Weighing raw vs cooked veggies
aaanonymous
Posts: 1 Member
Do people weigh their veggies raw or after cooking. Does it make a difference?
(For example sweet potato raw vs sweet potato baked in oven with nothing added)
(For example sweet potato raw vs sweet potato baked in oven with nothing added)
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Replies
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Whenever possible I log all foods raw. Trying to do it after the fact just introduces too many variables, from adding oils or seasonings or just differences in cooking times/doneness that affects how much water is cooked out.
Entries in MFP can be a crapshoot anyway, but it seems like "cooked" entries vary more than their raw counterparts, too, at least from what I've seen.6 -
Like everything else (meat, rice, pasta etc) you can do either - you just need to make sure you have a database entry that states raw or cooked.
I’d agree that raw entries are likely to be more accurate, but I know that’s not always easy so you find a “cooked” entry if that’s what you need.6 -
I have a similar problem with frozen veges. Do I weigh them frozen or thawed? I weigh them frozen, but feel cheated.0
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cyaneverfat wrote: »I have a similar problem with frozen veges. Do I weigh them frozen or thawed? I weigh them frozen, but feel cheated.
I weigh them frozen but I’ve also wondered how much the weight would change if I let them defrost in a sieve and weighed them again! Considering few vegetables are massively calorific I don’t think it’ll be a number worth worrying about but I do still knock off any chunks of frost over the sink, before weighing! 😂2 -
BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »cyaneverfat wrote: »I have a similar problem with frozen veges. Do I weigh them frozen or thawed? I weigh them frozen, but feel cheated.
I weigh them frozen but I’ve also wondered how much the weight would change if I let them defrost in a sieve and weighed them again! Considering few vegetables are massively calorific I don’t think it’ll be a number worth worrying about but I do still knock off any chunks of frost over the sink, before weighing! 😂
Same with things like frozen prawns, meat etc0 -
i weigh my veggies raw. unless you boil your vegetables, they lose a lot of weight from water when cooked, which means percentage-wise they become more calorie dense. that's reason that 65 grams of raw cabbage has 20 calories and 65 grams of dehydrated cabbage has 527 calories.5
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cyaneverfat wrote: »BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »cyaneverfat wrote: »I have a similar problem with frozen veges. Do I weigh them frozen or thawed? I weigh them frozen, but feel cheated.
I weigh them frozen but I’ve also wondered how much the weight would change if I let them defrost in a sieve and weighed them again! Considering few vegetables are massively calorific I don’t think it’ll be a number worth worrying about but I do still knock off any chunks of frost over the sink, before weighing! 😂
Same with things like frozen prawns, meat etc
True, and I guess that there are things that the calorie difference would be greater than with vegetables but I’m vegetarian so I don’t worry about meat and prawns etc!
The only way to really work it out is to weigh frozen, let the food defrost in a sieve over a bowl, then weigh again. Theoretically, if you then added that defrosted weight to the weight of any drained water you should come up with the original weight +/- evaporation I guess! You could then work out how many calories the difference in weights amounts to and, depending on the number decide how to proceed in the future.
I think I’ll just weigh frozen and think of any potential tiny difference in calories as a bonus deficit though! 😊2 -
BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »
The only way to really work it out is to weigh frozen, let the food defrost in a sieve over a bowl, then weigh again. Theoretically, if you then added that defrosted weight to the weight of any drained water you should come up with the original weight +/- evaporation I guess! You could then work out how many calories the difference in weights amounts to and, depending on the number decide how to proceed in the future.cyaneverfat wrote: »BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »cyaneverfat wrote: »I have a similar problem with frozen veges. Do I weigh them frozen or thawed? I weigh them frozen, but feel cheated.
I weigh them frozen but I’ve also wondered how much the weight would change if I let them defrost in a sieve and weighed them again! Considering few vegetables are massively calorific I don’t think it’ll be a number worth worrying about but I do still knock off any chunks of frost over the sink, before weighing! 😂
Same with things like frozen prawns, meat etc
I'm either too dumb or too tired to wrap my head around that, lol1 -
BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »cyaneverfat wrote: »I have a similar problem with frozen veges. Do I weigh them frozen or thawed? I weigh them frozen, but feel cheated.
I weigh them frozen but I’ve also wondered how much the weight would change if I let them defrost in a sieve and weighed them again! Considering few vegetables are massively calorific I don’t think it’ll be a number worth worrying about but I do still knock off any chunks of frost over the sink, before weighing! 😂
There are at least some frozen entries. I use those for frozen spinach and strawberries and some other things.1 -
I don't overthink it with fruits/veggies and I defer to the raw or frozen weights.
I agree that there are too many variables with cooked vegetables for it to be my first choice. Raw accounts for the typical amounts of water in the fruit/vegetable and after cooking this can drastically change from chef to chef depending on preparation method and preferences. By the time the veggies are cooked they are often added in to dishes or enhanced with other items like oil, butter, etc. that can influence weight, so raw/frozen is just more practical IMO.
Veggies aren't too caloric in general. I am more concerned about if I am eating enough servings of veggies than I am with getting the amounts down to the perfect gram. There will always be some discrepancy with calorie counting, but the difference between frozen/raw is not going to be significant enough to dramatically influence your progress.1 -
BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »cyaneverfat wrote: »I have a similar problem with frozen veges. Do I weigh them frozen or thawed? I weigh them frozen, but feel cheated.
I weigh them frozen but I’ve also wondered how much the weight would change if I let them defrost in a sieve and weighed them again! Considering few vegetables are massively calorific I don’t think it’ll be a number worth worrying about but I do still knock off any chunks of frost over the sink, before weighing! 😂
There are at least some frozen entries. I use those for frozen spinach and strawberries and some other things.
Yes, MFP has a lot of entries that came from the USDA database that include "frozen, unprepared."
"Carrots, frozen, unprepared"
"Peas - Green, frozen, unprepared"
"Corn, sweet, white, frozen, kernels cut off cob, unprepared"
I weigh my veggies raw or frozen when practical, and don't worry about it when it's unpractical, ex: when I am sharing.1 -
I weigh all vegetables raw and log that weight (except for frozen, I'll use frozen-specific entries for those).
If I'm in a situation where I can't weigh them raw (a restaurant or someone else preparing my food), I log my best estimate of how much I ate based on the cooked appearance and don't worry about it because I know that I'm logging as accurately as I can for the majority of my meals.2 -
I don't really weigh vegetables, at least greens. I consider sweet potatoes to be starches, not vegetables. For SP you should definitely weigh raw.
Honestly, all calorie counts for foods are off by at least 5% anyway. The difference between 25g of lettuce and 50g of lettuce is just noise.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »I weigh all vegetables raw and log that weight (except for frozen, I'll use frozen-specific entries for those).
If I'm in a situation where I can't weigh them raw (a restaurant or someone else preparing my food), I log my best estimate of how much I ate based on the cooked appearance and don't worry about it because I know that I'm logging as accurately as I can for the majority of my meals.kshama2001 wrote: »BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »cyaneverfat wrote: »I have a similar problem with frozen veges. Do I weigh them frozen or thawed? I weigh them frozen, but feel cheated.
I weigh them frozen but I’ve also wondered how much the weight would change if I let them defrost in a sieve and weighed them again! Considering few vegetables are massively calorific I don’t think it’ll be a number worth worrying about but I do still knock off any chunks of frost over the sink, before weighing! 😂
There are at least some frozen entries. I use those for frozen spinach and strawberries and some other things.
Yes, MFP has a lot of entries that came from the USDA database that include "frozen, unprepared."
"Carrots, frozen, unprepared"
"Peas - Green, frozen, unprepared"
"Corn, sweet, white, frozen, kernels cut off cob, unprepared"
I weigh my veggies raw or frozen when practical, and don't worry about it when it's unpractical, ex: when I am sharing.BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »cyaneverfat wrote: »I have a similar problem with frozen veges. Do I weigh them frozen or thawed? I weigh them frozen, but feel cheated.
I weigh them frozen but I’ve also wondered how much the weight would change if I let them defrost in a sieve and weighed them again! Considering few vegetables are massively calorific I don’t think it’ll be a number worth worrying about but I do still knock off any chunks of frost over the sink, before weighing! 😂
There are at least some frozen entries. I use those for frozen spinach and strawberries and some other things.
I usually go with the nutritional packaging on the frozen veges, rather than using the website entries. Maybe that's where the problem lies. And the packaging doesn't tell you whether the amount is for frozen or defrosted!0 -
cyaneverfat wrote: »I usually go with the nutritional packaging on the frozen veges, rather than using the website entries. Maybe that's where the problem lies. And the packaging doesn't tell you whether the amount is for frozen or defrosted!
Values on the outside of the package normally reflect the state of the food in the package. Thus they would discuss uncooked dry foods in that state, before they are prepared with the addition of liquid.
If the package is normally sold frozen, the values would be for frozen (as packaged). Not for thawed or freezer burned.
If there is a different state that is also being discussed (thawed, drained, as prepared) in Canada this would normally be indicated separately on the packaging with a second column, or clear notation. "drained" comes to mind, often found on cans. Otherwise the weight is of the whole can including liquid.
That said it is interesting to note the weight change of many vegetables when cooked in water/braised vs cooked in other ways vs raw. For many vegetables, and especially when you consider their energy density, it is actually not a very large difference. For some... it does add up to quite a bit (compare the weight difference between fresh spinach vs cooked and drained spinach and of a raw vs boiled carrots)2 -
Besides starchy vegetables I don't weigh them anymore.0
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Just go on the USDA database. They have entries for cooked and raw foods.1
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Raw all the way.0
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aaanonymous wrote: »Do people weigh their veggies raw or after cooking. Does it make a difference?
(For example sweet potato raw vs sweet potato baked in oven with nothing added)
Might be just me but I dont bother weighing any veg. I consider veg as free Kcals as your body uses more Kcals up digesting them than they are worth.
My method of food 'management' is quite simple, all veg is free and just count the Kcals of what you eat with them.
Works for me ( I think 🤣🤣)0
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