How many calories get absorbed when you cook something and then drain it?
kimchidiet
Posts: 8 Member
So, for instance, draining milk from porridge after it's been cooking for half an hour, or draining raspberries from water after having brought it to a boil. These are two examples, I don't know how to log the calories in these scenarios, would it be accurate to half the calorie amount of whatever's being drained? Thanks xx
0
Replies
-
Water doesn't have calories, so if you are draining water, you aren't losing any calories from the food. The food still has the calories. If it is milk, I guess you could measure what you pour out and subtract it from the total calories before you drain. Personally, I wouldn't get that specific.1
-
musicfan68 wrote: »Water doesn't have calories, so if you are draining water, you aren't losing any calories from the food. The food still has the calories. If it is milk, I guess you could measure what you pour out and subtract it from the total calories before you drain. Personally, I wouldn't get that specific.
I wasn't draining water, draining raspberries from the water.
Measuring what you drain is a great idea, but there's other things being drained along with the milk (water, vegetable broth, and spices) so not as exact as I would like unfortunately0 -
While I'm about logging accurately for myself, I'd encourage you to keep this sort of thing in perspective: How many calories are we realistically talking about? In a lot of these cases, it just isn't going to be worth the bother arithmetically, IMO.
There's no way to be exactly exact on every food. One apple will be sweeter than the next, even at the same weight, so different calories. Food labels (in the US) need to be within X% of reality for calories (I think it's 20%), but they're not expected to be exact because that's impossible. Our specific bowl of soup maybe has more meat or beans and fewer tomatoes than someone else's, so the calories differ. Some entries will be over, some will be under, and it will tend to average out.
Moreover, if we're somewhat consistent in our eating habits and activity patterns, and log foods the same way every time, plus adjust calorie intake based on personal results rather than believing some so-called "calculator" (that really only estimates) . . . we'll have an average level of calorie error and it won't matter.
That's because we're adjusting our weight loss rate based on our results, which includes our standard level of logging error. (Even fitness trackers only give estimates, not measurements - they're just a little more personalized. All this stuff is estimates, from the food calories - no matter how carefully we weigh - to our daily calorie needs to exercise calories and more. Estimates!)
More specifically, to the question of arithmetic and perspective: A whole pint of fresh raspberries (about a third of a kg) has 156 calories. If you put them in water - briefly, I hope - how many calories end up in the water, for the portion you eat. Let's say I eat half that pint: 78 calories raw. If I lose half the calories in the water (unlikely) or guess it's that much but it's really fewer lost/more kept . . . we're fussing over 36.5 calories. If I'm losing at the slowest MFP-recognized rate, half a pound a week, that's a 250 calorie daily deficit. (Losing faster, deficit is bigger.) If I'm off by 36.5 calories, that's really trivial. It's not worth obsession.
(Maybe your raspberries are frozen/sugared - the same concept still applies: How much does a person need to worry about numerically small differences, when all is estimates?)
Over time, you'll learn ways to cook things that don't create as much uncertainty, if uncertainty bothers you. Maybe thaw your frozen raspberries in the microwave, or in the top of a double boiler, rather than dunking in water. Maybe cook your porridge in less milk so you needn't drain, or cook it in water and add hot milk to taste (yes, you'd still be draining water that might contain porridge dust calories).
But I'd encourage you not to let super-precision become an obsession. That can be a bad thing, psychologically. "Close enough" works fine for many people - not even weighing food works fine for some, even - just eyeballing.
I see people here occasionally who are so obsessed with calorie accuracy that they refuse to go to a restaurant, or to a friend's house for dinner, and cut themselves off from their social circle as a consequence. Worse, some seem to obsess into inability to cope with it, and seriously undereat to "make up for it".
It's good to be accurate, when it's practical. But extremes of accuracy seeking aren't necessary, and they really aren't healthy.15 -
You’re over thinking it. KISS5
-
Aside from being overkill, why drain milk from porridge? That's where most of the protein is.4
-
This is some serious in the weeds minutia with an already inexact science for which the answer is going to be negligible and immaterial to the process.4
-
While I'm about logging accurately for myself, I'd encourage you to keep this sort of thing in perspective: How many calories are we realistically talking about? In a lot of these cases, it just isn't going to be worth the bother arithmetically, IMO.
Thanks for the response! That's a good idea, I will cook it in water and then add the milk in. And I guess when I remove the raspberries from the water, I can still eat them so the calorie log will be accurate.
