A question that has been bothering me for a while...

Options
diogomello12
diogomello12 Posts: 33 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hello guys,
Hope you had a great week.
This might actually be one of the most ignorant questions, but I need to be clarified just so I'll be able to insert the correct amounts on my diary.

So, I bought this high protein porridge that I made. It's a 70g package and, just like on every package, the nutrition facts were on the backside. It always gives you the amount per 100g, and some of them, per serving/portion.

The instructions say "pour 150ml hot water on the porridge", which, in total, makes it 220g.

The nutrition table shows per 100g and per 220g. But here's the question: Am I eating 70g of the package, or am I eating a portion of 220g if I add 150ml of water? Because in reality what I'm eating (nutrient-wise) is 70g plus 150ml of water (which has no nutrition). So in my diary should I insert the nutrition for the whole portion (220g), or for the 70g? Can anyone tell me how this works, because I'm not getting how a portion is 220g but I'm only getting 70g of nutrients, when the package clearly shows the nutrition for a whole 220g.

Same as anything that you cook, like lentils, etc. Whenever they're boiled the grow in size and weight and I never know if what I should put on my diary were the grams of uncooked lentils, or cooked ones.

Also today I had an instant noodles package that had 60g, cooked it was 227g. I don't know if I should put in the package the nutrition that was in the package (for the whole serving) or if I consider I had 227g in comparison to what 100g are, because the values will be different.

I'm sorry for the long text and if I confused you. Anyways, have a nice weekend everyone!

Replies

  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    edited July 2019
    Options
    the package should indicate if it's raw/dry or "prepared as directed". is the info you list ON the package? or in a MFP entry? What brand? maybe if we see the info online we can better help.

    I tend to weight dry/raw. select a raw/dry entry in MFP (double checking online). Because post cooking weight will depend how much water was added/removed. increase in weight due to water doesn't impact calories (but if I were cooking with say milk i'd add those calories)
  • diogomello12
    diogomello12 Posts: 33 Member
    edited July 2019
    Options
    Thank you for your reply Panini911.
    Actually it is going to be very difficult to answer you what's in the backside of the package besides the nutrition facts that I got. And the reason is that I'm currently living in Sofia, Bulgaria, and since they use the Cyrillic alphabet I still don't know how to read most things properly! :D:D

    It's a struggle every time I go shopping really! :D


    P.S. Every entry I put on my diary is only based on the package.

  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    Options
    ok gotcha
    i'd confirm by reading package/website if it was cals per dry gram. worse case you can contact company. then i'd calculate per gram and multiple by the 70grams weighed and eaten.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
    Options
    Panini911 wrote: »
    the package should indicate if it's raw/dry or "prepared as directed". is the info you list ON the package? or in a MFP entry? What brand? maybe if we see the info online we can better help.

    I tend to weight dry/raw. select a raw/dry entry in MFP (double checking online). Because post cooking weight will depend how much water was added/removed. increase in weight due to water doesn't impact calories (but if I were cooking with say milk i'd add those calories)

    Just to add to this, if the package doesn't specify, then the info is for the product as is.

    If for some reason you need to weigh an item after it's cooked, and the package info is for raw, you can sometimes find USDA entries for whole foods that have been cooked, like "chicken, baked" or something like that.
  • diogomello12
    diogomello12 Posts: 33 Member
    Options
    Thank you for your answers!
    Since I don't have much information because of what I said above, I will then assume that for instant preparation packages I should put the nutrients as is on the package, and for raw beans, rice, etc, we should weight it after we've cooked it!

    Hopefully I will not lose nor win much accuracy on my diary :)

    Thanks
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    Options
    i weight raw. before cooking...
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,960 Member
    Options
    diogomello12 wrote: »
    Thank you for your answers!
    Since I don't have much information because of what I said above, I will then assume that for instant preparation packages I should put the nutrients as is on the package, and for raw beans, rice, etc, we should weight it after we've cooked it!

    Hopefully I will not lose nor win much accuracy on my diary :)

    Thanks

    I weigh beans and rice and pasta and hot cereal raw.

    If I make a big batch of (say) beans, then I'll weigh the entire batch when cooked and divide it by the number of raw servings. So 140g of dry beans (four dry servings) will become 330-350g of cooked beans (about 85g per serving cooked.)

    I would log each 85ish grams of cooked beans as one serving.

Categories