Measure food before or after it's cooked?

Behxo
Behxo Posts: 1,190 Member
edited November 19 in Health and Weight Loss
So I bought myself a food scale that I'm really starting to love, but yesterday I measured a sweet potato (170g raw) and then out of curiosity, I measured it again after being baked in the microwave and it ended up weighing less. (122g cooked, if I remember correctly on both measurements)

Tonight I am making ground turkey patties, baked sweet potato and steamed broccoli/cauliflower. Now my question is, do I measure the ground turkey & sweet potato raw or should I measure it after it is cooked? Which is more accurate?

Replies

  • SeikoMonster
    SeikoMonster Posts: 105 Member
    Before. Some of the food in the database do have after cooked weights, and are labeled as such but if you are reading the label on the package of food, it is before cooked weight. The foods you cook lose a bunch of water weight while cooking but none of the calories.

    Some foods are easy to calculate, like grilled chicken,it looses 23-25% of weight while grilling. So I just measure after and do the math so I am not having to play with raw chicken.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Nutritional labels are for raw/dry weight unless otherwise specified. More importantly though, choose the entry from the database that corresponds to how you weighed it...if you weighed something cooked, choose the entry that says "cooked"
  • Old_Cat_Lady
    Old_Cat_Lady Posts: 1,193 Member
    edited June 2017
    Frozen chicken is the one that bothers me. The inject so much sodium water into it. It comes out in the pan. Ex: 7.6 oz before slapping it on that teflon pan. 5 oz after.
    I wish I could log the after weight.
    Nothing on the label about weight before after cooking.
  • Behxo
    Behxo Posts: 1,190 Member
    okay, I'll continue measuring it raw. Thank you!
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,590 Member
    I look for entries that say "cooked" unless it is a food that I eat raw, like lettuce.
  • ammadien
    ammadien Posts: 74 Member
    Which ever is easier for you, keep it consistent, adjust as needed. It's not perfect, don't expect it to be.
This discussion has been closed.

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