Weighing Food - Raw or Cooked?

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Baxie23
Baxie23 Posts: 34 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Should I be weighing meat when it's raw or after I've cooked it? Typically I weigh it raw but last week I pre-cooked a bunch of chicken and then weighed it cooked right before I was reheating it for dinner. Raw they looked to be 8-9oz but cooked they came out to 5oz.
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Replies

  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    Raw
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    Raw is more accurate, but if you want or need to weigh it after cooking that's fine as long as you find an appropriate and accurate entry in the database that specifies it's for the cooked weight.
  • Baxie23
    Baxie23 Posts: 34 Member
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    Great - thanks!
  • vespiquenn
    vespiquenn Posts: 1,455 Member
    edited November 2016
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    diannethegeek wrote: »
    Raw is more accurate, but if you want or need to weigh it after cooking that's fine as long as you find an appropriate and accurate entry in the database that specifies it's for the cooked weight.

    This. If you're in a situation like that, just make sure to pick a cooked entry. I believe the USDA has a cooked chicken entry as well.
  • Intentional_Me
    Intentional_Me Posts: 336 Member
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    When you realize you've been doing it all wrong. :o

    Oh well, I know now and have been losing fine.
  • tenwolves13
    tenwolves13 Posts: 5 Member
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    I was taught to weigh raw. In many ways when you weigh after cooked the food has lost water and possibly some fat depending on how you cook it.
  • FernRunner
    FernRunner Posts: 79 Member
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    Intentional_Me wrote: »
    When you realize you've been doing it all wrong. :o

    Oh well, I know now and have been losing fine.

    I had the same thought. Thankfully we still have time to change
  • ericwhitt
    ericwhitt Posts: 87 Member
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    There's a few things I weigh cooked, like Bacon for example. You just gotta make sure you find entries that are for the method you're using.
  • Ming1951
    Ming1951 Posts: 514 Member
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    :( I've always weighed my food cook, so I've been doing it wrong forever.
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,108 Member
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    I weigh proteins raw and everything else cooked. I guess I have been doing it wrong too. The main things I measure cooked are pasta, potatoes, and rice.
  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
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    So you weigh a piece of meat before cooking, then it loses a considerable amount of fat during cooking. Next time you do the same thing, the meat isn't quite as fatty and it doesn't lose as much fat. Same starting weight, different number of calories post cooking -- but both recorded with the same number of calories because they were weighed when raw.

    How then is weighing raw more accurate? I think a lot of people make themselves crazy here worrying over the small stuff. Given the fact that your kitchen and bathroom scales are not laboratory grade and the values on labels and in databases like MFP have inaccuracies in them, claiming that weighing one way is "wrong" and another is "right" frankly seems to me a bit silly.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    vingogly wrote: »
    So you weigh a piece of meat before cooking, then it loses a considerable amount of fat during cooking. Next time you do the same thing, the meat isn't quite as fatty and it doesn't lose as much fat. Same starting weight, different number of calories post cooking -- but both recorded with the same number of calories because they were weighed when raw.

    How then is weighing raw more accurate? I think a lot of people make themselves crazy here worrying over the small stuff. Given the fact that your kitchen and bathroom scales are not laboratory grade and the values on labels and in databases like MFP have inaccuracies in them, claiming that weighing one way is "wrong" and another is "right" frankly seems to me a bit silly.

    Because cooking is the variable and can decrease the fat, increase the water, etc depending on the method used. Boiling a chicken breast will yield a much different cooked weight than grilling one.
  • mattdhall
    mattdhall Posts: 85 Member
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    Boiled chicken? Is that really a thing?
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    mattdhall wrote: »
    Boiled chicken? Is that really a thing?

    It definitely is a thing.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    edited November 2016
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    diannethegeek wrote: »
    Raw is more accurate, but if you want or need to weigh it after cooking that's fine as long as you find an appropriate and accurate entry in the database that specifies it's for the cooked weight.

    I don't know that raw is more accurate. Maybe more conservative. Most food is going to lose some fat when you cook it. On very lean items like fish, weighing raw probably is more accurate since you are mainly cooking off some water weight. Fatty foods like bacon or beef are definitely more accurate cooked. Poultry is probably a wash.

    I don't eat my food raw, so I measure it cooked. The main thing is to make sure you log it as a cooked entry using the specific cooking method (or raw if you measure it raw).
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    mattdhall wrote: »
    Boiled chicken? Is that really a thing?

    Yes...a very disgusting thing.
  • Ming1951
    Ming1951 Posts: 514 Member
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    I think I won't worry about it and will continue to weigh cooked, its still considerably less than what I ate previously and as long as the scale # keeps going down I'm good.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    Ming1951 wrote: »
    :( I've always weighed my food cook, so I've been doing it wrong forever.

    It's not necessarily "wrong"...it is slightly less accurate, but if you're choosing the "cooked" entry from the data base and provided that it's not an erroneous entry, it will be good enough.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    mattdhall wrote: »
    Boiled chicken? Is that really a thing?

    Yes...a very disgusting thing.

    I used it as an example for my point but would never actually eat it (again).
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    trigden1991 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    mattdhall wrote: »
    Boiled chicken? Is that really a thing?

    Yes...a very disgusting thing.

    I used it as an example for my point but would never actually eat it (again).

    I have a buddy who eats it frequently...but he's more of a "this is just fuel" kind of guy and I don't think he actually takes any enjoyment out of eating whatsoever...he'd be happy if he could just be fed intravenously I think.

    I've seen him eating that and I just shake my head...it looks so disgusting all pale and gray and whatnot...the only time my chicken gets boiled is when it's in my soup or stew...and even then, I brown it first.

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