking rice, I recommend weighing the uncooked part and searching for rice, uncooked and put in the weight. 1/4cup of uncooked rice will have more calories than 1/4 cup of cooked rice but again, weigh in grams instead of measuring in cups. I was just using that as an example. For popcorn that I make at home, I weigh the popcorn kernels and not the cooked popcorn. Also, be sure to look at the back of the label. For example, my Jenni-O turkey sausage states that it's 110 calories for 56 grams of COOKED sausage. So, I recommend to cook it first then weigh it. BUT, a lot of meats state raw on the labeling. All labeling is different so it's important to read all the fine print. And, it gets easier the more and more you do it. Good Luck!

If the label doesn't specify, it's the state it comes in. Otherwise, for generic stuff, just use the correct 'raw' or 'cooked' entry.

daniip_la wrote: »

Hot things don't weigh more or less than cold things, but putting things that are too hot on your balance may damage it.

Actually that's not entirely true. The process of cooking things removes water, and they will weigh less.

CaptainJoy wrote: »

No, don't worry about it becoming an obsession. While you are losing you must be somewhat obsessive about it or you'll make too many mistakes, get frustrated, not see progress, and lose motivation. Sometimes you'll have to estimate and that's okay. I still build my sandwiches and weigh or measure most of my homemade meals and I'm on maintenance. I'm also comfortable estimating calories on social occasions. I've lost 104 pounds doing this and I don't want to gain them back. It's really easy now to keep track of what I eat and what I burn. It's totally worth it!

Agreed. Maintenance for almost six months now and I use my scale constantly. We have almost entered all of our go-to recipes in MFP now (my wife and I) using our scale to measure the ingredients. So when we eat dinner we pass the thing back and forth to each other to weigh our portions lol. Kids look at us like we're bonkers some days but hey, it works. It amazes me how much things weigh sometimes and how grossly inaccurate any estimation by size/volume would be.

Mavrick_RN wrote: »

Hot things do NOT weigh more or less than cold things. If you have added water to prepare the food or removed water by cooking it that is much different than adding only heat to a food.

Are you thinking Sous Vide? If you have another example please share. I'm honestly curious. Even Sous Vide would lose moisture once it comes out of the baggie unless of course you count the drippings contained in the baggie or allow it to cool to a temperature that would not lose moisture by steam before removing it from the bag, even then I wouldn't be convinced it was the exact same weight. Keep in mind I'm talking strictly about food that comes in a raw state and is cooked in some fashion. Just for clarification.

Spliner1969 wrote: »

Actually that's not entirely true. The process of cooking things removes water, and they will weigh less.

Aaron_K123 wrote: »

Practically speaking it is the loss of moisture leading to the weight change, not the temperature.

Agreed, it's the loss of moisture that's the end result.

sasaar wrote: »

Another q to throw at y'all ...
Anyone nervous about being TOO obsessed with the food scale? I'm on day 1 of using mine and can already feel the obsession coming on...

Not at all. After awhile you'll get much more adept at eyeballing portions and realizing which things you really don't need to weigh. Most veggies have very few calories and being spot on for a 10 calorie difference isn't really worth the effort of weighing, IMHO. You'll also get a feel for which packaged foods are better or worse at actually being the serving size on the package.

I weight raw. Only cause chicken n meat Ext all shrink a lil once it's cooked. So if your going to be completely on point with your diet and macros then weight it raw. Food volume is a lot less once it's cooked. If your weighting cooked I don't believe it's going to be accurate reading according to macro reading.

SezxyStef wrote: »

daniip_la wrote: »

Hot things don't weigh more or less than cold things, but putting things that are too hot on your balance may damage it.

actually they do...I've tested it.

having hot items on a scale is not a big deal as it is usually on a plate as well.

Spliner1969 wrote: »

daniip_la wrote: »

Hot things don't weigh more or less than cold things, but putting things that are too hot on your balance may damage it.

Actually that's not entirely true. The process of cooking things removes water, and they will weigh less.

Not sure where my comment on "weighing hot vs cold" got translated into "weighing cooked vs raw". If you have two foods, prepared exactly the same and having the same starting mass, and you weigh one that's been in the refrigerator (cold) and the other that's been sitting out (hot), they will have the same mass.

Temperature doesn't affect mass (at a noticeable level), unless you're causing water to leave, which is the cooked vs raw part, which is not what I was referencing.

If you want to get down to the atomic level, then yes, there is a mass change upon heating. But your kitchen balance isn't going to pick up on that.

if you cook veggies or meat, you will cook out some of the water and with meat some of the fat. since there's no way to know just how much water (or fat) you're cooking out, and it will be different each time, best to always weigh and log the raw food.

daniip_la wrote: »

SezxyStef wrote: »

daniip_la wrote: »

Hot things don't weigh more or less than cold things, but putting things that are too hot on your balance may damage it.

actually they do...I've tested it.

having hot items on a scale is not a big deal as it is usually on a plate as well.

Spliner1969 wrote: »

daniip_la wrote: »

Hot things don't weigh more or less than cold things, but putting things that are too hot on your balance may damage it.

Actually that's not entirely true. The process of cooking things removes water, and they will weigh less.

Not sure where my comment on "weighing hot vs cold" got translated into "weighing cooked vs raw". If you have two foods, prepared exactly the same and having the same starting mass, and you weigh one that's been in the refrigerator (cold) and the other that's been sitting out (hot), they will have the same mass.

Temperature doesn't affect mass (at a noticeable level), unless you're causing water to leave, which is the cooked vs raw part, which is not what I was referencing.

If you want to get down to the atomic level, then yes, there is a mass change upon heating. But your kitchen balance isn't going to pick up on that.

I didn't translate it that way but I can tell you I have put a cold cooked pork chop on my scale and it weighed 136 grams...warm it up in the microwave and it comes out weighing 130 grams...that is a difference in temp right there...more water evaporating...not sure...fat dissolving who knows...what I know personally is cold meat weighs more than warm meat...cold potatoes weigh more than hot potatoes.