Weighing your food...precooked or postcooked

Before

Before

I do it after cooking. Seems like it would be more accurate in my head. no?

Cooked or uncooked I have to use a food from the database whose data is based on that state. I can't use a "raw chicken" entry if I'm weighing cooked chicken. Raw chicken has a lot of water that evaporates when you cook it so cooked chicken will have more calories per gram.

If I'm cooking a meal I'll weigh everything raw then add the ingredients to a recipe.

I use raw weights, just like the restaurant chains, watch their menu's you'll see a * beside steaks or hamburger notifying you that it refers to pre-cooked weight.

Taking a slab of meat at 8oz raw, cooked blue-rare might lose next to nothing, same piece cooked through to well-done may well weigh an ounce or 2 less depending on quality of the cut etc. The only way "2" people can get the "same" result from the same piece of meat is to use the raw weight
Same with pasta etc. Starting with it raw you'll be able to get the 'same' calorie count from the same package in the end though you cook it al dente (still with a crisp) while they cook it SO much that it's about to fall apart from all the additional water.

Both: meat after cooking, if i am making a recipe then pre-cooked. Generally veggies are pre-cooked weight.

I tend to go with before cooking as it is far more reliable. Most caloric information is given on the precooked state. So for say a sauce, if you cook it, it will lose moisture (making it weigh less) but will simply condense the fat/sugars altering the accuracy. The only exceptions to this would be with meats, however, i would weight anything used in the cooking process beforehand (oil, butter, shortening, breadcrumbs, etc). Typically though, if you're using low fat turkey or chicken, small differences in weight might only amount to small differences on average- I wouldn't fret them too much. What you have to watch out for are the secret calories that come from sauces, oils, creams, and butter. Going a little overboard with these will have a lot greater calorie swing then whatever miss estimate you might make in a measurement of turkey or chicken.

just wanted to add another thing i kind of figured out in my year on MFP. As you use MFP so long as you are CONSISTENT you will get a general feeling of your metabolism. So if you set yourself up to lose 2 pounds a week but are only losing 1 pound a week, you can be somewhat confident you are not 100% accurate. The easiest thing i've found to do, is just change your caloric goal. You might be miss measuring your exercise or your food intake, but if you adjust your calorie goal until you get the pace that you want and remain consistent in your technique who cares if the exact numbers are dead on? I think its best to tweak things on MFP until you get the pace you want. So if you tend to overestimate your calories my 10%, reduce your calorie goal by 10% and continue doing what youre doing. Dont make it too hard on yourself!

foods which absorb a lot of water should be weighed after cooking-
eg 100g uncooked rice weighs 300g cooked.its about 120 cal/100g cooked,if you used dry weight 100g=360 cal
the nutritional label on the food states if it uses cooked weight.

so if i allow myself 6oz (or whatever amount) of ground turkey at a meal, and i weigh it after it is cooked...am i calculating too little or too many calories? i've been weighing it after i cook it.

I've been going with cooked weight. I read all the posts but have yet to run into a restaurant yet where it has the pre cooked weight, other than McDonalds referring to their quarter pounder. now I'm wondering if I've input data wrong; I've managed to lose 24 pounds in 8 weeks so I'm sticking with what I'm doing but now wondering!

Meat is cooked
rice is cooked
oatmeal is cooked
potatoes are pre-cooked