Weighing food

SarahStarr86
SarahStarr86 Posts: 121 Member
edited November 18 in Health and Weight Loss
Good morning! Two questions..

1. When I'm building a recipe and weighing it for "servings" purposes, do I weigh it before I cook it or afterwards? I'm making a taco chili tonight.

2. I think I've been doing this wrong..in general, when logging meat do I weigh my meats before or after I've cooked them. Like a 4 oz serving is what my Tyson chicken thighs say. Is that raw or cooked? It doesn't say on the package.

Thanks for all help!!

Replies

  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    If I was making a recipe I'd weigh everything raw. Add this in to the recipe builder.
    Weigh your final cooked food - says its 478g, make it 478 serves - when you weigh it out, your number of serves is however many grams you have of the final cooked food.

    I weigh meat raw and use appropriate database entries - chicken breast, skinless, raw (for example). I think weighing raw is more accurate as moisture loss (and final cooked weight) will vary so much on how you cook and for how long.
  • SarahStarr86
    SarahStarr86 Posts: 121 Member
    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    If I was making a recipe I'd weigh everything raw. Add this in to the recipe builder.
    Weigh your final cooked food - says its 478g, make it 478 serves - when you weigh it out, your number of serves is however many grams you have of the final cooked food.

    I weigh meat raw and use appropriate database entries - chicken breast, skinless, raw (for example). I think weighing raw is more accurate as moisture loss (and final cooked weight) will vary so much on how you cook and for how long.


    Thank you so much!! I figured I was weighing my meat wrong and I was! Thank you
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    SarahStarr86 wrote: »
    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    If I was making a recipe I'd weigh everything raw. Add this in to the recipe builder.
    Weigh your final cooked food - says its 478g, make it 478 serves - when you weigh it out, your number of serves is however many grams you have of the final cooked food.

    I weigh meat raw and use appropriate database entries - chicken breast, skinless, raw (for example). I think weighing raw is more accurate as moisture loss (and final cooked weight) will vary so much on how you cook and for how long.


    Thank you so much!! I figured I was weighing my meat wrong and I was! Thank you

    You can weigh meat cooked, there are cooked entries in the database... I just think raw is better :)
  • lioness803
    lioness803 Posts: 325 Member
    Meats you'll want to weigh raw. As for recipes, I personally weigh all raw ingredients, put in the number or servings I plan on getting out of it, and just estimate the portion size I take. (1/8 of a casserole for example: I would put 8 servings, and scoop out what looks to be about and eighth of the dish) Some people weigh the entire dish and then weigh out the portions, and that is MUCH more accurate. If I hit a plateau I know I need to tighten up that aspect of my logging, but I'm finding for now I can steadily lose weight without doing so. If you already have a smaller deficit you may need to already be that meticulous with your logging.
  • SarahStarr86
    SarahStarr86 Posts: 121 Member
    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    SarahStarr86 wrote: »
    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    If I was making a recipe I'd weigh everything raw. Add this in to the recipe builder.
    Weigh your final cooked food - says its 478g, make it 478 serves - when you weigh it out, your number of serves is however many grams you have of the final cooked food.

    I weigh meat raw and use appropriate database entries - chicken breast, skinless, raw (for example). I think weighing raw is more accurate as moisture loss (and final cooked weight) will vary so much on how you cook and for how long.


    Thank you so much!! I figured I was weighing my meat wrong and I was! Thank you

    You can weigh meat cooked, there are cooked entries in the database... I just think raw is better :)

    Yeah, when I was logging, I was choosing a raw or cooked option. I was just scanning my Tyson Chicken and logging the 4 oz serving
  • SarahStarr86
    SarahStarr86 Posts: 121 Member
    lioness803 wrote: »
    Meats you'll want to weigh raw. As for recipes, I personally weigh all raw ingredients, put in the number or servings I plan on getting out of it, and just estimate the portion size I take. (1/8 of a casserole for example: I would put 8 servings, and scoop out what looks to be about and eighth of the dish) Some people weigh the entire dish and then weigh out the portions, and that is MUCH more accurate. If I hit a plateau I know I need to tighten up that aspect of my logging, but I'm finding for now I can steadily lose weight without doing so. If you already have a smaller deficit you may need to already be that meticulous with your logging.

    Thanks! Yes, that's how I was doing before. I was kind of eyeballing if my recipes were 8 servings, 6 servings, etc. It has started to nag me that I wasn't being the most accurate, lol. Like when I would eat my dessert later, I would wonder if I really had 100 calories leftover or not, haha. I can be super extra like that. Thank you for you suggestion :)
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    lioness803 wrote: »
    Meats you'll want to weigh raw. As for recipes, I personally weigh all raw ingredients, put in the number or servings I plan on getting out of it, and just estimate the portion size I take. (1/8 of a casserole for example: I would put 8 servings, and scoop out what looks to be about and eighth of the dish) Some people weigh the entire dish and then weigh out the portions, and that is MUCH more accurate. If I hit a plateau I know I need to tighten up that aspect of my logging, but I'm finding for now I can steadily lose weight without doing so. If you already have a smaller deficit you may need to already be that meticulous with your logging.

    it actually doesn't matter when you weigh the food...cooked or uncooked.

    the matter lies in how you log it in your food journal.

    I can't log my meat raw as I cook for multiple people so it doesn't happen....I just log it how I cooked it...bbq, roasted, fried etc.

    As for recipes I weight the entire thing cooked and divide it into portions for example 8 portions @128 grams each...easy.
  • NEMom80
    NEMom80 Posts: 48 Member
    I weigh all of my meats raw unless there is an option for cooked on the package. Last night I had ground chicken as part of my meal but since I was cooking for the family I used the cooked weight option so I could just weigh out my portion after it was cooked.
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