Eggs...

bwhitty67
bwhitty67 Posts: 162 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm working on weighing and measuring everything..so for instance right now I'm boiling eggs, before boiling one weighed in at 67g w/ the shell. So for a hard boiled egg I would weigh this as cooked right w/o the shell? But if I were to scramble eggs that egg weight would be raw before cooked?

Thanks in advance... :)

Replies

  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,839 Member
    If you are in the US and using grocery store eggs, the numbers given for raw eggs of the size you are using are probably close enough. The standard reference number for a large egg (50g) raw is 73 calories and for a hard boiled 78 calories. The USDA standard for a large egg is greater than 2 oz. (56.7g) and less than 2.25 oz. (63.8g) including the shell. The numbers and weights for the nutritional values are based on the edible portion of the item so, in the case of eggs, without the shells. A large egg without the shell weight about 50g.

    Since your egg weighed 67g, your best guess is to use the numbers in the USDA's database for an extra large egg.

    What we refer to as a calorie is actually a kilocalorie (1000 calories). A kilocalorie is the amount of energy needed to raise a liter of water 1 degree centigrade at sea level. There are two ways scientists use to determine the calories in a food. First is a using "bomb calorimeter" in which food is burned and heats a vessel of water. The change in temperature of the water then is used to determine calories. The second, more recent method (the Atwater system), is to chemically analyze the content of the food as to its different fats, carbohydrates, organic acids, etc. and then using a set of constants, multiply these and determine a number of kilocalories of nutritionally available energy.

    All of what results is a best guess of what the average food of that type contains in terms of calories. Individual eggs vary not only in weight but in thickness of shell, size of yolk, viscosity of whites, etc. The weight will naturally go down during the evaporation process in a frost-free fridge but this won't diminish the associated calories since what is lost is just water. Calories per gram is almost always approximation.

    You may now want to throw up your hands and say, "Why do I bother to weigh my food?" Well, because we are working with our best guesses rather than random assumptions that my bowl of cereal is really only one serving.

    For some foods, the process of cooking makes the energy in the foods more easily available nutritionally but the process of cooking may degrade other nutrients. Using the raw numbers is usually close enough.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
    RodaRose wrote: »
    There is no way I am weighing my eggs. :smile:

    I eat between 10 and 15 eggs a day, there is no way that I would weigh them either. Pick the USDA entry and be done with it.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    I do not weigh eggs either. There's something like a 6-7 gram difference in egg weight between the USDA egg sizes. Considering that calorie estimates have wiggle room on both sides (not only on the underestimated side, which people tend to forget or overlook) that is well within my comfort zone for margin of error.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I don't bother weighing eggs either. It averages out, plus how do you know if your extra 2g are from yolk or white anyway? That makes a difference... ie, not worth the trouble IMO.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    I don't bother weighing eggs either. It averages out, plus how do you know if your extra 2g are from yolk or white anyway? That makes a difference... ie, not worth the trouble IMO.

    Those double yolk eggs are always fun.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Gallowmere1984 wrote: »
    Francl27 wrote: »
    I don't bother weighing eggs either. It averages out, plus how do you know if your extra 2g are from yolk or white anyway? That makes a difference... ie, not worth the trouble IMO.

    Those double yolk eggs are always fun.

    I've only seen one of those in 3 years!
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    Gallowmere1984 wrote: »
    Francl27 wrote: »
    I don't bother weighing eggs either. It averages out, plus how do you know if your extra 2g are from yolk or white anyway? That makes a difference... ie, not worth the trouble IMO.

    Those double yolk eggs are always fun.

    I've only seen one of those in 3 years!

    They are rare in store bought eggs, I think. But I get 2-3 per week from my chickens. I have no idea why.
  • bwhitty67
    bwhitty67 Posts: 162 Member
    Thanks, honestly for the replies. I usually just chose what MFP has already but had been reading other discussions about weighing foods and that was what prompted my question. :)
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    bwhitty67 wrote: »
    Thanks, honestly for the replies. I usually just chose what MFP has already but had been reading other discussions about weighing foods and that was what prompted my question. :)

    It's a fair question. I usually weigh everything so I get it... but I never weighed cooked eggs. Only raw when it was convenient (so scrambled, pretty much).
  • ValerieMartini2Olives
    ValerieMartini2Olives Posts: 3,024 Member
    I would never weigh an egg
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    If you use store-bought eggs, they are quite regular in size, so you are safe using the size designation.

    If you use farm eggs that vary a lot more in size (like mine do), it's easy enough to estimate and the calories aren't going to be that off. Since I usually make omelets and so break the eggs into a bowl I do weigh, however, as it's just as easy. There should be USDA entries that specify raw, hard-boiled, etc. (You weigh without the shell.)
  • richln
    richln Posts: 809 Member
    Eggs are one of the rare things I never weigh either. Gotta have faith in the law of averages sometimes.
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
    I weigh them. I usually tare the scale with whole eggs on it then weigh the empty shells (which would work for your hard boiled eggs, too), but they pretty much average out to 50g each.

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