Weighing food

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jbarrow0005
jbarrow0005 Posts: 1 Member
edited August 2020 in Food and Nutrition
When weighing out foods, particularly chicken breast and high-fiber foods, how are we supposed to do it?

I have been putting my weight in chicken by ounces and figuring up 25% less due to cooking. So if I input 5.0 ounces of great value chicken breast, then I actually put 3.75 ounces on my plate. Is this correct?

Also, for high fiber foods, like green peppers/bell peppers, do I subtract the fiber from the total carbs to give me net carbs and count that toward my macros?

Please help.

I’m attempting to hit certain grams of Protein carbs and fat throughout the day and fall in a caloric deficit, so to do that I need to be pretty precise in my measurements.

I’m using frozen chicken breast that i cook from frozen in bulk. Then I play with the amount in weight of my foods, per meal, to get the totals that I need. With that in mind, how do I log the chicken and the high fiber carbs?

Replies

  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,754 Member
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    I weigh chicken raw and use that number found in the database. And subtract the fiber from carbs to get net carbs. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,141 Member
    edited August 2020
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    First of all, a calorie deficit is what you need to lose weight. How you divide your macros is just a matter of preference (or sometimes medical reasons, for example diabetes). So the number you should be focused on is how many calories you're eating.

    Secondly, for your frozen chicken: is it raw chicken you freeze yourself, or is it bought frozen?
    If you freeze it yourself, you simply log the raw weight it was before freezing it (perhaps write the weight on the bag or something) and use a raw chicken entry in the food database.
    If it's store-bought, use the nutritional values on the package (paying attention to what these values apply to: the frozen weight or not).
    Knowing what the total weight was before cooking and then afterwards, you can just weigh the portion you eat and calculate the original raw weight from that.
    For example, you buy 500gr raw chicken breast, freeze it and then cook it a few weeks later. Your cooked chicken weighs 350gr now (random number). And you eat 175gr (saving 175gr for the next meal). Which means you've eaten half of the chicken, equaling 250gr of raw chicken breast, which is what you should log.

    As for fiber rich foods: I really wouldn't bother with such details as subtracting fiber. Just log it normally and look at the macro percentages MFP calculates for you. As I said, your calorie deficit is what matters, whether you count 10gr of carbs or 6 for your bell pepper is not going to impact that.
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
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    Different people will answer differently depending on how much accuracy they need to meet their goals. There's no "one right way." Here's what I do:

    1) I weigh raw when possible. That's especially true for meats and grains but also true for vegetables. The cooked weight has tons of variables influencing how much moisture (weight) is retained in cooking. Even one food cooked one way, e.g. chicken breasts on the grill, is going to have a wide range of % moisture loss in cooking depending on how long you left it on grill, how hot it was, how thick the meat was, etc. Like others above, if I don't have the raw weight, I weigh cooked and select a database entry that accurately describes how it was cooked. If it's a packaged food, like frozen chicken, use the package label weight. For frozen meat, it should specify frozen or thawed, but it's more likely to be frozen. For grains, the label usually specifies dry weight but sometimes also provides "as prepared." Sometimes weighing cooked is the best one can do.

    2) I have minimum goals for fiber, fat and protein (in grams, not percent of total calories). I eat 30-40g fiber daily, and I don't worry about net carbs or carbs at all.

    My general philosophy is to simplify and to make it as easy as possible on yourself while still meeting your goals. Hope you figure out an easy method that works for you.
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    edited August 2020
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    I weigh meat raw and log the raw weight. If cooking multiple pieces, I mark mine such as cutting a shallow x in it so I know which is the piece I weighed. Or I cook in a separate skillet. Or as someone mentioned, weigh raw then cooked. Then weigh my cooked portion and figure out my % of the original.

    For food in general I use entries which have the full nutrient info entered. I don't worry about net carbs.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
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    Even chicken fat renders out at about 9 calories per gram. When I roast a chicken the pan is covered in fat. Bacon and untrimmed pork even more so. That is why meat should be weighed cooked, unless, of course, one is drinking the fat from the pan.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,141 Member
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    Perhaps for fatty meat (and only if you don't use the rendered fat and juices in your dish), but for meat like chicken filets it's not the same issue.

    Even for your roast whole chicken, most fat will come from the skin, not the meat itself. But that's the only case where I log the meat using a cooked entry, since knowing/logging the raw weight is impossible and I eat the skin too.
  • RockingWithLJ
    RockingWithLJ Posts: 243 Member
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    Weigh raw, dont subtract for net carbs. There's no need
  • vaman
    vaman Posts: 253 Member
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    wilson10102018 wrote: »
    Even chicken fat renders out at about 9 calories per gram. When I roast a chicken the pan is covered in fat. Bacon and untrimmed pork even more so. That is why meat should be weighed cooked, unless, of course, one is drinking the fat from the pan.

    I totally agree.

  • gallicinvasion
    gallicinvasion Posts: 1,015 Member
    edited August 2020
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    I am in the weigh-raw camp. Then I divide whatever I’ve cooked into equal servings. For example, let’s say I’m roasting chicken thighs. I weigh raw (let’s say 1 lbs). I cook it. I weigh the whole thing after cooking, and serve myself exactly a 1/4 of the total (Usually for chicken thighs I’ll chop everything up after cooking, so it’s easy to serve myself an exact 1/4 of the whole thing) .

    Then I log a 1/4 of the original raw weight in MFP, using a “chicken thighs, boneless skinless raw” entry. (Raw weight was 1 lb, I’m eating a 1/4 of all that chicken that weighed 1 lb when raw, so I’ll log a 1/4 of raw chicken).

    Basically, getting a cooked weight is only helpful for dividing out the portion I’m eating. Once I know the fraction of the whole dish that I’m eating, I’ll use that fraction when logging the raw weight.

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