We are pleased to announce that on March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor will be introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the upcoming changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

How to weigh fatty cooked meat with bones?

biancalovecraft88
biancalovecraft88 Posts: 2 Member
edited December 2024 in Food and Nutrition
Hi friends šŸ‘‹
This is driving me crazy!
I usually just have boneless, skinless chicken breast, weighed raw to avoid this... But today I had lamb shoulder cutlets, with bones, broiled in the oven, and:
apparently I just ate like 1200 calories! (worth of meat, when I usually struggle to get enough according to my diary.)
I can live with the shame šŸ¤£
However, the mystery is still bothering me. There's a fair amount of bones in that cut, and it leaves behind an impressive fat puddle, while rendering some pretty small shrivelled up chunks of meat. Kind of like bacon, but not as fun.
I realize I could maybe weigh the fat and bones and subtract it from the total weight, but blech. Seems really messy and obsessive.
Curious how others deal with this before I eat another boiled chicken breast.
Thanks šŸ˜Š

Replies

  • neugebauer52
    neugebauer52 Posts: 1,120 Member
    As a guideline a restaurant kitchen calculates: whole chicken: 35 to 40 % bone mass. Chicken breast: 25 to 30 % bone mass. Pork, beef, mutton: about the same - overall between 25 and 30 %. Specific cuts differ: front legs have a higher bone content, hind legs lower. Whole lamb: a bit higher, about 35 %. If you need a precise calculation: weigh the portion of the bone - in meat before cooking. Cook the meat, eat it. Put the bones / grizzle / sinews etc. on the scale. Voila!
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,887 Member
    edited June 2019
    You don't include the weight of the bones, weigh what's left when you are finished and subtract.

    Use a cooked meat entry.

    It's still going to require some judgments about the fat content, however.

    Here's an entry from the USDA that looks good, you'd want to copy the terms to find it on MFP, and it should have lots of measurement options (although I'd go with 100 g): 17045, Lamb, shoulder, arm, separable lean and fat, trimmed to 1/4" fat, choice, cooked, broiled.

    If your cooked amount less bones was 90 g, then you'd log 0.9 servings of the 100 g serving size you can choose, and it would come to 253. I seriously doubt you ate anywhere near 1200 cals.

    If that entry doesn't look right, search for other "cooked, broiled" lamb options (either at MFP or, better, at the USDA to start).

    Personally, I think boneless, skinless chicken breast is boring and rarely ate it (it's good in some dishes) when losing. I was much more likely to choose bone in chicken and then use the cooked entries. I also ate lamb (including many bone-in cuts) and pork (same), and the cooked entries always made those as easy as boneless.

  • biancalovecraft88
    biancalovecraft88 Posts: 2 Member
    Lemurcat, trust me, I'm very tired of chicken breast! Just trying to be accountable, and it makes it very easy. I've had the same problem estimating chicken thighs with bones. So much fat comes out of them! But I know plenty stays in too, so even if they shrivel up to tiny nuggets, and I'm still hungry, I err on the side of broccoli and go back to the dreaded dry breast the next day šŸ˜…
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,887 Member
    edited June 2019
    For bone-in chicken, use cooked entries. They will be adjusted for rendered fat too.

    Here's one example: 05094, Chicken, broilers or fryers, thigh, meat and skin, cooked, roasted

    From https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/05094?fgcd=&manu=&format=&count=&max=25&offset=&sort=default&order=asc&qlookup=Chicken,+broilers+or+fryers,+thigh,+meat+and+skin,+cooked,+roasted&ds=&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=

    If you use the same words you can find them on MFP.
  • ultra_violets
    ultra_violets Posts: 202 Member
    I eat a lot of chicken thighs and it's tough to calculate the weight. To be honest, I just take my best guess.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,887 Member
    I weigh, I eat, I weigh what's left.
  • Verdenal
    Verdenal Posts: 625 Member
    edited June 2019
    I weigh the portion before cooking and select boneless if that's applicable. The weight of the bones is not that important and while I try to be accurate in measurements, this is not an exact science. The fat, muscle, bone, water, and nutritional content of every piece of meat is going to be slightly different.
  • anewghost
    anewghost Posts: 27 Member
    For chicken thighs/breasts/chops I cut out the bones before cooking and weigh the meat. I put the bones away in a freezer bag for making stock. For something like pork ribs, I weigh the whole piece before and weigh the remaining bones after.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories