Some weighing questions

jennydelgado09
jennydelgado09 Posts: 119 Member
edited November 21 in Health and Weight Loss
I know meat is suppose to be weighed raw, but what if you're not eating all of that?
Ex. I'm making dinner for my family tonight using 1lb of ground beef. But I'm obviously not eating all that so if I weigh it again after that do I do a fraction of that over the raw meat? Or do I just weigh it when I'm done and with what I'll be eating?

Same thing with pasta. If I'm making noodles for everyone do I weigh it raw or just weigh what I'm actually going to eat when it is done?

And for things like instant mash potatoes or Macoroni. I don't usually follow the instructions. I add a bit milk here and some butter there but I don't go off what the package said. Do I need to start following the package more closely to get a more adequate calorie count? Or just measure everything i do put instead of living carefree? Lol

Replies

  • Old_Cat_Lady
    Old_Cat_Lady Posts: 1,193 Member
    I use the recipe function here. Have you tried it? When serving, I "eyeball it" and put that I ate 1/4 of the entire meal. I weigh everything raw.
    Start measuring milk and butter.
  • Agent_Freckles
    Agent_Freckles Posts: 79 Member
    I weigh meat after it's cooked; you burn off some of the fat and you don't eat that fat. I weigh/measure pasta before it's cooked because it's more accurate that way as well...the after is just filled with water.

    As far as the added milk and butter in the potatoes, just make sure you're adding that into your diary as well.
  • kristen8000
    kristen8000 Posts: 747 Member
    I typically weigh most things cooked. It's too hard for me to weigh it raw, cook it and figure out how much I should be eating of what I cooked. Most things you'll find a calorie entry for cooked or raw. Or you weight it first, and "eye ball" what 1/4 of it is...I use the recipe builder alot for this reason. I enter the ingredients first to figure how much I can reasonably eat.

    Now. The instant mash potatoes/mac & cheese thing...it's easier if you start following the recipe on the box. I found it easier to stop eating things like that. Making them from scratch so I can control the ingredients. Extreme? Probably.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    You can create recipes using the ingredients you used and weight things as you add them. Then weigh the entire batch, set the serving size as one gram in the recipe. When you go to eat some, weigh your portion and enter it into your food diary in number of grams.
  • Old_Cat_Lady
    Old_Cat_Lady Posts: 1,193 Member
    edited September 2017
    Agent_Freckles wrote: »
    I weigh meat after it's cooked; you burn off some of the fat and you don't eat that fat. I weigh/measure pasta before it's cooked because it's more accurate that way as well...the after is just filled with water.

    As far as the added milk and butter in the potatoes, just make sure you're adding that into your diary as well.

    I did not know fat burned off during cooking.
  • jennydelgado09
    jennydelgado09 Posts: 119 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    You can create recipes using the ingredients you used and weight things as you add them. Then weigh the entire batch, set the serving size as one gram in the recipe. When you go to eat some, weigh your portion and enter it into your food diary in number of grams.

    So if I'm making something like spaghetti and I use 16oz I should weigh all of that after its cooked and then weigh my portion? If I weigh raw pasta and then my portion of cooked pasta that won't be accurate right?
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    jennydelgado09 wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    You can create recipes using the ingredients you used and weight things as you add them. Then weigh the entire batch, set the serving size as one gram in the recipe. When you go to eat some, weigh your portion and enter it into your food diary in number of grams.

    So if I'm making something like spaghetti and I use 16oz I should weigh all of that after its cooked and then weigh my portion? If I weigh raw pasta and then my portion of cooked pasta that won't be accurate right?

    Yes.

    For example that 16 oz when cooked may weigh 32 oz, and if you eat 8 oz that would be 1/4 of the total, or 4oz uncooked (16/4)
  • Rebecca0224
    Rebecca0224 Posts: 810 Member
    jennydelgado09 wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    You can create recipes using the ingredients you used and weight things as you add them. Then weigh the entire batch, set the serving size as one gram in the recipe. When you go to eat some, weigh your portion and enter it into your food diary in number of grams.

    So if I'm making something like spaghetti and I use 16oz I should weigh all of that after its cooked and then weigh my portion? If I weigh raw pasta and then my portion of cooked pasta that won't be accurate right?

    I weigh out 8 servings of pasta then weigh again after cooking and divide the weight of the cooked and drained pasta by 8. When I make instant potatoes I use the recipe builder.
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    In addition to all the great suggestions above, don't forget that it's okay not to be exact so long as your weight loss results are roughly as expected! There are lots of forum responses recommending that people get as exact as possible with their calorie counting, but that's generally in response to someone who is not losing at the rate they expected. It will take you some trial and error to figure out the best way to track homemade meals like this, but so long as you watch your rate of loss over time compared to the calories you're logging, you'll figure out which short-cuts work for you and where you need to be precise.
  • Heather4448
    Heather4448 Posts: 908 Member
    The easiest thing I've found is to input everything into recipe builder and then weigh the final product. Whatever the weight is in grams is the number of servings- then you just weigh out your portion when you eat.
  • hydechildcare
    hydechildcare Posts: 142 Member
    I weigh everything raw. I just started using the recipe builder and it has help me a lot with portions of meals.
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