I really am curious about the absorption rate of the calories, I know it will differ from food to food and depends on cooking time and things like that. Too inexact and trivial to have good information on I guess (although, I once found a website that gave the calorie information for 20 liters of diet coke, it was something like .007 calories). Tbh a mathematical formula for this sort of thing would be nice. Based on the responses I've gotten, there doesn't seem to be something like that in existence.
In my opinion, spending a couple minutes a day calculating this sort of thing is worth it if I can get a near-exact log. However, in this incidence, it seems like I have to chill out1 -
Retroguy2000 wrote: »Aside from being overkill, why drain milk from porridge? That's where most of the protein is.
I was cooking it in the milk and then draining the liquids (water, vegetable broth, as well as milk). When I go to drain the liquids it's hard to separate the milk from everything else. Next time I make porridge, I will add hot milk after everything has been drained and see if it affects the taste or not..0 -
stardust_111 wrote: »I was cooking it in the milk and then draining the liquids (water, vegetable broth, as well as milk). When I go to drain the liquids it's hard to separate the milk from everything else. Next time I make porridge, I will add hot milk after everything has been drained and see if it affects the taste or not..
1 -
stardust_111 wrote: »While I'm about logging accurately for myself, I'd encourage you to keep this sort of thing in perspective: How many calories are we realistically talking about? In a lot of these cases, it just isn't going to be worth the bother arithmetically, IMO.
Thanks for the response! That's a good idea, I will cook it in water and then add the milk in. And I guess when I remove the raspberries from the water, I can still eat them so the calorie log will be accurate.
I really am curious about the absorption rate of the calories, I know it will differ from food to food and depends on cooking time and things like that. Too inexact and trivial to have good information on I guess (although, I once found a website that gave the calorie information for 20 liters of diet coke, it was something like .007 calories). Tbh a mathematical formula for this sort of thing would be nice. Based on the responses I've gotten, there doesn't seem to be something like that in existence.
In my opinion, spending a couple minutes a day calculating this sort of thing is worth it if I can get a near-exact log. However, in this incidence, it seems like I have to chill out
In my opinion, you'd burn more calories overthinking stuff like this than in the non consumption of said calories.7 -
stardust_111 wrote: »Retroguy2000 wrote: »Aside from being overkill, why drain milk from porridge? That's where most of the protein is.
I was cooking it in the milk and then draining the liquids (water, vegetable broth, as well as milk). When I go to drain the liquids it's hard to separate the milk from everything else. Next time I make porridge, I will add hot milk after everything has been drained and see if it affects the taste or not..
I only make it with water but I nuke that puppy until all the water is absorbed.
Fun fact: Don't add fiber powder to it. It just liquifies it into soup again1 -
While you do need to be as accurate as possible (within reason).....these are not calories you should be worrying about.
Really. Worrying about calories to this extent (like...every single solitary one) isn't going to help at all. It will all come out in the wash - and it encourages overthinking about food and calories. IMO at least.
I'd just log the ingredients I used - and if you've overestimated a bit then that's fine.0 -
And I guess when I remove the raspberries from the water, I can still eat them so the calorie log will be accurate.
I am a bit lost as to what you are doing here - if you are not eating the raspberries now what is happening to them?? are you making raspberry infused water to drink (which would have almost no calories) and someone else eats the actual raspberries afterward??2 -
kimchidiet wrote: »Retroguy2000 wrote: »Aside from being overkill, why drain milk from porridge? That's where most of the protein is.
I was cooking it in the milk and then draining the liquids (water, vegetable broth, as well as milk). When I go to drain the liquids it's hard to separate the milk from everything else. Next time I make porridge, I will add hot milk after everything has been drained and see if it affects the taste or not..
As well as being confused by the raspberries (are you cooking them in water, or washing them, or as suggested above making infused water to drink?) I’m confused by the porridge!
I don’t understand the milk, vegetable stock and water combination to cook oats in? What sort of porridge are you making that you have any liquid to drain? Oats absorb liquid, if it needs draining I wonder why you’re using such an excess of liquids in the first place?
If you added less it’d be so much easier to accurately count the calories because you’d actually be consuming everything you’d used to make the dish.4 -
I am a bit lost as to what you are doing here - if you are not eating the raspberries now what is happening to them?? are you making raspberry infused water to drink (which would have almost no calories) and someone else eats the actual raspberries afterward??
Yes, raspberry-infused water. It has a strong taste to it, so that's why I wonder about calorie absorption, seeing as a significant amount seems to absorb in the water.
Afterwards, the actual raspberries get mixed into yogurt, I would eat it
0 -
[/quote]
As well as being confused by the raspberries (are you cooking them in water, or washing them, or as suggested above making infused water to drink?) I’m confused by the porridge!
