burgers on george foreman- how do u figure the calories?

I think you're putting too much thought and worry into this.

Yes, you're cooking off some fat, but wouldn't you rather include that fat in your log by recording the uncooked weigh instead of possibly overestimating the amount of fat lost? Realistically, it's probably a pretty small number, as you are also losing come meat solids and moisture into the drain pan. If you go off of uncooked weight, then you can easily log the meat regardless of how it is cooked.

If you want to get obsessive, separate the fat and weigh it on a digital kitchen scale. I believe fat is 9 calories per gram.

wouldn't you rather include that fat in your log by recording the uncooked weigh instead of possibly overestimating the amount of fat lost?

Those are the only two options? How about a third option:

Try to get it right.

You asked a question and people are trying to help. No need to be so snarky about it. Good grief.

"Try to get it right."

I do get where you're coming from, honest. Error control in any experiment or procedure is an important thing to think about.

The thing is, no matter what you do there will be some error. You can carefully weigh the burger and then *assume* that the % fat measurements are accurate. This is as far as most of us will go. There is some error that creeps in here, no doubt.

Ala skylark94, you could make a sample burger, weighed very carefully, then collect everything that cooks out of the burger, maybe strain it to get out any meat pieces that come out too. Then heat the fluid again past boiling to get rid of all the water. Then you assume (probably reasonable) that most of the remaining fluid is fat. Use a conversion from weight to calories to determine how many calories you saved. To reduce the error further, subtract the calories represented by the little bits you strained out of the liquid.

Armed with this info, you could assume that the next burger you make will be similar. Or, you could say, no, there is error there and keep performing the same actions (as outlined above) every time you make a burger.

But you will still have error, guaranteed. There are errors on the package about % fat, burger packed a little differently so it holds more or less fat in, variations in moisture content of the burger, variations in nutritional and caloric content of the meat. The heart of this question is, what % error are you willing to tolerate and how does that jibe with the fact that you probably don't have time to do a full scientific analysis of everything you eat at every meal.

What most of the respondents are saying, in essence, is that the error you are eliminating probably isn't really worth worrying about. But if precise accuracy is your goal, power to you, but even with the steps I've outlined above, you will not be 100% accurate no matter how hard you "try to get it right."

So, you have error here despite your best efforts, though no doubt you could decrease it. But even then, how do you decide how many calories you really burned in a day? How much of your old food is sitting in your colon today as opposed to yesterday, affecting not only your weight but energy expended moving around? How about salt and water retention effects? Error here, error there, error everywhere!

Here's how I "try to get it right": I prefer to think that errors end up cutting both ways and figure it all is a wash over time. Now, if 90% of your calories come off of the GFG, I'd say you still have bigger problems than the (presumably) over-reporting of calories, but your mileage may vary. If you think it makes sense to do some of the steps above to get an extra half-carrot after dinner because you used the GFC, power to you.

Ultimately, it looks like you've dropped 52 pounds (and I'm guessing have also had a significant %body fat reduction)! Isn't that the ultimate measuring stick?

Then again, if you quit worrying about all this (what I would say is) little stuff, you might burn less calories. ;-)

threads like this are so frustrating and found all over the wide, wide world of the interweb.

Question - How do I calculate the reduction in calories when I prepare my food X way?

Answer - I am going to totally ignore what you are asking and instead tell you something else.

This was never my intent. My summary is that since I don't know, I just buy leaner meat and keep the original nutritional data. There is no "right" answer unless you go totally scientific and have a nutritional analysis done on your end product. The downside of forums (the reality of a forum) is that most of what you get is gonna be based on the experience of the person replying.

You could weigh the drip tray empty, cook your burger, then weigh the drip tray with the drippings in it. There will be some moisture, but probably not a lot, say about 25% of the volume of the drippings. Multiply the weight of the drippings by the percent fat that you think is in there (say, 75%); multiply the adjusted weight by the caloric density of beef fat (about 9 kcal per gram, I think) and subtract that number from the original calorie value for your beef patty.

If you are truly concerned about getting an accurate weight for the fat, then transfer the drippings to a cup, let the fat rise to the top, and then transfer the fat back to your drip pan (which you weighed empty). Weigh the pan with the fat in it, subtract the empty pan weight, and multiply the actual fat weight by the caloric density for beef fat.

That should give you a pretty good idea of how many fat calories you lost to the grilling process. It would, admittedly, be a lot of work...

I just ate 2 1/4 burgers fixed on a GF grill. They were originally 80/20. should i have weighed the meat before i ate it? how do y'all figure the calories?

Look for a listing that says broiled or grilled. Both are cooking methods that allow the fat to drip off just like a Forman so the calorie content should be comparable.

There will be some moisture, but probably not a lot, say about 25% of the volume of the drippings.

How much of the moisture was lost to evaporation?