Portion weighing question

oakster69
oakster69 Posts: 78 Member
in Food and Nutrition
This is a newbie question, even though I have been doing this weightloss for a bit. I have been through the guessing and estimating portions and found that over time, I was using too many of my deficit calories by not accurately reporting everything. This last 6 weeks I have been accurately reporting and it does make a difference.

My question is about meat portions and weighing. I normally weight the cooked product on a scale for chicken etc. so a 4 oz portion would be 4 oz of cooked chicken breast. When I make burgers or premake breakfast sandwich components, I weight out the raw burger (4 oz for a 1/4 lb pattie) and just use the 4 oz of raw meat weight to enter for calories. Which of these are technically correct? If I use the raw meat weight and it should be cooked meat, I am being conservative but some days I may want those calories. If I am using cooked meat weight and it should be raw, I am again using my deficit calories unintentionally.

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,222 Member
    The most basic answer is that you should use a cooked meat estimate for cooked meat, and a raw meat estimate for raw meat. If you have the option, for cooked meat use a database entry that specifies the cooking method. (Reason, as an example: Poached fish will lose less weight in the cooking than baked fish, for example.)

    If you have a choice of using raw or cooked (because you're cooking it yourself can can choose), raw will usually be a bit more accurate, since the amount of weight gained/lost in cooking will be variable.

    This is fairly fine detail, though. Optimize when it's easy, don't stress about it when it's not.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,225 Member
    Raw always. Different cooking times affect water weight in meat so it makes things inaccurate. You want to be as accurate as possible especially with foods that you eat on a consistent basis.
  • Justlivit_fit
    Justlivit_fit Posts: 6 Member
    I would try not to make it too complicated. As long as you are consistent with the way that you do it, in the long run it shouldn't matter much. My best advice would be if you weigh it cooked, track it cooked. If you weigh it raw, track it raw. If you do want to weight it raw and track it cooked, meat or chicken USUALLY loses about 25-35% of its weight while cooking (I would overestimate if you want to be safe). Seafood is a little bit different. I am more than happy to help if you have any more tracking questions! I have all the tips and tricks. :)

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