I don’t understand the milk, vegetable stock and water combination to cook oats in? What sort of porridge are you making that you have any liquid to drain? Oats absorb liquid, if it needs draining I wonder why you’re using such an excess of liquids in the first place?
If you added less it’d be so much easier to accurately count the calories because you’d actually be consuming everything you’d used to make the dish. [/quote]
Raspberry-infused water
Not cooking oats... A combination of barley and lentils. I'm sorry, porridge might not be the right terminology? I always cook with a lot of liquids, it makes more volume of food.
0 -
If you are ultimately eating all the raspberries just count all the calories for the raspberries in your log once. Doesn’t matter where. Most of the calories come from the solids you are consuming not from whatever taste leeches out in the form of diluted juice mixed into a pitcher of water.
I would be concerned about disordered eating if you are getting so obsessed with counting these seriously nonexistent calories and figuring out where and how to categorize them.9 -
kimchidiet wrote: »Raspberry-infused water
Not cooking oats... A combination of barley and lentils. I'm sorry, porridge might not be the right terminology? I always cook with a lot of liquids, it makes more volume of food.
Maybe the word you want is "stew" or "soup"?
My Indian chana dal (split and polished chickpeas that look like lentils) recipe calls for 4 cups of water, which makes it way too soupy for me - I use 2.5 cups and don't drain it.
In your case, I'd use the amount of liquids that give it the volume I want without needing to drain it.3 -
You’re over thinking it. KISS1
-
a friend mentioned she drains off and drinks the water from cooking her vegetables so she gets the nourishment that went into the liquids... got me thinking, and now I will use or freeze liquids that I drain off, especially use veggie waters when I make soups or stews.
I generally don't deduct calories for the liquids I drain off or stuff I burn onto the pan, lol, unless it's a thick layer burned down... Things like raspberry infused water is interesting, especially if much of the fruit breaks down and remains in your water. The residual fruit you pull out - you could eyeball and adjust when it is significant - and love your idea to use that later elsewhere.0 -
kimchidiet wrote: »Retroguy2000 wrote: »Aside from being overkill, why drain milk from porridge? That's where most of the protein is.
I was cooking it in the milk and then draining the liquids (water, vegetable broth, as well as milk). When I go to drain the liquids it's hard to separate the milk from everything else. Next time I make porridge, I will add hot milk after everything has been drained and see if it affects the taste or not..
Hot a target at you, just my thoughts How do people eat porridge with water - yuck. Porridge is made with milk and nothing else lol. Also never hear of using veg broth.
0 -
kimchidiet wrote: »Retroguy2000 wrote: »Aside from being overkill, why drain milk from porridge? That's where most of the protein is.
I was cooking it in the milk and then draining the liquids (water, vegetable broth, as well as milk). When I go to drain the liquids it's hard to separate the milk from everything else. Next time I make porridge, I will add hot milk after everything has been drained and see if it affects the taste or not..
Hot a target at you, just my thoughts How do people eat porridge with water - yuck. Porridge is made with milk and nothing else lol. Also never hear of using veg broth.
Easily. I squirt a whole bunch of sugar free maple syrup on top0 -
kimchidiet wrote: »Retroguy2000 wrote: »Aside from being overkill, why drain milk from porridge? That's where most of the protein is.
I was cooking it in the milk and then draining the liquids (water, vegetable broth, as well as milk). When I go to drain the liquids it's hard to separate the milk from everything else. Next time I make porridge, I will add hot milk after everything has been drained and see if it affects the taste or not..
Hot a target at you, just my thoughts How do people eat porridge with water - yuck. Porridge is made with milk and nothing else lol. Also never hear of using veg broth.
I have a Ukrainian buddy that cook's oatmeal in water, then adds cottage cheese and sour cream and finishes it with some butter, salt and pepper. Actually it's very good, in a weird way lol. Cheers0 -
and anyway OP isnt cooking oats- she is cooking lentils and barley
As she noted, 'porridge' wasnt quite what she meant - at least not as most of us understand it.
Pottage on the other hand is a thick soup, semi stew, made of vegetables
and copied and pasted The two terms are used to describe meals. Porridge, in its classical meaning, mainly refers to the original English oatmeal or other porridges made of grains. Pottage is widely used in Nigeria and many other African countries, mainly as a synonym to porridge. Both porridge and pottage in Nigeria mean the main dish
2 -
Why would you throw out the raspberries? eat them0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.3K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.2K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 424 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.7K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions