Log protein portions before or after cooking?

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tiptoppy
tiptoppy Posts: 9 Member
in Food and Nutrition
When logging oz of chicken, salmon, beef, etc, is it more accurate to weigh it when it’s raw or after cooking? Sometimes a 5 oz raw chicken breast is half the size after cooking!

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  • kimjschroeder
    kimjschroeder Posts: 35 Member
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    I weigh it raw.
  • sympha01
    sympha01 Posts: 942 Member
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    If you really want to be accurate, weigh raw.

    BUT

    What's more important is that you use the database entry that MATCHES how you weighed it. There are separate database entries for raw and cooked meat. If you weigh raw but use a cooked entry, you'll overlog calories and protein. If you weigh cooked but enter a raw entry, you'll UNDERlog calories and protein.

    The only reason raw is more accurate is that different people will cook more or less moisture out of the meat depending on their preference. The database entries are average but ... average isn't accurate for most people.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    tiptoppy wrote: »
    When logging oz of chicken, salmon, beef, etc, is it more accurate to weigh it when it’s raw or after cooking? Sometimes a 5 oz raw chicken breast is half the size after cooking!

    weigh it raw, log it raw, weigh it cooked, log it cooked.
  • Rincewind_1965
    Rincewind_1965 Posts: 639 Member
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    crazyravr wrote: »
    Log everything raw and uncooked. Everything.

    ^^This^^
  • Westbury84
    Westbury84 Posts: 13 Member
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    AFTER you cook it. You are weighing what you are consuming not the addititional additives. Many meat producers add liquids to meat to charge nigher prices as a result federal regulations had to be put in place to limit the practice. If you weigh b4 cooking you will not have accurate measurements
  • RachsLosses
    RachsLosses Posts: 103 Member
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    Before! I only realised this while tired, I weighed out some squash then put it in the oven, forgot how much I had portioned and had to weigh again, it was so different that I had to just guess. Oops!
  • zeldon919
    zeldon919 Posts: 118 Member
    edited November 2017
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    If I'm adding it to a recipe I weight it raw.

    If I'm eating basically as is (hamburgers, baked chicken breast) I weigh it cooked.
  • Lean59man
    Lean59man Posts: 714 Member
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    Chicken has a lot of liquid that comes out while cooking which contains fat and water.

    Seems more logical to weigh it after cooking and then weigh the bones after eating. Record the difference as the weight of the meat.
  • pmm3437
    pmm3437 Posts: 529 Member
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    TavistockToad wrote: »
    tiptoppy wrote: »
    When logging oz of chicken, salmon, beef, etc, is it more accurate to weigh it when it’s raw or after cooking? Sometimes a 5 oz raw chicken breast is half the size after cooking!

    weigh it raw, log it raw, weigh it cooked, log it cooked.

    This. If you buy fattier cuts and tend to strain/drain the juices, cooked is probably more accurate. Leaner cuts, or using the fat/other juices with the protein, I prefer to weigh and log raw.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
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    how is cooked more accurate?
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    Detritus_1965 wrote: »
    crazyravr wrote: »
    Log everything raw and uncooked. Everything.

    ^^This^^

    no not that.

    If you weigh it cooked log it cooked...the way it was cooked. Double check with USDA.
    If you weigh it raw log it raw

    I can't weigh raw...I don't cook for 1.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    deannalfisher wrote: »
    how is cooked more accurate?

    it's not...it's all in how you log it.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    tiptoppy wrote: »
    When logging oz of chicken, salmon, beef, etc, is it more accurate to weigh it when it’s raw or after cooking? Sometimes a 5 oz raw chicken breast is half the size after cooking!

    If you weight it raw, select a raw entry from the database. If you weigh it cooked, select a cooked entry from the database. They're both fairly accurate so long as you're selecting the right entry from the database.

    So like 4 oz of raw chicken breast contains about 120 calories...you cook it, and it's going to weigh less because it loses water...but it doesn't lose calories...your now 3 oz of cooked chicken breast still has 120 calories.

    I tend to feel that raw weight is more accurate simply for the fact that the nutritional label assumes raw weight...but I've often had to weigh cooked and just used a cooked entry from the database and never had issue.

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